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Top 10 Featherweight Rankings

May 11, 2011 / Drew Ellis

null It’s Wednesday night, which means another edition of my top 10 rankings.

The featherweights get the spotlight this week, headlined by UFC king, Jose Aldo.

So, without further ado, here is my top 10.

(If you need to go back and find my pound-for-pound, heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight or lightweight rankings, click on the links)

1. Jose Aldo (19-1) – Aldo is one of the top strikers in all of MMA as his leg kicks are one of the most devastating strikes in the game. Aldo struggled toward the end of his win over Mark Hominick at UFC 129, but it was later discovered he was dealing with an infection leading up to the fight. Still, Aldo found a way to beat up Hominick for four rounds and retain his title.

2. Chad Mendes (10-0) – The protégé of Urijah Faber is unbeaten in his MMA career and he continues to develop his striking to go along with his overpowering wrestling. Mendes is set to take on Aldo for the title later this year, but the memory of seeing Faber get blasted in the leg by Aldo may haunt him heading into the fight. Mendes appears to posses the ability to take Aldo to the ground. But, the question is, what will Mendes be able to do to Aldo when the fight hits the ground and can he hold the champ down for 25 minutes?

3. Kenny Florian (13-5) – Florian has yet to fight at 145 pounds, but I still consider him one of the best now that he is jumping into the mix. Florian has only suffered losses to some of the best at 155 pounds and his style should pose a lot of problems for the top featherweights in the UFC. He begins his march towards a title against Diego Nunes at UFC 131, and a win will likely make him the No. 1 contender to the featherweight title later in 2011.

Dream, Fighters, UFC

Chad Mendez Diego Nunes Dustin Poirier featherweight division Hatsu Hioki Jose Aldo Kenny Florian Manny Gamburyan Mark Hominick Michihiro Omigawa rankings Tyson Griffin

Jim Miller vs. Ben Henderson to meet at UFC on Versus 5

May 11, 2011 / Drew Ellis

A big match between two top lightweight contenders was announced late Monday night as Steve Feitl of MyJerseyCentral.com broke the news of an upcoming UFC bout between Jim Miller and Ben Henderson.

Jim Miller will get his next chance this August to stake his claim for a title shot in the crowded lightweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
The Whippany-based mixed martial artist is expected to face former World Extreme Cagefighting champion Ben Henderson, sources close to the UFC confirmed to New Jersey Press Media late Tuesday.
The bout is scheduled for “UFC on Versus 5” on Aug. 14 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wis.
Henderson (13-2) made his UFC debut last month, defeating Mark Bocek by decision.

This should be an exciting fight, but I think it is more dangerous for Miller, who has more to lose.

It is pretty well understood that Miller is the next in line for a title shot after Anthony Pettis gets a crack at the winner of Gray Maynard-Frankie Edgar III (assuming Pettis beats Clay Guida in June).

Henderson is not considered a top-10 lightweight by some, so a win over Miller would propel him into an immediate top contender in the UFC.

Stylistically, Henderson seems to have the grappling to contend with Miller and the two are similar fighters.

This should be a great scrap and I am looking forward to seeing it.

Events, Fighters, News, UFC

Anthony Pettis Ben Henderson Frankie Edgar Gray Maynard Jim Miller UFC on Versus 5

Leave it to Sonnen: Chael doesn’t like GSP’s fighting

May 10, 2011 / Drew Ellis

Chael Sonnen is not known for biting his tongue.

I don’t know if he was provoked or not (probably not) but Sonnen decided to throw out his opinion of Georges St. Pierre on his twitter account recently

I watch hockey and rugby. Anything that has a remote chance of breaking out into a fight. Which is exactly why I stopped watching George.

I get it. It is kind of humorous, but Sonnen is quickly becoming more known for his one-liners than his fighting.

A couple of things stand out to me about this.

1. Sonnen criticizing anyone’s inability to finish fights is laughable given the fact that 15 of his 25 wins have gone to a decision. In fact every win he has in the UFC or WEC came by decision.

2. St. Pierre is a champion that actually won the title when he got the opportunity, something Sonnen managed to let slip away.

3. Maybe if Sonnen worried more about his legal issues and steroid usage, he wouldn’t have to throw out punch lines to stay relevant in the eyes of MMA fans.

I respect what Sonnen can do in the octagon, but he is far from the most exciting fighter in MMA and he has yet to hold a championship. His act is starting to grow tiresome and is starting to cause me to laugh at him rather than with him.

Fighters, News, UFC

Chael Sonnen Georges St. Pierre UFC

Zuffa to insure fighters outside of the octagon

May 10, 2011 / Drew Ellis

null Outside of the UFC 130 main event being cancelled, there was some other big news in the MMA world on Monday.

Zuffa LLC announced that it will provide health insurance for their fighters starting on June 1, that will cover injuries that take place in training, not just on fight nights.

Here is a sample of Kevin Iole’s piece from Yahoo! Sports.

Lorenzo Fertitta, the UFC’s chairman and chief executive officer, said the company plans to offer accident insurance that will cover approximately 350 athletes in the event of out-of-competition injury, effective June 1.
MMA fighters and boxers are not employees. They are independent contractors and thus aren’t eligible for things like health-care coverage.
But injuries to fighters, either in the cage or during training, can be disastrous. That’s why Fertitta said he and UFC president Dana White began looking into the potential of offering the fighters accident insurance nearly three years ago.
Zuffa will pay 100 percent of the premiums, Fertitta said, and will have a full-time employee who will coordinate the claims process.
“We looked at this as a necessity for the sport and something that needed to happen,” Fertitta said. “We have talked about this for a long time and we have always had the same position when asked how fighters could have insurance outside of the fights. Like we said, it’s tough enough to get insurance just as a business, in and of itself, with how expensive it is.

This is something that some fighters have been pushing for for a long time and White and the Fertitta’s claim to have been pushing for it for a while as well.

It is a big positive for fighters, who have to shell out thousands of dollars if they are injured when preparing for a fight. It is good to see that Zuffa is trying to take care of their fighters and allow them to truly make a living by just competing in MMA.

Fighters, News, Strikeforce, UFC

Dana White Lorenzo Fertitta Strikeforce UFC Zuffa

Edgar & Maynard both injured, UFC 130 bout off

May 9, 2011 / Drew Ellis

The UFC had some pretty sad news to report today.

It appears that both Gray Maynard and Frankie Edgar, the main event fighters for UFC 130, are both injured and had to pull out of the schedule lightweight title fight on May 28.

The highly-anticipated third bout between UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and number one contender Gray Maynard will have to wait a little longer, as it was announced today that both fighters have suffered injuries in training camp that will take them out of the UFC 130 main event on May 28th.
Stepping up into the UFC 130 main event slot is the bout between former UFC light heavyweight champ Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Matt “The Hammer” Hamill, and moving to the Pay-Per-View card will be the Thiago Alves vs. Rick Story welterweight showdown.
In Spike TV prelim action, Tim Boetsch’s middleweight debut against Kendall Grove will join the bantamweight fight between Miguel Angel Torres and Demetrious Johnson.

This news only messes up an already messed up situation in the UFC lightweight division. The draw between these two at UFC 125 threw off plans for a title fight for Anthony Pettis and now fighters like Jim Miller and Gilbert Melendez are clamoring for a title shot as well.

UFC 130 is still a pretty solid card from top to bottom, but Rampage vs. Hamill is not an ideal main event these days.