Top 15 Light-Heavyweight

1. Quinton Jackson
Nothing much to speak of regarding the top 8 or 9 guys on this list. I think they're more or less standard. There's always the question of whether or not Jardine and Griffin should be ranked ahead of Liddell and Rua, respectively. In a case like this, I think one has to lend a lot of credence to how someone like Griffin beat the incumbent. Because Forrest Griffin beat Rua pretty solidly across three rounds, as opposed to a flash knock out, I think you have to give Griffin more credit, and put him ahead. Same with Jardine/Liddell.

2. Keith Jardine

3. Forrest Griffin

4. Chuck Liddell

5. Shogun Rua

6. Dan Henderson

7. Wanderlei Silva

8. Lyoto Machida

9. Sokoudjou

10. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Nogueira hasn't been particularly active, but he has shown more consistent top-level performance than anybody beneath him, so he takes the number 10 spot.

11. Wilson Gouveia
With Gouveia's win over Jason Lambert (who at the time had just knocked out one-time top contender Renato Sobral), Gouveia slips ahead of perennial A-lister Tito Ortiz and the accelerating Rashad Evans.
Lambert's loss to Gouveia was extremely disappointing. I had hoped "The Punisher" had turned a corner after his KO win over Sobral. Unfortunately he came out undisciplined in the second, and what do you know, Wilson Gouveia has himself some knockout power. There are still a few questions with Gouveia--his cardio in particular, which cost him the fight against Keith Jardine. Also, I don't know if you've noticed, but he has very bad posture. No one likes a hunchback.

12. Rashad Evans
Evans was marginally impressive in his fight with Ortiz, and looked solid against Bisping, but it seems a little hasty to let him into the Top 10. He's undefeated, but I think it's important to put his wins in context.
The victories over Sean Salmon and Stephan Bonnar don't do a whole lot for him in this sense. They were extremely solid performances, but Salmon ended up dropping down to an inconsistently successful middleweight, and Bonnar, while he seems to be improving, isn't a huge scalp on anyone's belt at the moment.
It's also important not to overvalue his performance with Ortiz. He lost the first two rounds, and while he bruised Ortiz up in the third, he wasn't able to seal the deal.
The decision win over Bisping was fine, but the UK fighter had already been "exposed," as they say, and had committed, also, to moving down to middleweight. A decent mark on your record, but nothing huge.
The biggest win on Evans' record has to be the tko over Jason Lambert, same as Gouveia. The issue, however, is timing. While Gouveia isn't undefeated in the UFC like Evans is, Gouveia beat an ostensibly better Jason Lambert, who had himself just come off a huge victory.
Evans is extremely close to breaking into the top tier, but it's going to take a couple more.

13. Tito Ortiz
Despite having a more impressive record than Evans, Ortiz has to be ranked underneath the woefully nicknamed "Sugar" Rashad. After their draw-decision, Evans went on to beat Michael Bisping, while Ortiz went on to be a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice. Trump busted a nut over Tito so hard that even though he lost his position on the show, Ortiz received an extra bit of coin from that scowling bag of bones and cash. Swell and all, but shouldn't he be, like, training? What was with Gene Simmons on that show, anyway? "I'll fire anybody...I'll fire Donald Trump." The fuck? Ortiz should have continued his winning streak against over-the-hill wackos and dropped some sweet elbows on that guy's face.

14. Vladimir Matyushenko
Another unfortunate nickname, "The Janitor." Self fulfilling prophecy? Maybe. Matyushenko has got himself a nice win streak and a championship belt working in the under-appreciated IFL. However, he's been "cleaning up" (lol) mid-to-lower tier fighters, which make it difficult to put too much weight on his victories.
A tko over the tough but inexperienced Jamal Patterson is nice, and the same goes for his decision win over the newly appreciated Tim Boetsch. Yet, wins over the currently self-destructing Justin Levens and mediocre Aaron Stark don't do a lot for his upward mobility. If he's planning to make one final rush at the big time, those fights will soon stop lending him momentum and start wasting his time. I get the feeling, though, that that final shot at great UFC-style glory is not forthcoming. He did, after all, have a stint in the UFC already, with only fair results. His game hasn't changed much since then--confounding for many, but exploitable by top level mixed martial artists. I think we can expect Matyushenko to ride out the rest of his career as the champion of a respectable but unspectacular stable of fighters

15. Thiago Silva
All the hype around Silva is a little inexplicable to me. He makes this list by virtue of a decent record, sure, but also the inactivity and inconsistency of others (specifically Jason Lambert, Ricardo Arona, and the rebuilding Renato Sobral). His win over James Irvin was due to a knee injury on Irvin's part, and his tko victory against Tomasz Drwal was preceeded by an incredibly sloppy, sluggish one and a half rounds that exposed Silva's propensity for getting hit in the face and getting tired.
His fight with Houston Alexander, while decent, didn't help quell any doubts, either. Alexander was himself a bit over hyped, after all, and while the tko from mount was impressive (albeit predictable) Alexander failed to effectively test Silva's in-fight longevity. A fight with Rashad Evans would be excellent for both parties, as it would pit Evans up with a high-level striker and Silva up with someone who will push him deeper into the fight.