P4P Top 10 and Weekend Review

After revising my divisional rankings I thought it would be a good time to revise my Pound for Pound top 10. It hasn't changed much since a month ago but there are a couple updates.

1. Anderson Silva: Hasn't fought since dismantling Dan Henderson in March. After that there's been talk about a boxing match with Roy Jones Jr and a fight with fellow P4Per Georges St. Pierre moving up to middleweight. However, Dana White has nixed the possibility of both and is looking for Silva to defend his title at the UFC's first trip to Atlanta in September (which I'll hopefully be attending).

2. Georges St. Pierre: Recently destroyed Matt Serra in their rematch to regain his welterweight title and is defending it against Jon Fitch in August.

3. BJ Penn: Just took out Sean Sherk in convincing fashion to solidify his spot atop the lightweight division, not only in the UFC, but in the world. There are talks about him moving up to welterweight to fight a rematch with GSP but again, Dana has put the breaks on this one.

4. Quinton Jackson: Hasn't fought since September but is on a 5 fight win streak with his last two wins coming over Chuck Liddell and Dan Henderson respectively which is very impressive. Will defend his title against Forrest Griffin in July.

5. Antonio Rodrigo Minotauro Nogeuira: Beat Tim Sylvia for the UFC heavyweight championship in Feb. Will not fight again until November/December against Frank Mir after the next TUF season but with Fedor not having any real fights over the last two plus years Minotauro is the gold standard right now.

6. Fedor Emelianenko: Has been in limbo since leaving PRIDE. He is fighting Tim Sylvia in July on the Affliction card. This fight will prove whether he is still a top P4P fighter. However, until someone proves otherwise, Fedor belongs on this list.

7. Urijah Faber: Cemented his position on this list after beating Jens Pulver earlier this month. He finally beat a big name in MMA and is looking to do bigger and better things now that his star is rising. I'm not sure what's next for Faber but let's hope he'll continue making a good name for the lighter weight classes.

8. Miguel Torres: Has risen onto this list after his great fight against Yoshiro Maeda. He fights with a lot of passion (which can sometimes be to his detriment) but he is undoubtedly skilled both on his feet and on the ground. Now that he brought the bantamweight division into national consciousness after his fight on the same WEC card as Faber v. Pulver hopefully he will continue to make strides in growing the popularity of bantamweight fighters.

9. Jon Fitch: Hasn't fought since March but is on a 15 fight win streak and will get his shot at the UFC welterweight championship in August when he'll take on GSP. He is probably the fastest rising superstar in MMA behind Urijah Faber.

10. Takanori Gomi: Was an absolute beast in PRIDE only losing one fight which he revenged. Since then he is on a 5 fight undefeated streak and has a 3 fight win streak. However, he has only fought once in the last year. Still, until someone proves they can knock him off he'll remain on this list.

Falling Off: Dan Henderson (two straight losses in the UFC and weight class uncertainty), Randy Couture (inactivity)

Also garnering consideration: Randy Couture, Dan Henderson, Norifumi Yamamoto, Chuck Liddell, Gilbert Melendez, Shinya Aoki, Paulo Filho

Now, here are some highlight results from the EliteXC and DREAM cards this weekend.

EliteXC:

Murillo "Ninja" Rua gets back on the winning track in EliteXC after knocking out Tony Bonello in the first round.

Nick Diaz defeats Muhsin Corbbrey by TKO in round 3. This puts him back into the title picture after losing to KJ Noons for the vacant title back in November. After Noons' fight Diaz and his camp walked right into the ring and challenged Noons to a rematch and then flipped off Noons and his camp starting a free for all in the ring.

KJ Noons defeats Yves Edwards by KO in round 1 to retain his lightweight title. He now looks like he'll defend his title against Nick Diaz at some unscheduled date.

DREAM 4:

Shinya Aoki defeats Katsuhiko Nagata by gogoplata in the first round allowing Aoki to move on to the lightweight grand prix semi finals.

Alistair Overeem defeats Lee Tae-Hyun by KO in round 1. Overeem is on a roll after winning the Strikeforce heavyweight title and is making himself a player again in the heavyweight division.

Jason "Mayhem" Miller loses by unanimous decision to Ronaldo de Souza. He was on a four fight win streak before running in to Ronaldo and is now out of the middleweight grand prix tournament.

Melvin Manhoef defeats Kasushi Sakuraba by TKO in round 1. Sakuraba is a legend in Japan and in MMA in general but his days of being a legitimate threat in the division appear over at this stage in his career. He is also now eliminated from the middleweight grand prix.

With Sakuraba and Miller now out of the tournament it leaves a very unsatisfying middleweight semi finals and finals. The only fighter I've ever heard of who is left is Gegard Mousasi even though I've never actually seen him fight. The lightweight semi finals and finals however is anything but boring with Shinya Aoki, Caol Uno, and Tatsuya Kawajiri all fighting.

That's it for this weekend everyone. Stay tuned as this week is supposed to mark a gigantic announcement by UFC president Dana White (scheduled for Tuesday but who knows really?) and the last taped show for TUF 7 before the live finale. Until then,

Soccer kicks and head stomps...