On both sides of the Kansas-Missouri border, Kansas City has been
privy to an awful lot of fantastic and noteworthy mixed martial
arts, but on April 15, the Sprint Center played host to the
pound-for-pound king of complete combat and obviously, we aren't
talking about Harley Race in 1978.
UFC on
Fox 24's main event offered no surprises as flyweight ruler
Demetrious
Johnson, an 11-to-1 favorite by fight time, dominated
challenger
Wilson Reis
every which way before casually armbarring him before the
third-round horn. As such, there's no surprise who sits atop the
throne in the latest Sherdog.com pound-for-pound top 10. But, just
because “Mighty Mouse” notched his UFC record-tying 10th
consecutive title defense and did it with ease, don't forget after
a largely forgettable first quarter for major MMA in 2017, hope is
blossoming this spring and seems likely to heat up as we enter the
summer, injuries pending, of course.
Our No. 7,
Stipe
Miocic, is scheduled to defend his UFC heavyweight title
against
Junior dos
Santos at
UFC 211 on May 13, a fight that could engender the rare
instance of a heavyweight steadily climbing up the pound-for-pound
ranks, as well as firming him up as one of the very best big men in
MMA history. Meanwhile, second-ranked
Daniel
Cormier and our No. 9
Michael
Bisping both have upcoming-if-unscheduled bouts against
opponents with historic P4P credentials, as Cormier is angling to
have his rematch with former pound-for-pound king
Jon Jones in
late July, while “The Count” is still tentatively lined up to face
another “greatest of all time” candidate in
Georges St.
Pierre in the late summer, early autumn.
You may think “What if Cormier ends up facing
Jimi Manuwa?
What if GSP doesn't agree on a date soon enough and
Yoel Romero
faces Bisping instead?” Well, that's fine. We still have two
forthcoming bouts, with signatures on the dotted line, featuring
P4P entrants squaring off: June 3 in Rio de Janeiro, fourth-ranked
Jose
Aldo meets our youngest ranker, No. 8
Max
Holloway, while the potential “Fight of the Year” on paper
between sixth-ranked
Robbie
Lawler and 10th-ranked “Cowboy”
Donald
Cerrone is on tap for July 8. Unless the MMA gods intervene,
this is the opposite of a cruel summer for the sport.
In the wake of his 10th straight UFC title defense, tying the
greatest middleweight of all time in
Anderson
Silva, what more is there to say about Demetrious Johnson?
Longtime Shooto king
Mamoru
Yamaguchi might be the first great flyweight in this sport's
history, but “Mighty Mouse” has been the historical, global
trailblazer for the division for his most recent UFC on Fox outing
against Wilson Reis indicate, it's not because he's a magnetic
draw. No, Johnson is on top of our list for two specific reasons:
he has never lost as a flyweight, going undefeated in his 13 bouts
at 125 pounds, on top of the fact that he was a top-five
bantamweight prior to dropping to his more natural division and,
well, cause Jones is still ineligible for this list at the present
time. Since winning his UFC flyweight title, the Kentucky-born,
Washington-based fighter has dummied all his top-10 challengers
with increasing dominance and efficacy, whether they're simply
great fighters like
John Dodson
or
Kyoji
Horiguchi, Olympic gold medalists like
Henry
Cejudo or historically noteworthy fighters like
Joseph
Benavidez. While he hasn't beat every single top-10 opponent
his division could offer, no one doubts he could and would and so
now, the drum beats louder than ever for the
Matt Hume
understudy to jump back up to 135 pounds and rematch
Dominick
Cruz or tangle with the winner of UFC champ
Cody
Garbrandt and
T.J.
Dillashaw. DJ is already playing with house money, but if he
can return to bantamweight and have success, the rich may get
richer and one of the greatest may become even greater.
Yes, the recently retired
Anthony
Johnson is still grasping at straws, clinging to Daniel
Cormier's now-infamous weigh-in towel grab prior to their UFC 210
rematch and for whatever reason despite hanging up his gloves,
trying to have Cormier stripped of his UFC light heavyweight title.
If you believe Cormier's championship is an illegitimate one,
there's a good reason, but it has nothing to do with Anthony
Johnson and everything to do with former pound-for-pound king Jon
Jones, who soundly handed “DC” his only career loss at UFC 182 in
January 2015. Beyond his previously established heavyweight
accolades, Cormier is emerging as arguably one of the best
205-pounders ever and if he is forced to settle for a summer title
defense against big-punching Brit Jimi Manuwa, it will be another
feather from a top-10 challenger he can stick in his hat. But, for
better or for worse, “Jonny Bones” will continue to be the prism
through which Cormier's career is viewed and so while every title
defense, every name the American Kickboxing Academy team captain
can put on his hit list matters, none of them individually, or
perhaps even together, can vault the 38-year-old to the top of this
list or the top of history.
If you were starting to grow tired of the Conor McGregor-Floyd
Mayweather Jr. narrative, you've at least been granted a slight
reprieve recently as McGregor's recent alleged entanglements have
been with luxury car services and Liverpool hotels. While McGregor
continues to seek his mega-millions bout with “Money Mayweather,”
he's retreated further from the MMA sphere by partying in “The
Pool” with his posse and occupying the British and Irish tabloids.
Nonetheless, polarity of public opinion be damned, “The Notorious”
one has earned his pound-for-pound spot in the most essential way,
taking out major names while competing from 145 to 170 pounds.
Since making his UFC debut just over four years ago, the Irishman
has gone 9-1, avenging his loss to
Nate Diaz,
toppling elite fighters like
Max
Holloway,
Chad Mendes
and
Dustin
Poirier and brutalizing the two greatest opponents he's ever
faced in Jose Aldo and
Eddie
Alvarez to become the UFC's first simultaneous two-division
champion. McGregor continues to party and pursue the Mayweather
showdown, but he is still just five months removed from knocking
out Alvarez at Madison Square Garden for 155-pound gold, even if
the MMA public continues to grouse over “Mystic Mac” not facing the
likes of
Tony
Ferguson and
Khabib
Nurmagomedov.
Jose Aldo is unquestionably the all-time finest featherweight and
likely the greatest sub-lightweight MMA fighter ever. He went a
decade without losing a single bout and when he did, though it came
in a humiliating, 13-second fashion against Conor McGregor, it at
least came against a fellow P4P entrant and a historically
noteworthy fighter. The Brazilian's lone post-McGregor bout at UFC
200 last July is also a major consideration: while “Scarface”
already owned a February 2013 win over former UFC lightweight
champion
Frankie
Edgar, it was Edgar's UFC featherweight debut. When the pair
rematched last summer, Aldo put on one of the most brilliant,
consummate performances of his 12-year career against a version of
“The Answer” that had recently ripped through the red-hot
featherweight division. Aldo has been at the top -- or near the top
-- of the sport for so long that he may seem like a fading legend
but he is still just 30 years old and is now heading into one of
the most relevant and important fights of his entire career: at
UFC
212 on June 3 in his adopted home of Rio de Janeiro, Aldo will
seek to unify the UFC featherweight titles with our No. 8 entrant
Max Holloway. As is the case with Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones, the
masses will continue to judge the Nova Uniao product by his loss to
McGregor, but a win over Holloway would re-affirm Aldo atop the
145-pound class once again while also giving Aldo, at worst, one of
the three most significant, meritorious wins of his career.
You don't have to a beloved fighter to be a great fighter and Tyron
Woodley is ongoing proof of this. Since his dreadfully languid June
2014 loss to
Rory
MacDonald, Woodley has gone undefeated, taking out the always
sturdy
Dong Hyun
Kim,
Kelvin
Gastelum who has gone on to excel at middleweight and
Robbie
Lawler to take the UFC title, at the peak of Lawler's powers
after he had established himself as one of the three best
welterweights in MMA history. His pair of successful title defenses
over
Stephen
Thompson may not have thrilled the masses -- certainly, not all
Woodley fights get the fans amped up -- but his draw and decision
win over “Wonderboy” are still considerable accomplishments given
both the general caliber of the 170-pound division and the run that
Thompson had put together prior to his title challenges. The world
assumed Woodley would sit pat and wait for the winner of the
forthcoming
Demian
Maia-
Jorge
Masvidal bout, either of whom would make fantastic, worthwhile
challengers to his title. However, “The Chosen One” recently stated
on social media that he has already started his next training camp,
leading many to wonder if something else is in the works for
Woodley this summer.
In spite of an incredible second UFC run in which he captured the
promotion's welterweight crown and redefined himself as an all-time
great, Lawler is still most remembered for how he lost the UFC
170-pound title in July, falling prey to Tyron Woodley's powerful
right hand. That result notwithstanding, the “Ruthless” one has one
of the sport's finest records over the last four years. Coming off
of a career-changing title loss, the three-time reigning “Fight of
the Year” author is not taking any softballs in his return.
Initially, Lawler was lined up to face
Donald
Cerrone at UFC 205 in New York in November, but the former
champion said he needed more time to train. For some, it would be
an excuse to bypass such a contest, but not for Lawler. Now working
under the tutelage of Henri Hooft, Lawler expects to meet Cerrone
at
UFC
213 on July 8 in Las Vegas. The matchup could give Lawler
another milestone win and perhaps make him “Mr. FOTY” for a fourth
year in a row.
Outside of a prime
Fedor
Emelianenko and
Antonio
Rodrigo Nogueira, it is hard -- very hard, in fact -- for
heavyweights to do too much damage on pound-for-pound lists. The
dearth of talent compared to other weight classes and the parity
that stems from bigger punching, often less skilled fighters makes
it hard to maintain a winning streak over elite opposition. That
said, Stipe Miocic is doing an admirable job over the last four
years. Since his upset knockout loss to
Stefan
Struve of all people, Miocic has gone 7-1, taking out
Roy Nelson,
Gabriel
Gonzaga,
Mark Hunt,
Andrei
Arlovski,
Fabricio
Werdum and
Alistair
Overeem, the last five of whom all ended up unconscious. The
only blemish in that span for the Ohio native was an intense and
competitive 25-minute affair with former UFC champ
Junior dos
Santos in December 2014, a defeat that Miocic now has the
chance to avenge. At UFC 211 on May 13 in Dallas, the pair will
rematch. Though it is just Miocic's second title defense, a win
over dos Santos would tie him for the most consecutive, successful
UFC heavyweight title defenses, help entrench the Strong Style
Fight Team product as one of the best big men ever and show that
even in a new era, with better talent and more weight classes,
heavyweights can still be a part of the P4P conversation.
Max Holloway is emblematic of both how good the featherweight
division has become over the last two to three years, as well as
why folks bother to cobble together P4P lists in a sport where
“pound-for-pound is a stupid concept!” is a familiar refrain. In
2013, a 21-year-old Holloway lost consecutive bouts to
Dennis
Bermudez and Conor McGregor. Since then, it's been 10 straight
wins for the “Blessed” one, including five straight wins over
top-10 opposition in
Cub Swanson,
Charles
Oliveira,
Jeremy
Stephens,
Ricardo
Lamas and
Anthony
Pettis. In prizefighting, people typically look for
championship belts to assess who is truly great, and while he does
have a UFC interim title trinket, Holloway is a reminder that in an
outstanding division, there's but a single No. 1, but there can be
multiple great fighters. At just 25 years old, our youngest P4P
entrant now stands on the doorstep of history, as he will meet the
greatest featherweight ever, Jose Aldo, in hostile Rio de Janeiro
territory at UFC 212 on June 3. A win would not only make the
Hawaiian the full UFC 145-pound champion but firmly install him
among MMA's top five fighters.
We will not shy away from sharing a sentiment we have expressed
since Bisping joined this list as UFC middleweight champion: At 38
years old and still suffering from the impact of a detached retina,
it amazes us as much as it does you. Nonetheless, Bisping has run
through
C.B.
Dollaway,
Thales
Leites,
Anderson
Silva,
Luke
Rockhold and
Dan
Henderson in his last five appearance. Given that his first
title defense came against a 46-year-old Henderson -- legend or not
-- it is fair to critique Bisping's reign with some skepticism.
However, “The Count's” next move is much harder to peg and far more
difficult to define: Bisping has vowed later this year to defend
his 185-pound throne against perhaps the greatest mixed martial
artist of all-time,
Georges St.
Pierre, despite the fact that "Rush" has been away from the
sport for nearly four years. However, no date has been set,
prompting questions about whether or not “The Ultimate Fighter 3”
winner will wind up facing rightfulo. 1 challenger
Yoel Romero
before a meeting with St. Pierre can take place.
Cerrone's career is largely marked by his big-fight failures, be it
Nate Diaz, Anthony Pettis,
Rafael dos
Anjos or Jorge Masvidal. Even so, “Cowboy” is not just one of
MMA's most dynamic fighters but one of its most accomplished. The
34-year-old Cerrone is one of this sport's most active competitors
and he is does it in MMA's two best divisions, lightweight and
welterweight. After proving himself as a top-three fighter at 155
pounds, Cerrone blew his December 2015 UFC title challenge against
dos Anjos and then moved up to 170. The Jackson-Wink MMA product
ripped through
Alex
Oliveira,
Patrick
Cote,
Rick Story
and
Matt
Brown before ultimately falling to Masvidal in January. Losses
matter, but prizefighting is a realm defined by “Who did you beat
and how did you beat them?” Cerrone, who averages four UFC bouts a
year, intuitively grasps that concept. Above and beyond that,
Cerrone can earn perhaps the biggest win of his career next time
out, as he figures to face former UFC welterweight champion Robbie
Lawler on July 8 at UFC 213 in Las Vegas.
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