Middleweight 1-18-09

Rank

Fighter

Comments

1.

Anderson Silva

 

2.

Dan Henderson

 

3.

Yushin Okami

 

4.

Gegard Mousasi

 

5.

Rich Franklin

Ace drops one spot for continued inactivity at middleweight and one spot for the loss to Henderson. But being on this list is just a temporary formality at this point — with the TUF 9 gig and Michael Bisping fight off the table, his days as a 185-pounder are pretty much over.

6.

Robbie Lawler

Lawler’s stalled career is one of the best reasons why Pro Elite needs to get their shit together and allow their former fighters to work elsewhere. Ruthless hasn’t fought in six months, and hasn’t fought anyone not named Scott Smith in 16 months; thus, he drops out of the top five.

7.

Nate Marquardt

8.

Jorge Santiago

Two years ago, Santiago had washed out of the UFC following back-to-back losses to Chris Leben and Alan Belcher. Since then, he’s picked up nine straight victories by stoppage — including wins over Jeremy Horn, Trevor Prangley, Logan Clark, and Kazuo Misaki — and earned a Sengoku championship belt after sweeping through their middleweight grand prix. We wouldn’t be surprised to see the UFC try to bring him back into the fold.

9.

Paulo Filho

Filho hangs on to the bottom of the top ten due to past accomplishments, but if he ever does emerge from rehab and resume his MMA career, it’ll be as a light-heavyweight, so don’t expect to see him on this list for much longer.

10.

Demian Maia

Honestly, we’d give Maia a good chance against any fighter on this list. But he’s still fairly green at 9-0. (Well, 10-0 if you’re already counting his imminent submission win against Chael Sonnen at UFC 95). This guy could be a legend in the making.