« Nogueira’s next match in PRIDE | Home | 3 new matches added to HERO’s Budokan show »
FightOpinion.com Top 25 Heavyweights
By jasonadams | March 1, 2006
By Jason Adams
FightOpinion.com has voted on the top 25 fighters at each weight class and I will release one a day between now and Saturday. First up is the Heavyweights.
Heavyweight(205lbs.+)
| 1.Emelianenko Fedor |
| 2.Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira |
| 3.Andrei Arlovski |
| 4.Mirko Cro Cop |
| 5.Sergei Kharitonov |
| 6.Mark Hunt |
| 7.Emelianenko Alexander |
| 8.Josh Barnett |
| 9.Tim Sylvia |
| 10.Fabricio Werdum |
| 11.Frank Mir |
| 12.Kazuyuki Fujita |
| 13.James Thompson |
| 14.Jeff Monson |
| 15.Hidehiko Yoshida |
| 16.Ryoto Machida |
| 17.Mark Coleman |
| 18.Semmy Schilt |
| 19.Sam Greco |
| 20.Heath Herring |
| 21.Brandon Vera |
| 22.Marcio Cruz |
| 23.Assuerio Silva |
| 24.Pedro Rizzo |
| 25.Paul Buentello |
Keep in mind these rankings are only the opinion’s of the columnists of FightOpinion and are meant to spark disscussion. Who’s too high? Who’s too low? Who got snubbed? Let us know and maybe next time we can get it right.
Light Heavyweights are tomorrow!
Topics: All Topics, Jason Adams, MMA | | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
Kharitonov at 5 is too high after getting destroyed on Sunday.
Hunt may be too low.
I don’t think Yoshida belongs on the list.
It’s scary how much better Fedor is than the rest.
It should be noted that PRIDE 31 wasn’t factored into the rankings as it was done before last Sunday.
For those who wondered about my picks, let’s just say that Mirko was not as high on my list as he was on the overall list. And Josh & Yoshida were higher, as well.
I’d put Yoshida over mir, and Hunt over Kharitonov, maybe even tied with Mirko.
Mir has absolutely no business being on this list.
A top 12 or top 15 list would be better than 25. It’s impossible to find 25 good heavyweights now. In smaller weight classes, you can. Heavyweights? I had trouble coming up with more than 9!
I’d switch Hunt and Kharitonov, move Mir down to 14 and swap Monson and Thompson.
Oh yeah, drop Pedro Rizzo all together. This guy needs to R.I.P.
I think having it go to 25 makes it even more controversial. Which is good. Stir the pot.
Mir has no business in the top 25 at all? And Rizzo probably will drop out after his last Pride fight.
Barnett is not a top 10 HW at this point. He has been very unimpressive in his comeback. What’s the obsession w/ him Zach?
Actually after looking at the list again, I’d put Sylvia and Werdum over Barnett. That makes him 10. Maybe there shouldn’t be anyone above him.
Machida, Fujit and Herring are all better fighters than he is and maybe better than Werdum also but they haven’t been active enough lately. Vera could be top 10 by the end of the year but his competition hasn’t been high enough yet. HW is a sad sack weight class these days.
Heavyweights - Fedor, Nogueira, Arlovski, and then you can debate either Hunt or Barnett in the 4th slot. Right now, who are the top 4 guys likely favored in the open-weight tournament on 5/5 at the Osaka Dome? Overeem, Hunt, Nogueira, and Barnett. Nogueira and Barnett are the two best out of that class. The heavyweight division is not that stacked at all, and Barnett’s fight style either wins or makes his opponents look ugly (like he did against Mirko - a fight where both guys got damaged, but Mirko got damaged more).
Against mid-to-top-level fighters, Werdum has to show us more in order to cement a real ranking position. Against Kharitonov, he lost an ugly fight - a fight that he probably could have finished if he had more MMA experience. Against Einemo, Werdum was better on the stand-up (training with Mirko helps) but was not able to get anything substantive on the ground. Werdum’s big problem now is finishing a fight. It took him a while to finish off Tom Erikson, and Tom doesn’t train MMA full time. Werdum has lots of potential, but let’s see how things develop long-term.
Heath has been hurt badly by the politics behind the scenes in Japan, so it’s caused a lot of instability in his career. The same can be said for Ryoto Machida, who is a very nice guy. Fujita is always the X-factor because he can do some damage against the right opponents, but you have to carefully book him to get the right results.