I was bored and felt like ranking who I consider the 10 best Champions ever in the big 2. My rankings arent based on talent but more of the level of competiton and title defenses or title wins. Here it is. BTW I dont count interm title fights as actually title fights expect in a guy like Big Nogs case. 1. Matt Hughes - 2 time UFC Welterweight Champion,7 title defenses in all agianst Hayato Sakurai,Carlos Newton,BJ Penn,Frank Trigg 2x,Gil Castillo,Sean Sherk. A very nice 9-2 in title fights. Something very impressive to me is that he gave rematches to both guys he won the titles agianst and at one time or another beat the guys who took his titles. 2. Randy Couture - 5 time UFC Champion 3 x Heavy and 2x Light Heavy, Has defended his titles a whole 3 times which hurts him in terms of being number 1, 8-5 in title bouts defeating the likes of Maurice Smith,Pedro Rizzo 2x,Tim Sylvia,Gabriel Gonzaga,Kevin Randleman,Vitor Belfort,Tito Ortiz. 3. Fedor Emelinenko - Unbeaten Pride FC Heavyweight Champion whos defended his title 3 times vs stellar opponets Mark Hunt,Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria and Mirko Cro Cop. 4-0 in title bouts without much of a scare in a any of them. Worth noting that during his reign he won the Heavyweight Grand Prix in 2004 Mark Coleman,Randleman,Ogawa. 4. Chuck Liddell - Former UFC Light Heavy Champion and the IMO the best ever in that weight, 5-1 in title bouts and defended his crown 4 times agianst Couture,Jeremy Horn,Babalu,Tito Ortiz and all by devestating KO. 5. Anderson Silva - Current UFC Middleweight Champion 4-0 in title fights brutalazing Champions like Dan Henderson and Rich Franklin and a tough contender like Nate Marquadt. Silva unifying the Pride and UFC belt easily over Dan Henderson is a major accomplishment. 6. Frank Shamrock - Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, 5-0 in title fights and retired basically cleaning out his divison of Jeremy Horn,Tito Ortiz,Igor,John Lober. 7. Tito Ortiz - Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and record holder for most consecutive title defenses of 5 over Ken Shamrock,Evan Tanner,Vladimir Matshuenko,Yuki Kondo,Elvis Sinosic. 5-3 in title fights which hurts him on my list honestly. 8. Wanderlei Silva - Held the Pride Middleweight title for 5-1 in title fights and defended his title 4 times while winning the Middleweight Grand Prix in this 5 year stretch with is amazing. 9. Tim Sylvia - 2 time UFC Heavyweight Champion, 5-4 in title bouts defending vs the likes of Andrei Arlovski,Jeff Monson and Gan McGee. 10. Rampage Jackson - Only defended his Light Heavyweight title once but the fact that it was the first unification bout in history is quite special to me. Im interested in hearing other rankings.
Yeah maybe I should of included him because although he never was a actual belt holder he did defended his tournament Championships and never lost it.
I cant stick GSP in because the man never defended his title but I have a feeling he will creep up into my list soon. Soon enough Rampage would move ahead of Sylvia and GSP would just bump him right off same with BJ Penn all I need is a good win over Sherk.
Fedor- never really even lost.. Wanderlei- Had an insane win streak with victories in handicap matches. Hughes- Guy held his title for a long time against good competition. The elitist attitude added to his legacy, loved to hate him, but he is/was great. Couture- How many times has this guy had a title, at what ages, and weight categories? Lost his title a lot, but have to credit him for his victories. Liddel- High level of competition for a guy defending a title. Guy's resume is a who's who of light heavies.. Fought many greats during what I consider the, "golden age" of light heavies.
Very good list- I'd only switch Couture and Hughes around. I'd rank Couture higher simply because I believe the quality of his opposition was SLIGHTLY better, and his performances, at least in my estimation, were SLIGHTLY better overall. On the side- I notice that Liddel is ranked higher on your list than Anderson Silva. For now, I agree with this, but I have a feeling after the 2008 year this might change. Silva looks like a real wrecking ball, and despite the fact that he has cleaned out the very top of his divison (taking little more than a year to do so in stunning fashion!), there are plenty of solid contenders/names for him to feast on until the next big showdown (Cung Le?).
Except he kepts getting a shot at a title everytime. He fought 1 non title fight against Arsdale. He never really had to fight his way up to the title fight except early in his career. Its understandble because the divisions were scarse at the time.
Its possible but im not sure beating Yushin Okami at Middleweight would bump Silva over Liddell for me since Okamis probablly his next opponet. If Silva went up and won the 205 title then yeah its no contest Silva moves up ahead of Liddell and probablly even Fedor. In 2008 I dont expect my list to change much unless Couture stayed in the UFC and beat the crap of Nogueria or Rampage will move up probablly if he beats Forrest but I couldnt justify ranking him ahead of Wanderlei yet. Now unlikely things that could happen that would change the rankings would be Chuck beating Rampage in a trilogy which A probablly wouldnt happen this year and B Chuck probablly loses it anyway. Another would be Silva getting a 3rd fight with Rampage and winning it hed move up to atleast 6 on my list.
Agreed.:good It looks like your list, at this moment, depends alot on the career of Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. I think Jackson is going to be around for another year or two, because I think he can and will defeat Forest Griffin, and I do think Chuck Liddel would lose again (mostly because Jackson's boxing technique is better, he keeps his hands up and throws shorter punches).
