I will be 26 in a few months and I’m already feeling ancient. You see, “back in my day”, when you participated in a sport you didn’t get to choose your opponents, nor could you back out of a matchup against your friends.

Rashad Evans initially refused to fight his friend Jon Jones, but recently reversed his decision when confronted with Jones’ professionalism.

Now from Strikeforce, welterweight champion Nick Diaz and lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez both say they won’t fight their friends. Why not? Refusing to fight people they like is detrimental to mma being taken seriously by the general public as a legitimate sport. It makes it look like a bunch of neanderthals settling grudges. (Michael Bisping’s recent antics after his last fight didn’t help this perception, but that’s for another day.) How can we convince New York’s legislators that this is a legitimate sport if friends won’t fight friends?

When you play a game of pickup football or 2-on-2 basketball, you think nothing of beating your friends. In fact, that’s all you wanna do! You sit down to play some video games with your besties. Are you gonna tank it because you don’t wanna defeat your friends? You get together for a night of poker with your pals, do you refuse to take their money? Of course not! It’s a game, that’s the object – it’s the whole point!

So how is mma any different from any other sport? It was once reported that Serena Williams was ordered by her father to lose when playing tennis against her sister Venus. That seems to have changed, but I don’t recall either ever refusing to play the other. Can you imagine?

In a hockey game in 1984, Mark Hunter of the Montreal Canadiens attacked Dale Hunter of the Quebec Nordiques because Dale was beating on Mark’s teammate. Both men were enforcers for their respective teams and it was their job to protect their teammates. So they fought. The surname is not a coincidence – Mark and Dale are brothers. They didn’t hate each other. They weren’t angry at each other. They were simply doing the job they were paid to do and the job the fans paid to see. It’s ironic, maybe, that in a game of hockey, two guys can set aside their personal relationships and focus on their job of beating the shit out of each other, while in the game of fighting, two guys can’t touch each other.

So what makes mma fighters so special that they feel they don’t have to do their job and get in the cage with the opponent the fans want to see? You keep saying it’s the greatest job in the world, so do your job and stop treating it as anything more or less than a sport.

Watch UFC 128 at a local bar in Chicago with other cool fans.  It’s quite the experience watching with others.   For more information on where to meet up with other exciting and new UFC fanclub members….Read More!

The Super Fight
Anderson Silva retained his Middleweight Championship at UFC 126, fanning the fires of anticipation over the possibility of a “super fight” between himself and Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre.

UFC president Dana White confirmed that if St-Pierre should successfully defend his belt against challenger Jake Shields on April 30, the UFC would indeed set up a match between the two dominant fighters.

The UFC later confirmed that the super fight will not happen if Shields wins the title. The whole point of the super fight is that it would pit two virtually undefeated champions against each other – two fighters who are interchangeable at the top of most people’s pound for pound rankings. If Shields wins, GSP would drop way down on that list.

Uncle Dana also confirmed that once Georges makes the move to 185, he will stay there. Which begs the question, what of the welterweight belt? Would it immediately be vacated? Imagine for a moment that St-Pierre retains his belt at UFC 129. Sometime in the future, Silva and St-Pierre could fight for the middleweight belt on the same card that two top contenders fought for the vacated welterweight belt. GSP could hand it over.

Or, maybe GSP would keep the belt and possibly be the first UFC fighter to simultaneously hold a belt in two weight divisions, should he beat Silva.

Fat Rampage
At UFC 126, Jon Jones was announced as the next challenger for the Light Heavyweight Championship, due to an injury to scheduled contender Rashad Evans. Current champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua made it known afterwards that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson had first been offered the fight, but turned it down. He intimated that Rampage had used phony excuses to get out of a fight he didn’t really want.

But Rampage has only just begun training for a scheduled fight on May 28 and is still packing around Christmas weight. The championship fight takes place in only six weeks. As Jackson has stated, most of that time would be dedicated to losing the extra weight and not enough time would be put in to actually training for his opponent.

Jones, on the other hand, had just fought Ryan Bader, finishing him in the second round. He was not injured and was obviously in fight shape. In the post-fight press conference, he informed the media that he would actually be taking a few days off before going back and beginning to train for Rua.

While I personally believe that fighters should always be training and ready to fight at a moment’s notice, I know that is not always the case. For Jackon’s part, he does want to fight Shogun, but he wants to get in the cage at as close to 100% as possible. I don’t blame him. Only an idiot enters a title fight unprepared.

“Rashanda” Evans
I like Rashad Evans. I do. But his announcement this week that, if his friend Jon Jones should defeat Mauricio Rua, Evans would either drop to middleweight or go up to heavyweight, to avoid fighting his friend, is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard.

This is a sport. In no other sport does someone decline to compete against a friend. What would happen if Serena Williams refused to challenge her sister Venus in a tennis match? Six Sutter brothers played in the NHL back in the day. At no time did they all play for the same team, which means <gasp!> they had to play each other!

Matthew Barnaby and Rob Ray are like best friends, but they were the enforcers on their respective hockey teams. It was not unusual for them to have dinner together, then face off against each other on the ice, then go out for beers afterwards. The irony there is that, when they fought on the ice, it was because they were pissed off at each other. But this is mma – you don’t have to be mad at your opponent, you just need to defeat him. So why can’t you fight your friend?

By refusing to fight a friend, I believe it actually hurts mma in terms of being considered a sport. Too many people still think of mma as “human cockfighting”. In that context, it’s totally understandable that you wouldn’t want to fight your friend. But as a sport, there is absolutely nothing wrong with beating up your friend, because that is the object of the game. Just like taking all your friend’s money is the object of poker.

Strikeforce Tournament
This Saturday marks the beginning of Strikeforce’s much-ballyhooed heavyweight tournament. When it was first announced, I admit I was not as excited about it as I maybe should have been. I’m not a big fan of heavyweights anyway, but that’s not why. When I looked at the matchups, they just didn’t make sense to me.

For one thing, I didn’t understand why the current champion should have to fight in a tournament. Shouldn’t he fight the winner of any tournament?

But okay, so Alistair Overeem – the current champion – could get knocked out in the first round. Fine. But if he should make it to the second round, he could possibly face the top uncrowned heavyweight in Fedor Emelianenko. In the second round? Shouldn’t that be the fight we look forward to as the finalé?

Okay, so we take these two anomalies and accept them as we do. But, what about the belt? I mean, if Overeem should lose at any point in the tournament, how can he keep his belt? At one point, it came out that every match the champion was involved in would be a five-round title fight, meaning the belt could conceivably change hands as many as three times during the tourney. I like that! That suddenly made the whole thing 100% more interesting to me.

But then the official announcement came that the title would definitely not be on the line during the tournament. The winner of the tournament would fight Overeem at a later date. Which brings us back to, why is Overeem in the tournament? If he wins the whole thing, he can’t fight himself. And whomever he defeated to win the tournament would be the next contender, but he wouldn’t be eligible since he was just defeated by Overeem.

Is Strikeforce banking on Overeem losing one of these fights? The way they banked on Dan Henderson taking the title from Jake Shields?

This tournament showed a lot of promise and I believe the way it has been configured is only hurting Strikeforce. Believe me, I want to see Strikeforce succeed in all that they do, and many of their ideas are great, but too many are poorly executed.

And despite my reservations over those aspects of this tournament, I can’t help but look forward to this weekend, when we will see “The Last Emperor” take on “Bigfoot” (Antonio Silva), as well as the hopeful return of one-time UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski fighting against veteran up & comer Sergey Kharitonov.

Soooooo … Josh Barnett withdrew his licencing appeal from the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) this week. All they want from him is a clean drug test. Hmmm….

Other states are saying they won’t licence him if he doesn’t get licenced in California, which means he cannot fight in the United States.

In order to get around this, the word on the street is that his bout in the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament will be held at an event in Japan.

That’s all fine and good if Strikeforce is counting on him to get defeated, but what do they do if he wins his fight? Schedule another event in Japan?

And doesn’t it strain an organization’s relationship with the state athletic commissions to essentially go behind their back in order to allow this cheater to fight?

How hard is it to submit a clean drug test? I could piss up a clean one right now, with no notice. You know why? I don’t do drugs! But this idiot has been appealing his licence for … a year and a half. How much notice do you need?

He has tested positive for steroids three times – more than any other fighter in mma history. How stupid is this guy? The first time it cost him a UFC championship belt, the second time an entire event was cancelled because of it and the third time he lost his licence. Okay, technically the third time was a re-test, on appeal.

But seriously. Why scream your innocence when you know you’re guilty and that the tests will prove it?

And how did Strikeforce get talked into signing a guy with this sort of history, who doesn’t even have a licence in their home state?

As dominant as he is, it may have been a mistake to have signed him up so hastily, before he got his licence back.

Notice: this is an opinion piece; it should not be regarded as a statement of fact.

Over the past few years, the smaller weight classes in mixed martial arts fighting have been aspiring to be on level ground with the heavier weight classes. For years, these guys have been putting on spectacular fights that many casual fans have not witnessed.

There is a variety of circumstances as to why this is the case.

As with any sport, there has to be depth in talent, a forum to display that talent, and a marketing train that will lead to exposure for the sport. Up until recently, the major promotions in mma have largely ignored the smaller weight classes, mainly due to a shortage of quality talent. But the new year brings with it the good news that we will no longer have to search for “little guy” fights, and the casual fans will now get to see what they have been missing.

Many fighters have become household names over the past ten years or so, and now we have plenty more fighters with the potential to be just as well known. With that in mind, we bring you our picks for the top 35 “little guys” in mma—a pound-for-pound ranking of fighters who routinely weigh in at 145 pounds or less, ranging from featherweight all the way down to strawweight.

~Top 35 Little Guys in MMA~

	cr	Fighter	Promotion	Record	Age	Division
	1	José Aldo (Champion)	UFC	19-1 12KO/2sub	24	Featherweight
	2	Dominick Cruz (Champion)	UFC	17-1 6KO/1sub	25	Bantamweight
	3	Hiroyuki Takaya (Champion)	Dream	15-9-1 11KO	33	Featherweight
	4	Urijah Faber	UFC	25-4 7KO/13sub	31	Bantamweight
	5	Joseph Benavidez	UFC	13-2 3KO/8sub	26	Bantamweight
	6	Manvel Gamburyan	UFC	11-5 2KO/6sub	29	Featherweight
	7	Mark Hominick	UFC	20-9 8KO/7sub	28	Featherweight
	8	Michihiro Omigawa	UFC	12-10-1 4KO/2sub	35	Featherweight
	9	Brian Bowles	UFC	9-1 3KO/6sub	30	Bantamweight
	10	Hatsu Hioki (WVRChampion)	UFC	24-4-2 4KO/12sub	27	Featherweight
	11	Miguel Torres	UFC	39-4 9KO/23sub	29	Bantamweight
	12	Jussier da Silva (Shooto South American Champion)	TPF	9-1 3sub	25	Flyweight
	13	Diego Nunes	UFC	16-2 5KO/6sub	28	Featherweight
	14	Chad Mendes	UFC	10-0 2KO/2sub	25	Featherweight
	15	Zachary Makovsky (Champion)	Bellator	13-2 1KO/5sub		Bantamweight
	16	Bibiano Fernandes	Dream	8-3 3sub	30	Featherweight
	17	Dustin Poirier	UFC	10-1 5KO/3sub	21	Featherweight
	18	Joe Warren (Champion)	Bellator	7-1 2KO	34	Featherweight
	19	Marlon Sandro	Bellator	19-2 7KO/3sub	33	Featherweight
	20	Masakazu Imanari (Champion)	DEEP	23-8-2 1KO/14sub	34	Bantamweight
	21	Norifumi Yamamoto	UFC	18-4-0-1 13KO/2sub	33	Bantamweight
	22	Mike Brown	UFC	24-8 5KO/13sub	35	Featherweight
	23	Erik Koch	UFC	12-1 3KO/7sub	22	Featherweight
	24	Josh Grispi	UFC	14-3 6KO/7sub	22	Featherweight
	25	Cub Swanson	UFC	15-4 7sub	27	Featherweight
	26	Eddie Wineland	UFC	18-7-1 9KO/5sub		Bantamweight
	27	Patricio Freire	Bellator	17-1 6KO/7sub	23	Featherweight
	28	Brad Pickett	UFC	20-5 6KO/9sub	32	Bantamweight
	29	Joe Soto	Bellator	9-1 4KO/4sub	23	Featherweight
	30	Donald Sanchez (Champion*)	KOTC	22-11 9KO/9sub	26	Featherweight
	31	Mamoru Yamaguchi (Champion**)	KOTC	26-5-3 10KO/4sub	33	Flyweight
	32	Renan Barão	UFC	26-1-0-1 6KO/12sub		Bantamweight
	33	Takeya Mizugaki	UFC	14-5-2 4KO/1sub	27	Bantamweight
	34	Yasuhiro Urushitani (Champion)	Shooto	18-4-6 3KO/1sub	34	Bantamweight
	35	Adrian Wooley (Champion)	W-1	7-2 4KO/1sub		Bantamweight

Recognized weight classifications in mixed martial arts:

• Featherweight – 145lbs
• Bantamweight – 135lbs
• Flyweight – 125lbs
• Strawweight – 115lbs

* KOTC names their 145lbs division Bantamweight
** KOTC names their 125lbs division Jr Flyweight

~Honorables~

	cr	Fighter	Promotion	Record	Age	Division
	H	Scott Jorgensen	UFC	12-4 2KO/5sub	28	Bantamweight
	H	Leonard Garcia	UFC	15-7-1 3KO/9sub	31	Featherweight
	H	Alexis Vila	MFA	8-0 5KO/2sub	39	Flyweight
	H	Rambaa Somdet (Champion)	Shooto	8-2 2KO	36	Strawweight
	H	Joachim Hansen	Dream	22-10-1 7KO/7sub	31	Featherweight
	H	John Fraser (Champion)	W-1	8-3 1KO/7sub	33	Featherweight
	H	Koichiro Matsumoto (Champion)	DEEP	12-2 6KO	25	Featherweight
	H	Michael McDonald	UFC	13-1 7KO/4sub		Bantamweight

PR=Previous Ranking
CR=Current Ranking
H=Honorable
KO=Knockouts
Sub=Submissions

Thursday, December 16^th, 2010, from Glendale, Arizona (9pm ET) marks the closing of the WEC (World Extreme Cagefighting), as the organization prepares to merge into the UFC. The WEC has primarily focused on the “little guys’” weight divisions, such as the bantamweight (135) and featherweight (145). There is also their lightweight (155) division, which many viewed as the farm league for the UFC’s lightweight division. The WEC is a smaller organization, owned by Zuffa, which also owns the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship).

WEC 53 will be its last show and there’s no shortage of Chicagoland fighters participating on this card’s lineup. Coincidentally, the state of Arizona is the favored mild climate destination for Illinois residents. Arizona has the highest concentration of Illinois natives (4.7%) out of the mild climate states in the top 10, ahead of California, Florida and Texas. It seems you can’t go a day walking around parts of Mesa, Phoenix, and Glendale without meeting a Chicago or Illinois native.

“Chicagoland” is a term liberally applied to the Metropolitan Chicago area, that naturally includes a large chunk of Illinois, but also parts of Indiana and Wisconsin. MMAviewers.com is always proud to support local Chicagoland fighters. In the spirit of neighborhood solidarity, we present these profiles on some established, and some up-and-coming, fighters.

Bart Palaszewski

—Fighting out of Team Curran in Crystal Lake, IL, “Bartimus” is a veteran of 48 fights. At just 27, he has amassed a ton of experience inside the cage. He has won his last four fights, and six of his last eight. The Polish-born fighter is very aggressive, having finished 27 opponents (16 KOs/11 subs) out of his 35 victories. Bart is in a resurgent mode as he’s rededicated himself to his mixed martial arts training. He has been spectacular in his last four fights, including a win over #1 WEC lightweight contender Anthony Pettis. Before the merge happened, with a victory, Bart would have challenged for the WEC lightweight belt.  His opponent Thursday is undefeated British-Iranian fighter, Kamal Shalorus(6-0; 4 KOs). Kamal is a decorated international wrestler/grappler. He didn’t start mma training until 2006, when he moved to the USA. He brings a lot of knockout power along with his wrestling. The winner of this fight will be among the top contenders in the now-crowded UFC lightweight division.

Ricardo Lamas

—Ricardo stated on his Facebook that he would miss his high school reunion due to his preparations for fighting at WEC 53. The native of Chicago, fighting out of Elmhurst, IL, he is a two-time community college conference wrestling champion. He pits his 9-1 record against a WEC newcomer, Brazilian Yuri Alcantara (20-3; 8 KOs, 11 subs). Not much is known of Yuri, but Ricardo hopes to continue his strides up the lightweight division, a journey that began with a win over Bart Palaszewski at WEC 39, in March of 2008. Ricardo likes to control the fight from start to finish. He’s comfortable enough on his feet, and can rely on his wrestling background. He has won most of the rounds that he’s fought. Lamas is right there knocking on the door for title contender considerations. With the merge, it is unknown how the fights will be aligned with the mixing of the two lightweight divisions, but with a win on Thursday, Ricardo is sure to be in that mix.

Eddie Wineland

—A full-time firefighter, Wineland was the first WEC Bantamweight champion back at WEC 20 in May, 2006. He lost the title to Chicago native Chase Beebe at WEC 26 about a year later. The Northwest Indiana resident is eager to insert his name back into the mix in the 135lb division. Wineland (17-6; 8 KOs, 5 subs) was fighting for the WEC before Zuffa bought the organization. And with a win this Thursday against newcomer Ken Stone (9-0; 4 KOs, 5 subs), Wineland(26) will move himself closer to a return to title contention. All but one of Stone’s victories have come in the first round, so Wineland will be well-advised to push him to later rounds – or finish him quick.

Anthony Pettis

—The Milwaukee product has raised his stock in the WEC lightweight division. Roughly just over an hour north of Chicago, Pettis is putting mma on the map in Wisconsin. He has a huge following through the Milwaukee region. He has been nicknamed “Showtime” because of his flashy style of fighting, which includes a muay thai background. Three impressive wins a row have led Showtime to this title shot against current lightweight champion Ben Henderson. The winner of the Pettis/Henderson fight will face the winner of the UFC’s lightweight title fight between champion Frankie Edgar and challenger Gray Maynard (January 1, 2011) in a unification match, to be announced later. He takes on the champ Ben Henderson(12-1; 8 subs), who fights out of Glendale, Arizona.

Danny Downes

—This relative newcomer to the WEC lost his debut fight six months ago to Chris Horodecki; Downes took the fight on only a few days notice. Downes (6-1; 5 KOs) is a native of Chicago, and fights out of Milwaukee. He trains at the same gym (Roufusport) as Pettis. Downes is also a graduate of Marquette University. With a focus in muay thai, he hopes to show its effectiveness against his opponent, who has a sanshou (kickboxing) background. He faces the undefeated up-and-coming Chinese import Zhang Tie Quan (12-0; 3KOs, 9 subs), who has finished all of his fights in the first round.

WEC 53
Official fight card

Main card (Versus and The Score – 9PM ET)

• Lightweight Championship bout: (#2) Ben Henderson (c) vs. (#10) Anthony Pettis
• Bantamweight Championship bout: (#3) Dominick Cruz (c) vs. (#16) Scott Jorgensen
• Lightweight bout: (#12) Donald Cerrone vs. Chris Horodecki
• Lightweight bout: (#13) Bart Palaszewski vs. (#11) Kamal Shalorus

Preliminary card(unaired live)

• Lightweight bout: Zhang Tie Quan vs. Danny Downes
• Lightweight bout: (#18) Jamie Varner vs. (#19) Shane Roller
• Bantamweight bout: (H) Brad Pickett vs. Ivan Menjivar
• Bantamweight bout: (H) Eddie Wineland vs. Ken Stone
• Lightweight bout: Danny Castillo vs. Will Kerr
• Lightweight bout: (#14) Ricardo Lamas vs. Yuri Alcantara
• Bantamweight bout: Renan Barão vs. Chris Cariaso

MMAviewers.com Top 20 WEC Little Guy Rankings

This is a list of the top bantamweight, featherweight and lightweight fighters of the WEC (World Extreme Cagefighting). These guys may be small in stature, but they have warrior attitudes that are as big as the big guys—if not bigger!

The WEC has the most elite “little guy” fighters in the world. It’s unfortunate that these guys don’t receive the compensation and recognition as the bigger guys, especially those in the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship). The WEC is a smaller organization, owned by Zuffa, which also owns the UFC.

Over the years, the WEC has dissolved it’s higher weight divisions, watching its fighters go to the UFC. The WEC ended up being the exclusive home for elite bantamweight and featherweight fighters, though their lightweight division was often looked at as a sort of farm league for the UFC.

With the recent absorption of the WEC into the UFC, this will be the final WEC rankings leading up to the final WEC event, WEC 53, to be held Thursday December 16, 2010. Look for our new “little guy” rankings in the new year.

~Top 20 WEC Little Guys Ranking~
~Bantamweight/Featherweight/Lightweight~
~Fighters~
[post-WEC 53]

pr	cr	Fighter	Record	Weight	Height	Age	Next Opponent	Next Fight
1	1	Jose Aldo (Featherweight Champion)	18-1 12 KOs	145	5’7”	24
2	2	Ben Henderson (Lightweight Champion)	12-1 8 subs	155	5’9”	27	Anthony Pettis	12/16/10
3	3	Dominick Cruz (Bantamweight Champion)	16-1 6 KOs	135	5’8”	25	Scott Jorgenson	12/16/10
4	4	Joseph Benavidez	13-2 3 KOS; 8 subs	135	5’4”
5	5	Miguel Torres	38-3 9 KOs 23 subs	135	5’9”	29	Antonio Banuelos	02/05/11
6	6	Brian Bowles	8-1 3 KOs 5 subs	135	5’7”	30
8	7	Josh Grispi	14-1 6 KOs 7 subs	145	5’11”	22	Dustin Poirier	01/01/11
9	8	Mike Brown	24-6 5 KOs 13 subs	145	5’6”	34	Diego Nunes	01/01/11
10	9	Urijah Faber	24-4 7 KOs 13 subs	135/145	5’6”	31
11	10	Anthony Pettis	11-1 4 KOs 6subs	155	5’9”	23	Ben Henderson	12/16/10
12	11	Kamal Shalorus	6-0-2 4 KOs	155	5’8”	32	Bart Palaszewski	12/16/10
H	12	Donald Cerrone	12-3 10 subs	155	6’0″	27	Chris Horodecki	12/16/10
14	13	Bart Palaszewski	35-13 16 KOs 11 subs	155	5’9”	27	Kamal Shalorus	12/16/10
15	14	Ricardo Lamas	9-1 2 KOs 2 subs	155	5’8”	28	Yuri Alcantara	12/16/10
17	15	Diego Nunes	15-1 5 KOs 6 subs	145	5’9”	28	Mike Brown	01/01/11
18	16	Scott Jorgensen	11-3 4 subs	135	5’5”	28	Dominick Cruz	12/16/10
7	17	Manvel Gamburyan	11-5 6 subs	145	5’5”	29
13	18	Jamie Varner	16-4 5 KOs 9 subs	155	5’8”	26	Shane Roller	12/16/10
19	19	Shane Roller	8-3 5 subs	155	5’10″	31	Jamie Varner	12/16/10
-	20	Eric Koch	11-1 2 KOs 7 subs	145	5’10″	22

Lightweight Champion
Featherweight Champion
Bantamweight Champion

~Honorables~

pr	cr	Fighter	Record	Weight	Height	Age	Next Opponent	Next Fight
-	H	Takeya Mizugaki	13-5-2 4 KOs	135	5’7″	26
-	H	Eddie Wineland	17-6-1 8 KOs 5 subs	135	5’8″		Ken Stone	12/16/10
-	20	Brad Pickett	19-5 6 subs 9 KOs	135	5’6”	32	Ivan Menjivar	12/16/10
19	H	Jung Chan Sung	10-3	143	5’9”	23
11	16	LC Davis	16-4 5 KOs 6 subs	145	5’8”	30
-	H	Chad Mendes	9-0 2 KOs	145	5’6″	25	Michihiro Omigawa	TBD
-	H	Leonard Garcia	15-6 3 KOs 9 subs	145	5’9″	31
-	H	Cub Swanson	15-4 7 subs	145	5’7″	27

PR=Previous Ranking
CR=Current Ranking
H=Honorable

---

Dana White called Georges St-Pierre the most famous athlete to ever come out of Canada. The Canadian media had a fit, calling out “Gretzky, Gretzky”. But Dana White pointed out that GSP can go anywhere in the world and be recognized, because mma is a globally enjoyed sport. Hockey, on the other hand….

White makes the example of going to the Philippines and seeing St-Pierre mobbed. That wouldn’t happen to Wayne Gretzky in the Philippines. The media point out that Gretzky can’t go anywhere in Canada without being recognized, while St-Pierre could go most places – especially when there is no UFC event coming up – without being recognized. Certainly that would be the case. And White can’t understand why Canadians don’t embrace GSP as our new sports hero.

As big as mma is in Canada, it really isn’t that big. Canada may be the second biggest market for mma outside of the USA, but most people you talk to still give you a blank look when you mention mma. “You know,” you explain, “UFC.” Oh, that. Sure, Canadians are aware of the sport, but most only know it because of the bad media coverage of it. You know, the news journalists who think they are cracking a big story when they report on the barbarism of mma. They conveniently forget to point out that their information is over ten years old. That wouldn’t make as sensational a story.

But I digress! Wayne Gretzky will likely always be the top Canadian athlete of all time to most Canadians. There is no questioning that. But drop him in Sydney, Australia or Abu Dhabi and see if anyone knows who he is. Dana White had a point. MMA is a global sport. You can go to almost any country in the world and find more people who know the current champions of the UFC than know NHL hockey players who have been retired and out of the public eye for over ten years.

Some more open-minded media have pointed out that the most famous Canadian athlete is most likely Ben Johnson. This was probably true 20 years ago, when he was famously stripped of his Olympic medals and world records for doping, but these days I think you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who knows who he is. (I had to google him.)

35 million Canadians know who Wayne Gretzky is. Presumedly most American hockey fans know who he is. A handful of countries in Europe probably know him. How many people in England know him? I would guess more Britons know Dan Hardy than Gretzky. And if they know Hardy, then they know GSP! Who wants to pretend that Kenyans know who Gretzky is?

Dana White likes to make outrageous statements and controversial claims. But in this case, I think he just may be justified.

Addendum: Georges St-Pierre was named the Canadian Athlete of the Year for the third year in a row in 2010, beating out Olympic hockey hero Sidney Crosby.

Every time a non-American fighter is fighting an American in the United States, we hear the chants of “USA! USA!” At UFC 124 in Montréal, Canada, there are seven – count ‘em, seven! – Canadians on the card. You can very well expect to hear the partisan crowd chanting “Canada! Canada!”

Canadians are a humble and soft-spoken bunch, as a matter of course. But put a group of us together in a room with a fellow Canuck to cheer on and we become suddenly patriotic. We showed this during the Olympics. And now we are ready to show the world once more, via UFC 124.

Canadians are going to support the UFC and mma regardless of who is on the card. Just look at UFC 115! While it’s not necessary for the UFC to add Canadian fighters to every event held in Canada, it is a nice gesture, and it recognizes the talent coming out of Canada.

At UFC 124, only one Canadian made the main card but, as Dana White will tell you, he is the most famous Canadian athlete ever. His name is Georges St-Pierre and he goes by the nickname “Rush”, but many know him simply by his monogram, GSP. He is arguably the pound-for-pound best mma fighter in the world. And he is headlining this event, defending his Welterweight Championship for the fifth time, this time against Josh Koscheck.

“Kos” has been talking a lot of trash about GSP in the lead up to this fight, including some humorous confrontations during the filming of the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter, in which they coached opposing teams. But St-Pierre just lets his opponents talk a big game and then makes them eat their words in the octagon. He doesn’t return the trash talk.

Although St-Pierre is a mild mannered, quiet, respectful person, the reason he doesn’t return the trash talk is most likely because his mother tongue is French. Getting into a war of words in a language one doesn’t fully comprehend is foolish. It would be like getting into the cage with a wrestler and not knowing how to defend against it – which is something Koscheck did three years ago when he lost a unanimous decision to St-Pierre in a bout to determine who would fight for the Interim Welterweight Championship.

There is no question Kos learned his lesson then and he will be ready for GSP’s ground game, to the extent that most are expecting a standup battle. If I hadn’t seen the determination and dedication in St-Pierre’s eyes, I might actually believe Koscheck could beat him. But St-Pierre is a student of mma, always learning. He is very technical and that means he has studied every move Koscheck could possibly make and he has the tools to defend or attack. Georges himself compared it to golf. In golf, you do everything you can do to be prepared and then you take your swing. Once the ball is in the air, there is nothing more you can do. St-Pierre has done all the training and now, there is nothing more he can do. The fight will proceed and he has either prepared properly … or he will lose.

The rest of the Canadians are on the undercard. Two of the fights will be shown live and free on UFC.com but the rest will be for the exclusive viewing pleasure of the paying audience – which itself will set a record for the highest attendance (expected to be broken again in April with an event held at the football stadium in Toronto).

John Makdessi will make his UFC debut against Pat Audinwood and Jesse Bongfeldt will make his UFC debut filling in for fellow Canadian Jason MacDonald, who suffered an injury during training. He will face Rafael Natal.

Also stepping up as an injury replacement is UFC first-timer Sean Pierson, who destroyed Ricky Goodall in the first round at a W-1 event in October. TJ Grant is 3-2 in the UFC and looking to improve that record on home soil against Brazilian Ricardo Almeida.

Joe Doerksen and Mark Bocek have their work cut out for them in their internet-streamed preliminary bouts, against Dan Miller and Dustin Hazelett, respectively.

Any one of these fights has the potential to make the winner a household name. For Canadians, we hope to be talking about all of our fellow countrymen in a favourable light for years to come.

Main Card

Pay-Per-View

• Georges St-Pierre (c) vs Josh Koscheck for the Welterweight Championship
• Stefan Struve vs Sean McCorkle
• Jim Miller vs Charles Oliveira
• Joe Stevenson vs Mac Danzig
• Thiago Alves vs John Howard

Preliminary Card

Live streaming on UFC.com

• Mark Bocek vs Dustin Hazelett
• Joe Doerksen vs Dan Miller

Non-televised

• Jesse Bongfeldt vs Rafael Natal
• Matt Riddle vs Sean Pierson
• TJ Grant vs Ricardo Almeida
• Pat Audinwood vs John Makdessi

~Top 40 MMA Pound 4 Pound Fighters~

pr	cr	Fighter	Promotion	Class
5	1	Georges St-Pierre (champion)	UFC	Welterweight
1	2	Anderson Silva (champion)	UFC	Middleweight
2	3	Jose Aldo (champion)	WEC	Featherweight
7	4	Mauricio Rua (champion)	UFC	Light Heavyweight
9	5	Frankie Edgar (champion)	UFC	Lightweight
3	6	Fedor Emelianenko	STRIKEFORCE/M-1	Heavyweight
6	7	Dominick Cruz (champion)	WEC	Bantamweight
8	8	Alistair Overeem (champion)	STRIKEFORCE	Heavyweight
21	9	Cain Velasquez (champion)	UFC	Heavyweight
10	10	Rashad Evans	UFC	Light Heavyweight
4	11	Brock Lesnar	UFC	Heavyweight
17	12	Quinton Jackson	UFC	Light Heavyweight
12	13	B.J. Penn	UFC	Lightweight
19	14	Junior Dos Santos	UFC	Heavyweight
15	15	Gilbert Melendez (champion)	STRIKEFORCE	Lightweight
11	16	Fabricio Werdum	STRIKEFORCE	Heavyweight
14	17	Eddie Alvarez (champion)	BELLATOR	Lightweight
13	18	Benson Henderson	WEC	Lightweight
-	19	Gray Maynard	UFC	Lightweight
16	20	Jake Shields	UFC	Welterweight
11	21	Lyoto Machida	UFC	Light Heavyweight
18	22	Jon Jones	UFC	Light Heavyweight
22	23	Vitor Belfort	UFC	Middleweight
24	24	Chael Sonnen	UFC	Middleweight
25	25	Nick Diaz (champion)	STRIKEFORCE	Welterweight
26	26	Josh Barnett	DREAM	Heavyweight
20	27	Shane Carwin	UFC	Heavyweight
29	28	Jon Fitch	UFC	Welterweight
27	29	Joseph Benavidez	WEC	Bantamweight
-	30	Carlos Condit	UFC	Welterweight
28	31	Miguel Torres	WEC	Bantamweight
31	32	Mike Brown	WEC	Featherweight
32	33	Josh Grispi	WEC	Featherweight
33	34	Frank Mir	UFC	Heavyweight
34	35	Shinya Aoki (champion)	DREAM	Lightweight
23	36	Hector Lombard (champion)	BELLATOR	Middleweight
35	37	Cung Le	STRIKEFORCE	Middleweight
H	38	Thiago Alves	UFC	Welterweight
-	39	Jussier da Silva	TPF	Flyweight
-	40	Yushin Okami	UFC	Middleweight

~Honorables~

pr	cr	Fighter	Promotion	Class
H	H	Cristiane Santos (champion)	STRIKEFORCE	Women’s 145lbs
-	H	Rafael Cavalcante (champion)	STRIKEFORCE	Light Heavyweight
H	H	Urijah Faber	WEC	Bantamweight
H	H	A. Rodrigo Nogueira	UFC	Heavyweight
-	H	Paul Daley	Strikeforce	Welterweight
36	H	Josh Koscheck	UFC	Welterweight
39	H	Roy Nelson	UFC	Heavyweight
30	H	Dan Hardy	UFC	Welterweight
H	H	Gegard Mousasi	STRIKEFORCE	Light Heavyweight
37	H	Thiago Silva	UFC	Light Heavyweight
H	H	A. Rogerio Noguiera	UFC	Light Heavyweight
38	H	Brian Bowles	WEC	Bantamweight
-	H	Hatsu Hioki (champion)	World Victory Road	Featherweight
-	H	Sean Sherk	UFC	Lightweight
-	H	Marloes Coenen (champion)	STRIKEFORCE	Women’s 135lbs

PR=Previous Ranking
CR=Current Ranking
H=Honorable

Fight Videos | Upcoming Fights | Fight Results

Within the past two or three years, the heavyweight division in mixed martial arts (mma) has had a rebirth of a sort. During the quiet years of mixed martial arts, it appeared that it wasn’t as many talented fighters in comparison to today’s numbers.  And with that, the talent pool was hit and miss, especially in the big boy division. There simply wasn’t any true heavyweight that was able to garner the attention of the casual fan, which is the fanbase that has recently fueled the rebirth of mma. And as we’ve seen with boxing, if there’s not one or two dominating and well-known heavyweights, the entire sport seems to border on the realm of obscurity to the general masses.

This is a comprehensive list of up and coming heavyweights from around the world. Also within this list are those heavyweight mixed martial arts fighters who may not be well known to the casual mma fan. So, fighters who have fight experience as well as being relatively known amongst the American fanbase such as a Fabricio Werdum, Roy Nelson, & Ben Rothwell … to name a few, aren’t included in this list.

~MMA’s Top 25~
~Unknown and Up & Coming~
Heavyweights

pr	cr	Fighter	Record	1st Rd Stops	Ht	Wt	Age	Discipline	Origins
2	1	Shane Del Rosario (Strikeforce)	11-0 8 KOs 3 subs	10	6’4″	240	25	Muay Thai	California
3	2	Antonio Silva (Strikeforce)	16-2 11 KOs 3 subs	11	6’4″	265	29	Muay Thai, Karate, BJJ	Brazilian
4	3	Mike Russow (UFC)	14-1-1 4 KOs 8 subs	9	6’2″	265	32	Wrestling, Jiu-Jitsu, Boxing	Chicago
8	4	Brendan Schaub (UFC)	8-1 7 KOs	6	6’5″	240	27	Boxing, BJJ	Colorado
1	5	Sergey Kharitonov (Strikeforce)	18-4 9 KOs 8 subs	17	6’4″	250	30	Sambo, Boxing, Muay Thai	Russia
19	6	Cole Konrad (Bellator)	7-0 1 KO 2 sub	2	6’5″	266	26	Wrestling	Minnesota
9	7	Daniel Cormier (Strikeforce)	8-0 3 KOs 3 subs	4	5’11″	248	31	Freestyle/ Collegiate Wrestling	Louisiana
10	8	Stefan Struve (UFC)	20-4 4 KOs 14 subs	13	6’11″	245	22	Kickboxing, Jiu-Jitsu	Netherlands
6	9	Brett Rogers	11-3 10 KOs		6’4″	265	29	Boxing, Muay Thai, Wrestling	Minnesota/ Chicago
12	10	Lavar Johnson (Strikeforce)	15-4 13 KOs 2 subs	12	6’3″	242	32	Boxing	California
11	11	Dave Herman (UFC)	21-2 15 KOs 5 subs	15	6’5″	241	26	Boxing, Wrestling	Indiana
7	12	Aleksander Emelianenko	17-4 11 KOs 4 subs	14	6’3″	255	29	Boxing, Sambo, Judo	Russia
5	13	Damian Grabowski (Bellator)	13-1 5 KOs 7 subs	10	6’1″	230	30	BJJ, Submission Wrestling	Poland
14	14	Bobby Lashley (Strikeforce)	6-1 3 KOs 1 sub	4	6’3″	252	33	Collegiate Wrestling	Kansas
15	15	Muhammed Lawal (Strikeforce)	7-1 5 KOs 2 subs	4	5’11″	218	27	Wrestling	Tennessee
16	16	Patrick Barry (UFC)	6-3 7 KOs	4	5’11″	248	31	Sanshou, Muay Thai	Louisiana
H	17	Jon Madsen (UFC)	7-1 4 KOs	2	6’0″	252	30	Wrestling	South Dakota
17	18	Hae Joon Yang (Bellator)	5-1 5 KOs	5	5’11″	230	22	Wrestling, Boxing, Muay Thai	South Korea
13	19	Todd Duffee	6-2 6 KOs	5	6’3″	253	25	Freestyle	Indiana
18	20	Travis Browne (UFC)	11-0-1 8 KOs 1 sub	7	6’7″	251		Boxing	California
20	21	Chad Corvin	6-0 4 KOs 2 subs	6	6’5″	253	23	Jiu-Jitsu, Wrestling	Kentucky
-	22	Sean McCorkle	11-2 4 KOs 6 subs	8	6’7″	265	34	Kickboxing, Wrestling	Indiana
22	23	Dan Christison	18-7 5 KOs 11 subs	8	6’8″	270	38	Submission Wrestling	California
23	24	Stav Economou	11-1-1 7 KOs 1 sub	8	6’1″	250	24	Vale Tudo	Cyprus
24	25	Chris Tuchscherer	21-4-0-1 9 KOs 7 subs	14	6’1″	258	34	Boxing, Wrestling	North Dakota

~Honorables~

pr	cr	Fighter	Record	1st Rd Stops	Ht	Wt	Age	Discipline	Origins
21	H	Brandon Cash (Strikeforce)	5-3 3 KOs 1 sub	3	6’5″	256	29	Boxing	California
25	H	Michał Kita (Bellator)	10-6 6 KOs 4 subs	10	5’10″	240		Wrestling, Sub. Wrestling, Kickboxing	Poland
H	H	Rogent Lloret  (Bellator)	10-2-1-1 1 KO 6 subs	10	6’3″	235		BJJ	Spain
H	H	Kimbo Slice	4-2 2 KOs 1 sub	2	6’1″	225	36	Boxing, Streetfighting	Bahamas, Miami
H	H	Blagoi Ivanov	4-0-0-1 2 KOs	1	5’11″	240	23	Sambo, Judo	Bulgaria
H	H	Mariusz Pudzianowski	3-2 2 subs	2	6’1″	315	33	Kyokushin Karate, Boxing	Poland
H	H	Daniel Puder	8-0 2 KOs 3 subs		6’3″	255	28	Amateur wrestling, BJJ, Kickboxing, Muay Thai	California
H	H	Tony Johnson Jr (Bellator)	6-1 2 KOs	1	6’1″	265		Freestyle Wrestling	Ohio
-	H	Rob Broughton (UFC)	15-5-1 6 KOs 5 subs	6	6’2″	265	27	Freestyle Wrestling, Submission Grappling	England
-	H	Satoshi Ishii	4-1 2 subs	2	5’11″	240	24	Judo, BJJ, Wrestling, Muay Thai, Shotokan Karate	Japan

~~~~~~~~

~Video Links~

Antonio Silva vs Mike Kyle
Shane Del Rosario vs.  Brandon Cash
Dave “PeeWee” Herman vs.  Jim York
World’s Strongest Man–Mariusz Pudzianowski in his mma debut
Hae Joon Yang vs.  Joaquim Ferreira
Tim Sylvia  vs.  Mariusz Pudzianowski….Article & Video
Damian Grabowski vs.  Michal Kita
Sergei Kharitonov vs.  Mike Russow

Upcoming Fights | Fight Results

~~~~~~~~~~~~

There are a few fighters that can be held responsible for pumping life back into the heavyweight division as of recent years. Arguably one of the best heavyweights ever, Fedor Emelianenko(31-1) of Russia, has been near the top of this list for a few years now, even with the air of unfamiliarity that accompanies him.  His mystique comes from fighting primarily outside of the US in Japan and other international locations. Whether you like Fedor or not, you want to tune in to see what the hype is all about.

Randy Couture (47), in 2007 reinvigorated the UFC and the heavyweight division when he defeated champ Tim Sylvia to regain the title he once had 7 years prior. He was 44 years of age at the time. Couture is a 4 time UFC heavyweight champion. Couture is arguably the most revered American mma fighter amongst the loyal mma fanbase. And this is in part due to his lunch bucket mentality as well as his longevity.

No longer can the talents in the heavyweight division be overlooked. One of the most top tier grappling talents is Frank Mir. Mir, a former UFC champion is 1-1 against Brock Lesnar, and is looking for a rubber match. Lesnar knocked out Mir in their last bout. And in Lesnar’s very brief mma career, he has brought in an array of viewers from his days as an entertainment wrestler. There’s no denying the fan appeal that Lesnar has added to the mma world!  Lesnar recently lost his hw belt to Cain Velasquez, who now has ushered in an influx of casual Mexican fans, much of which was helped by the advertisement ran by the UFC for this fight.

This list entails a variant of talents and skill sets.  There’s the guy who last beat Fedor, Blagoi Ivanov, which was in a Sambo fighting style event….to win Gold from the 4-time champion of this event.  Ivanov has since fallen out of the rankings due to inactivity.  Fabricio Werdum of Brazil recently scored a huge upset Fedor via a triangle choke.   Werdum probably has the best bjj skills amongst all the bigs in mma.   And you have Marius Pudzianowski, The Polish Muscle, who’s known as the Strongest Man In The World.  That alone is scary, however,  he has some mma skills; he’s quick, ultra aggressive, and athletic, and is trained in Kyokushin kaikan karate, and, he was an amateur boxer.  Lavar Johnson, a guy with pure one punch knockout power, was shot 3 times in mid 2009 at a family reunion in which one other relative was killed.  He won his return fight in knockout fashion back in March, 2010, as has since moved up to Strikeforce’s main card after winning his last 7 fights, all by knockout…..all but one in the 1st round.

Two years ago, some parts of the UK faithful were already calling Karlos Vemola a legend, with just 6 fights under his belt.  This guys’ stitch is to walk into the cage and walk right up to his opponent and snarl nose to nose, then turns  his back in pure disregard for his opponent…all before the fight begins.  Vemola(8-1), recented signed with the UFC and has gone 1-1.  His last fight was at light-heavyweight, and weight class that will better suit Vemola.  Vemola was once ranked #1 on this list, buut now fights full-time in the 205pound(lhw) weight division.

And is the Filipino-American Shane Del Rosario the best American Heavyweight prospect to date? Time will tell.  “King Mo” Lawal was impressive in his first few fights as a heavyweight.  But his focus has been on the lhw division; he continues to be on this list in hopes that he’ll return to this weight class which seems to fit his skills better.  The quickest knockout in UFC history belongs to Todd Duffee, another young muscle bound fighter.  And lastly, Kimbo Slice makes this impressive international list, simply from the standpoint of pure grit and knockout power.

(Mariusz P. photo from polonista, a poster on  the forums at mixedmartialarts.com)

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