While I would flip-flop your 1st two picks I agree with the rest of the picks, although I think Randy should be lower due to inactivity. Guys like Faber, Penn, Melendez, Henderson and Big Nog have been a lot more active and I think they should be rewarded for that. Henderson is still in the top 5 in my opinion. I think he will come back with a vengeance and show everyone what he is really made of, I like Rich Franklin a lot but I see Henderson controlling that fight.

Godfather and all-around Mafia Aficionado

Co-Founder of The MMAFIA

Live Blogger for Fightticker.Com

The P4P Is something I always hated in MMA Yikes!
Look at how any other striking sport goes, it should run the same course.
Randy is a hot HW right now there is no doubt, but with his record to even have him in a top 10 P4P is silly. Out of his last 8 or so how many has he lost?

EERS_1_Fan

Head of South East Tribe MMAFIA
MMABRAT, CaptnCrunch, and Michael are all going to start training in the devils MMA lol

Anyways here is what I was babbling about.
P4P=pound for pound. As in Match guys up pound for pound. Right? Ok
There may be 1 guy above LHW that good but that would be pushing it. I have a little question to run by you guys and maybe it will help put what I'm sayin in perspective?

A guy I know fairly well Ken Chertow wrestled at like 115 pounds or something at the College and Olympic level. I'm sure A guy like Randy C. could beat him at wrestling because he weighs a lot more, but P4P there is no way he is a better wrestler. If he was that would mean he could beat too of him at once, and that would not happen.

EERS_1_Fan

Head of South East Tribe MMAFIA
MMABRAT, CaptnCrunch, and Michael are all going to start training in the devils MMA lol

Eers, your point is well-taken. Pound-for-pound is a mythical ranking that's meant to compare fighters from different weight classes and try to determine which fighters are tops overall. It's more of a discussion-provoking ranking and as far as I can tell, nothing else comes of it...

I'm with EERS. It's bad enough that everyone and his uncle has (and posts) their own rankings, but P4P is so irrelevant. If Faber was mythically transformed into a heavyweight, with his attributes untouched, he would run over everyone, but that doesn't happen. Look at Penn, when he goes up in weight. If Faber did go up that much, then his P4P status would actually go down because we would see the detriment it would have on his speed, conditioning, etc.

But I guess Pramit is right (as usual) because here I am talking about it.

I will say this, when it comes to rankings, including pound for pound, I've become a fan MMA Playground's system. In case you are unfamiliar, they combine rankings from all participants and weight each participant's picks according to their prediction accuracy.
http://www.mmaplayground.com/how_ranked.aspx

So at least you have an educated popular opinion.
---------------
Rate fights at: MMA Ratings (www.mmaratings.net)

I always thought of P4P as in being the most dominate against those in and around thier weight class. I would agree with about 80% of your list... I would not put Randy in the p4p top 10 for two reasons... First, inactivity. And second, although Randy impresses me because he had pretty much ONLY fought the top guys and he is doing it at 43+... but he has never dominated top guys. I think Eers asked how he has done in his last 8 fights and I think he is 5-3 and probably 5-5 in his last 10 fights (I can remember back-to-back losses to Ricco and Barnett before he dropped to LHW and took the title from Chuck - but I am feeling too lazy to go check his record). He wins against the best about 60% of the time... not all of the time. I would argue to drop Fedor (inactivity) all together until he ACTUALLY fights Silvia. If he beats Silvia (and I think he will if they actually fight) then he is rightfully back in the top 3 or so. I think a case could be made to put Rich Franklin on that list... as long as it was below anyone named Anderson Silva. I also think a case could be made for Barnett to be on there too now that he is active again.

It's much more fun to tear apart someone elses list! HAHA!!

I posted a list for people to tear apart as well and I will put together a P4P list today lol

EERS_1_Fan

Head of South East Tribe MMAFIA
MMABRAT, CaptnCrunch, and Michael are all going to start training in the devils MMA lol

Fair enough. I've never been given any criteria so my rankings are partly personal opinion and partly based on statistical evaluation. I don't go back as far as you're saying. I only go back about a year. Inactivity is certainly a factor but Couture's last fight was within a year so he's still eligible in my book (although I didn't include Sherk when he was suspended).

It's tough. That's why I put my rankings up so you guys can give me some feedback that I can consider for the next time around. Franklin seems to get a lot of love on this site, so I may put him in there next month.

Of course, Penn and Faber fight within the next month as well so who knows what my new rankings will look like...

rankings are hard to do...

Underboss MMAfia

Head of the West Coast Family
ULTIMATE CHALLENGE CHAMPION UFC 83

Franklin gets overlooked on rankings (I think) because he lost in such dominating fashion (twice)... but he has only lost to two guys, Machida (at a different weight class) and Anderson Silva. Machida is undefeated with wins over (an undersized) BJ Penn and Soko (after Soko was coming off of back-to-back wins over lil Nog and Arona) so he is no slouch. Outside of those two losses he pretty much dominated everyone they threw at him.

Come to think of it... it would be a great rematch and a way to further build up Rich at 205 or catapult Machida to a title shot... Assuming Machida beats Tito, and Rich fights at 205 in a 'tune-up' fight... Machida/Franklin rematch somewhere around Thanksgiving and winner gets 205 title shot around the 1st of the year?

I think Lyoto's next fight should be for the belt, and if Rich jumps up and goes on a 3 run win streak he would fight for the title.

EERS_1_Fan

Head of South East Tribe MMAFIA
MMABRAT, CaptnCrunch, and Michael are all going to start training in the devils MMA lol

I like the idea Sixtus. After all, Couture was put down twice by Liddell and experienced success moving up to heavy. Franklin could do well in light heavy and the rematch with Machida is a great idea...

The only thing I wonder about Franklin is, will he have a legit chance of winning the light heavy title or are we (and the UFC) just looking for new interesting challenges for him so he doesn't waste away in second place in the middleweight division?

Also, should we first put him up against Henderson and then move him up to light heavy?

If Machida can defeat Ortiz and Franklin back to back, he'd be nicely positioned for a title shot in 2009 and would be a better known fighter at that time...

What to you guys think? Put him against a Elvis level fighter to get his feet wet then jump straight to a Jardine or machida....then Hendo?

EERS_1_Fan

Head of South East Tribe MMAFIA
MMABRAT, CaptnCrunch, and Michael are all going to start training in the devils MMA lol

IF he goes to LHW, I hope they give him a 'tune up' fight at 205... but I would certainly pay to see a Machida/Franklin fight... especially assuming Machida beats Tito. As Ticker pointed out, if Machida beats Tito and then beats Franklin, it will be hard to argue against him for a title shot. Or if Franklin beats Machida, he has to be an immediate top contender having had so much success at 185.

Fire Joe Silva and give the Ticker community the job! We will make great fights people want to see!!

EERS - I don't understand why Henderson would be the last guy before the title for Franklin. Right now I'd consider Machida over Henderson until he decides on a weight class and gets a win over an UFC fighter.

Also who the hell voted for Anderson Silva to be the 5th P4P. What the hell is that about?

-The Captain