MonaroCountry's top 10 HW fighter

HW RANKING

-Reasoning behind this ranking - most previous ranking have been Zuffa biased. However we dont know how good those guys are when they are unable to compete against other fighters from other promotions.
-This ranking is not ideal. I wanted to make it a mathematical/formula based but im ovbiously not a rocket scientist. This ranking is therefor based more on a fighters record, his achievements as an MMA fighter, the skills he has shown (kickboxing, grappling etc), and his achievements outside of MMA (combat related).


1) Fedor Emelianenko - 32 -1 The most decorated, most experienced, and most proven HW fighter today with the most top 10 and top 5 wins. Fedor has won against the best from multiple promotions and has held his spot for close to ten years. Fedor is the complete fighter with elite level striking and elite level grappling. Probably as good as Overeem in kickboxing and second only to Werdum in grappling.

2) Alistair Overeem - 33-11 (9-1 since becoming a full time HW fighter). Proven fighter with world class grappling and kickboxing. Elite kickboxer with wins against one of the best MMA and kickboxer Igor Vovchanchyn, one of the best kickboxers Badr Hari and Peter Aerts.

*3) Josh Barnett - 26-5 Another proven fighter who has succeded in MMA and in grappling. Has won the UFC belt, Pancrase and runner up in Pride. Won against prime Nog, won against prime Randy, and won against Aleksander Emelianenko. Is as adept at grappling as he is with his standup.

4) Fabricio Werdum - 14-4 Proven fighter with wins against the Emelianenko brothers, Antonio Silva as well against Overeem who all lost through submission. Werdum is the best grappler in HW. He has a limited standup ability with JDS lucky enough to catch this ground fighter with a lucky uppercut, JDS would have been dominated if it went to ground.

5) Antonio Silva - 14-2 Another proven fighter who has competed against the best from different promotions, has championships in elite XC, Cage Rage, and Cage Warriors. Has a win against former UFC champion Andrie Arlowski. Good standup but average grappling.

6) Junior dos Santos - 12-1 A good puncher but nowhere the level of Overeem and Fedor. Only notable win is against Werdum through a lucky punch against a grappler. JDS has shown good standup but is still unproven on the ground, he has been submitted by Joaquim Ferreira.

7) Guram Gugenishvili - 10-0 Unproven fighter. Has won the M-1 Global HW title and a master on the ground but needs to showcase more of his standup game. Has won against the best in Europe and the best in America.

8 ) Shane del Rosario - 10-0 Unproven fighter with lots of potential. Undefeated with wins through submission and strikes, wins come predominantly by strikes. SDR is a top kickboxer and is the WBC Muay Thai Heavyweight Champion.

9) Cain Velasquez - 9-0 Unproven fighter but unbeaten. Cain hasnt fought a proper well rounded elite HW with Nog way past his prime while Brock has shown little in terms of skills. Cain has great standup and the second best if not the best standup within UFC's HW. In saying that Cain's standup is still below that of Fedor and especially Overeem. Cain is a low level wrestler having only competed at a college level which is clearly below that of Daniel Cormier.Cain hasnt show any submission wins and is unproven on the ground.

10) Daniel Cormier - 6-0 Unproven in MMA but has an unbeaten 6 fight winning streak. He has shown the ability to be a mixed martial arts fighter with wins through strikes and through submissions. Daniel possess possibly one of the more impressive wrestling background to date. He is far better and more accomplished in wrestling than Cain, Carwin and Lesnar who are just another college level wrestling athlete.

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Notables

11) Brett Rogers - 11-2 Has submission and standup wins, predominantly a standup fighter with a fierce KO percentage. A huge puncher. Rogers is still not very proven on the ground and as a fighter. He has won against a former UFC HW champion but has also lost twice to the two elite MMA fighters.

12) Cole Konrad - 7-0 Unproven but also unbeaten. A mid level wrestling background. Has shown a TKO and submission wins and is the current Bellator HW champion. I also have Cole higher than Carwin because of his ability to fight to the end.


* possible illegal substances issues.

 

JDS has more fights, had better opponents, and shown more in terms of submission this is why I had him higher. I would put Cain higher than JDS once he submitts someone (and show more of his ground game) and or wins against JDS.

 

Again the problem is that the media puts too much emphasis on which promotion the fighter fights and not on how that fighter fights or how well their opponent fought.

For example, some of the best, most brutal, and most skillful fights I have ever seen were from unranked guys. While some of the worst fights I have ever seen were from two highly ranked fighters.

The same arguement could be put up to Cain's lack of quality wins against quality opposition and have CroCop and Nog leapfrog him......even though Cain would most likely beat these two past-their-prime fighters.