1. Anderson Silva
2. Paulo Filho
3. Dan Henderson
Henderson hasn't fought at middleweight in more than a year, and the last time he did, he lost a decision to Kazuo Misaki. However, looking back on his middleweight career to the turn of the millenium, he is otherwise undefeated. That, in combination with Franklin's recent loss to Anderson Silva, puts Henderson at three.
4. Rich Franklin
I've turned it over a lot in my brain, and I've determined that I like Rich Franklin. The whole middle-American, good-ol-boy, power Christian aura he sometimes has put me off for awhile, but I'm over it. He's gracious in defeat (even when it's to a foreigner in his hometown) and he doesn't really push the Christian thing in other people's faces. He can be kind of fay sometimes, which is funny. Did Franklin and hanger-on Jorge Gurgel spoon tenderly after their brutal losses last month? Indisputably YES.
5. Robbie Lawler
Putting Lawler ahead of Matt Lindland is a bit of a dicey proposition, but if we're talking recent accomplishments, Lawler delivers more than Lindland. Lindland notably holds recent wins over Jeremy Horn and a fading Carlos Newton. While a win over Horn is good, it doesn't mean as much as Lawler's knockouts of Joey Villasenor, Frank Trigg, and Murilo Rua.
6. Matt Lindland
This poor bastard has one of the worst profile pictures on Sherdog.
It looks like he just shit his pants. Or like he wasn't sure if he shit his pants, and decided to clench his ass cheeks to check. Then the realization hit him full force, the proof was undeniable, and this look of profound disgust was seen to have passed across his face.
7. Yushin Okami
8. Nate Marquardt
9. Yoshihiro Akiyama
Knocking out Denis Kang puts Akiyama in the ranks, but his record is too spare compared to both Okami and Marquardt to put him any higher. A lot was made of his possibly cheating against Sakuraba last year by greasing his legs and therefore being able to avoid any take- downs. I'm still not certain of it. It's not hard to imagine that K-1 would eagerly support the accusations of their (at the time) newly acquired cash cow Sakuraba. The only piece of evidence was a locker room interview with Akiyama, conducted while he rubbed moisturizer on his legs. The thing is that moisturizer isn't illegal, and you'd think that if someone were cheating, they would try to keep it a secret by not cheating in the middle of being videotaped. An inordinate amount of moisturizer could be objected to, but when the referee checked him before the fight, he gave him the OK. Add to that some anti-Korean sentiment in Japan (Akiyama being ethnically Korean), and the whole thing seems pretty suspicious.
10. Denis Kang
11. Frank Trigg
Frank Trigg retired from welterweight competition after being submitted by Carlos Condit (who, incidentally, also provoked thoughts of retirement from Renato Verissimo). Trigg came back at middleweight to defeat both Jason Miller (who was the Icon Sport champion at the time) and PRIDE welterweight Grand Prix winner Kazuo Misaki before getting knocked out by Lawler. I used to hate Frank Trigg. His antics during stare-downs and his pre-fight interviews were pretty distasteful to me. But at some point I think he admitted that it was just part of the game, and he didn't mean it personally. Did he say that or did I just imagine it? All I know now for sure is that my girlfriend has a Triggonomics shirt.
12. Kazuo Misaki
13. Jason Miller
Wackiness aside, Miller is a legitimate contender. His submission of Robbie Lawler alludes to his worth, but his loss to Trigg leaves some question as to how consistently he can keep up with tough opposition.
14. Joey Villasenor
This is a tough call to make. On the one hand, he has a good record, but on the other hand, he has those stupid strings of hair dangling in front of his face whenever he fights. With losses to Murilo Rua and Lawler, but wins over David Loisseau, Riki Fukuda, and Jorge Santiago, Villasenor creeps onto the list.
15. Jorge Santiago/Murilo Ninja Rua
Once again, I take the easy way out and hand in a draw. Ninja's middleweight record is kind of a mixed bag, having lost a lot of questionable decisions. He won by TKO over Villasenor in a back and forth fight, but went on to lose pretty spectacularly to Lawler. Despite beating Villasenor, I put Ninja at the bottom because of his gross inconsistency.
Santiago is kind of a weird choice. He had an unremarkable run in the UFC, but since then has won two fights, finishing former top-contenders Andrei Semenov and Jeremy Horn.
However, when it comes to cute smiles, Ninja has Santiago beat.
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