Putting Serra at the top of the welterweight food chain is problematic for several obvious reasons - he hasn't done that much work at welterweight, and, with the exception of his knockout win over Georges St. Pierre, the work he has done at the weight hasn't been significant. Because of the somewhat uninspired performance by former top welterweight Matt Hughes against Chris Lytle, there isn't anyone else to legitimately hold the spot, though.
This isn't to say that I don't like Matt Serra. Despite Hughes' pout-y assertions to the contrary, I think Serra is good for the sport - charismatic, entertaining, and personable. In a way, Serra is what Dana White tries to be: a guy with a big personality who, despite his lack of refinement, is able to keep the attention of fans, media, and corporate folks. The difference, of course, is that Serra seems like a genuinely good guy. Meanwhile, what Dana White tries to pass off as "tough love" is actually just him being a bully and a prick.
2. Georges St. Pierre
Despite his shocking loss to formerly unranked Serra, St. Pierre sits pretty high on the list thanks to his wins over highly regarded fighters like Frank Trigg, Sean Sherk, Matt Hughes, and Josh Koshceck.
Hearing about the friction between Serra and St. Pierre makes me pretty sad. Apparently Serra took umbrage at some of St. Pierre's comments in which he said that an injury had prevented him from having a full training camp and, had he been fighting somebody else, he probably would have asked to reschedule the fight but because Serra seemed to pose such a small threat, he went ahead and took the fight anyway. I don't know if Serra should fault St. Pierre so much. Considering his record and past performances relative to St. Pierre's, nobody thought that Serra posed a threat to him. So long as St. Pierre doesn't go around crowing that it was a fluke I'd think his formerly poor estimation of Serra could be forgiven.
Part of the reason I like St. Pierre so much is that, according to this photo, he is Chinese, just like me:
3. Matt Hughes
I would have considered placing Matt Hughes back at the number one spot given his career-spanning accomplishments at the weight class, except for the fact that his last victory was over the un-ranked Chris Lytle. Initially Matt Hughes was one of my favorite fighters. His strength, high-level of performance, and grit really impressed me. Today I still look forward to seeing him fight, but can't bring myself to look up to him, if you get my distinction. While the issue of his character is debated endlessly with no one having enough evidence to completely prove him to be either an asshole or a truly super dude, I am one of the people who find him to be arrogant, simultaneously insulting and overly defensive, and, based on his attitude during his stints on The Ultimate Fighter, selfish and a little racist. Having said that, you just can't deny his in-cage accomplishments, so "Country Breakfast" stays near the top.
4. Jon Fitch
5. Josh Koscheck
6. Karo Parisyan
Here's another fighter who I look forward to seeing, despite his questionable, personal qualities. He seemed like a no-nonsense kind of guy, but his scuffle with Nate Diaz on TUF 6 showed him to be a bully and a bit of an egomaniac. I hoped that maybe the show had just been edited to (for some reason) color him as an asshole, but in an interview on Sherdog's Beatdown radio show, Parisyan didn't bother stating that he was portrayed incorrectly, necessarily, just that he didn't see what was wrong with how he acted. He's an exciting fighter, though, so what can you do? Watch him on TV but don't double-date with him, I guess. Incidentally, I think Parisyan has performed well enough to almost erase his loss to Diego Sanchez. That, combined with Sanchez dropping two fights in a row, has Parisyan slip just ahead of Sanchez.
7. Diego Sanchez
8. Jake Shields
9. Carlos Condit
I think Carlos Condit looks a lot like Bill S. Preston Esquire, except with black hair. And the whole mixed martial arts thing, I guess. His performances against both John Alessio and Brock Larson were really impressive. In combination with his wins over Frank Trigg and Renato Verissimo, I put Condit at 9.
10. Shinya Aoki
Aoki just moved up from lightweight, where most of his career was spent, which is why I placed him at 10. His win over Akira Kikuchi shows that he's a top welterweight, but Condit's welterweight resume is a little more substantial. The first time I saw Aoki fight was during PRIDE Shockwave 2006 against Joachim Hansen. His rainbow pants totally blew me away, and the gogoplata wasn't too shabby. In the time honored tradition of people copying things they see on TV, a friend and I proceeded to try and figure out how to get a pair of those rainbow pants...I mean... how to gogoplata each other?
11. Marcus Davis
12. Josh Burkman
13. Drew Fickett
It seems like Fickett goes largely forgotten. He has suffered some pretty untimely losses, which might contribute to his being unrecognized. He seemed to be picking up steam, for example, after his wins over Josh Neer and Koscheck, but then lost to Josh Burkman. He's fighting in HDNET's organization now, which will probably see him rack up wins over lower-level competition before entering the big stage again.
Fickett infamously lost a grappling match to TUF season 6 punchline Andy Wang. As one might guess, Andy Wang thought he could best represent the Chinese people and his warrior spirit after the match by running and jumping around like a little kid, ignoring a sportsmanlike handshake from Fickett. Thanks so much, Andy Wang. You're the greatest asset to favorable perceptions of China since the tank that was going to run over the protester in that Tienanmen Square picture.
14. Brock Larson
One of my favorite moments from a fight of the last few months is when Brock Larson shoves Kevin Knabjan halfway across the ring before knocking him out in 20 seconds. Also, his name sounds tough, and his face looks like a cartoon:
I put Larson at 14 because he has a great deal of strong wins over somewhat mediocre competition. He's ahead of Akira Kikuchi, though, because of Kikuchi's recent, uneven performances.
15. Akira Kikuchi
I'm going by three things when I put Kikuchi on this list, because I haven't actually had the pleasure of seeing any of his fights. First of all, he was up until recently ranked on MMAWeekly's top 10 list. Secondly, his record has what look like some pretty good highlights (including a win over Jake Shields). But thirdly, and most importantly, is his profile picture on Sherdog:
Basically, what we have here is Akira Kikuchi telling me "Sure man, why not?"
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