Lei Tong

All snydeness aside, Shogun, GSP and the winner or Gomi/Sakurai are the best contenders.

Out of curiosity, what is the standard used for ranking the previously listed fighters as "Top Ten" or not? It must be hilarious.

Among those who've met him, the concencus seems to be that Diego's a cocky, dim-witted bastard.

"(paraphrased) I've met Diego several times, and every time I ended up wanting to smash his fucking head in with a hammer." - Scott the Gigantic Jew

Well, with Monson's debut victory over Hinkle upcoming, you may get your wish, assuming: 1) They avoid matching up Monson with either Sylvia or Vera and 2) Arlovski manages to keep destroying his competition as he should Aside from the 3 mentioned, Monson would pretty much sex up anyone in the UFC something fierce.

Face it, you're such an unabashed Fedor nuthugger that you would claim photos of him sodomizing Aleks were neither gay nor incestuous.

fedor&rttactinggayinthesauna.jpg

Forrest had retired shortly after suffering the broken arm against Paradeo, as he figured that at that point his career wasn't worth the injuries he was piling up.

Actually, I'd say Forrest was the best fighter going into the first TUF season. He'd already had success similar to that of Leben's, and was considered to be a very hot prospect before his semi retirement. There's a reason no one from Randy's team ever brought his name up as a possible opponent.

Cote is better on his feet than Forrest, while Forrest is much better than Cote on the ground. I think that combination will lead to Tito exploring his options more standing, though he'll still shoot in when given the chance. Once there, he better remember how to cage stack quickly, or else he's going to be fighting off Griffin's submission attempts for the duration of the match while it's on the ground.

*eye twitch*

Joe Doerkson gave him a proverbial pistol whipping in the grappling department, but to Leben's credit he hung tough and made it to the judges.

One badass motherfucker. Andrei vs. Hendo would be a slugfest for all ages. For about 6 seconds, before Arlovski knocks Henderson's head clean off onto a horrified Matt Lindland's lap.

The JD over Minotauro was complete bullshit, though I figure that's well known.

I just refer to him as Charles McRad and avoid the issue altogether.

I guess that's the MMA equivalent to "Nova invented <insert move here>"? Whereas the quote in regards to Nova seems to be a sort of snyde comment regarding Nova's "innovator" status, the saying about Fabiano comes from the fact that though Fabiano (obviously) did not invent the armbar, he utilizes it so often and performs the move so well that it's practically "his" move .

- A bit overrated in history, he shamelessly ducked a number of opponents who arguably would've fed him his lunch. Talented grappler with mediocre positioning skills and good striking. Has become rather delusional since his retirement. - Lifetime mid-level fighter. A lot of heart and determination, but not enough skill to be successful at the upper echelon of MMA. - Formerly overrated to an extreme extent, but with the general increase of knowledge about Shooto fighters, his place in an all-time sense has been thankfully reevaluated. Undeniably great coach, though. - Formerly a great LW who greatly utilized sprawl & brawl tactics, his ability to score knockouts suffered both as time passed on and the level of his opponents increased. Eventually became an also-ran at the weight, and dropped down to FW where he instantly established himself as a legit Top 5 level fighter. However, PRIDE's money brought him needlessly back to LW (now against guys operating under a 160lbs. limit), and has quickly gone back to struggling. I'll do more later.

One of the most bittersweet things will be UFC's WW division. It's arguably the most stacked division in any organization in MMA, but with 3 Top 5 PFP level fighters (Hughes, Penn & St. Pierre) battling it out for supremecy, the rest of the talented guys flooding the division will most likely have to be content to duke it out for 4th place.

- For the most part, Japanese fighters tend to fight at the highest weight they can remain competitive in. I would imagine this has to do with the "bigger is better" train of thought when it coms to marketability. - Back then, Kondo was quite an exciting fighter to watch, much moreso than the boring "Half-assed Grappler Yuki" we see nowadays, and this was also a time that the UFC was very eager to show off foreign talent. Add in his KOP credentials and previous successes against HW's, and you would've had an instantly credible MW to build around (at least moreso than either Dave Menne or Gil Castillo, IMO).

I honestly have no clue, as Rickson was always noted more for taking an opponent's back and slapping on a tight RNC. I always preffered "Fabiano Iha invented the armbar."

How in the hell could you leave out Body Blow?

Considering the UFC more or less begged him to compete at 185lbs. to no avail, I doubt PRIDE will convince him to go down even further.

Jardine's stand-up is decent, but nothing special. Assuming Whitehead has his head screwed on straight, there's no reason he shouldn't smother Jardine to death en route to a JD. Also, me and Blue agreed that PDP v. Monson would've been a much better use of both guys, as the legitmiate hatred between them could've been built up, and Monson's relatively boring game would've at least played into PDP's hands to some extent.

Not hand to hand, but: Rob Roy vs. Archibald Cunningham

I'll be hoping that it goes like any half decent horror flick where the fat guy is hilariously filleted.