Marcelo Alonso (Portal do Vale-Tudo ) Armando Alvarez (Miami Herald) Jeremy Botter (Houston Chronicle) David Brown (Cherokee Scout) Jeff Cain (MMAWeekly.com) Emiliano Cándido (FOX Sports) Flavio Canto (Sensei SporTV) Steve Cofield (ESPN Radio) Mark Daniels (Boston Herald) Bob Emanuel (Scripps Howard News Service) Alexandre Esteves (Tatame) Heidi Fang (MMA Fight Corner) Paulo Favero (O Estado de S Paulo ) Steve Feiti (Asbury Park Press) Joe Fernandez (Chicago Sun-Times) Mario Filho (OSS TV) Ryan Frederick (InsideFights.com) Grant Gordan (Burbank Leader) Andreas Hale (FightNews) Randy Harris (WTAN Sports) Ariel Helwani (MMAFighting.com) Brian Hemminger (MMAmania.com) Rafa Hernandez (Univision) Ana Hissa (Mundo da Luta ) Steve Jeffery (CFMU 93.3 FM) Mike Johnston (Sportsnet) Steve Juon (Wrestling Observer) Abe Kanan (The Abe Kanan Show SiriusXM) Case Keefer (Las Vegas Sun) James Koh (FOX 11 Los Angeles) Ron Kruck (Inside MMA) Mark LaMonica (Newsday) Claudia Lima (VIP) Damon Martin (MMAWeekly.com) Franklin McNeil (ESPN.com) Guga Noblat (O Globo ) Eric O'Brien (Clear Channel) Brett Okamoto (ESPN.com) Chris Palmquist (MixedMartialArts.com) Nick Peet (Fighters Only) Ken Pishna (MMAWeekly.com) Marc Raimondi (NY Post) Ivan Raupp (Globoesporte.com) Marcelo Russio (Canal Combate ) Ariel Schnerer (Fight Network) John Silver (Chicago Sun-Times) Jonathan Snowden (Bleacher Report) Anthony Springer Jr. (FightNews) Neil Springer (Sun Media) Jeff Wagenheim (SI.com)
...but even after all that participation, not a whole lotta changes from the 2/4 rankings. (Previous rank, where different, in parentheses following the current rank)
Pound-for-Pound 1 Anderson Silva 2 Jon Jones 3 Georges St-Pierre 4 Jose Aldo 5 Benson Henderson 6 Cain Velasquez 7 Dominick Cruz 8 Demetrious Johnson 9 (NR) Renan Barao 10 Dan Henderson (Out: Frankie Edgar)
Flyweight Champion : Demetrious Johnson 1 Joseph Benavidez 2 John Dodson 3 Ian McCall 4 John Moraga 5 Jussier Da Silva 6 Louis Gaudinot 7 Chris Cariaso 8 (9) Darren Uyenoyama 9 (8) John Lineker 10 (NR) Timothy Elliott (Out: Ulysses Gomez)
Bantamweight Champion : Dominick Cruz 1 Renan Barao (Interim Champion) 2 (3) Urijah Faber 3 (2) Michael McDonald 4 Eddie Wineland 5 Brad Pickett 6 (7) Rafael Assuncao 7 (6) Brian Bowles 8 Scott Jorgensen 9 Mike Easton 10 Ivan Menjivar
Featherweight Champion : Jose Aldo 1 Chad Mendes 2 Ricardo Lamas 3 Chan Sung Jung 4 Frankie Edgar 5 (6) Cub Swanson 6 (5) Dennis Siver 7 Dustin Poirier 8 (9) Erik Koch 9 (8) Nik Lentz 10 Clay Guida
Lightweight Champion : Benson Henderson 1 Gilbert Melendez 2 Anthony Pettis 3 Gray Maynard 4 Nate Diaz 5 Jim Miller 6 Donald Cerrone 7 TJ Grant 8 Rafael dos Anjos 9 Joe Lauzon 10 Khabib Nurmagomedov
Welterweight Champion : Georges St-Pierre 1 Johny Hendricks 2 Carlos Condit 3 Nick Diaz 4 Rory MacDonald 5 Demian Maia 6 Jake Ellenberger 7 Martin Kampmann 8 Josh Koscheck 9 Jon Fitch 10 Tarec Saffiedine
Middleweight Champion : Anderson Silva 1 Chris Weidman 2 Vitor Belfort 3 Michael Bisping 4 Yushin Okami 5 (6) Constantinos Philippou 6 (5) Mark Munoz 7 Luke Rockhold 8 Hector Lombard 9 Alan Belcher 10 (NR) Chael Sonnen (Out: Tim Boetsch)
Light Heavyweight Champion : Jon Jones 1 Dan Henderson 2 Lyoto Machida 3 Alexander Gustafsson 4 Glover Teixeira 5 Antonio Rogerio Nogueira 6 Rashad Evans 7 Mauricio Rua 8 Phil Davis 9 Ryan Bader 10 Gegard Mousasi
Heavyweight Champion : Cain Velasquez 1 Junior dos Santos 2 Fabricio Werdum 3 Daniel Cormier 4 Antonio Silva 5 Frank Mir 6 Alistair Overeem 7 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira 8 Roy Nelson 9 Stefan Struve 10 Shane Carwin
Apparently being ranked top 10 in the promotion doesn't even guarantee your ass won't get cut. Poor Jon Fitch (cagepotato.com).
He was in a lot of boring ass fights over the years but Fitch v Silva was awesome and getting outgrappled by Maia doesn't seem like something that should be cut-worthy. Ah well.
The UFC has been looking for an excuse to cut Fitch for years, and going 1-2-1 over his last four fights was apparently the last straw. It's ridiculous since he's clearly still a top-level welterweight today and is the third-best WW of all time (behind St. Pierre and Hughes).
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." --- Bart Giamatti, on baseball
Originally posted by J. KyleAfter one loss? Sounds like he got into it with Dana again.
I'd say Big Bad summed it up pretty well. If you want to be 'boring' or challenge the UFC on anything ever, you best be fucking winning.
Plus from their (UFC's) point of view he's annoyingly good enough to beat a lot of up and comers while probably never being good enough to win a title or exciting enough to draw PPV buys. I still hate that they cut him because I think losing to a guy like Fitch could really help some of the young guys on the roster learn and improve, and I'd sooner employment in the UFC was based on ability rather than buy rates, but it's easy to be an idealist when it ain't my business to run.
Nous ne nous pouvons pas sortir. They could have had him rematch Penn, or fight other guys we never want to see fight GSP again like Shields (though that might be the most boring fight in history).
Now he can be Bellator champ in pretty much any division.
Three of Ronda's last four opponents (McMann, Zingano, and now Correia) were all undefeated going in with unquestioned credentials and had more than earned their title shots.