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.

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.

Oh yeah, drop Pedro Rizzo all together. This guy needs to R.I.P.