The inaugural list of the top 10 pound for pound fighters on thesportsjury.com debuts after an exciting UFC 123 card. As always, thesportsjury.com’s motto is “The voice of the fan!”, so let me know your thoughts about the rankings on the site.
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BJ Penn— After losing two straight decisions to Frankie Edgar, the most dominant UFC lightweight in history moved up to 170 for a rubber match with Matt Hughes. Penn won via TKO in 21 seconds. Is scheduled to fight Jon Fitch at UFC 127.
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Fedor Emelianenko— Although he lost his last fight to Fabricio Werdum, Fedor’s body of work gets him the number 9 spot. He has no fight scheduled and will likely drop off the list if he continues to sit on the sidelines. Would love to see a rematch with Werdum with the winner getting a Strikeforce title shot at Alistair Overeem. But who knows what Scott Coker is thinking.
8)** Jon Fitch**— Won a dominant decision over Thiago Alves at UFC 117. Fitch has won 21 straight fights over guys not named Georges St. Pierre. Is scheduled to take on BJ Penn at UFC 127.
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Dominick Cruz— Current WEC/UFC Bantamweight Champion. Cruz last won via split decision over Joseph Benavidez. He has 16 career wins and only career loss is to Urijah Faber. Cruz is slated to take on Scott Jorgenson at WEC 53 which will make him the official UFC 135 pound champion.
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Mauricio “Shogun” Rua— Knocked out Lyoto Machida in the first round, a rematch of the controversial UFC 104 decision where he was on the wrong end. Shogun is expected to defend his UFC light heavyweight belt against Rashad Evans at UFC 128.
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Cain Velasquez— The newly crowned UFC Heavyweight Champion dethroned Brock Lesnar via TKO in
4:12 at UFC 121. Cain is 9-0, beaten 2 straight UFC champions, and is likely going to be fighting Junior dos Santos next.
4)** Frankie Edgar**— Defended his UFC Lightweight belt against BJ Penn with a dominant 5 round decision. I have Edgar this high due to the way he picked apart Penn in the rematch. He is fighting Gray Maynard at UFC 125 and will try to avenge his only career loss.
3) Jose Aldo— The WEC/UFC Featherweight Champion last won at WEC 51 with a knockout over Manny Gamburyan. Aldo has won 11 straight fights while finishing his opponent in 7 of the contests. He was supposed to take on Josh Grispi at UFC 125 but recently pulled out due to a compacted vertebrae.
2) Anderson Silva— Silva had a come from behind submission win over Chael Sonnen at UFC 117 to defend his UFC Middleweight belt. “The Spider has won 13 straight fights with finishes in 11 of them. Vitor Belfort at UFC 126 is his next fight.
- Georges St. Pierre— GSP dominated Dan Hardy en route to a unanimous decision at UFC 111. St. Pierre has won 7 straight and is 20-2 overall. I give GSP the nod over Silva due to the talent of the fighters he has beaten compared to Silva’s. St. Pierre gets to fight fellow TUF coach Josh Koscheck at UFC 124.