Rankings: Just Another Problem I Have With Sherdog

I have lots of issues with the site, and have no problem listing them at length, but their ranking process always confuses me, because so often they seem illogical. I don't agree that a fighter should be removed for inactivity in his weight class, though general inactivity I can understand. It's really just an opinional difference, but it seems strange that Matt Lindland, the best 185 pound fighters in the world, is removed from their rankings because he has had to go up weight classes to look for competition.

Here are my heavyweight rankings (I'll add more as this week goes on). I've offered clarification where I feel its necessary, though there are things (like putting Fedor at #1 among the big men) that I figure you probably have a good handle on.

Heavyweight

1. Fedor Emelianenko

2. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

3. Randy Couture

My logic in ranking Nogueira at 2 and Couture at three is based primarily on their performances against Tim Sylvia. Nogueira finished him and Couture, however, I feel it's also important to note that Nogueira has fought a much greater volume of top ten opponents and has done much better against them.

4. Josh Barnett

I'll be honest, I think that the fact that Barnett is not on Sherdog's rankings is fucking ridiculous. Usually I'd put it more eloquently than that, but I think there's really no other way to word my frustration. I respect Barnett as a fighter and don't hold him on a pedestal in the least, and I'm just as frustrated as anyone that he hasn't fought since the buyout, and his imminent return on the Sengoku card will really dictate where I think he falls in the new, scattered heavyweight division. that said, I refuse to rank guys who have much less experience and credibility higher than Barnett, because doing that is ridiculous.

5. Andrei Arlovski

6. Fabricio Werdum

7. Tim Sylvia

My reasoning for ranking Arlovski and Werdum ahead of Sylvia is simple. Werdum has been impressive recently, as has Arlovski, though not in his last fight. Sylvia gets ranked very highly because he beats opponents he should beat, but that's not enough for me to call him a top 5 heavyweight. If Sylvia had really shown up in past fights and I had reason to regard the fight with Nogueira as an anomaly, I would do that, but Sylvia doesn't finish people, and he doesn't even really impress when he sends the fight to the judges. The fact that he is ranked so high by groups like Sherdog really just emphasizes how much crap we are willing to put up with from the former champ before we start questioning his work ethic.

8. Cheick Kongo

9. Gabriel Gonzaga

There are those who are going to wonder why Gonzaga is ranked lower than Kongo, given that Gonzaga finished CroCop and the Frenchman did not. The fact is, Gonzaga has been absolutely destroyed in his last two fights. While there has been alot of talk about the quality of his win over Mirko, it is clear that he is not capable of creating a similarly brilliant performance unless it is fed to him on a one-dimensional platter similar to the Croatian, or a less famous fight like it was in his initial wins over Fabiano Scherner and Carmello Marerro. Kongo may be one dimensional, but he has shown that he can beat a far more diverse level of opponent and, at the very least, has shown growth in his skill set over his last few fights. This is something I have not seen from Gonzaga and, until I do, I will consider Kongo higher, not only in the UFC ladder, but in the world rankings as well

10. Mirko "CroCop" Filipovic

In case there is any question of why I included Mirko instead of Ben Rothwell, I will say that I think it's impossible to call Rothwell a top ten fighter when he can't finish Ricco Rodriguez. While I will not dispute the dominance that Rodriguez once had as a fighter, and as one of the greatest groundnpounders the sport has ever seen, I will say that he is not the same fighter, and the fact that Rothwell cannot finish him is disappointing, given that Rodriguez has the cardio of a sumo wrestler (and the physique to match). CroCop may have two painful losses, but I will keep him on the rankings for the same reason I keep Gonzaga on, because he has done incredible things recently and needs only to get back on track. Rothwell still needs to figure out where the track is. As for Rothwell's other wins, people seem to believe that they are extraordinarily impressive, and that's not true. His record is a veritable "Who's that?" of modern MMA, but what can you expect from an IFL division that doesn't really have the finances to get him an awesome opponent.

Those are my thoughts on the current heavyweight divison. I will mention, because I think it's important, that I think both Jeff Monson and Mark Hunt could be on this list, and I considered putting them both ahead of Gonzaga and CroCop. I will probably go back and forth on the issue, but I'd like to see if Hunt is continuing to improve, as he has been over the last few years, and I want to see if Monson has a strong showing against Fedor (as I think that Monson is probably the toughest matchup, stylistically, for Fedor), I don't think he will win, but I think he has the potential to make that a very, very interesting fight, and if he does I will consider him a top ten heavyweight, perhaps even more so than most of the UFC's current top contenders.