Welterweight 8-16-09

Rank

Fighter

Comments

1.

Georges St. Pierre

 

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. Due to the scarcity of welterweight challenges in Strikeforce, he'll be fighting for an interim middleweight title next — though we're still holding out hope that the UFC can lure him over to the Octagon to throw down against guys like GSP, Jon Fitch, and Thiago Alves. 

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

 

8.

Martin Kampmann

As much as we 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 fellow 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.

9.

Nick Diaz

Look, you know how we feel about this guy. Maybe Strikeforce will give him another shot to clean up his act and fight for a title. Maybe his chance to be a champion has gone up in smoke for good. All we know is, he'd better fight again soon, or his reputation will permanently shift from "fighter who smokes weed a lot" to "weed smoker who fights sometimes."

10.

Carlos Condit