Heavyweights

1. Fedor Emelianenko (31-1, 1NC) – Red Devil Sports Club
This isn’t even debatable, although the rise of Brock Lesnar is at least putting thoughts of another fighter testing Fedor into question. In Fedor’s last fight- his first with Strikeforce- he looked shockingly human. Fedor has never been a fighter with the “ripped” physique but his form in the Rogers fight was a bit more on the round side. Still, the guy has never had a real defeat.

2. Brock Lesnar (4-1) – Minnesota Martial Arts
It appears Lesnar’s battle with an intestinal illness won’t sideline him for too much longer. He’s looked like a beast since his first fight in the UFC and makes you wonder how anyone is going to be able to test him. It’s looking like his return will come sometime this summer, likely July, against the winner of Carwin/Mir which comes with the caveat of the winner having to escape the fight relatively unscathed in which case he’ll likely defend his belt against the rising Cain Velasquez.

3. Frank Mir (13-4) – Team Mir
UFC 110 made this ranking a bit more difficult but I gave the edge to Mir. He’s been the champ before and is goal oriented, in that he’s training specifically for the behemoth Lesnar. He looked much bigger in the Cheick Kongo fight than he did against Nogueira or Lesnar and I’m not talking about Mir/Christison style big either. He’s tailored his training and weight regimen specifically to deal with the larger fighters in the division and he’s becoming one of them. His next fight will be for the interim heavyweight title against Shane Carwin.

4. Cain Velasquez (8-0) - American Kickboxing Academy
It’s amazing to see the level that Cain is fighting at after only eight fights. He’s improved in every fight and he’s improved drastically between the Kongo and Nogueira fights. His wrestling was never a question. Simply put, if he wants to take you down, he will. Now it appears his striking is on a totally new level. He looked very fast and obviously powerful in knocking out Nogueira. His next fight is TBA but could possibly be against Lesnar for the title depending on the outcome of Mir/Carwin.

5. Junior dos Santos (10-1) – Black House
“Cigano” has been a bulldozer since he’s been in the UFC. He’s one of the fastest and most powerful strikers in the division and is only 26yrs old. Since the resurgence of the heavyweight division, the UFC has been able to take it relatively slow with him compared to the road that they put Velasquez on. He’s set to face Gabriel Gonzaga on the Versus card on 3/21 and a win against Gonzaga would certainly put him in the mix to be considered for a title shot.

6. Shane Carwin (11-0) – Jackson’s MMA
Carwin has been out of the octagon for a year now. Originally he was slated to face Lesnar late last year but has been on the back burner waiting to see what would happen with Lesnar’s illness. Now that’s squared away and Carwin will fight for the interim belt against Frank Mir at UFC 111.

7. Alistair Overeem (31-11, 1NC) – Golden Glory
Overeem hasn’t lost in almost three years and even though his level of opponents hasn’t been anything to write home about, he’s looked virtually unstoppable. His next fight is TBA but there are rumors circulating of a dispute between M1 and Strikeforce that could possibly put Fedor off of the April fight against Werdum and instead possibly fight Overeem in Japan.

8. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (32-6-1, 1NC) – Black House
Although Nogueira looked like his old self in a win over Randy Couture, in his losses against Mir and Velasquez he just looked like an “old” version of himself. As a fan, I’d like to think the Velaquez loss was more a product of Cain just being a remarkable athlete and not Nogueira being over the hill. Although he’s not very old, he’s had a relatively long career and absorbed a lot of punishment. It could be catching up to him. His next fight is TBA.

9. Fabricio Werdum (13-4-1) – Werdum Combat
Aside from the loss to “Cigano”, Werdum has been fighting like an elite heavyweight the last few years. He weathered the early storm from Antonio Silva in the first round and dominated him over the following two to get the victory. He’s preparing to fight Fedor in April but that fight could be on hold.

10. Brett Rogers (10-1) – Ambition MMA
In his first real test at heavyweight he knocked out Andrei Arlovski. In his second he proved to be more than game for MMA’s heavyweight king Fedor Emelianenko. Rogers put Fedor in a few uncomfortable situations but perhaps was overwhelmed by the spotlight as he just looked a bit tentative. Next fight TBA.