Overeem now no.2 top heavyweight
1. Junior dos Santos (1): As great a striker as Overeem is, I favor dos Santos in their eventual heavyweight…
1. Junior dos Santos (1): As great a striker as Overeem is, I favor dos Santos in their eventual heavyweight title fight because I think dos Santos will prove to be quicker to the punch and capable of out-landing Overeem. I don’t think Overeem is the man to take the title from dos Santos.
2. Alistair Overeem (3): The last time Overeem lost an MMA fight, it was to Sergei Kharitonov in 2007. Overeem is a completely different fighter now than he was then — physically he has undergone a transformation that has seen him put on about 30 pounds of muscle, and he’s a much more effective striker now. It’s remarkable how far Overeem has come.
3. Cain Velasquez (2)
4. Frank Mir (8)
5. Fabricio Werdum (5)
6. Daniel Cormier (6)
7. Brock Lesnar (4): If Lesnar is really retired I’ll remove him from the heavyweight rankings, but I’ll keep ranking him for now while we see if he changes his mind. It would be easy to view Lesnar’s MMA career as a disappointment considering how his losses to Overeem and Velasquez went down, but it was a lot of fun to watch this incredible physical specimen could dominate good opponents like Heath Herring, Randy Couture and Frank Mir, and I’ll never forget the heart he showed in his comeback victory over Shane Carwin. He’s been great for the sport.
8. Shane Carwin (7)
9. Josh Barnett (9)
10. Antonio Silva (10)
Note: The individual fighter’s ranking the last time we did heavyweights are in parentheses.