Amidst the rubble generated by last weekend’s PRIDE Grand Prix Finals, only one ranked and accredited middleweight/light heavyweight was able to escape without a scratch. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua overcame the odds and fulfilled his duties as the Dark Horse of the tournament, leaving teammate and former immovable object Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) somewhere North of the winner’s podium.

Rua’s feat acted as a mortar shell for the 205 rankings, obliterating conventional thinking on who rules the roost in the light heavyweight division.

Is it Rua? Does Silva still reside at No. 1 for his non-tourney accomplishments? Or does UFC champion Chuck Liddell (Pictures) take the top spot for his recent list of KO victims?

Giving you an answer is not quite the same as giving you the answer — a pretty persuasive argument can be made for all three. But I think one of these athletes edges out the others. And yes, you’ll be made to suffer through lots of exposition before arriving at the answer. Wouldn’t have it any other way.

THE CASE FOR CHUCK LIDDELL

Easily the top-ranked 205-fighter in North America, the UFC’s Chuck Liddell (Pictures) is flirting with mainstream popularity on the wave of several high-profile victories. After an auspicious run against mediocre talent in the late 1990s, Liddell scored two career-making knockouts in 2001 against Guy Mezger and Kevin Randleman (Pictures).

With his rogue’s gallery stretching into the upper tier, he struggled in his next three fights, earning decisions over Murilo Bustamante (Pictures), Amar Suloev (Pictures), and Vitor Belfort (Pictures).

Starting with his knockout of Renato Sobral (Pictures) in late 2002, Liddell has thrown out any concerns over being a plodding point fighter. Win or lose, all of his fights since have finished under the final tick of the clock. He scored the big knockouts over Alistair Overeem (Pictures) and Vernon White (Pictures), rocked perennial poster boy Tito Ortiz (Pictures), and made history by becoming the first man to ever put Randy Couture (Pictures) to sleep.

In contrast, he looked decidedly vulnerable in TKO losses to Couture and Quinton Jackson (Pictures), resembling little more than a flopping fish on his back in both fights.

Since late 2002, Liddell has finished four fighters who most would consider viable top 10 light heavyweights: Couture, Overeem, Ortiz, and Sobral. He finished two capable but unranked fighters in White and Horn. He’s won and successfully defended a UFC title in that period of time, as well as pioneered finishing knockouts against Sobral, Horn, and Couture.

And if that weren’t enough, he’s got a steak named after him.

THE CASE FOR WANDERLEI SILVA

Silva’s arrival as a formidable light heavyweight could arguably be timed around 2000’s PRIDE 10, when he savagely knocked out Guy Mezger.

He would go on to a numerically impressive career in PRIDE, sporting a 20-2-1-1 record against opponents that were often unworthy of his time. Disregarding the Matsuis and Carl Malenkos, Silva’s record boasts wins over Dan Henderson (Pictures), Kazushi Sakuraba (Pictures) (a mind-numbing three times), Quinton Jackson (Pictures), and Yuki Kondo (Pictures).

Despite the breadth of Silva’s PRIDE career, it’s worth noting that only three of his 24 opponents could arguably be called top-ranked light heavies: Jackson, Sakuraba, and Henderson. And while they sport impressive records, it needs to be noted that both Sakuraba and Henderson would have to eat several Chuck Liddell (Pictures)-sponsored steaks to barely edge the 200-lb. mark.

That’s in sharp contrast to legitimate light heavies like Jackson, who cut between 10-20 pounds as a matter of course. Come fight night, Silva’s opponents could often be a disappointing 30 lbs. lighter than expected for this weight category.

Silva himself has opted for a similar weight disadvantage, battling both Mirko Filipovic (Pictures) and Mark Hunt (Pictures) in a draw and an irrelevant loss, respectively.

His record sports three significant losses: two to superior ground tacticians in Ricardo Arona (Pictures) and Tito Ortiz (Pictures), and one blowout of a defeat to Vitor Belfort (Pictures).

THE CASE FOR MAURICIO RUA

“Shogun” was the proverbial bat out of Hell this year, appearing on no one’s radar to garner a spot in PRIDE’s lauded middleweight (205 lbs.) tournament. Prior to his entry, Rua fought mid-tier opponents and dropped a bout to ranked light heavyweight Renato Sobral (Pictures).

But his road to the Grand Prix title is potentially the greatest gauntlet ever successfully run in any weight division in a four-month span: he knocked out Quinton Jackson (Pictures), out-grappled Rogerio Nogueira in a decision, stopped Alistair Overeem (Pictures), and pummeled Ricardo Arona (Pictures). All four men have been incredibly dominant in their respective careers, and all four can safely find themselves in anyone’s top 10.

THE VERDICT

It took Liddell several years to string together victories against opponents as formidable as Couture, Overeem, and Sobral … three years, to be exact. Silva took nearly five years to do the same, with two of those elite athletes posing no threat to the scale.

Rua, in contrast, took four ranked opponents out in a spastic burst of activity in the summer of ‘05.

Losses? Liddell looked positively lost against both Couture and Jackson, taking massive punishment on the ground. Silva lost the takedown battle against Arona and Ortiz but wasn’t beat up in either defeat. Rua dropped a submission loss to Sobral, the only black mark in his entire career.

In caliber of opponents, method of victory, and — most impressively — the condensed nature of his accomplishments, Mauricio Rua (Pictures) seems like the current king of the mountain. Somehow, the 23-year-old has fit years’ worth of credentials into a single tournament.

Liddell gets plenty of points for his consistent willingness to take every fight offered and his first-run knockouts over the defensive-minded Couture and Horn. But he also dropped two big fights to two big names in a bad way. Silva fought legitimate light heavyweight threats only sporadically, and three of the four — Ortiz, Belfort, and Arona — got the better of him. Line up the Kaneharas and Iwasakis of the world against Liddell or Rua and it’s likely they’d get put through the grinder just the same. Quantity doesn’t equal quality, which is the point Silva’s detractors have been saying for years.

Of course, the best answer for the inevitable grousing is to match Liddell up with Rua for a be-all, end-all showdown.

Winner gets a steak dinner.

IN BRIEF, SPECIAL BELATED PRIDE EDITION: Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) out-striking Mirko Filipovic (Pictures) is just the latest in a series of career highs for the Russian, who may now have to resort to handicap two-on-one matches in order to feel threatened. DSE should hope that Josh Barnett (Pictures) can edge past Mirko in a proposed October rematch, since their Pedro Rizzo (Pictures) experiment didn‘t go as expected. … Just when you think another nail has been put into the career coffin of Tank Abbott, he pops back up again. His bout with Hidehiko Yoshida (Pictures) was notable only for the brief sight of the Olympian out-striking Abbott to the point where Tank had to go for the takedown. While a submission loss to a Judo player is acceptable, getting mugged on the feet would be a reputation destroyer. People who sincerely believe DSE would need to orchestrate a fix in order to get over on the somnambulant Abbott should seek immediate psychological help. … Igor Vovchanchyn (Pictures) proved once again that dropping down in weight does not automatically make you a threat. The Ukrainian puzzled fans when he repeatedly chose to engage Kazuhiro Nakamura (Pictures) on the ground instead of working on the feet. It was just as puzzling — and frustrating — as watching Silva do his best impression of Pedro Rizzo (Pictures) against Arona.

The opinions expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com