Welterweight 7-13-09

Rank

Fighter

Comments

1.

Georges St. Pierre

GSP isn’t just the best 170-pounder by a mile — it’s safe to start calling him the best fighter in the world. Even with a pulled groin, St. Pierre made Thiago Alves look like an overweight Hawaiian at UFC 100. Overflowing with talent, heart, and confidence, Rush will likely keep the UFC welterweight belt in Canada for the foreseeable future.

2.

Jake Shields

Jake's first-round submission over top-ten middleweight Robbie Lawler made it 12 wins in a row for him — with his last eight by stoppage in the first two rounds. It also cemented the fact that the Cesar Gracie product is worthy of his hype, and restless for a challenge; after taking out EliteXC's best welterweights, he's fighting middleweights just to entertain himself. Keep praying that the UFC picks him up one day to throw at Fitch, Alves, or GSP.

3.

Jon Fitch

 

4.

Thiago Alves

 

5.

Matt Hughes

 

6.

Mike Swick

It took him a little while to settle into the new weight, but after scoring back-to-back stoppages over Jonathan Goulet and Ben Saunders, it seems like some of the old Quick-ness is back. Now 4-0 at 170 pounds, Swick looks tough enough to make a run for the title.

7.

Josh Koscheck

I don’t want to tell Kos how to do his job, but it may be time to start wrestling again. In his quest to become a more exciting (and less-hated) fighter, he has now lost two out of his last three fights. Against Thiago Alves, he faced a superior striker and was dominated. Against Paulo Thiago, he faced an awful striker and still managed to get knocked out. Will he be able to pull it together against Frank Trigg at UFC 103 in September?

8.

Hayato Sakurai

Shinya Aoki thought he was slick enough to hang at welterweight, and Sakurai smashed him. (Does that make Mach the Japanese GSP?) We predict Sakurai will slice through the remainder of DREAM's welterweight GP and add another credit to his near-legendary resume.

9.

Martin Kampmann

As much as I hate giving Power Ranking status to a guy with only two fights at a particular weight class, the Hitman is going to be an ass-kicker at 170. He already proved that with his win over former Top-10’er Carlos Condit, and with so much talent in the division, he’ll have plenty more chances to show what he’s capable of.

10.

Nick Diaz

Even though he’s had more fights as a middleweight recently, we might as well throw the Pride of Stockton onto the list — it’s the least we can do for one of the most entertaining fighters in the sport, both inside and outside the cage. A title fight against Joe Riggs at Strikeforce’s “Carano vs. Cyborg” card could avenge a past defeat while giving him stability at his most effective weight class. And if you don’t like it, Nick has something he’d like to give you...