Dr Hak's MMA Rankings - September 2007

In the last month we've seen UFC 74, UFC 75, Ultimate Fight Night 11 and UFC 76. That's a lot of fights, clearly. The trend of upsets that has seen Gabriel Gonzaga take out Mirko CroCop, Matt "The Terror" Serra knockout Georges St Pierre for the welterweight title, and Quinton Rampage Jackson make quick work or Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell has continued, with some of those names involved again in the late summer swarm.

UFC Rankings as of September 24th, 2007

Heavyweight - 220 lbs and above
1. Randy "The Natural" Couture
2. Big Nog
3. Tim Sylvia
4. Andrei Arlovski
5. Brandon Vera
6. Gabriel Gonzaga
7. Cheik Kongo
8. Mirko "CroCop" Filipovic

Of course, if Fedor shows up he becomes 1A/1B with Couture but that may not ever happen. Especially if Mark Cuban gets involved in MMA and decides to throw a bunch of money around. He's smart enough to NOT do that, but you never know. He's a billionaire after all. I don't know how Brandon Vera will hold up after such a long layoff (see: UFC's Pride acquisitions) but his previous body of work holds up well in a "pack" situation.

Upcoming Matches:
#5 Vera v #3 Sylvia

Suggested Matches:
#1a Couture v #1b Fedor Emelianenko or Big Nog
Arlovski v Gonzaga



Light Heavyweight - 205 lbs
1. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson
2. Dan Henderson
3. Tito Ortiz
4. Wanderlei Silva
5. Rashad Evans
6. Forrest Griffin
7. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua
8. Keith "Dean of Mean" Jardine
9. Chuck "Iceman" Liddell
10. Lyoto Machida
Also: Houston "The Assasain" Alexander , Michael "The Count" Bisping, Matt Hammill, Jason Lambert

You'll excuse me for being confused this month. The title-shot picture is pretty jumbled now. Before this month of activity I had 2. Rua. 3. Henderson. 4. Liddell 5. Silva. 6. Ortiz 7. Evans...but now everyone is losing. Even Jardine just lost not that long ago to the deliciously violent Houston Alexander. Bisping lost too, they just didn't score the fight correctly. So given all this, we need a challenger for Rampage. Everyone just behind Rampage lost and then Ortiz is up for a rematch with Rashad Evans due to their draw at UFC 73. Wanderlei Silva lost two fights in a row in Pride (one to Dan Henderson), so no immediate title shot for him. The UFC is in the business of making money. So let's go ahead and capitalize on Forrest Griffin's popularity and his win over the alleged #1 205-lb fighter in the world. He won the first Ultimate Fighter. Matt Serra got a title shot when he won his. So why not Forrest? If you have another suggestion I'd love to hear it.

Upcoming Matches
Bisping v Hammill Re-match
Ortiz v Evans Re-match (perhaps to determine the #1 contender)

Suggested Matches
#1 Rampage v #6 Forrest Griffin (Feb '08 SuperBowl show)
Liddell v Silva - go ahead and book it before someone else gets beat
Rua v Jardine
Alexander v Machida




Middleweight - 185 lbs
1. Anderson "The Spider" Silva
2. Dan Henderson
3. Rich Franklin
4. Nate "The Great" Marquadt
5. Yushin Okami
6. Martin Kampmann
7. Jason MacDonald
8. Terry Martin
9. Mike Swick

Anderson Silva is destroyings these cats, and I'm not sure Rich Franklin really wants to fight him again. But he will, and its for the belt. Perhaps we're one Muay Thai clinch away from seeing Silva v Henderson. I'd enjoy that matchup a lot

Upcoming Matches
#1 Silva v #3 Franklin
Okami v MacDonald

Suggested Matches
#2 Henderson v Silva/Franklin winner



Welterweight - 170 lbs
1. Matt "The Terror" Serra
2. Georges St. Pierre
3. Matt Hughes
4. Jon Fitch
5. Josh Koscheck
6. Diego "Nightmare" Sanchez
7. Karo Parisyan

GSP dominated a very self-assured Josh Koscheck last month and reclaims his spot at the top of the contender heap. He'll have to wait a long time to get his title shot, maybe until April 08 but it looks like the UFC is working on giving him home field advantage and having that fight be in Montreal. It seems like the convential wisdom is a Hughes-GSP 3 match-up but we'll have to wait and see on that one until December's title tilt. Jon Fitch's domination of Diego Sanchez shows he's in the upper echelon of welterweights in the UFC and I'd probably match him up with Karo Parisyan soon and promise the winner the next title match, which could be a full year away. I think its unfortunate GSP was promised a title shot if he beat Koscheck, if only because he'll have at least a 6 month layoff that is probably not needed. I support Diego Sanchez's decision to go to 155, if that is what he decides to do, but he's a good welterweight as well

Upcoming Matches
#1 Serra v #3 Hughes - December

Suggested Matches
Fitch v Parisyan
Sanchez v Koscheck 2



Lightweight - 155 lbs
1. Sean Sherk
2. BJ Penn
3. Joe Stevenson
4. Kenny Florian
5. Hermes Franca
6. Roger Huerta
7. Joe Lauzon
8. Spencer Fisher
9. Tyson Griffin
10. Din Thomas


The talk of a Sean Sherk steriods suspension brings us to a Joe Stevenson v BJ Penn fight for the vacated title. That's cool, even though BJ Penn is getting older and should probably stop cutting all the way to 155. It'd be interesting to have him in the welterweight division again. Regardless, Roger Huerta isn't quite ready for a title shot...or at least the UFC isn't giving him fights that would suggest they think he is. That being said, he's been marketed hard and he's doing well. So how about a #1 contender match against Kenny "The Finisher" Florian?

Upcoming Matches
#2 Stevenson v #3 Penn - if Sherk suspension upheld

Suggested Matches
Huerta v Florian
Franca v Griffin