Heavyweight 8-16-09

Rank

Fighter

Comments

1.

Fedor Emelianenko

As long as the Last Emperor can devastate guys like Alistair Overeem, Brett Rogers, and Fabricio Werdum during his stint in Strikeforce, he'll keep his spot at the top, without question. But what happens when there are no more legitimate opponents left? Assuming Fedor will never come to terms with the UFC, he may finally come face-to-face with the end of the road. Will he keep going through the motions (and slowly lose his relevance), or will he retire as a living legend?

2.

Brock Lesnar

Like it or not, we've now entered the Brock Lesnar Era. His size, power, and athleticism were enough to exact a brutal revenge against Frank Mir, whose jiu-jitsu was completely neutralized during their UFC 100 rematch. Will another big wrestler like Shane Carwin or Cain Velasquez be able to give Big Brock a taste of his own medicine, or is the UFC's new heel here to stay?

3.

Josh Barnett

He had a shot at becoming the best heavyweight in the world — and then he tested positive for steroids. Again. As punishment, we're dropping him one spot on this list. Sorry bro, that's called "asshole tax."

4.

Frank Mir

 

5.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

 

6.

Alistair Overeem

 

7.

Randy Couture

 

8.

Shane Carwin

 

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 eleven months, Monson has gone 7-0, 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 July 12, 2009)