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Georges St. Pierre

22-2 MMA, 17-2 UFC - The current UFC Welterweight Champion maintains his spot as the best mixed martial artist in the world after his unanimous decision win over former Strikeforce welterweight champion Jake Shields at UFC 129 in April. Up next for him is a fight against the current Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz who is making his first return to the UFC since 2006. This is no condemnation of Nick Diaz as a fighter but he hasn’t earned the title shot. He should have been paired against Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck, or another top UFC welterweight and see how he fared before being given the shot against GSP. This entire fight feels forced and is being made because of Diaz’s propensity for trash talking and hyping fights as a means to generate interest for GSP’s next opponent since he has already cleaned out the division. The real question is why the UFC is making substandard title fights for both him and Anderson Silva and delaying the super fight between the two that has been discussed for the last year when the window for such a fight is closing rapidly. Neither fighter is getting any younger and the fight that every MMA fan wants to see between the two best pound for pound fighters in the world while they’re both in their primes is right there for the making and for whatever reason it has not materialized.

Anderson Silva

30-4 MMA, 13-0 UFC - The UFC Middleweight Champ keeps his secure ranking at #2 and has an upcoming rematch with Yushin Okami atop the UFC 134 fight card at the end of August. It’s the opportunity for Silva to avenge the last loss on his record when back in 2006 Okami was awarded the victory after Silva was disqualified for hitting him with an illegal upkick. Hopefully all the parties involved can come together after this fight with Okami, assuming Silva emerges victorious, and finally setup the super fight with Georges St. Pierre that we as MMA fans have been teased with for the last year.

Jon Jones

13-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC - The manchild that is Jon Jones vaults into the top 10 and in fact all the way up to #3 after his dismantling of Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and capturing the UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 128 in March. Jones manhandled Rua with spectacular ease and appeared to be a 250lb heavyweight in the ring with the 205lb former champ. The strength disparity was that stark and at no time did Rua mount any serious challenge to Jones in that fight. Jones first title defense will be against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 135 in September. It has been fascinating to watch the development of Jones’ skills to compliment his freakish athletic ability and the Jackson fight will be another test to see how far the young champion has progressed.

Jose Aldo

19-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC, 7-0 WEC - The former WEC and now newly crowned UFC featherweight champion certainly had an exciting and rather difficult UFC debut when he made his first title defense against the tenacious and skilled Mark Hominick at UFC 129. Aldo’s remarkable skill and athleticism were on full display as he consistently outstruck the kickboxer Hominick throughout the early rounds, eventually creating a horrific looking hematoma on Hominick’s head that grew to the size of a small softball. However, he couldn’t finish Hominick and had to hang on for dear life in the 5 th and final round when he was completely exhausted and Hominick was in dominant top position for most of the round. If anything the fight may have given the rest of the division a glimmer of hope that there are some chinks in Aldo’s armor and helped chip away at the wrecking machine type aura that had surrounded him. It will be interesting to see who the UFC pairs him against for his 2 nd title defense.

Alistair Overeem

35-11 MMA, 3-0 Strikeforce - The Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion won his quarterfinal fight against Fabricio Werdum in June and will face off against Antonio “Big Foot” Silva in the semi-finals of their heavyweight tournament in October. Even though Werdum did more flopping onto his back then actual fighting in that quarter final matchup so it wasn’t a striking exhibition, Overeem is without a doubt that most devastating striker in MMA today and at 6”5 and 255lbs of pure muscle he is right now the best heavyweight in the world. The one Achilles heel for him during his career has been the question of his gas tank but he seemed to have no problem going the distance against Werdum, even though it wasn’t a very taxing fight, so it’s hard to point to a glaring weakness in his game right now.

Cain Velasquez

9-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC - The UFC heavyweight champion will make his return to the ring and make his first title defense against Junior Dos Santos scheduled atop the UFC 138 fight card in November. An excellent wrestler with rapidly improving boxing and stand up skills and a cardio tank that just appears bottomless. The stories from his training camps about his cardio endurance are legendary and it would seem he could easily fight a 10 round fight if necessary. That legendary training will be put to the test against Dos Santos as it will be a full year since he won the heavyweight title from Brock Lesnar last October. Cain has the tools and the work ethic to have a long, successful reign as the UFC heavyweight champ but that is much easier said than done especially with a very skilled and dangerous fight on the horizon against Dos Santos.

Jon Fitch

23-3-1-1 MMA, 13-1-0-1 UFC - The best welterweight fighter in the world not named Georges St. Pierre. Despite his struggles at time with BJ Penn in their draw at UFC 127, he seemed to eventually figure out Penn’s game plan and dominated the 3 rd round. With his only loss in his 15 fights in the UFC since 2005 coming to arguably the best fighter in the world in St. Pierre, Fitch has more then earned this status. If St. Pierre were not in the welterweight division, Fitch would already have the gold around his waist. Fitch is a great blend of just enough talent and athleticism melded together with amazing heart, intensity, and cardiovascular endurance to make him a nightmare of match up for any fighter in the division. Not sure where Fitch goes from here after the draw with Penn, now that St. Pierre defeated Shields and apparently isn’t moving up to challenge Anderson Silva in his next fight. It will be interesting to see who the UFC matches him against for his next fight.

Mauricio "Shogun" Rua

19-5 MMA, 3-3 UFC - The former UFC light heavyweight champion tumbles from #4 to #8 after his lopsided defeat at the hands of Jon “Bones” Jones at UFC 128 in March. While Rua didn’t hold the light heavyweight title for very long, losing it in his first title defense, but in winning the title he certainly made the statement that he has come all the way back from two career threatening ACL injuries to regain the form of one of the best fighters in the sport. Losing to Jones is no great disgrace by any stretch of the imagination and I’m sure he’d like another shot at Jones not that I’m sure the outcome would be much different but you can never count out a fighter of Rua’s caliber. We’ll see how he rebounds from that loss when he steps back in the octagon and that will go a long way in determining how quickly he gets a shot to regain his title.

Dominick Cruz

18-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC, 7-1 WEC - The UFC Bantamweight Champion is fresh off avenging the only loss of his career when he won a unanimous decision over Urijah Faber this past weekend at UFC 132 in his first title defense. That extended his win streak to 9 and with his awkward but effective striking and wrestling skills he poses a difficult puzzle to solve for any fighter in that division. The Dominator could be in for a long run at the top of the bantamweight division.

Eddie Alvarez

22-2 MMA, 6-0 Bellator - The best lightweight in the world over the last two years. I have him ranked ahead of Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard as their scheduled rematch in May was postponed due to injuries to both fighters and didn’t give either of them the opportunity to notch a big victory and possibly crack into the top 10. In the meantime, Alvarez won his 7th consecutive fight with a unanimous decision victory of Pat Curran in April at Bellator 39 and shows no signs of slowing down. The Bellator 155 champ, Alvarez hasn’t had the exposure to the casual MMA fans that the lightweights in the UFC and even in Strikeforce have received but for those that haven’t had a chance to see him fight I can tell you that he is the real deal and hope that big name fights are on the horizon for the Philadelphia native.