UFC Rankings — March 2008

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These rankings are based on a plethora of factors: win-loss record, method of victory, competition the fighter is facing, and the push given to them by the UFC matchmakers.

POUND FOR POUND

1. Anderson Silva (Middleweight Champion)
2. Quinton Jackson (Light Heavyweight Champion)
3. Georges St. Pierre (Interim Welterweight Champion)
4. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera (Interim Heavyweight Champion)
5. B.J. Penn (Lightweight Champion)
6. Dan Henderson
7. Forrest Griffin
8. Chuck Liddell
9. Rich Franklin
10. Mauricio Rua

NOTES: No movement in the pound for pound rankings. Anderson Silva destroyed Dan Henderson, but Henderson lost to the best fighter in the world, so he doesn’t drop at all…a convincing win next months for Georges St. Pierre could vault him into the number two spot…there will be lots of movement in these rankings over the next four months, as all of the men in the rankings are scheduled to fight at some point, and some of them are fighting each other.

HEAVYWEIGHT
Over 205 lbs. to 265 lbs.

1. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera (Interim Heavyweight Champion)
2. Fabricio Werdum
3. Frank Mir
4. Tim Sylvia
5. Heath Herring
6. Gabriel Gonzaga
7. Cheick Kongo
8. Brandon Vera
9. Brock Lesnar
10. Christian Wellisch

NOTES: Lots of movement in this list. Both Andrei Arlovski and Mirko Cro Cop are no under longer under contract to the organization and have been removed from the list. Arvloski may resign, but there’s a chance ProElite will offer him a ludicrous amount of money to fight for them, so I’m keeping him out until he returns…Heath Herring vaults from #9 to #5 with his stellar win over Cheick Kongo. There’s a chance Herring will get a shot at Noguiera, but I still suspect they’ll put Frank Mir in that fight. Kongo drops to #7 after his loss to Herring. He showed a drastically improved ground game, but had a complete inability to do anything off his back. He’ll have to work on that aspect of his game if he wants to reach the upper echelons of the heavyweight rankings…I somehow omitted both Gabriel Gonzaga and Brandon Vera in last month’s rankings. This has been rectified, and I shouldn’t feel like an idiot next month.

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Over 185 lbs. to 205 lbs.

1. Quinton Jackson (Light Heavyweight Champion)
2. Dan Henderson
3. Forrest Griffin
4. Chuck Liddell
5. Mauricio Rua
6. Lyoto Machida
7. Keith Jardine
8. Wanderlei Silva
9. Rashad Evans
10. Houston Alexander

NOTES: Absolutely no movement in this division due to UFC 82 having no meaningful light heavyweight bouts. There may be some slight movement after the next Fight Night due to Houston Alexander fighting on the card, but other than that there’s not likely to be much shuffling here until May, when Jardine will fight Wanderlei Silva and Tito Ortiz fights Lyoto Machida.

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Over 170 lbs. to 185 lbs.

1. Anderson Silva (Middleweight Champion)
2. Yushin Okami
3. Dan Henderson
4. Rich Franklin
5. Nate Marquardt
6. Chris Leben
7. Michael Bisping
8. Thales Leites
9. Ricardo Almeida
10. Jason MacDonald

NOTES: Silva remains the best fighter in the world, and there truly are no real threats to his supremacy in the current UFC Middleweight division…Yushin Okami vaults to #2 in the rankings with his savage KO of Evan Tanner, and he’ll likely get the next shot at Silva unless The Spider moves to the light heavyweight division. Okami stands zero chance against Silva and it’s a match that probably shouldn’t headline a PPV, but in a depleted division it’s the best option they have unless they sign Matt Lindland or somehow convince Silva to fight Black House teammate Paulo Filho. Judging from Silva’s reaction to the suggestion of that fight, it doesn’t seem very likely that it’ll happen. Silva is huge on honor and friendship and something tells me that Dana won’t be able to throw money at this fight and make it happen like he does with everyone else…Henderson only falls to #3, mostly due to the fact that this is a severely depleted division. He also lost to the best fighter in the world, so it doesn’t hurt him as much as a different loss would…Chris Leben jumps to #6 in the rankings with his TKO over division newcomer Allessio Sakara. There’s a chance he could get a rematch with Silva for the belt, but it’s not likely, as even Leben would have to realize that he stands zero chance against the current champion.

WELTERWEIGHT
Over 155 lbs. to 170 lbs.

1. Georges St. Pierre (Interim Welterweight Champion)
2. Matt Serra (Welterweight Champion)
3. Jon Fitch
4. Josh Koschek
5. Matt Hughes
6. Diego Sanchez
7. Karo Parysian
8. Marcus Davis
9. Thiago Alves
10. Mike Swick

NOTES: I had a lot of complaints last month from folks wondering why I slotted St. Pierre above Serra when Serra is the champion. Here’s the reasoning: St. Pierre is the interim champion, and that belt is equal to the regular belt at this point. Just as in the heavyweight division, where Big Nog is the interim heavyweight champion, the interim title is still a world title and should be regarded as such. St. Pierre is far better than Serra, so he gets #1. It won’t matter after April, anyway, because the two will meet at UFC 83 to unify the belts…Jon Fitch moves into the virtual #1 contender role with his win over Chris Wilson. It wasn’t the typical dominating Fitch performance, but not all fights are, and he was impressive enough in grinding out the win that he punches his ticket to meet the winner of St. Pierre/Serra…Josh Koschek makes the most movement in the division after a fantastic win over Dustin Hazelett. Koschek showed a much-improved striking game and ended Hazelett’s night with a leaping high kick that basically finished the fight. Another win over a top contender will likely put Koschek on the verge of a title shot…Matt Hughes falls to #5, mostly because two guys jumped over him. There are rumors going around that Hughes will move to the middleweight division and fight Anderson Silva, but I can’t see them doing that until after they do Hughes/Serra. That’s a money fight that’ll be over a year in the making by the time it happens, and I don’t think they’ll just abandon it in order to find a new challenger for Silva.

LIGHTWEIGHT
Over 145 lbs. to 155 lbs.

1. B.J. Penn (Lightweight Champion)
2. Sean Sherk
3. Kenny Florian
4. Frankie Edgar
5. Roger Huerta
6. Tyson Griffin
7. Joe Stevenson
8. Joe Lauzon
9. Thiago Tavares
10. Spencer Fisher

NOTES: No movement in this division due to lack of meaningful fights. Sherk and Penn will fight in May and several others in the rankings are fighting before then, so I expect this division to drastically change over the next two months.