The Sports Inquirer

 

Music to listen to: Still of the Night by Whitesnake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_tfq0qTDDE

Been a long time since we’ve done a mixed martial arts Power Ranking. There have been new champions, injuries, future matchups announced and many other things. We’ll get to many of them below.

Heavyweight

1) Cain Velasquez

2) Junior Dos Santos

3) Fabrico Werdum

4) Daniel Cormier

5) Travis Browne

Others: Mark Hunt, Antonio Silva, Josh Barnett, Frank Mir, Alistair Overeem

Thoughts: Velasquez has clearly established himself as the top heavyweight in the world courtesy of two dominating victories over Junior Dos Santos. The champion’s shoulder injury will keep him out for most of 2014 which means the rest of the division will have to fight off each other for the time being. Dos Santos has delved into the unfortunate position of being better than everybody else accept for the champion. I’d like to see Travis Browne get a shot at JDS as a test for the Hawaiian’s path towards the championship. Browne’s defeat of Josh Barnett was one of the most impressive performances of 2013. This will probably be the last time we’ll see Cormier on this list as he makes an interesting and permanent move to light heavyweight, facing Rashad Evans next month. The Mir/Overeem fight also intrigues me because the loser of that contest will most likely be done in the UFC, especially Overeem.

Light Heavyweight

1) Jon Jones

2) Alexander Gustafsson

3) Rashad Evans

4) Glover Teixeira

5) Phil Davis

Others: Dan Henderson

Thoughts: Jones/Gustafsson was on my short list of 2013 Fight of the Year consideration. We finally had a light heavyweight that physically could match up with Jones in the Swede who I felt initially deserved an immediate title rematch. However, I’m also an advocate of Teixeira especially after his dominating first-round TKO win over Ryan Bader. We’ll have more analysis of the Jones/Teixeira fight when it gets closer but the champ is in trouble. Evans’ domination of Chael Sonnen wasn’t surprising but slightly disappointing. If Evans brought that energy to his title fight against Jones in that contest, he may have regained the title. Now, he’ll have to overtake Cormier in a dangerous fight to even receive title consideration.

Middleweight

1) Chris Weidman

2) Anderson Silva

3) Vitor Belfort

Others: Lyoto Machida, Jacare, Yushin Okami, Michael Bisping, Mark Munoz

Thoughts: I actually predicted that Weidman would defend his belt against Silva but didn’t predict that ending. I’ll hold off on giving Silva’s the career retrospective that comes with retirement but it doesn’t look too good for the all-time great. Weidman still won the first round of that contest though and looked like a good bet to retain the championship if the fight continued. Belfort looks to be next in line this summer and that should be entertaining. The rest of the division either has new fighters (Machida), injuries (Bisping), not in the UFC anymore to face strong competition (Okami) or lack consistency (Jacare, Munoz). Feel free to fill out the rest of the rankings among those fighters.

Welterweight

Out of respect: Georges St. Pierre

1) Johny Hendricks

2) Carlos Condit

3) Robbie Lawler

4) Rory MacDonald

5) Jake Shields

Others: Ben Askren, Demian Maia

Thoughts: Ever since I’ve done Power Rankings for MMA starting about two years ago, there hasn’t been another fighter on top of this division outside of St. Pierre. His retirement is understood but he’s officially out of the rankings as a result. Also, I actually scored the St. Pierre/Hendricks fight in favor of the challenger three rounds to two. Because of that, Hendricks is listed as first. It came down to a coin flip between Condit and Lawler so on this day I have the New Mexican ranked second but that a very fluid situation. MacDonald is a young guy who lost to a more experienced guy in Lawler. I think he’ll get past Maia and get the career back on track. Disappointed as a media member and follower of the sport that Askren and the UFC couldn’t come to an agreement. A return to Bellator would have been nice too but that bridge was burned. If Askren can look impressive in One Fighting Championship this spring, maybe the ranking will change for him.

Lightweight

1) Anthony Pettis

2) Benson Henderson

3) Gilbert Melendez

4) Eddie Alvarez

5) TJ Grant

Others: Michael Chandler, Josh Thompson, Nate Diaz, Khabib Nurmagomedov

Thoughts: This may be the most complete division in the entire sport. Pettis’ latest win over Henderson makes him the clear top guy in the rankings. Henderson has a strong hold of the second spot despite the loss to Pettis and will have a major challenge against Thompson later this month for the interim UFC title due to Pettis’ injury. TJ Grant has been hit with the injury bug as well and that’s prevented him from title opportunities as well.

Featherweight

1) Jose Aldo

2) Chad Mendes

3) Ricardo Lamas

4) Cub Swanson

5) Frankie Edgar

Thoughts: Would like to see Mendes get another shot at Aldo but the champ will will have to wait because Lamas gets first crack at the belt in February. Cub Swanson has had a nice revival to his career in the UFC and if Frankie Edgar can get past B.J. Penn later this year, he’ll have an impact on the title picture as well.