Sherog's MMA Rankings - Feb '10

FYI, here's Sherdog's latest MMA rankings (for the divisions).

http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/1/Sherdog-Official-Mixed-Martial-Arts-Rankings-23617

***Here's my "half-cent" worth...

- At HW, Carwin should be #3 (ahead of "Mud Pride"). Barnett should be ranked ahead of AA & Werdum. "Big Country" is on the cusp of the top 10.

- At LHW, Evans should be ranked ahead of Rampage. Mousasi should be #5. Bader should be ranked ahead of Cane.

- At MW, Shields should be ranked ahead of Belfort (who didn't deserve a title shot). Bisping should be in the top 10 (ahead of Khalidov & Santiago).

- At WW, Swick should be ranked ahead of Daley. Kampmann should be ranked ahead of Diaz.

- At LW, KenFlo should be ranked ahead of Alvarez & Aoki. Maynard should be #5. Edgar should be #6. Donald Cerrone & Jim Miller should be in the top 10.

- At FW, (White Brazilian) Assuncao should be ranked ahead of Fernandes. Omigawa shouldn't be in the top 10 (with almost a .500 record). Taurosevicius should be in the top 10.

Dixie, I don't know much about MMA so I'll ask you. Around how many whites champs do we have in all divisions in the major organizations? Is it roughly 30 - 40 %?

In both UFC and Strikeforce, 2 of the 5 champs are white. But 2 of the other champs in UFC are white/Asian hybrids. Also, Fedor Emelianenko is obviously the best heavyweight in MMA but the heavyweight belt in Strikeforce is owned by Alistair Overeem, a mulatto who has not defended it in over 2 years. If they were to ever fight Fedor would win in the first minute of the first round.

WA33, if we're speaking the 3 top MMA promotions (UFC, WEC & Strikeforce), then there's the following White champions...

UFC
HW - Lesnar
WW - GSP
*** - BJ Penn & Machida are half-White.

WEC
*** - No "pure" White champs currently, but Bantamweight champ Dominck Cruz' mom is White. Also, Cerrone & Faber have very good chances of winning the LW & FW belts on 4/24 @ WEC 48.

Strikeforce
LHW - Gegard Mousasi
MW - Jake Shields
*** - The last WEC LW U.S. Champ was Josh Thompson

Summary
Of 13* "available" major MMA champion belts, Whites currently hold 4 making the percentage of White champs 31% . However, we could add 2-3 belts (Maia, Faber & Cerrone) by the end of April, up'ing it to 40-53% of the "major" MMA belts. Technically, fighters with 1+ White parent(s) hold 53% of the "major" MMA belts (counting Penn, Machida & Cruz...to make the "quasi-total" 7 belts). Also, Cerrone was majorly ripped off (for the WEC LW strap) in his 1st fight against "afrolete" Ben Henderson. Finally, remember Fedor's the best P4P + overall fighter & it's only a matter of time before he claims the SF HW strap (as LL stated, Overeem would be summarily destroy against Fedor)!

*= The WEC Bantamweight title is currently vacant, so I gave WEC 3 belts. Edited by: DixieDestroyer

31 % is not too bad. I figured it was in the 30 - 40% range.

i wouldnt even consider overeem a champ. he has defended his belt once in the last 3 years for crying out loud.

but i think strikeforce is being smart by waiting to give fedor a "title shot". this way strikeforce basically has two champs and can market as such. you have overeem, the de jure champ, and fedor, the de facto champ. i think after fedor runs thru werdum (who has beaten overeem) they will set up a showdown between fedor and barnett. then (assuming fedor wins, which admittedly is no sure thing against barnett) they will set up an overeem fedor showdown where fedor will finally officially become the strikeforce champ.

I think Dominick Cruz is White, his ancestry is probably Spaniard. Mexican ancestry does not preclude whiteness. 10% of Mexico is White.

Anak, good call as Cruz doesn't look "Mexican". He could easily pass for Italian or Greek and his mom is a blonde of European descent.

Fedor could pick up any of the heavyweight belts with ease.

I think Carwin vs Fedor would be an excellent match-up. Much better than the Fedor vs Lesnar match-up, the people that think Brock would manhandle Fedor are turds. Carwin is big, the full 265 lbs of pure muscle, has great wrestling, great hands and a good chin.

Then again, no one knows what his conditioning is like and all that bulky muscle can't be good for endurance.Edited by: Anak

dixie, i would count Dream as a major promotion as well. as of right now they have 3 champs, one of which is white (Zaromskis) and one of which is full japanese (aoki). jason miller (also white) will probably be fighting for the vacated MW belt.