UFC Light Heavyweight Rankings (186 to 205 lbs.)
- Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (19-4)
- Lyoto Machida (16-1)
- Rashad Evans (15-1-1)
- Quinton Jackson (30-8)
- Forrest Griffin (17-6)
- Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (19-3)
- Thiago Silva (14-2)
- Ryan Bader (11-0)
- Matt Hamill (9-2)
- Jon Jones (10-1)
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua sits at the top of the UFC light heavyweight division. With his destruction of Lyoto Machida, he proved he is at the top of his game. The only problem is fans will have to wait until what looks like Spring 2011 before we see the champ back inside the Octagon.
In the meantime, “Suga” Rashad Evans waits anxiously to welcome Rua back into the cage, Jon Jones will face Vladimir Matyushenko at “UFC on Versus 2”, Matt Hamill will take on Tito Ortiz at UFC 121, Ryan Bader will battle it out with Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC 119, and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is expected to face Lyoto Machida in November.
Thiago Silva was scheduled to return at UFC 117 but has been sidelined with an injury, and Forrest Griffin is on a book tour (win a free copy).
The UFC‘s 205 lb. division has arguably the stiffest competition in all of professional mixed martial arts. Champions never seem to last long, not because they are not great fighters, but because on any given night, practically any one of the top 10 or 20 fighters in the division could beat any of the others.
Trying to rank the top ten light heavyweights in the UFC is far from easy or straightforward, and is definitely open for discussion, interpretation and debate. We had to make a few decisions that probably deserve an explanation.
Many would argue that Anderson Silva deserves a spot in these rankings based solely upon his defeat of Forrest Griffin. That makes a lot of sense, and we actually did have him there to start with. However, considering he has said he does not plan to return 205, combined with the fact Griffin was his only significant win at the weight class, we have decided to omit him. He already owns the 185 lb. division, that should be enough for “The Spider”.
Some people have suggested Rich Franklin deserves a spot on this list. However, his only win at 205 in years was Chuck Liddell. His wins against Matt Hamill and Wanderlei Silva were both at catch weights.
We have already published our UFC heavyweight rankings for August 2010. Stay tuned for ProMMAnow.com’s UFC middleweight rankings. We will also be publishing Strikeforce rankings. Our complete MMA rankings are here.
We would love to know your thoughts.
what about wanderlei silva ?
Wanderlei Silva’s only win at LHW was Keith Jardine, who has been let go from the UFC because of too many losses. Now Wanderlei fights at middleweight. So to answer your question… Wanderlei, although a great guy and legend, does not belong on this list.