who does evryone think is top 10 in mma...here's mine...
1. Georges St. Pierre (1): My early prediction is that St. Pierre vs. Shields will result in three more 50-45 scorecards. Some fans might find that boring, but I couldn't be more excited about it.
2. Jose Aldo (2): It's a shame that Aldo's back injury will keep him off the UFC's January 1 card. The biggest thing that separates Aldo from the other two top fighters in the sport. St. Pierre and Silva, is that Aldo just hasn't gotten the exposure yet. That exposure is coming soon, but not as soon as we all hoped.
3. Anderson Silva (3): If he gets past Vitor Belfort in February we'll hear more calls for Silva to face St. Pierre. That would be great, but the UFC seems more interested in keeping the middleweight challenges coming for Silva, including likely rematches with Yushin Okami and Chael Sonnen.
4. Shogun Rua (4): After another long recovery from another knee injury, Rua is getting ready to return in March. I hope we see the Shogun of old, but when you're dealing with a 29-year-old who has already lost significant chunks of his career to multiple knee injuries, you start to wonder how soon he's going to slow down.
5. Dominick Cruz (6): His fighting style is different from St. Pierre's, but Cruz reminded me of GSP in his 50-45, 50-45, 50-45 win over Scott Jorgensen. I don't think he'll have such an easy time with Urijah Faber in the first UFC bantamweight title fight, though.
6. Frank Edgar (5): The 13-1 Edgar gets a chance to avenge his only career loss when he steps into the Octagon with Gray Maynard on January 1. If Edgar wins, it will be the start of a big year that will also include a title defense against Anthony Pettis. If Edgar loses, however, I'd love to see him move down to featherweight with an eye toward challenging Aldo.
7. Cain Velasquez (8): The heavyweight champ showed against Brock Lesnar that he has the skill and technique to beat a much larger man. Next he'll have to show against Junior dos Santos that he can handle an opponent who's his own size but may have a better stand-up arsenal.
8. Joseph Benavidez (10): Why Benavidez? Because he's the sport's only elite fighter who's forced to fight in a division above his natural weight. Benavidez should really be fighting at 125 pounds, but until the UFC adds flyweights he's stuck at 135 -- and doing very well there. He's 13-2 in his MMA career, dominating every one of his 13 wins while fighting almost exclusively bigger opponents. His only losses are to Cruz.
9. Lyoto Machida (7): Machida holds onto his spot in the Top 10 after a split decision loss to Rampage Jackson in a fight that I scored for Machida. After three straight lackluster performances, he'll need to look like the Machida of old in his next fight to stay in the Top 10.
10. Rashad Evans (9): Evans finally has a date for his next fight, March 19 against Shogun Rua. Standing up Evans is no match for Shogun, but if Evans has a smart game plan, I could see him using his superior wrestling to re-take the light heavyweight title
1. Georges St. Pierre (1): My early prediction is that St. Pierre vs. Shields will result in three more 50-45 scorecards. Some fans might find that boring, but I couldn't be more excited about it.
2. Jose Aldo (2): It's a shame that Aldo's back injury will keep him off the UFC's January 1 card. The biggest thing that separates Aldo from the other two top fighters in the sport. St. Pierre and Silva, is that Aldo just hasn't gotten the exposure yet. That exposure is coming soon, but not as soon as we all hoped.
3. Anderson Silva (3): If he gets past Vitor Belfort in February we'll hear more calls for Silva to face St. Pierre. That would be great, but the UFC seems more interested in keeping the middleweight challenges coming for Silva, including likely rematches with Yushin Okami and Chael Sonnen.
4. Shogun Rua (4): After another long recovery from another knee injury, Rua is getting ready to return in March. I hope we see the Shogun of old, but when you're dealing with a 29-year-old who has already lost significant chunks of his career to multiple knee injuries, you start to wonder how soon he's going to slow down.
5. Dominick Cruz (6): His fighting style is different from St. Pierre's, but Cruz reminded me of GSP in his 50-45, 50-45, 50-45 win over Scott Jorgensen. I don't think he'll have such an easy time with Urijah Faber in the first UFC bantamweight title fight, though.
6. Frank Edgar (5): The 13-1 Edgar gets a chance to avenge his only career loss when he steps into the Octagon with Gray Maynard on January 1. If Edgar wins, it will be the start of a big year that will also include a title defense against Anthony Pettis. If Edgar loses, however, I'd love to see him move down to featherweight with an eye toward challenging Aldo.
7. Cain Velasquez (8): The heavyweight champ showed against Brock Lesnar that he has the skill and technique to beat a much larger man. Next he'll have to show against Junior dos Santos that he can handle an opponent who's his own size but may have a better stand-up arsenal.
8. Joseph Benavidez (10): Why Benavidez? Because he's the sport's only elite fighter who's forced to fight in a division above his natural weight. Benavidez should really be fighting at 125 pounds, but until the UFC adds flyweights he's stuck at 135 -- and doing very well there. He's 13-2 in his MMA career, dominating every one of his 13 wins while fighting almost exclusively bigger opponents. His only losses are to Cruz.
9. Lyoto Machida (7): Machida holds onto his spot in the Top 10 after a split decision loss to Rampage Jackson in a fight that I scored for Machida. After three straight lackluster performances, he'll need to look like the Machida of old in his next fight to stay in the Top 10.
10. Rashad Evans (9): Evans finally has a date for his next fight, March 19 against Shogun Rua. Standing up Evans is no match for Shogun, but if Evans has a smart game plan, I could see him using his superior wrestling to re-take the light heavyweight title
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Originally Posted by bobby rivers
