It’s been about 6 months since we released fighter rankings, and I’m sure there will be some surprises in this one. To start, some of the usual names are gone…either because they are under contract with a national show, or because they haven’t competed in a while. We’re constantly updating the way we do these rankings, and we decided that we’re not going to rank fighters as soon as we know they aren’t available to fight locally. So instead of waiting for guys to make their UFC/WEC debut before we remove them, as soon as we know they have a UFC/WEC fight signed, they come off the rankings…so guys like Will Kerr and Ricardo Funch have been removed.
Also, if guys haven’t been fighting often, we’ve pulled them off as well. 1 year is going to be our rough guide line, but it is just that, a guide line. So in some cases, guys haven’t fought in 14 months, but they have lost out on fights because of injuries, or something like that, we may leave them on. In other cases, If a guy hasn’t fought in something like 10 months, but hadn’t fought for another year prior to that, we may pull them prior to 12 months. As always, we put more stock into the wins than the losses. The reason for that, if two fighters are 4-0, and one of the 2 takes a tough fight and loses, we don’t want them to drop because they took a tough fight.
Oh, and we added a 135 pound division and seperated the 135ers from the 145ers.
Without further ado:
| Under 135 |
| 1. Paul Gorman |
| 2. Dan Ferrer |
| 3. Jason Bennett |
| 4. Leandro Escobar |
| 5. Matt Martin |
| 145 |
| 1. Jason McLean |
| 2. Ken Stone |
| 3. Anthony Leone |
| 4. Chris Grandmaison |
| 5. Josh LaBerge |
| 6. Justin Homsey |
| 7. Mike Gresh |
| 8. Dan Bonnell |
| 9. Tateki Matsuda |
| 10. Saul Almeida |
| 155 |
| 1. Rene Nazare |
| 2. Marc Stevens |
| 3. Calvin Kattar |
| 4. Pat Audinwood |
| 5. Hitalo Machado |
| 6. Tony Leate |
| 7. Glenn Brown |
| 8. John Benoit |
| 9. Rodrigo Almeida |
| 10. Aniss Alhajjajy |
| 170 |
| 1. Justin Torrey |
| 2. Mike Campbell |
| 3. Dennis Olson |
| 4. John Manley |
| 5. Nate LaMotte |
| 6. Tom Moreau |
| 7. Chandler Holderness |
| 8. Tim Pinney |
| 9. Nuri Shakir |
| 10. Ryan Schieding, Rick Hawn |
| 185 |
| 1. Nate Kittredge |
| 2. Dan Keefe |
| 3. Alexandre Moreno |
| 4. Woody Weatherby |
| 5. John Clarke |
| 6. Fred Belleton |
| 7. Jesse Peterson |
| 8. Scott Nichols |
| 9. Abe Pitrowski |
| 10. Elias Rivera, Dan Pasquarella |
| 205 |
| 1. Travis Bartlett |
| 2. Greg Rebello |
| 3. Karn Grigoriyan |
| 4. Josh Watson |
| 5. Ryan Contaldi |
| HWT |
| 1. Christian Morecraft |
| 2. Josh Diekmann |
| 3. Lee Beane |
| 4. Randy Smith |
| 5. Mike Mulligan, Shawn Galano |
Great rankings guys–I know these things are a bear to do.
Great to see “The Ghost” all the way up to number two at middleweight!
not starting trouble just think brent kinberger should be ranked. I know dan pasquarella hadn’t fought for awhile but after a 1 1/2 break beating lamont lister should get some consideration
Chandler Holderness fought last sat night against UFC vet Ryan the Lyon Madigan and beat him soundly in the first round. Gongrats Chandler
You’re absolutely right on both accounts. Brent is a tough guy to rank because he’s been fighting at 160, I believe. That’d make him a 170 pounder from a rankings standpoint, and he could easily be right there with Rick Hawn, but Hawn is undefeated with a recent win over Brendan Weafer. Has Brent fought at 155, or only 160?
On Dan, he could be ranked, but I had completely forgotten about him. It’s tough to know where he’d fall, as he hasn’t fought in a while. Elias Rivera had a similar layoff, and a similar recent win, so we’ll add Dan in with Elias at 10. I know he beat Keefe, but that seemed like forever ago. Dan may be able to beat many on the list, but recent activity is the biggest deciding factor in the rankings.
Tom Giove should be in there…
rick you guys do a great job. dan just fought in august and beat lamont lister. brent has fought at 155 once and the rest have been 165 170. no big deal just looking out for my guys. thank you and keep up the good work.
i think stone will not fight at 145 again…he will be fighting at 135 once his foot heals
stone will be fighting at 135 i dont think you will see him again at 145
congrats to hitalo and christian on two big jumps up the ranking!
Congrats to Jason McLean and Josh LaBerge!! FYI McLean just beat Ohio’s #1 ranked featherweight Cody Stevens by TKO. Also, congrats to Nate, Glenn and Abe.
CONGRATES TO JOSH LABERGE,U WORKED HARD TO GET WERE AT , YOULL BE IN THE BIG SHOW IN NO TIME KID,KEEP UP THE HARD WORK ,PROUD OF YA BRO !
LOL
ITS FUNNY ,A TOP10 BEST,HANGS WITH A TOP10 WORST,LOL!
i’m not so sure i agree with chuck o’neil not being in the top 10…did you forget about him Rick?
Giove had been talked about as top 5, but I had a hard time putting him above Matt Martin, who is #5. Matt beat Giove a while back, and when you look at recent wins, Martin looked good in a win over Nik Patnaude. If Martin doesn’t fight soon, I imagine Giove will take his spot in the rankings as he’s been pretty active.
As far as Chuck O’Neill goes, he had 3 good wins in a row, then lost to Tim Pinney in his only fight of 2009. He could have been in there instead of Schieding, or Hawn, but Hawn was 4-0 in 2009, and Schieding had 2 good wins since losing to Chuck. That was one of those weird situations where it was tough to decide. As I look back at it now, it’s nearly impossible to rank the last 3-4 guys. Nuri also lost his only fight of 2009, so Chuck could have been ranked right along with him. Usually there is 1 or 2 guys that should be ranked, but missed out due to a super tough weight class, and this time around it was Chuck.
Ross Wariner and Mike Zichelle were also borderline guys that just barely missed out. Bessette was close also…we could have ranked 13-14 guys at 155 and 170.
i’m just sayin, chuck has been unstoppable until pinney, who is a beast too…and chuck fought and he lost that one, but nuri is 1-6 in his last 7 fights, with his only win against travis lerchen at 170 lbs, who is now 155 – chuck has definitely been more impressive lately…however, i do know that nuri is a well respected veteran and great fighter…it’s definitely not easy to make the rankings, so I applaud you for making them all the time…and thanks for considering me close to the top 10…i’ll be there.
Do you want to be part of the guys who help with the rankings? Had someone pushed a little for Chuck the way you are now, I likely would have ranked him above Nuri, as you’re right..he has been more impressive lately. I could use another guy to talk to about the rankings, as at least once every time we put these out, someone has a view we hadn’t thought of that would have changed a guy or two.
No Tom Giove Love??? He should def get in there. Also Jason McLean is legit huh? Dude is def gonna be in the show soon…
Yeah absolutely, Rick. All i do is train, watch, and keep up with mma nationwide. I know/know of all those guys on the top list and they all deserve to be there in one way or another. Although I wouldn’t want to appear biased if I, or a friend of mine, (Oz Pariser), made that list in the near future, haha…so if you let me give my insight on all except the 155 ranking, i’d be down for that!
Even though I may disagree with some of the rankings, they are never far off and I can understand the rationale behind the order. I think an interactive process of ranking the fighters would be entertaining and productive. Rather than just asking users to make suggestions, maybe provide your initial rankings and start an open debate. Guys like Pasquarella and Nuri are great examples. These guys have been largely inactive, but there are many in the top 10 that would not want to fight either of them.
You could open the debate for a set amount of time (2 weeks). This could open dialogue and give camps and fans a chance to hype and market fighters. By encouraging this type of dialogue, users are almost given permission to question why fighter A hasn’t taken a fight against fighter B without being disrespectful.
Just a thought, good job with the rankings!
i didnt see Mr Nasty under the 170′s my boy has been on fire, 4 wins in a row, tough comp, and some great finishes. i need answers god damn it! j/k…but i think he deserves a spot, if not now, def on the next rankings
Fortier is also just outside the rankings. When I compare him and Schieding, Schieding gets the nod because even though he has some losses, they were to very good fighters…the guys Jay fought were tough, but not as tough (in my opinion) than the guys Ryan fought.
I love Fain’s idea also…I think we’ll go through our normal ranking process, then post preliminary rankings, then allow for readers, coaches, fans to give their input, then release final rankings…good idea.
Bessette-no big deal on the bias. We all are friends with guys in the rankings, so we’ll take the input across the board.
No Giant Lee love???
I like the debate idea too….I think activity plays a huge part too…Like Vaca fought once this year and hasnt won a fight in over a year..(I know he is tough and lost to Torrey 2x) however his recent fights he has been off..Bellaton hasnt fought in a year and it was a win against a 4-13 guy. I just mention these 2 as they hold high spots in the rankings. I am sure there are different guys who are active and could be there. I agree with Ed Carr (did I just say that?…lol) Dan should be higher even though he had an injury layoff he came back with an impressive win over Lamont Lister… Same thing w Nuri..who tough as nails hasnt really been active and no wins in over 1 1/2 years… with all this being said a debate will be interesting… Happy Thanksgiving!
First off, I want to say that this site is harder to get into than Ft. Knox. I think my password was something like FT67bnjhhui67%^5t76vgu5^&$ $3. Anyways… I’d agree with my brother not being ranked in the top 5, we all know he would be in the top 10 and hopefully someday he will be able to avenge some of his losses, 3 of whom are in the top 5 now. What I dont agree with is why Bill Mahoney wasn’t voted sexiest man alive…
ALSO, Eric Foley being left off is a travesty. Sure he lost twice to Morecraft (once on the night his wife was in the hospital giving birth) but morecraft is a beast who would smash anyone in the area short of Paul Barry if he was still fighting. Foley dominated Randy Smith, absolutely dominated Mulligan in their first matchup, and destroyed him in the first round of their 2nd matchup. Sure Mulligan came out on top (50 pounds is tough to overcome, especially when the fight was agreed upon as a 265 limit), but does anyone with any brain in their head think that a “normal” sized mulligan has any shot at beating Foley? I think not. The rankings are for heavywieghts not Super Heavywieghts. Make Mulligan the #1 superheavy…..or these two can both come out of “retirement” and settle it once and for all. We all want to see it and I don’t know how either of you can have a good taste in your mouth about being 1-1. There you have it, the 2 cents of a really small, incredibly loud mouthed , crazy person, who happens to love local mma, big fights and Eric Foley.
Just thought i would clear up any misunderstanding that there might be. There was no weight limits on the Mulligan and Foley fight, and we all agree that a rubber match is inevitable. We hope!!
ya ya ya ,!im glad i made the list , i that just gives me more reason to retire .always go out on top . as for a rematch ,i was all done after i knocked out dollof in june . gary said what will get you back . i said get me foley ! i didnt expect eric to take the fight but he did . he new the first fight i was on alot of meds to get me under the blood presure cap, and that made me dizzy from the moment we went down.so i thanked him for the rematch . eric new i was putting on the weight as he said i would be slower and get tiered faster ,so it was good for him . i had a plan to get stronger and learn how to defend his takedowns. i did both so it was a succesfull plan. the only time he took me down was my mistake with a slow front kick .our plan was if eric took me down to tie him up and where him out then get up .i took some good shots doing so but again i got up and he was spent ! another succesfull plan. so bottom line i took what i learned from my first fight and used it to win .eric is a great fighter and i have respect for him ,but that was a good plan and a good win.
the two main reasons for not fighting any longer is #1 respect for my wife . she doesnt like it and i promised her this was it . i love her and care about how she feels , so i will never break that promise.
#2 i took the blood preasure three times at our last fight and failed ! i had to basicly threaten the doc into letting me fight . this happens every fight one was even canceled . so not going through that again is a bonus.
if i was going to fight again with all that being said the way i think i would have to fight someone i havent beaten yet . so foley wouldnt be an option for me anyway . becides i thought he wanted to fight deakman ? ssseee yyyaaaa
Great post Mike. I can appreciate the integrity of holding a promise to your wife. HOWEVER- 1 & 1, you can’t let it stay at that. There needs to be a rubber match. I am sure Gary would set it up and it could be financially lucrative for you both (which is nice in this economy). Rubber matches represent some of the best wars and rights in history (boxing and MMA). There is NO looser in a rubber match when you look at it.
I think you showed everyone in the 2nd round that you have improved…and that in a 3rd fight we can expect a much more competitive fight.
The fans demand it! Foley, are you in?
That was a good game plan by The Hammer. Best of luck to you in your retirement from fighting and congrats on such a terrific career.
Foley you have nothing to hang your head about. You beat a really tough Mulligan fair and square the first time, then lived up to that unspoken warrior’s code that all serious fighters live by and gave him a rematch when you really didn’t owe him one considering you made him submit to you. You could have simply walked away or opted to fight someone in your own weight class or whom you have not beaten yet.
The Hammer is a real gamer and i’m sure it’s gonna eat away at him that he can’t live up to that warrior code the way you did due to those pesky blood pressure tests being a pain in the butt and all but can ya really blame the guy?
Great job to Linda, Gary and the whole CFX crew btw. Looking forward to some more great CFX cards in the future!
Brent Kinberger should be ranked for sure. Dan Pasquarella should be higher on the list hes a BEAST.
I would say that Bennet deserves to be higher ranked than 3,in the 135 category. That guy is just plain nasty. Also the fact that Campbell has already been up to the big show should put him ahead of Torrey . As for the heavyweights, I have yet to see Galindo fight anyone in shape or “under 50″, although he definitely has potential and is in awesome condition. But as anyone knows opinions are exactly that, opinions. The best looking division up there was the 170 category. Alot of those guys should be making plans to fight amongst themselves. In the 185 category, Zichelle should be up there soon, another dominant win should get him into the top 10…that should come in January!
I’m looking for fights email me shocka145@gmail.com
Chris grandmaison
micheal the hammer- I have two important questions for you, first, where did you learn to spell? And second, who did you please orally to get ranked in the top five heavywieghts? Top five cheeseburgers yes, but top five heavywieght fighters?
Just for the record, if anyone cares, we are not 1-1, we are 1.5 -1. Let me explain.
We all know you started your fight career many, many years ago, way back in May of 2009, against me (speaking of me, I was coming off a win over #4 ranked Smith, and coming off a tough loss to #1 ranked lord humongous) , anyways you remember your first fight, right? You only outweighed me by 35 lbs, and I made you quit ( I still have a nasty bruise on my back from where you tapped).
Anyways lets fast forward to July, we both had busy months, I was busy fighting ( for a second time) #1 Morecraft, and you, you were fighting Dolloff. wow. You are a true pioneer in this sport. The hall of fame should be calling soon. Do you see a pattern developing here? I’m fighting top guys, and your fighting dizzyness and the Large Angry Man.
Lets fast forward a little more to our second epic clash ( this time you outwiegh me by a whopping 58 lbs.) I was clearly winning (again), but I must give credit where credit is due, you and the ref did a terrific job in teaming up, sticking to that now famous game plan, and pulling off the win. I figured your partner was going to stand us back up when you were done smashing the back of my head 32 times, but instead he called the fight. Bravo to you both. Anyways, you did not make me tap, and you could not knock me out. Therefore it is 1.5 – 1.
Let us now recap, You are not a heavywieght fighter, you are just a big guy with an amazing November tan. I have fought 5 times against top 5 guys, and you fought Dolloff.
O.K, enough is enough, you are a cheeseburger and I am now challenging you to another fight. What do you say beast from hollywood east? And this time I will do something never done in the history of mma, I will submit you and knock you out at the same time. It will be glorious.
o it now speaks ! i under stand the little man thing is killing you ‘ i understand that you won a title by beating a then 296 # dollof ! you didnt mind the weight then and you thought he was great when you won the belt over him ! my first fight wasnt against you it was in new hampshire , my first loss was against you ,and it will be my last .as for were i learned spell it was plymouth, you know were i kicked your ass !so every day when you drive to work just think this is where i lost to mulligan ! as for my partner the ref , he saw what you couldnt see , a beaten man ! so on your best day you might have a chance but we will never know ! you are right though i never trained at anything until i was 43 . so exactly 2 years ago. now i quite at 45 years old .i feel prety damm good about that .so again i say ssseee yyaaa !
Number 5, you know its killing you. Your thinking, can I really beat Eric? I did not submit him. I did not knock him out. So why did I win? Eric made me quit back in May when I started my career. Wow this sucks just thinking about it. 1.5 – 1, wow.
No offense, but I have some advice on convincing your better half to allow you to compete again. Just play for her the Peter Cetera song from the Karate Kid pt. 2 (The glory of love) , and let her know I will allow you to throw the chair this time.
i think im going down to the keys for my retirement . go hang with buffet
o wait then i can be a cheeseburger in paridice !! fooly
not sure about the math think your still dizzy from all the punches .? 1.5 + 1 = 2.5 where did you learn math ? as for me this is great , your lotal disbelief that you the paper champ can loose to me will carrie me for years of contentment . thankyou for being there for me ! now i gave you the mike in the ring so you could do your thing and if i remember right i think you said you promised your wife when you hit 40 you would retire and so you did !ssoo did you play her the song or just beg ?
Congrats to Chandler Holderness on making the list at 170, fresh off a win over Madigan TKO 1:34 in the 1st, 2:01 faster than Tamdan’s tko.
Hey Ross, Congrats on almost making the list.But we both know were you stand your 4-0-0 next stop jan 22,for the championship belt.
Mulligan, we all know you are a fun-loving goofy kind of guy. As well, we all know you have a wierd relationship with Foley where you trash him and he trashes you, then you guys see each other and have a nice one-armed man-hug and all is forgiven. It’s all in good fun! All kidding aside though….please….sure you guys both retired but we all know that can be worked out with the wives, after all if they have as much respect for you guys as you do for them, they will understand and support you both. Truth of the matter is that Eric gave you a rematch when he didn’t have to and giving one back is the ONLY right thing to do. Not to mention it is the only way you can possibly salvage any bit of dignity out of this. Again all kidding aside, the only way to put this to rest and not make the rest of the local mma world think you are ducking someone who is calling you out is to fight….it is what NEEDS to happen, or the people that matter, the ones that were backstage and saw the absolute fear in your eyes immediately after your WWE style altercation, will forever know that you may be a bit more gutless than your body-type suggests.
^^^^^^^^
True…gotta have the rubber match!
sorry, while I’m here, anyone know if Torrey plans to fight anytime soon? I’d love to see him locally at 170….must be a beast!
LOLZ, HE CALLED THE GUY WITH THE GUT GUTLESS.
bonjovi or whatever your name is , its over ! i have finnished with what was basicly a bucket list thing . i came in trained my ass off with no notion of going anywere with it . i thought i would try 1 or 2 and be done . well im done i will still train so i can watch me son grow in the sport , and i just like being around it . eric is a great guy and your right we do like to mess with each other , if you google mulligan foley you get blackjack mulligan and mick (dude love) foley. so it must be the roots . as for all the other won didnt win bla bla bla whatever . im walking away satisfied with what i did in the time i did it in and at my age .
so say what you will , try as you may but im done and happy with my decision .so for the sake of the other people who dont care about this shit this is my last post on this issue. sseeeyyaaaa
Love it!
The way I see it, why talk crap if you have no intentions on a rematch? Im confused… Alot of checks being written but nothing is happening.
Leave me out of your love, hate battles Foley and Mulligan! Yea I fought both of you and would do it again. With foley I had fought Paul Barry (a true animal) a WEEK BEFORE! I had to loose 15 lbs. in less than a week to take the fight for Reality title. I went all three rounds and messed up while having advantage and gave up the posistion in which lead me to getting submitted? I lost !! Mulligan was another story If I could have fought him when I was suppose to for Matt Petersons first card I would have walked all over him! Friggin Blood Preasure?? When Gary told me about fight I was reluctant but had stated “ANY TIME ANY PLACE ” so I took fight and was clearly Winning first round took about 6 strikes it back of head Point taken away with no recovery time and still got up and went into the second round and took control and was winning when the tank went empty?? First time I went out like that. I Lost Big KO!! Refs play a huge part I have been kicked square in the balls, Teeth knocked out, Hair pulled, and punched repeadily in back of head at almost every venue? My last fight got nothing of the sort and felt like walking away for good? Then I remembered I like the pain from the competition, its what brings me back??? I live by true “WARRIOR” code die to fight, fight till you die!! As Varner would say can you give me a Hell Ya! I love this SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
M Giove, you clearly give love a bad name. Ah, the sweet science of smack talk. Anyways- hey Jason how’s it going? I haven’t seen you in a while, I hope everything is going well. I’m shocked to hear that the hammer would hit you in the back of the head. Anyways- Micheal the “Hammer”, I really enjoy these moments with you online, almost as much as our moments in the cage. Its obvious you are serious about your retirement. And if that is indeed true, I will miss you. You were the perfect adversary for me. I think your a great guy (no b.s.), and when I see you at the next show the first beer is on me. And your a big pu ssy ( just kidding ). Good luck in the future.
Mark Giove has a case of Purple Passion 3 litres left over from a sweet bender he threw in 1990 in back of Rockland Place and he’s willing to give it to the winner of a rematch.
^^^^^^^
awesome post!!!! lol!!!
Purple P’s are hard to come by these days…to sweeten the pot I may throw in some Zima’s.
for that i would gladly get in there and show foley how it’s done!
Foley and Mulligan. To be honest I believe that Mulligan shouldnt have to fight again. I was at the first fight between you too people and i noticed one thing. Mulligan was not fighting to his capacity. He was just in the ring doing nothing. He couldn’t. i also noticed that while mulligan was not being able to do anything you eric foley could still not knock him out and then you had to twist his arm in order to get the win. When you guys met up after for the rematch i knew right away you both wanted that win. only problem was that foley was winning the first round. by laying on mulligan while he controlling foleys footmovement. When the second round cam foley was gassed causing nothing but more laying and leaning. therefor the fully energized mulligan slammed and smashed with sidefists and short hits on the Side of foleys head until the ref knew that foley couldnt do anymore more than lean on mulligans stomach looking for him to unzipper his shorts to begin his feast. Mulligan lost the first. no doubt. and mulligan won the second fight. with a referee stoppage. not a “tapout” i would rather win by fight stoppage instead of laying and twisting somones arm in the third round. and for jason dolloff. you were fatter and slower the first time you were supposed to fight mulligan. excuses suck more than a french hooker.thanks.
Well DEBATE OVER! That Sports Illustrated-worthy break down of the two bouts has pretty much just owned any of the pro-rematch people here.
Wow! What an intellectual break-down of the two fights! And great theory on why there should be no re-match… Bravo.
Only problem is, this is mma… A “tapout” is the only time where the opposing fighter quits under his own power. He’s telling everyone that he’s done, it’s over, he doesn’t want anymore…
thewarriorcode…without even knowing you I KNOW you are one of mulligans juiced up fake muscle, fake tanned, half retards who, at the fights, is screaming “ELBO HIM IN THE NUTS”….save the planet, kill yourself.
sorry guys i think my young son doesnt understand the fine art of smack talk . ha got on line and saw your loveing comments and took offence . so take no offence just a proud 17 year old kid .
That unzipped feast would have been amazing (if it wasnt for that pesky ref).
I have been gone for so long. I am so pumped after watching Eric and The Hammah go back and forth. I got to get back in there. There is no way these two can not have a third fight.