MMA on Tap Top 10 - March 22, 2008

Mar 22, 2008 2:20 PM John Chandler

The benefactor of circumstance, reigning WEC champion Urijah Faber will have the opportunity to solidify his top spot at featherweight with a showdown against Jens Pulver this summer. Photo property of World Extreme Cagefighting.

Here are the latest MMA on Tap Top 10 fighter rankings. We will be updating these every month or whenever an adjustment is needed, like after a major event for example. The rankings break down into 7 different lists of 10, each of them by division. (We’ve added the bantamweight division this month.)

This month’s rankings are relatively the same as the last, with the exception of a few changes in three of the lower weight classes.

If you ever want to compare these with your own or just take a look at the latest update, you can find them under the Top 10 category in our features section. The fighter’s previous ranking is listed in parenthesis after the fighter’s name.

The rankings were tabulated by Bill Reger and myself. Feel free to chime in with your own lists, thoughts, or suggestions.

Heavyweight

1. Fedor Emelianenko (1)
2. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (2)
3. Randy Couture (3)
4. Andrei Arlovski (4)
5. Fabricio Werdum (5)
6. Josh Barnett (6)
7. Tim Sylvia (7)
8. Gabriel Gonzaga (8)
9. Mirko Cro Cop (9)
10. Aleksander Emelianenko (10)

Light Heavyweight

1. Quinton Jackson (1)
2. Mauricio Rua (2)
3. Chuck Liddell (3)
4. Wanderlei Silva (4)
5. Keith Jardine (5)
6. Forrest Griffin (6)
7. Lyoto Machida (7)
8. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (8)
9. Ricardo Arona (9)
10. Rashad Evans (10)

Middleweight

1. Anderson Silva (1)
2. Paulo Filho (4)
3. Dan Henderson (2)
4. Rich Franklin (5)
5. Matt Lindland (3)
6. Nate Marquardt (6)
7. Robbie Lawler (7)
8. Kazuo Misaki (8)
9. Yoshihiro Akiyama (9)
10. Denis Kang (10)

Welterweight

1. Georges St. Pierre (1)
2. Matt Hughes (2)
3. Matt Serra (3)
4. Karo Parisyan (4)
5. Josh Koscheck (5)
6. Jon Fitch (6)
7. Jake Shields (7)
8. Diego Sanchez (8)
9. Hayato Sakurai (9)
10. Carlos Condit (10)

Lightweight

1. Takanori Gomi (1)
2. B.J. Penn (2)
3. Sean Sherk (3)
4. Gilbert Melendez (5)
5. Gesias Calvancanti (6)
6. Shinya Aoki (4)
7. Tatsuya Kawajiri (7)
8. Mitsuhiro Ishida (8)
9. Vitor Riberio (9)
10. Joe Stevenson (10)

Featherweight

1. Urijah Faber (3)
2. Akitoshi Tamura (1)
3. Takeshi Inoue (2)
4. Masakazu Imanari (4)
5. Jeff Curran (5)
6. Hiroyuki Takaya (6)
7. Antonio Carvalho (7)
8. Yoshiro Maeda (8)
9. Tenkei Fujimiya (9)
10. Hatsu Hioki (10)

Bantamweight

1. Masakatsu Ueda
2. Koetsu Okazaki
3. Atushi Yamamoto
4. Takaya Mizugaki
5. Miguel Torres
6. Daniel Lima
7. Chase Beebe
8. Brian Bowles
9. Marcos Galvao
10. Kenji Osawa

Features • Top 10

The trackback URL for this entry is:

Trackbacks:

Comments:

1. robnashville
Mar 22, 2008 7:38 PM

these rankings are nearly perfect in my book. You guys get the jon fitch and roger huerta questions totally right, they are where they deserve to be: fitch at around sixth or seventh at WW and Huerta not in the Top10 at LW. They simply haven’t done enough to warrant higher rankings than those, though some have bought into the hype (I’m looking at you, Fight Magazine….)

The only quibble i have with the rankings is the Matt Lindland ranking…..which i discuss at length on this blog posting of mine:

http://mmarkingout.blogspot.com/2008/03/ultimate-grappling-asks-question-i.html

2. John Chandler
from Philadelphia, PA
Mar 23, 2008 11:58 AM

I completely agree with you about Lindland. His inactivity is really doing a number on his ability to be considered a top 10 middleweight, thus why he dropped down since last month. Bill and I have agreed that if news about his next fight doesn’t come out within the next month or so, we’ll most likely have to drop him out.

3. MoreThanUFC
Mar 24, 2008 6:09 PM

I like the new site John. I havent stopped by in awhile, but it looks really good.

I also like the ranking mostly. But is Gomi really #1 after getting beat by Diaz ( who cares ) and not fighting for around a year?

4. John Chandler
from Philadelphia, PA
Mar 24, 2008 6:58 PM

Thanks man. As far as Gomi goes, he’s at the top of the lightweight division for now. Diaz submitted him but the fight was changed to a no-contest and all of the other ranking sets out there changed as well so we decided to follow suit. With that said, we’re likely inclined to move Gomi down following Penn-Sherk in May.

5. Craig O
from sacto, califa
Mar 24, 2008 9:52 PM

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME GOMI HAS BEATEN A TOP 10 OPPONENT?? gOMI’S HAY DAYS ARE WAYYYY BEHIND HIM.

Diaz(so what), what the hell is that?? mr. morethanufc… SO taking all gomi had to offer and making him tap little a bitch he is, thats meaningless and measn nothing!!! to throw away that fight becuase a corupt biz tried to make their star assest look better by calling it a no contest and hoping site’s like this would NOT use this loss to judge their product, it’s retarded, the fith happended, u saw it.. i saw it. shame on you guys for taking their bait.

Fact is Gomi lost, period!! and he hasn’t fought anybody good after the diaz fight.. or years b4 the fight!!....so like Lindland he too should be moved down ... for that matter, who has Fedor fought lately??

But really who is the LAST TOP 10 fighter gomi has beaten?? and when? I’M SURE IT’S NOT AFTER 06’