Heavyweight 6-16-09

Rank

Fighter

Comments

1.

Fedor Emelianenko

 

2.

Josh Barnett

His inability to finish Gilbert Yvel from the mount at Affliction: Day of Reckoning didn't inspire much confidence. But maybe his size and highly technical wrestling will cause problems for The Last Emperor when they meet on August 1st. Or maybe he'll get iced standing like everyone else Fedor has faced lately...

3.

Frank Mir

It's crazy to think that two years ago, Mir was being completely written off. Now he's one win away from being the UFC's undisputed heavyweight champion again, following stoppage wins over Antoni Hardonk, Brock Lesnar, and Antonio Rodrigo Minotauro Motherfucking Nogueira. Mir's title unification rematch with Lesnar goes down July 11th at UFC 100. Could he be on the verge of the greatest career comeback in MMA history?

4.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

 

5.

Brock Lesnar

 

6.

Alistair Overeem

 

7.

Randy Couture

 

8.

Shane Carwin

Yes, Shane Carwin is officially "the real deal." His UFC 96 fight against Gabriel Gonzaga proved three things. 1) He responds well to pressure. 2) Even his short punches have lethal power. 3) His incredible ability to finish fights within the first two minutes doesn't just apply to overfed cans. Bring on the best in the league, because Carwin's now one of them.

9.

Jeff Monson

With Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia dropping off the top ten due to their recent humiliating beatings, the hard-working Snowman sneaks into the Power Rankings for his low-key, high-volume string of wins. In the last nine months, Monson has gone 6-0, with submission wins over Sergei Kharitonov and Jimmy Ambriz, and decision victories over Roy Nelson and Ricco Rodriguez. He's called out Kimbo, he's called out Fedor — the dude just wants bigger fights, and we hope he can get them.

10.

Brett Rogers

It's hard to get an accurate sense of how good The Grim is, since he keeps knocking people out so fast. All we know is that he's eerily focused and his fists make people go to sleep. Wrecking a former UFC champion with a suspect chin in 22 seconds was a good first test; a future Strikeforce match against Alistair Overeem could be his true coming-out party.

See previous rankings (published March 8, 2009)