Sherdog Updated Fighter Rankings

HEAVYWEIGHT
1. Fedor Emelianenko (27-1-0, 1 NC)
2. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (31-4-1, 1 NC)
3. Randy Couture (16-8-0)
4. Tim Sylvia (24-4-0)
5. Andrei Arlovski (12-5-0)
6. Fabricio Werdum (10-3-1)
7. Josh Barnett (22-5-0)
8. Gabriel Gonzaga (8-3-0)
9. Mirko Filipovic (23-6-2)
10. Ben Rothwell (29-5-0)

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
1. Quinton Jackson (29-6-0)
2. Lyoto Machida (13-0-0)
3. Forrest Griffin (15-4-0)
4. Chuck Liddell (21-5)
5. Mauricio Rua (16-3-0)
6. Dan Henderson (22-6-0)
7. Wanderlei Silva (32-8-1, 1 NC)
8. Keith Jardine (13-4-1)
9. Rashad Evans (11-0-1)
10. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (5-2-0)

MIDDLEWEIGHT
1. Anderson Silva (21-4)
2. Paulo Filho (16-0-0)
3. Rich Franklin (23-3-0, 1 NC)
4. Nathan Marquardt (26-7-2)
5. Robbie Lawler (16-4-0)
6. Yushin Okami (22-4-0)
7. Frank Trigg (16-6-0)
8. Yoshihiro Akiyama (10-1-0, 2 NC)
9. Kazuo Misaki (19-8-2, 1 NC)
10. Jorge Santiago (17-7-0)

WELTERWEIGHT
1. Georges St. Pierre (16-2-0)
2. Jon Fitch (16-2-0, 1 NC)
3. Matt Hughes (41-6-0)
4. Josh Koscheck (10-2-0)
5. Diego Sanchez (18-2-0)
6. Jake Shields (20-4-1)
7. Matt Serra (9-5)
8. Thiago Alves (14-3-0)
9. Karo Parisyan (18-5-0)
10. Carlos Condit (22-4-0)

LIGHTWEIGHT
1. B.J. Penn (13-4-1)
2. Takanori Gomi (28-3-0, 1 NC)
3. Shinya Aoki (15-2, 1 NC)
4. Gesias Cavalcante (14-2-1, 1 NC)
5. Gilbert Melendez (14-1-0)
6. Tatsuya Kawajiri (22-4-2)
7. Sean Sherk (32-3-1)
8. Caol Uno (25-10-4)
9. Mitsuhiro Ishida (16-4-1)
10. Joe Stevenson (28-8-0)
With the recent activity in the division, formerly seventh-ranked Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro falls just outside the top ten due to inactivity.

FEATHERWEIGHT
1. Urijah Faber (20-1-0)
2. Jeff Curran (29-9-1)
3. Leonard Garcia (11-3-0)
4. Dokonjonosuke Mishima (18-6-2)
5. Masakazu Imanari (14-6-1)
6. Hiroyuki Takaya (9-5-1)
7. Antonio Carvalho (10-3-0)
8. Hatsu Hioki (15-3-1)
9. Trenell Young (9-7)
10. Takeshi Inoue (14-3-0)

Tito Guarantees a win in UFC 84

Tito Ortiz faces Lyoto Machida in his final fight on his UFC contract.  He has already made it known that he will be parting ways with the UFC after this fight.  In an interview and article posted on MMAWeekly.com, Tito guarantees a victory against the undefeated Machida.  Can Tito pull this off?  He claims that there is no pressure on him to win.  I don’t see it that way.  Just how marketable is a Tito Ortiz that fails to live up to the hype that he pushes for himself AGAIN?  No very much IMHO.

 

MMAWeekly.com Article

by Jeff Cain

"The Huntington Beach Bad Boy," Tito Ortiz, completes his contractual obligation with the Ultimate Fighting Championship when he steps in the octagon at UFC 84 against Lyoto Machida. Ortiz spoke with MMAWeekly about his training, his focus and his match up with the undefeated Brazilian.

 

"I'm really healthy. I feel great. I feel really, really good," said Ortiz. "I'm excited about this fight. I'm very focused. This fight means the world to me. I'm not just fighting myself. I'm fighting for every one of those fans, the Tito Ortiz fans that support me."

 

As excited as Ortiz is for his showdown with Machida, it wasn't the fight he wanted for his final bout in the UFC. "It doesn't matter who I fight to me. In the beginning I thought the Rashad Evans deal was supposed to happen," said the former UFC light heavyweight champion. "They built it, it was going to happen, and that's what I expected. And I know a lot of fans expected that."

 

"The UFC has their own game plan. They have their own ideas of how they want to run things, and I turned it down at first, saying why would I want to fight Lyoto? There's no reason to. But then I just started going on, and I was like, I don't really care. Whoever you want me to fight, I'll fight. That's really what it came down to. No diss toward Lyoto. He's a great fighter, undefeated, but I thought they were building the Rashad Evans fight. I wanted to fight Rashad again because I thought I beat him the first time."

 

With the intention of leaving the UFC and shopping the market for the highest bidder following his UFC 84 bout, Ortiz doesn't feel any pressure going into his final UFC fight despite the added leverage a win would bring to his negotiating power with another organization.

 

"I have no pressure," said the California native. "This is like the same thing as when I fought Vitor Belfort. I have no pressure on me. I have nothing to lose. I have no contract left, so I have nothing to lose. There ain't nothing after this with the UFC for me. Finally I'm going to be free. I'm able to do what I want, I think. My hands are not going to be tied anymore. I'm not going to feel like I have a ball and chain on me."

 

He continued, "I really think I'm going to succeed after this fight, no matter what. In my mind, I know I'm going to win. There's no doubt in my mind, without a doubt. I know for a fact that I'm going to beat Lyoto Machida. He doesn't know it yet, but when the bell rings and the referee says, let's get it on, I'll be dumping him on his head, and he'll feel the real wrath of Tito Ortiz."

 

Once known for his conditioning and stamina, Ortiz hasn't lived up to his reputation in recent bouts, getting fatigued sometimes as early as the second round.

 

"I started camp four months prior to the fight. That's the first time I've started this early," Ortiz told MMAWeekly.com. I was really focused on getting my core strength very, very strong. My back is really strong. My stomach is really strong. You'll see at the weigh-ins how shredded I am. I'm in great shape."

 

"I've actually picked it up. I'm running four miles a day. I've never done that in my career, ever. I really think I've let a lot of my fans down by getting tired after the second round. I've never a person like that to get tired. I've always pushed full-force for five, five minute rounds. We're training six, six minute rounds with 30 seconds rests. I'm up here at altitude doing it, so I'm going to be ready for three, five minute rounds without a doubt."

 

"It just feels great to be able to train for once and be able to wrestle the way I used to wrestle, spar the way I used to spar, and not have to go through three days of training and have to take four days off," added Ortiz. "That was really, really bad. It was hindering my fighting style, I believe. I'm very focused, no injuries, and I'm able to focus my time on training."

 

Asked about the match up with Machida, Ortiz commented, "He's never faced anyone like me, ever. All the fights he's had have been against guys that stand back and let him do all the striking. Three words for Machida: feel the pressure. He's going to feel the pressure."

 

"Everybody knows how I fight. Lyoto knows how I fight, and let's see if he can handle the pressure. Let's see if he can handle 16,000 fans screaming. I know there's going to be about 16,000, probably 15,999 that will be screaming about Tito and there will be that one person that's hating on me. Let's see if he can handle the pressure."

 

Ortiz went on to boast, "It's my octagon. I've been doing it for eleven years. I'm very focused. I'm hungry. I have everything on the line right now, and nothing to lose. I have a lot of people to prove wrong. It's me versus the company."

 

"Expect fireworks on May 24, live on pay-per-view, when I beat down Lyoto Machida."

New Ultimate Fighter Coaches Annouced - Mir & Nogueira

Posted on MMAWeekly:

Spike TV on Monday announced that Ultimate Fighting Championship interim heavyweight titleholder Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and former champion Frank Mir will be the coaches for the eight season of The Ultimate Fighter.

The season, which premiers on Spike TV on Sept. 17, will return to the two-weight class format. It features light heavyweight (205-pound) and lightweight (155-pound) fighters. Production on season eight begins in late May, with the entire cast to be announced in September.

Nogueira and Mir, after serving as coaches, will meet in an as-of-yet unannounced pay-per-view event for the title.

Nogueira earned the interim championship designation by defeating former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia at UFC 81 in February. He finished the fight with a strong comeback effort, choking Sylvia out early in the third round.

At that same event, Mir continued his return to the sport with a first round knee bar submission of former WWE superstar Brock Lesnar. Mir has held the UFC championship in the past, breaking Sylvia’s arm with a submission hold en route to the title. This will be his first title shot since returning from a devastating motorcycle accident that nearly endangered his life, and nearly ended his career.

It should be interesting to see how well Nogueira's english is for this type of exposure.

Chris Leben arrested for DUI

UFC fighter Chris “The Crippler” Leben was arrested on a DUI charger on Wednesday.  He is scheduled to fight Mike Bisping on June 7^th.  No word if this will effect that fight.

Reported on MMAJunkie.com
Chris Leben, a UFC middleweight who recently signed to fight Michael Bisping at UFC 85, was arrested in Oregon on Wednesday for driving under the influence and was placed in jail for violation of his probation, according to the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office.

 

As of late Wednesday evening, Leben remained behind bars.

 

A representative from the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that Leben will go before a judge at 3 p.m. on Thursday. It was determined upon his booking that he was not eligible for bail because of the probation violation, according to the representative.

 

Leben (18-4 MMA, 8-3 UFC), 27, most recently defeated Alessio Sakara in March at UFC 82. After Chuck Liddell was forced to pull out of a UFC 85 main-event bout with Rashad Evans, the UFC booked fights between Leben and Bisping, as well as Matt Hughes and Thiago Alves. The popular fighter found his way to the UFC via the first season of the UFC reality series, "The Ultimate Fighter." 

 

There's no word how and if the arrest may impact his June 7 fight with Bisping, which takes place overseas in London, England.