Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Killer MMA Submission Video

Getting your Gogoplatas confused with your Darce Chokes? Who isn't! Watch this video and learn a thing or two:



1. Jeff Monson vs. Brandon Hinkle (North South Choke)
2. Shinya Aoki vs. Joachim Hansen (Gogoplata)
3. Mike Brown vs. Taiyo Nakamura (Full Guard Arm Triangle)
4. Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. T.Ishizawa (Gi Choke)
5. Ivan Salaverry vs. Tony Fryklund (Body Triangle)
6. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Heath Herring (Anaconda Choke)
7. Frank Mir vs. Pete Williams (Shoulder Lock)
8. Dokonjonosuke Mishima vs. J.Wiseniewski (Cobra Hold)
9. Carlos Newton vs. Pat Miletich (Bulldog Choke)
10. Rumina Sato vs. M.McAuliffe (Calf Slicer)
11. Rani Yahya vs. Kazuya Yasuhiro (Brabo Choke)
12. T.Murahama vs. Yuji Hoshino (Scissor Choke)
13. Nick Diaz vs. Takanori Gomi (Gogoplata)

This clip was taken from UFCMania, who found it at BloodyElbow.com, two kickass sites!

Friday, July 20, 2007

What to do with the UFC Lightweight Title

Now that UFC Lightweight Champion Sean Sherk, as well as his most recent opponent, Hermes Franca, BOTH tested positive for banned substances following their title fight on July 7, what is the UFC going to do about the LW belt? Let’s first assume that Sherk’s appeal falls on deaf ears (we’ve never heard of an appeal actually being successful, but we’ll have to officially wait until August 6 to find out what the California State Athletic Commission rules); and because Franca admitted his guilt, we can rule him out of the picture for the next year, following suspension.

The clear favorite for the #1 Contender position is B.J. Penn, whose recent annihilation of former LW Champ Jens Pulver makes for a strong case. But never a fan to just give a title away, SteelSkins favors the single-elimination tournament instead!

While UFC President Dana White has stated his hatred of tournaments in the past, the Lightweight Division has experienced one in the (relative) recent past. In 2002/2003, after Champion Jens Pulver left the UFC over a contract dispute, the UFC held a tournament for the 155 pounders, featuring top contenders B.J. Penn, Din Thomas, Caol Uno and Matt Serra. The September 27, 2002 card featured Penn defeating Serra and Uno defeating Thomas, both by unanimous decision. Later, on February 28, 2003, Penn faced Uno in a bout to decide the new LW Champion, only it ended in a draw (also on that card, Thomas defeated Serra in a round-robin bout by majority decision). With no clear-cut winner, the belt went to no one, and the division folded shortly thereafter, returning just last year.

Facing mounting scrutiny about the use of steroids in the sport, the UFC could take this opportunity to shift focus and add some real excitement to an upcoming card. Rather than going with a typical tournament featuring four fighters—or even worse, just one match between the top two contenders—why not have an extended tournament featuring a wide range of fighters? A UFC event, say in September, could feature eight LW bouts between the top 16 contenders. A follow-up event in November could narrow the field from eight to four. A third-round in January or February could produce your final two, who would do battle for the belt in March or April. It’s not inconceivable and would be intensely exciting because it would provide the opportunity for dark horses.

SteelSkins knows the UFC will never go for this, and we fully anticipate seeing an announcement in late August that a LW title bout will be featured on an October card between #1 Contender B.J. Penn and #2 Contender Joe Stevenson (assuming he gets past Kurt Pellegrino next month—otherwise, due to pre-existing scheduling conflicts with other fighters, Penn’s opponent might be Roger Huerta, assuming he beats UFC newcomer Alberto Crane the same night as Stevenson’s fight).

But we’re still pushing for a big tournament. And by forgetting for the time being all pre-existing contracted fights (including the December title fight between WW Champion Matt Serra and former champ Matt Hughes), we’d like it to look something like this (the numbers refer to how SteelSkins ranks these fighters, and not necessarily to seeds; instead, we’ve matched the fighters up as fights we’d like to see):

Top Bracket

1. B.J. Penn vs. 11. Leonard Garcia

9. Tyson Griffin vs. 15. Nate Diaz

4. Spencer Fisher vs. 7. Din Thomas (this fight’s already scheduled)

6. Roger Huerta vs. 16. Manny Gamburyan

Bottom Bracket

2 Joe Stevenson vs. 13. Kurt Pellegrino (also already scheduled)

5. Kenny Florian vs. 12. Joe Lauzon

3. Matt Serra vs. 10. Thiago Tavares

8. Marcus Aurelio vs. 14. Clay Guida (also already scheduled)

NOTE: We would have included Melvin Guillard, but he is waiting out a suspension of his own after testing positive for cocaine; he’s not due back until December or January. We also would have included Frankie Edgar, however, he is medically suspended until December with a severely broken nose.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

SteelSkins UFC Power Rankings & Month in Review

An Overview

With an incredible four UFC events during the last month, it’s time once again to update those SteelSkins Power Rankings! Before we do, just a quick note of what’s to come this summer in the UFC:
  • UFC 74, August 25 at Las VegasMandalay Bay Events Center, will feature HW Champion Randy Couture vs. Gabriel Gonzaga; WWs Georges St. Pierre vs. Josh Koscheck; MWs Kendall Grove vs. Patrick Cote; LWs Joe Stevenson vs. Kurt Pellegrino; LHWs Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs. David Heath; LWs Clay Guida vs. Marcus Aurelio; and MWs Travis Lutter vs. UFC newcomer Ryan Jensen.
  • UFC 75, September 8 at London’s O2 Arena, will feature LHW Champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. PRIDE LHW & MW Champion Dan Henderson (for both the UFC and PRIDE LHW titles); HWs Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic vs. Cheick Kongo; LHWs Michael Bisping vs. Matt Hamill; LHWs Houston Alexander vs. Alessio Sakara; WWs Marcus Davis vs. Paul Taylor; WWs Jess Liaudin vs. Anthony Johnson; and WWs Dennis Siver vs. TBA.
  • UFC Fight Night 11, September 20 at the Palms in Las Vegas, will feature MWs Mike Swick vs. Chris Leben; LWs Spencer Fisher vs. Din Thomas; and WWs Thiago Alves vs. Kuniyoshi Hironaka.
  • UFC 76, September 22 at Anaheim’s Honda Center, will feature PRIDE veteran LHW Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. Ryoto Machida; WWs Jon Fitch vs. Diego Sanchez; and the return of the former UFC MW Champion Evan Tanner vs. TBA.

A question has also been asked about how many fighters in each division there are, according to SteelSkins Power Rankings. Let us explain first how SteelSkins calculates this number.

First, we list every fighter for whom the UFC has a bio page on their website www.ufc.com. Next, we remove every fighter who hasn’t fought in the UFC in the last 12 months (e.g., Pedro Rizzo) and put those fighters on a separate “unranked” list. In rare cases, we remove fighters who are still under contract with the UFC, but who have not fought in a year’s time—e.g., Evan Tanner had one fight remaining on his contract when he took an extended leave from fighting back in April, 2006; we removed him from our list until his return was recently scheduled. Next, we add fighters who are newly contracted with the UFC, but who lack bio pages (based on of our own research from blogs such as www.ufcjunkie.com, www.ufcmania.com, etc.—e.g., Shogun Rua). Finally, we remove fighters who we know have gone on to sign contracts with other leagues (e.g., Nick Diaz, Joe Riggs), retired (e.g., Ken Shamrock), etc., who we know will not be returning to the UFC any time soon.

The result is the following numbers:

  • HWs: 27 currently ranked; 18 unranked
  • LHWs: 35 currently ranked; 11 unranked
  • MWs: 36 currently ranked; 17 unranked
  • WWs: 43 currently ranked; 13 unranked
  • LWs: 59 currently ranked; 9 unranked
  • Total: 200 currently ranked; 68 unranked, for a total of 268 UFC fighters.

We’re not aware of a website that lists MMA fighters that the UFC currently holds contracts with (if you know of where we can find such information, please let us know).

We’ve mentioned many times before the difficulty of ranking newly contracted fighters who have no Octagon experience. The debate between PRIDE and the UFC has been long and well documented, and we’ve enjoyed it as much as anyone. And with all do respect to PRIDE (as well as other organization’s) fighters, making the leap from one organization to another can be difficult (we point to Gonzaga’s “welcoming” of Cro Cop at UFC 70. We’ve also stated before that we grade on a curve, based on who we think deserves a title shot, and that we would sooner grant a UFC “loyalist” with Octagon experience before almost any newcomer. That said, if and when the UFC finally signs Fedor Emelianenko, we’ll see if that logic still holds up.

Heavyweights

The big story here is “Minotauro” Nogueira. While his win over Heath Herring at UFC 73 came with a great deal of luck (and a huge missed opportunity by Herring to avenge his two previous losses), no one doubts the submission master will be an immediate threat to the top HW contenders. Already Mirko Cro Cop’s camp has called out Nogueira in an effort to avenge its own loss. What the Nogueira/Herring fight did prove was that a.) Herring is tougher than we thought (although still out of shape), and b.) Nogueira can be knocked out, as long as you can avoid his ruthless submission skills. It also provided both men with much needed Octagon experience, which we argue is far different than the PRIDE rings. Both men advance a spot this month—also due to there being no word out of Marcio Cruz’s camp on his return. SteelSkins anticipates Herring moving into the Top 10 in his next fight, while Nogueira is clearly ready for a title shot at any time.

We also saw Eddie Sanchez defeat UFC newcomer Colin Robinson via TKO (strikes) at UFC 72, which helps Sanchez avoid dropping out of the Top 15. You might wonder why Assuerio Silva has been able to hang on for this long, and it’s simply that there isn’t a whole lot else out there in the HW division. We’d love to see Tom Murphy or Antoni Hardonk make the leap, but they have to win one first.

Speaking of which, we were supposed to see Jake O’Brien vs. #17 Tom Murphy at UFC 72, which could have brought Murphy (a fighter who hasn’t seen action since March 2006, mostly due to his opponents cancelling on him) into the Top 15, but the fight was cancelled at the last minute due to a potentially career-ending training injury dealt to O’Brien. We hope he makes a speedy recover and continues improving in the HW division, which probably needs him more than anything.

The other big question is, when will Fedor Emelienko get signed, and once signed, will he be SteelSkins’ first ever #1 Contender newcomer? The answers are 1. We hope today; and 2. Quite possibly. After all, he is Fedor.

We’d mention HW fighters that are on the cusp on breaking into the Top 15, but to be frank, there aren’t any. The best we can come up with are Christian Wellisch, Tom Murphy, Justin McCully and Antoni Hardonk. While Brad Imes has always put on exciting fights, his 0-3 UFC record (at least one of those fights—to Dan Christison—should have been a win) is keeping him far from the Top 15 and, quite possibly, a UFC return.

Upcoming fights include Champion Randy Couture vs. Gabriel Gonzaga (UFC 74); and Mirko Cro Cop vs. Cheick Kongo (UFC 75). Your Top 15 Contenders are:












Light Heavyweights

There are a lot of big stories in the LHW division, but none larger than the influx of PRIDE newcomers—including newly crowned LHW Champion Rampage Jackson; his next opponent and the only man to simultaneously hold titles from two weight classes, PRIDE’s reigning LHW and MW Champion Dan Henderson; and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, who is perhaps the most talented of the three. (Just today, UFCJunkie reported that former PRIDE MW Champion Wanderlei Silva has verbally agreed to terms to fight Chuck Liddell, but until a deal is signed, we’ve opted not to rank Silva, as this rumor has happened before.)

Before we hear it from the peanut gallery, Hendo would be higher ranked as a MW, but we prefer ranking fighters one weight class at a time. Despite his #5 ranking, we actually anticipate Hendo beating Rampage. Rua, we fully expect, will be the #1 or #2 contender after his first win in the Octagon.

Recent fights included the three-round unanimous decision draw between Rashad Evans and Tito Ortiz at UFC 73. The crime here was that Ortiz, who clearly won the first round and clearly lost the third round from being out of shape compared to Evans, botched his chance at a win by illegally holding the fence in the second round—a round he otherwise would have won. SteelSkins learned a lot from this fight, namely, that Ortiz would have beaten Evans. We also think Evans learned a lot from this fight, namely, that he will be better prepared to win their rematch, next October. Too bad for Ortiz, he could have knocked Evans out of the Top 5 while putting a huge dent in the still-undefeated fighter’s dreams of a title shot.

We also saw Forrest Griffin beat #21 Hector Ramirez via unanimous decision at UFC 72. While it wasn’t the most exciting fight, Griffin played it smart, which—coupled with his loss to Jardine—is why we’re not moving him up or down this month (he naturally moves down one spot due to Rua’s UFC signing).

Marking his long-awaited return from a steroid suspension, Stephan Bonnar made quick work of #24 Mike Nickels at UFC 73, with a rear naked choke in the first round, moving him up our rankings one spot. We look forward to his (clean) return to the lineup.

The introduction of Shogun Rua knocked David Heath out of our Top 15. He joins other fighters on the cusp of breaking in, such as James Irvin and Marvin Eastman, both of whom act as gatekeepers for up-and-coming LHWs like Alan Belcher, Wilson Gouveia and Sean Salmon.

Upcoming fights include Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs. #16 David Heath (UFC 74); Champion Rampage Jackson vs. PRIDE LHW & MW Champion Dan Henderson (to unify the UFC and PRIDE LHW titles) at UFC 75; Michael Bisping vs. Matt Hamill (UFC 75); Houston Alexander vs. #23 Alessio Sakara (UFC 75); and PRIDE veteran LHW Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. Ryoto Machida (UFC 76). Your Top 15 Contenders are:












Middleweights

While Champion Anderson Silva retained his title (and looked more unstoppable than ever) against challenger Nate Marquardt at UFC 73, the MW Top 15 saw significant movement in the past month. With his first round TKO (strikes) to Silva, Marquardt drops half a point to be tied for second place with Yushin Okami, who we recently saw lose a unanimous decision to former champ Rich Franklin at UFC 72.

Like Forrest Griffin in his fight, Rich Franklin played it safe, ensuring he would get another title shot and a chance to reclaim his belt. Because we already had Franklin ranked as the true #1 Contender, this match resulted in no movement on Franklin’s part. Additionally, Okami recently beat #4 Swick, so there is really no threat to the Top 3 until Martin Kampmann recovers from a serious knee injury suffered in training and gets back in the swing of things (the latest report from UFCJunkie is that he’s on track to fight in early ’08).

Jason MacDonald defeated Rory Singer via TKO (strikes) at UFC 72. MacDonald looked good and climbed back up to #6, while the (arguably) over-ranked Singer dropped four spots and fell off the charts.

Another fighter who dropped off the Top 15 was Scott Smith, who lost via rear naked choke in the 2nd round to previously ranked #19 Ed Herman at UFC 72. The TUF3 Runner-Up makes his first appearance in the Top 15 at #15.

Another Top 15 newcomer, Thales Leites, defeated Floyd Sword via submission (arm triangle) in the first round of the TUF5 Finale; he moves up three spots to #13.

The re-introduction of former MW Champion Evan Tanner forces Ivan Salaverry to drop from the Top 15. Tanner, who was previously ranked #10 before his departure, returns to a more defined MW division—and a better position in it. He is due to make his return at UFC 76 in September.

A lot of good MWs are waiting to break in (or return to) the Top 15, including Rory Singer, Ivan Salaverry, Kalib Starnes, Scott Smith and Drew McFedries.

Upcoming fights include Kendall Grove vs. #24 Patrick Cote (UFC 74); the return of Travis Lutter vs. UFC newcomer Ryan Jensen (UFC 74); Mike Swick vs. Chris Leben (UFC Fight Night 11); and the return of the former UFC MW Champion Evan Tanner vs. TBA (UFC 76). Your Top 15 Contenders are:













Welterweights

A lot of people talk about how the WW division is the most stacked in the UFC. We disagree completely. While the UFC does boast, arguably, 7 of the Top 10 WWs in the world, there is a steep decline in its caliber after the Top 10. The LW division, on the other hand, has 20 plus amazing fighters (granted, the UFC might not have very many worldwide Top 10 LWs, but it is still a much more competitive division 20 deep than any other division in the UFC).

That said, the introduction of Hayato Sakurai into the WWs is bound to have a sizeable impact. One of MMA’s most experienced fighters; Sakurai is an 11-year veteran with wins over Jens Pulver, Frank Trigg and Caol Uno. His introduction knocks Tony DeSouza off the Top 15 list.

Over the course of the last month, we saw some exciting WW fights, including Jon Fitch vs. #17 Roan Carneiro at UFC Fight Night 10. Fitch defeated Carneiro via rear naked choke at 1:07 of the second round, knocking him down a peg or two in the SteelSkins rankings.

We also saw Luigi Fioravanti drop a unanimous decision to formerly ranked #25 Forrest Petz at the same event. We were deeply disappointed to see the U.S. Marine drop this fight, and if he doesn’t bounce back in his next fight, he will quickly be dropped from the Top 15.

Other UFC Fight Night 10 matches included UFC newcomer Tamdan “The Barn Cat” McCory defeating #18 Pete Spratt via triangle choke at 2:04 of the second round; and another UFC newcomer Anthony Johnson stepping in for an injured Steve Bruno on short notice to knock out #28 Chad Reiner in just 13 seconds of the very first round; however, neither of these exciting fights had any immediate bearing on the Top 15.

At UFC 72 in Belfast, Ireland, Marcus Davis made quick work of UFC newcomer Jason Tan by knockout in the first round, which helped move the “Irish Hand Grenade,” who’s on a 9-fight tear, up two spots to land in a three-way tie for seventh with Josh Burkman and Drew Fickett. We here at SteelSkins were looking forward to breaking that tie, unfortunately, Fickett, who was supposed to face Chris Lytle at UFC 73, had to pull out just weeks before the event. In his place, Jason Gilliam (who normally fights at 155 lbs.) stepped into a triangle choke in the very first round, thus moving Lytle up one spot in the Top 15.

Several good WWs are on the cusp of breaking into the Top 15, including Tony DeSouza, Luke Cummo, Roan Carniero, Kuniyoshi Hironaka, Forrest Petz, Tamdan McCory, and the Frenchman, Jess Liaudin, and some of them won’t have long to wait, as having received no word on whether Josh Neer or Jonathan Goulet will return to the UFC, we are set to drop both from the list at the end of this month.

One fighter who we feared would drop off was Thiago Alves, who is on suspension for testing positive for the banned substance Spironolactone, a diuretic, following his win over Tony DeSouza at UFC 66. However, today, UFCJunkie.com reported that Alves will make his long-awaited return against a tough opponent, Kuniyoshi Hironaka at UFC Fight Night 11.

Upcoming fights include GSP vs. Josh Koscheck (UFC 74); Marcus Davis vs. #26 Paul Taylor (UFC 75); #25 Jess Liaudin vs. #27 Anthony Johnson (UFC 75); #30 Dennis Siver vs. TBA (UFC 75); Thiago Alves vs. #21 Kuniyoshi Hironaka (UFC Fight Night 11); and the much-anticipated bout between Jon Fitch vs. Diego Sanchez (UFC 76). Also, TUF6 Debuts in September with coaches Matt Hughes and Matt Serra. It will showcase 16 WWs. The live finale, along with a title fight between Serra and Hughes, are both expected to take place in December. Your Top 15 Contenders are:












Lightweights

For the LWs, you could easily feature the Top 20, or even the Top 25 fighters. And true to its depth, the LW division also saw the most action over the past month, by far.

We’ll start with Spencer Fisher vs. #17 Sam Stout at UFC Fight Night 10. This slugfest was a great rematch, where Fisher avenged an earlier loss and, in doing so, showed why he’s near the top of the LW division. His loss to Franca prevents him from advancing at the moment, but it’s only a matter of time.

That night also featured then-ranked #18 Thiago Tavares vs. UFC newcomer Jason Black. Black is a badass with even more badass sideburns, and we hope to see much more of him in the future. However, it was even more impressive to see Tavares control Black for a round a half, eventually sinking in a triangle choke at 2:49 of the second round. Tavares’ win catapults him five spots into the Top 15.

Fight Night 10 also featured then-ranked #31 Nate Mohr unanimously defeating UFC newcomer Luke Caudillo, as well then-ranked #36 Gleison Tibau defeating another UFC newcomer Jeff Cox via triangle choke, which had no bearing on the Top 15 (although Tibau is closing in).

Just four days later, UFC 72 in Belfast featured a terrific submission wrestling match-up between Tyson Griffin and then-ranked #21 Clay Guida. While the judges somehow gave Griffin the win via split decision, SteelSkins—along with UFC commentators Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg—gave the edge to Guida. Regardless, it was a terrific fight, and we’ve moved Guida up to #16 because of it.

UFC 72 also featured then-ranked #23 Dustin Hazelett vs. UFC new comer Stevie Lynch, who was defeated by the 6’2” LW via anaconda choke in the very first round. Hazelett is also on the cusp of breaking into the Top 15.

Just one week later on June 23, The Ultimate Fighter 5 series finale aired, featuring an influx of new LW talent, along with their coaches (and former UFC champs) B.J. Penn vs. Jens Pulver; Roger Huerta vs. Doug Evans; and Thales Leites vs. Floyd Sword.

To sum it up, Penn manhandled Pulver, who has confirmed his desire to drop back down to 145 and fight outside the UFC (which lacks a 145 division), following the loss. The decisive win secures Penn’s place as the new #1 Contender in the LW division (following a title shot, it is expected that Penn will return to the WW division, regardless of if he wins the belt or not).

Leites was also victorious, defeating Sword via submission (arm triangle) in round one, as was Huerta, TKOing Evans (strikes) in round two.

As for the TUF graduates, finalists Manny Gamburyan and Nate Diaz fought for a six-figure contract and bragging rights. While Gamburyan seemed to control most of the first round, he quickly dislocated his shoulder in the second and was forced to tap. While Diaz won the contract, we will undoubtedly be seeing much more of both fighters.

Semi-finalist (and SteelSkins’ early on favorite to win it all) Joe Lauzon defeated Brandon Melendez via triangle choke, while his semi-finalist counterpart, Gray Maynard, faired slightly worse. Maynard’s fight vs. Rob Emerson was ruled a No Contest, after Maynard apparently knocked himself unconscious while simultaneously tapping out his opponent. A rematch is in the works.

Other winners included an exciting Cole Miller (over Andy Wang via TKO strikes) and Matt Wiman (over Brian Geraghty via TKO strikes). The last TUF alum, Allen Berube, was fed to UFC veteran badass Leonard Garcia as an apparent punishment for inciting a street brawl during the series season. Berube paid the price by tapping to a rear naked choke in the very first round.

While half of the TUF Finale’s contests resulted in no real movement in the Top 15, all were instrumental in gauging these new LWs in the overall rankings.

Finally, UFC 73 on July 7 featured a title bout between Champion Sean Sherk and long-time #1 Contender Hermes Franca. The extremely technical unanimous decision win for Sherk could be summed up as follows: The bell rings; Sherk dives in for the takedown and eats a knee to the face; he recovers and brings Franca to his back, only Franca secures a guillotine choke in the process; Sherk muscles his way out and proceeds to rain down fists and elbows for three minutes until the round ends; Repeat 5 times. That said, it was still an exciting fight, and Franca is always a threat no matter who he fights.

Other UFC 73 LW match-ups included Kenny Florian welcoming UFC newcomer Alvin Robinson with a big fat submission loss due to strikes in the first round—You’re welcome; Frank Edgar doing the same to another UFC newcomer Mark Bocek; and the oft-injured Jorge Gurgel defeating #35 Diego Saraiva via unanimous decision. Gurgel apparently decided to win by punching Saraiva with his face, as he’s now sidelined indefinitely with a broken jaw and facial fracture, as well as reportedly urinating blood.

We mentioned last time that Marcus “Maximus” Aurelio, the BJJ blackbelt who fights with American Top Team, was introduced at #11. This month, we’re dropping Wander Braga (formerly #10) off the Top 15 (to #19) for continuing to withdrawal from fights. We’ve also removed Jens Pulver from the Top 15, based on his announcement that he is leaving the UFC to fight at 145 lbs., which brings Kurt Pellegrino into the fold for his first appearance on the charts.

What fighters are on the cusp? A huge number of exciting LWs, including Clay Guida, Sam Stout, Dustin Hazelett, Nate Diaz, Jeremy Stephens, Jason Black, Gleison Tibau, Manny Gamburyan, Doug Evans, Gray Maynard, Cole Miller, Rob Emerson, Dokonjonosuke Mishima and Corey Hill.

Upcoming fights include Joe Stevenson vs. Kurt Pellegrino (UFC 74); Marcus Aurelio vs. #16 Clay Guida (UFC 74); and Spencer Fisher vs. Din Thomas (UFC Fight Night 11). Your Top 15 Contenders are: