UFC 121 Predictions: Special Halloween Edition

This Saturday, the UFC is putting on an amazing card of fights. And with Halloween rapidly approaching, the all important question is not “Can Cain Velasquez shock the world by defeating Brock Lesnar?” Nor is it, “Can Martin Kampmann pull off another huge upset by beating Jake Shields?” Those are important questions of course, but the pale in comparison to this one: “Which UFC 121 fighter is the scariest looking pirate?? ARRRR!!!”

Welcome to the UFC 121 Special Halloween Edition. Candidates for best pirate are:

1.) Gilbert Yvel (super-tatooed pirate pictured top-right.)

2.) Brock Lesnar (Viking pirate pictured bottom right.)

3.) Court McGee (black-bearded pirate pictured top-left.)

4.) Tom Lawlor (all around scruffy guy pictured bottom-left.)

While I’m at it, here are …

My UFC 121 Picks:

MAIN CARD:

Brock Lesnar (5-1) over Cain Velasquez (8-0)

Cain Velasquez is the more well rounded fighter of the two. Brock has more raw power in his strikes and he's probably the better wrestler of the two, but his stand-up is still pretty awful. The fight really comes down to whether Cain can keep it standing. I think he might for a round or maybe two. This is where Brock is supposed to fall victim to Cain’s superior striking. While Cain is a better technical striker than Brock, Lesnar has more power behind his punches and might just surprise everyone. In any event, Brock will survive early and be taking Cain down at will after second round. Cain is even good enough on the ground to hold keep Brock from finishing the fight quickly, but he won’t be able to hold him off indefinitely. Brock Lesnar wins by ground and pound TKO in the 4^th round.

Jake Shields (25-4) over Martin “The Hitman” Kampmann (17-3)

Strikeforce Champion and Elite XC Champion -- both of those titles were taken away by circumstances, not by but Jake losing them in a title fight. Shields is an absolute beast on a 5 year, 14 fight win streak. He's an elite wrestler and extremely good at sinking submissions. This is one of the most intriguing match-ups of the evening. Martin Kampmann is getting quite the reputation for being the underdog in high profile fights, and unexpectedly pulling out the upset. He spoiled Carlos Condit's UFC welcome party and coming in as an underdog he's beaten Thales Leites, Drew McFedries, Jorge Rivera and Paulo Thiago.

Shields definitely has the grappling and submissions advantage over just about anyone at 170 lbs, but Kampmann is no slouch in that department. Kampmann was a Thai Boxing champion in Denmark before his mixed martial arts career. Martin should have a significant advantage in the standup, but Shields has neutralized far more dangerous strikers than Kampmann – including the man who KO’d Kampann just one year ago, Paul Daley. Shields is coming off the biggest win of his career thus far over another lethal striker/wrestler Dan Henderson. If Shields wins, he gets a title shot against Georges St. Pierre. There is no word yet whether Kampmann will get a title shot with a victory, so it would probably depend on how impressive he is. It’s not going to matter anyways. Jake Shields wins this by 3^rd round submission.

Paulo Thiago (13-2) over Diego “The Nightmare” Sanchez (21-4)

Diego Sanchez used to be almost unstoppable. He was undefeated through his first 17 fights and he most certainly lived up to his nickname, “The Nightmare.” He’s one of those fighters with the complete package of skills. Wrestling, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, striking and he’s good at all of them. But I think Diego is fading. The relentless pace and attack that made Diego Sanchez so dangerous has slowed. Meanwhile, Paulo Thiago is the hungrier, more dangerous fighter right now. He's probably Diego's equal in grappling and I’d say he hits a bit harder in the standup. Diego and Paulo are both coming off of disappointing losses. Nobody has ever stopped Diego – BJ Penn cut him Diego and that fight was stopped by the doctor, but Diego has never been knocked out nor submitted. I think Paulo gets it done by Unanimous Decision.

Matt “The Hammer” Hamill (9-2) over “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Tito Ortiz (15-7)

Classic student vs mentor match up, Tito was Matt Hamill’s coach on The Ultimate Fighter 3. Hamill was favored to win TUF, but was sidelined by injury. Tito Ortiz used to be an MMA god. He successfully defended the Light Heavyweight title 5 times – a mark which no other Light Heavyweight has reached to this day. But Tito has been plagued with injuries and he's just not the fighter he used to be.

Matt Hamill is one of those inspiring stores of overcoming adversity. Matt is completely deaf and has been all his life, but he's an extremely dangerous wrestler and striker. Ortiz is coming off a big loss and a disappointing withdrawal from coaching yet another season of The Ultimate Fighter due to injury. Matt Hamill was absolutely manhandled by Jon “Bones” Jones (just like everyone else Jon Jones has fought recently) but won the fight by a controversial disqualification. Matt bounced back with a win over Keith Jardine. Matt will beat Ortiz and probably any other Light Heavyweight that’s not in the top 10. Matt Hamill by second round TKO.

Brendon “The Hybrid” Shaub (6-1) over Gabriel “Napão” Gonzaga (11-5)

A very interesting match-up, this pits "The Ultimate Fighter runner up who could” against the guy with the most stunning and brutal knockout in MMA history. Shaub keeps proving everyone wrong and winning in against the odds. And Brendon isn’t just winning, he’s knocking guys out in the first round.

Gonzaga has been off and on ever since he dropped Mirko Cro-Cop with the nastiest head-kick I've ever seen. Gonzaga has consistently won against every non-elite fighter. This is a big step up for Shaub, but I think he’s ready for it. Brendon’s star is rising and this is his big moment to shine. This fight could definitely go either way but I think Shaub wins by knockout in round 3.

UNDERCARD ON SPIKE TV:

Court “The Crusher” McGee (12-1) over Ryan Jensen (15-6)

The most recent "The Ultimate Fighter" winner, Court McGee will be making his post TUF debut. Ryan Jensen has been around the UFC for awhile, racking up a mixed bag of wins and losses. Among all the small local fights in Utah, Court McGee has one big-time fight on his record -- a Unanimous Decision loss to the legendary Jeremy Horn (87-20), accounting for Court's only loss on record. That was three years ago. No shame in losing one to Jeremy Horn, so many other great fighters have as well, and he made a good fight of it. Court is a bit raw, but he gets the job done against a mid-level UFC veteran. I think McGee has this one by 2^nd round submission.

As for the rest:

Patrick “The Predator” Côté (13-6) over “Filthy” Tom Lawlor (6-3)

NON-TELEVISED UNDERCARD:

“Ninja” Daniel Roberts (10-1) over Mike “The Joker”Guymon (12-3)

Sam “Hands of Stone” Stout (15-6) over “Relentless” Paul Taylor (10-5)

“The Ox” Dong Yi Yang (9-0) over Chris Camozzi (13-3)

Gilbert “The Hurricane” Yvel (36-15) over Jon Madsen (6-0)

This should be a great night of fights! Happy Halloween everyone!

UFC 113 – Shogun Slays the Dragon, But Can He Break the The Iceman Curse?

UFC 113 has come and gone. It was a bitter-sweet evening of fights for me. I correctly predicted every fight winner on the main card up to the main event. Then Mauricio “Shogun” Rua caught the champion – and my favorite fighter – Lyoto Machida flush on the temple. For the first time ever, The Dragon was seriously hurt. After dropping the champion and following with a flurry of punches, the fight was over quick as you could blink. And now we have a new Light Heavyweight Champion in the UFC.

I was impressed with Shogun a long time ago when he dominated the ranks in Pride FC. But when he lost his first UFC fight to Griffin had me extremely puzzled. Was Maricio "Shogun" Rua more hype than substance? Could it be that the best 205 pound fighter from Pride FC was really this unimpressive? That would mean that Pride FC's 205 pound equivalent division was just vastly inferior to the UFC all along! Were all their amazing Light Heavyweight fighters just mediocre at best?

I'm glad that Shogun is back and a lot of those doubts are dispelled from my mind. I was sold on him after Machida vs Shogun 1. But on Saturday, after he knocked out Lyoto Machida in the first round, I was absolutely speechless! Very impressive Mr. Rua!

But can Shogun break a long-standing curse?

Lets look back in time for a moment. The date was May 26, 2007. Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell, one of the most dominant Light Heavyweight champions in UFC history, fought Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in his fifth title defense. Just one minute and 53 seconds into the first round, Rampage Jackson had dropped The Iceman, took his title and ended the Liddell era.

Chuck Liddell was a continuation of a noteworthy legacy in the UFC's 205 lbs divsion. The very first Light Heavyweight Champion, Frank Shamrock defended the title four times and only lost the title by leaving the UFC and having it stripped. Tito Ortiz succeeded Shamrock, and tallied an impressive reign of five title defenses. With four successful title defenses, Chuck Liddell was the continuation of a proud line of dominance at 205 pounds. He was also the last one.

After taking the title from Chuck Liddell, Rampage chalked up a mediocre five round decision win over Dan Henderson in his first title defense. Jackson went on to lose his title in his next fight against Forrest Griffin.

Forrest lost the title in his very first defense to Rashad Evans by technical knock out.

Rashad Evans got knocked out by Lyoto Machida in his very first title defense.

Lyoto Machida was handed a judges decision win over Shogun in their first fight -- a decision win that should have been a loss. And on Saturday, he was knocked out by Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 113.

As it stands right now, the UFC Light Heavyweight Title seems to be cursed. Maybe we can call it “The Iceman Curse.” Whether you’re superstition or not, it’s a simple fact that nobody seems to be able to hold onto that belt for very long.

In the next few days, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua will no doubt be lauded as the greatest 205 pound champion in UFC history. People will sound off about how Shogun will defend the title ten times and then retire. It seems to be standard procedure for a new champion who takes the title in such stunning fashion.

But let’s not forget, many people (myself included) also believed that Lyoto Machida would be first dominant champion since Chuck Liddell. Obviously, we couldn’t have been more wrong.

Shogun is an amazing fighter with an iron chin, incredible striking ability, a relentless pace and a strong ground game. He’s also only 28 years old, with plenty of fights left in him. He has all the attributes to break the curse and dominate the division.

Shogun is also the new champion of a division of scary fighters. I think he’ll handle the winner of Rashad vs. Rampage without much trouble, but both men are skilled enough to make a good fight of it. Neither man is going to give Shogun an easy win.

And after that, there are a lot of other dangerous guys moving into the title picture. Jonny “Bones” Jones, Forrest Griffin, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Thiago Silva, Ryan Bader and Randy Couture are all lurking about looking for a title shot.

And probably most significant of all, Anderson Silva might come calling for shot at Shogun’s title.

Can Shogun hang onto the most slippery belt in the UFC today? I think he’s the man to do it, but until he defends his title a couple times, you’ve got to wonder if The Iceman Curse is still in effect.

Could Anderson Silva One Day Hold Three Belts At the Same Time?

The day is May 8, 2010. After a grueling two rounds of striking and counterstriking, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua catches the champion. Lyoto Machida goes down hard. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua is proclaimed winner over Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida by third round knockout.

With Bruce Buffer making it official, "And new undisputed Light Heavyweight Champion of the world ..." Seven months of controversy ends, and the Shogun era begins.

That's just one of the things that absolutely must happen if my crazy future for Anderson Silva to happen.

And I'm already hedging my bets there. I've got Machida winning that fight by knockout.

But setting that aside let's wander a little further down this hypothetical future road. If The Dragon were to lose to Shogun in extremely convincing fashion, then nobody would be clamoring for a rubber-match fight.

Meanwhile, the UFC manages to put together the superfight fans have been clamoring for: Anderson Silva vs George St Pierre.

Brimming with confidence in his consensus best pound for pound figther in the world, Dana White will want this matchup to happen at Welterweight.

According to a recent interview, Anderson Silva is very interested in testing himself at Welterweight. As the former Shooto Champion at 168 lbs, "The Spider" can certainly make it at Welterweight.

And is there any Welterweight that fans would rather see Anderson Silva face than George? Absolutely not, it's GSP or nothing!

Of course it will be up to Dana White to make this a title fight -- a move that would be very good for pay per view sales. Good for sales + Good for publicity = Dana White will be all for it.

So what happens if Anderson Silva wins a Welterweight superfight with George St Pierre? He becomes the first ever champion to hold two titles in two weight divisions at the same time in the UFC.

Now back to our other story at Light Heavyweight. With Lyoto Machida left out in the cold with no title shot in his immediate future, who is the most compelling challenger to face Shogun next? You better believe it, Anderson Silva!

It reads a lot like a good novel. With Lyoto Machida defeated and left out of the title picture for the foreseeable future, Lyoto's best friend and steps up to defend his honor. Anderson Silva challenges Mauricio "Shogun" Rua for the the Light Heavyweight Championship.

If Anderson Silva wins that fight, he claims the triple crown -- becoming the first mixed martial arts fighter to ever hold three titles consecutively in the world best MMA promotion.

Since he can't possible keep up with title defenses for all three belts, he would have to vacate from two of them. Probably Welterweight and Middleweight.

Or he could retire from the sport completely. Nothing quite like going out with a bang, right?

Not a bad way to make your mark as the best fighter in the history of MMA Mr Spider!

Roy Nelson: The Frogfish That Ate the Lionfish

Sometimes you can just tell that an athlete is going to do great things just by looking at them. It's something about the way they carry themselves or the set of their eyes. There's an undeniable spark there and you can't help but feel it.

Roy Nelson is not one of those athletes. At 6' even, he's not particularly tall for a Heavyweight. He doesn't have muscles popping out all over the place. There's such a thing as an intimidating looking fat guy, and Roy Nelson isn't an example of it.

At Ultimate Fight Night 21, "Big Country" did it again. He went in against an opponent who could easily fit on a poster captioned: "This is what an MMA fighter is supposed to look like." Despite that fact, Nelson knocked out the physically impressive looking 6'11" 248 lbs Stefan Struve in 39 seconds.

It reminds me of something that happened at a local public aquarium where my wife worked a few years ago. One of the most interesting and intimidating looking creatures they had there was a Lionfish . With poisonous spines poking out in all directions and an aggressive disposition, you simply accepted that everything was going to stay out of this thing's way. And I must say, the lionfish just looked awesome.

In the same tank, there was another fish that was about the same size. It was a fairly hideous creature that I mistook for a painted rock the first time I saw it. As my wife informed me, this was a Frogfish . I never could get over how ugly the thing was, but I figured its natural camouflaging appearance would help it stay clear of the lionfish.

One day, when I was picking my wife up for work, I noticed the lionfish was gone. My wife informed me that the frogfish had swallowed the lionfish whole!

Roy Nelson is a lot like that frogfish and both Brendan Schaub and Stefan Struve were like the lionfish. To look at them, you'd have never imagined Roy Nelson would knock out both men in the very first round!

As fans, we look at him and we have a terrible time accepting that this squat fat man is one of the deadliest fighters on the planet. We can't imagine him beating top fighters at Heavyweight.

Roy Nelson has racked up a career record of 15 wins and 4 losses. Eight of those wins were by knockout. The only loss he has ever suffered by stoppage was to former UFC Heavyweight Champion, Andrei Arlovski. In a sport where undefeated records are close to non-existant, a stoppage loss to a fighter of that caliber is no great shame at all.

Roy Nelso was the two time defending IFL champion before ever coming to the UFC.

In short, Roy Nelson proved that notwithstanding his unintimidating appearance, he was a very dangerous man.

After two fights in the UFC, Roy Nelson has racked up the same result: First round knockout. Nobody in the UFC has made it to the second round yet!

But after winning The Ultimate Fighter 10: Heavyweights and two impressive victories in the octagon, I've got to wonder this: How many times does Roy Nelson have to prove fans wrong before they'll accept him for the elite fighter that he is?

It Begins

This blog is a long time in coming. After writing and commenting on Bleacher Report's MMA section for a long time now and hanging around in other MMA communities online, I'm finally deciding to take writing about MMA a little more seriously ... or perhaps I've decided to take my obsession with MMA to the next level. Is there a difference?

After going by Ed J Pickle McNasty III for well over a year, I changed my display name to my real name. It was a lovely pen name that I never figured would go anywhere, and I didn't care. But it's hard to be taken seriously when your name is a joke, right?

So much going on in the MMA world. "The fat kid who could," Roy Nelson is turning some heads with two straight first round knockouts. Shane Carwin is back in action and knocking out "the world's biggest loudmouth" Frank Mir. UFC 112 is almost upon us with it's two, "you seriously call this guy a title contender?" title fights.

Strikeforce is about to do their second CBS broadcast. The biggest shocker in the past two years: Alistair Overeem might actually defend his SF title!! I'm believing it when I see him in the cage.

That's all I got for now.

Young Guns' Sweep Completed: Retiring of the Old Guard at Heavyweight

by

Kevin Sampson

Correspondent Written on March 29, 2010

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Results - Author Poll

Which of these four men will be Champion in the end?

• Brock Lesnar 29.4%

• Shane Carwin 35.3%

• Cain Velasquez 18.5%

• Junior dos Santos 16.8%
• Total votes: 119

Who are the greatest heavyweights in MMA history?

Any list should include: Randy Couture, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Frank Mir, Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman, Mirko “Cro-Cop” Filipović, Josh Barnett, Fedor Emelianenko, Bas Rutten, Mark Kerr, Dan Severn, Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski and Ken Shamrock.

Some have faded into retirement, and some are still fighting today.

How many are legitimate contenders for the UFC Heavyweight title? None!

In contrast to every other division, the UFC heavyweight division has been completely cleaned out by newer, younger, and terrifyingly good fighters.

After UFC 111, the heavyweight division has just completed its total rebirth. Old familiar legends have been dropping like flies and new faces have taken over the division.

The first step was on April 21, 2007 at UFC 70. Coming in as a huge underdog, Gabriel Gonzaga delivered a crushing head kick to Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović . After that day, Cro-Cop would never be the dominant fighter he once was.

Cro-Cop would put his career back together, and took yet another run at success in the UFC. Unfortunately for Mirko, Junior dos Santos was in the way, and Junior stopped his return to greatness dead in its tracks at UFC 103.

Nov. 15, 2008, at UFC 91, Brock Lesnar defeated legendary champion Randy Couture by TKO and took his Heavyweight Title. Couture tried to come back, but lost the very next fight to Antonio "Minotauro" Rodrigo Nogueira, effectively ending his heavyweight career in MMA.

Josh Barnett has effectively juiced his way to irrelevance. He might be great, but can he stay off the steroids long enough for it to matter? At this point, he UFC is going to be as interested in Barnett as a blood bank in interested in a 30 year heroine junkie.

Fedor Emelianenko is not a factor in the UFC title hunt for obvious reasons. He's not in the UFC, and I don't think he ever will be. That is by his own choice of course.

After beating Randy Couture at UFC 102, Nogueira was back in the title picture and looking to move a step closer to a shot at the belt.

At UFC 110, the always impressive legend Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira was dropped well out of title contention at the hands of Cain Velasquez with a vicious first round knockout.

Coming into UFC 111, only one legend from the past was clinging to legitimate title contention. Frank Mir had already been thoroughly beaten at UFC 100, but his loud mouth, trash-talking, and an impressive first round win against Cheick Kongo had him back in the hunt.

At UFC 111, Shane Carwin’s crushing TKO victory dropped the final legendary heavyweight form title contention.

Frank Mir’s loss to Carwin finished the sweeping out of the old guard. The Heavyweight Division is now ruled by four new faces:

Brock Lesnar

Shane Carwin

Cain Velasquez

Junior dos Santos

Which one will reign supreme as the undisputed UFC Heavyweight Champion?

Fear This: Shane Carwin Destroys Mir, Earns Title Fight with Brock Lesnar

by

Kevin Sampson

Correspondent Written on March 27, 2010

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Results - Author Poll

Who will win at UFC 116, Brock or Shane

• Shane Carwin 63.9%

• Brock Lesnar 36.1%
• Total votes: 61

After many months of speculation and hype, Shane Carwin has finally fought again.

This wasn't just any fight.

This was biggest fight of his life to date. Taking on the one and a half time UFC Heavyweight Champion is no small challenge (and yes, I'm counting his time as Interim Champion as 1/2).

This is the rededicated Frank Mir who went from pure submissions artist to knocking out Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Cheick Kongo in brutal fashion. This is the Frank Mir that desperately wanted to avenge his loss to Brock Lesnar.

All he had to do was get past Shane Carwin.

Well, it didn't exactly play out that way. After this one-sided beatdown, Mir is just going to have to wait.

To his credit, this is the longest fight of Carwin's career—and that's not saying much since he too didn't survive the very first round.

No shame in that Frank. Nobody has ever survived one round with "The Engineer."

The almost forgotten mass of hype seems to have been confirmed. Shane Carwin is the real deal! The man is a beast!

It was absolutely shocking to see, even though I said it would happen. Shane Carwin was grinding away at Frank Mir in the clinch. And then Shane got one of those sledgehammer fists free, and let his left hand fly with devastating results.

Mir was stunned . Several more of those crushing left hands and Mir crumpled to the floor, where Shane Carwin pounded out the victory. UFC fighters and fans alike got a resounding reminder that this man has the most dangerous hands in all of MMA.

This means we'll see a fresh face to challenge Brock Lesnar for the title at UFC 116 on July 3. Frank Mir already accounts for two-fifths of Brock Lesnar's career fights, so I'm glad we won't be seeing Brock Lesnar vs Frank Mir 3 in July.

Mir is a first-rate fighter, but he was manhandled by Brock twice already. Time to see another challenger with a different skill set. And Carwin should give Brock all he can handle!

Brock is faster and probably a slightly better wrestler than Shane Carwin. Still, the disparity in wrestling skill is much less significant than you see when comparing Brock Lesnar to Frank Mir.

Carwin has better hands than Brock with more dangerous knockout power. He has Brazilian Jiu Jitzu skills, which is something that Brock Lesnar has never given us any indication of in his fights.

It's impossible to say whether Brock or Shane is the stronger man. If I had to guess, I'd say Brock but how can we truly know for certain?


As for the other results from UFC 111:

Matt Riddle might be the first fighter to win by DQ that I can remember who was absolutely dominating the fight right up to the disqualifying blow by Greg Soto . Not much reason to complain about this result.

Jared Hamman ground out a convincing three round Unanimous Decision over Rodney Wallace.

Rousimar Palhares brings his tally of heel-hook submission wins to five. His latest victim was Tomasz Drwal . With five of his 11 total victories, I think we can safely guess what Palhares favorite move is.

Ricardo Almeida pulls out a somewhat unexpected win by rear-naked choke over Matt Brown .

We're going to be subjected to Nate Diaz' loud obnoxious mouth a whole lot in the near future, as the younger Diaz brother absolutely destroyed Rory Markham by ground and pound TKO in round one. Diaz has every right to be proud of this victory, but you just know that we're all going to want to duct-tape his mouth shut in the next few days.

Jim Miller squeezes out a razor close Unanimous Decision victory over Mark Bocek .

Jon Fitch wins by Unanimous Decision once again, adding Ben Saunders to his list of victims. That brings Fitch's UD tally to 12, and we should now be able to comfortably modify his name to Jon "UD" Fitch.

I love Jon Fitch, but I do wish he'd finish an opponent every now and again. He won in dominant fashion though, and hopefully this locks up a title shot for Fitch.

Batman returns! Kurt Pellegrino came, he saw, he choked Fabricio Camoes out in the second round. Slightly surprising ending as Caomes looked like the busier submissions fighter at the beginning of the fight.

And in the main event, George "Rush" St Pierre did to Dan Hardy exactly what everyone expected: He issued a non-stop beat-down to "The Outlaw" from start to finish. Props to Dan Hardy for actually surviving that brutal beating for a full five rounds!

Quite a night of fights!

Black Power Triumphs – UFC on Versus

by

Kevin Sampson

Correspondent Written on March 23, 2010

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Results - Author Poll

Who's winning streak will end first, Jones or Junior?

• Jon Jones 53.3%

• Junior Dos Santos 46.7%
• Total votes: 30
  

Sunday was a very black day indeed.

1.) First off, the Black House triumphed again! Blazing hot Junior Dos Santos took out Gabriel Gonzaga with an impressive first round knockout. Shame on anyone who still doubts “Cigano” the man looks like an unstoppable force right now.

Can somebody get this man a title shot already? The Black House gym already three of Zuffa’s title belts (Lyoto Machida, Anderson Silva and Jose Aldo). Let’s see if they can make it four!

Ideally, Brock Lesnar’s second-string dance partner for this summer, Cain Velasquez would be the ideal match up for Junior. Just as long as Brock does not require Cain’s services as substitute title-fighter of course.

2.) If anyone ever wanted to know, “what is the best strategy for beating Paul Buentello in embarrassing fashion,” Cheick Kongo has shown us the way.

Paul is a boxer-brawler with incredible punching power, but he’s not very good with his kicks and striking from the outside. He’s also a pretty mediocre grappler though has very good takedown defense.

Formula to win: Fight a striking match with kicks from the outside. When Paul Buentello inevitably closes to unload a flurry of punches, immediately shoot for the takedown. Deny him the chance to stand and trade punches.

But here’s the trick: You’ve got to successfully score the takedown. Prior to Sunday night, if you had told me that Cheick Kongo would take Buentello down at will, I’d have laughed.

I’m not laughing now!

Welcome to the UFC Cheick Kongo the wrestler and takedown artist. What did you do to the old Cheick Kongo anyways?

Soon, we may find ourselves bidding a fond farewell to Paul Buentello’s latest run in the UFC. Paul is one of the last extremely successful one-dimensional fighters in MMA.

I can’t imagine that Dana White will give up on “The Headhunter” just yet. He’ll definitely get one more fight. Lose that one and Dana will send Buentello packing. Three strikes in a row and your out.

3.) Jon Jones doubters have been put on notice. Not only can “Bones” can beat down the best of them. He can consistently make very good fighters look very bad.

What more can be said than this: This was Brandon “The Truth” Vera. You remember, that one guy that Randy Couture simply couldn’t figure out how to take down despite three rounds of trying?

That same Brandon Vera got taken down EASILY by Jon Jones. Not just once but more or less at will. If Vera had survived into the later rounds, this would have been a takedown and slam festival.

Let us offer our deepest condolences to Brandon’s face. The elbow Jones delivered to stop the fight broke Vera's face in three places.

Matt Hamill got a dislocated shoulder courtesy of Jonny “Bones” Jones. Brandon Vera got a shattered face. Now you’ve gotta wonder, who’s crazy enough to be Jones’ next victim?

This was an excellent showing and an excellent card. The clearest indication that it was a very good night: There were THREE recipients for knockout of the night honors.

UFC Title Fight Round Up Part Two: Welterweight – The British Are Coming!

by

Kevin Sampson

Correspondent Written on March 11, 2010

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Results - Author Poll

Who is the biggest threat to GSP right now?

• Dan Hardy 17.2%

• Jon Fitch 13.8%

• Paul Daley 22.4%

• Paulo Thiago 8.6%

• Josh Koscheck 13.8%

• Nick Diaz 8.6%

• BJ Penn 15.5%
• Total votes: 58
  

This year should be an interesting year in Mixed Martial Arts. The return of Brock Lesnar, the rematch of Machida vs Shogun and Strikeforce making it's run at trying to compete with the UFC.

The UFC is currently blessed with three champions that every MMA expert out there considers unbeatable kings of their divisions: BJ Penn, George St Pierre and Anderson Silva.

But saying that a fighter is unbeatable is one thing. It must be put to the test fight after fight in order to remain true. Some voices out there clamor for the dominant champions to retire so their divisions can be interesting again.

I couldn't disagree more.

There is absolutely nothing in this world that does more to promote your sport like a dominant champion. How much did Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson hurt boxing by their domination? They didn't. All they did was massively increase the popularity of boxing.

The Miami Dolphins, Pittsburg Steelers, San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots all took turns dominating football, and the sport has risen to greater popularity than anyone would have imagined.

There's nothing like a living legend to put your sport on the map. New fans have something constant for a point of reference in each weight division. Long-time fans can spend countless hours trying to figure out "who's gonna beat the champ and how are they gonna to do it?"

Almost across the board, the title picture for each and every weight class gives us plenty to talk about.

So proceeding to Welterweight:

Current Champion: George St Pierre [19 wins, 2 losses] George St Pierre is an incredible athlete. His only career losses were to former or future champions and in both cases a valuable lesson was learned. Against Hughes he learned that too much respect for your opponent was foolishness. Against Serra he learned that in spite of his outstanding striking skills, anyone can get caught on the button and knocked out.

So you have to prevent it from ever happening again. George has adapted his game to avoid losing to strikers by nullifying their ability to strike in the clinch and in takedowns. His ground game completely outclasses any Welterweight in the world today. The trouble with finding good match ups for GSP is simple: He's already beaten all the best Welterweights in the world.

So what do you do? For now you go to up-and-coming stars. And when that fails you resort to rematches with guys he's already beaten.

Next challenger for Welterweight Title: Dan Hardy

Dan Hardy [23-6] - "The Outlaw" is unquestionably a tough fighter with a lot of talent. Hardy is probably a better fighter that a lot of people give him credit. He hasn't lost by stoppage in five years. He's on a 4-0 win streak in the UFC. What we've seen from Dan Hardy is a fighter, who consistently wins, but not always in impressive fashion. Against GSP, Dan would need to stop an unstoppable takedown machine. Once it goes to the ground, it's all GSP. Hardy is tough and he'll make a fight out of it, but I don’t think his takedown defense is up to the task.

My prediction: St Pierre by ground and pound TKO/KO in round 3.

Contenders who are on the verge of a title shot:

John Fitch [21-3] - Fitch is an amazing fighter. With a record of 11 wins and 1 loss in the UFC, nobody has ever beaten him in the octagon but GSP. The problem with Fitch is that he's not that much different of a fighter since losing a five round beat-down to GSP two years ago. If he beats Thiago Alves and earns himself a title shot, I think it's only right that Fitch gets another crack at GSP. I also think it'll be de ja vu all over again, with GSP winning every round but Fitch never stopping.

My Prediction: George St Pierre by Unanimous Decision.

Paul “Semtex” Daley [23-8] - Everybody loves a devastating striker, and Paul Daley just might be the most dangerous 170 pound striker in the world right now. 18 of his 23 wins came by knockout. But his glaring weakness is in the past has been his ground game, with 5 submission losses there. If he can beat Josh Koscheck, he'll have proven that he can beat a guy with elite wrestling and grappling skills. If your takedown defense is good enough to stop Koscheck, you just might be able to keep the fight with GSP standing long enough to actually use that devastating power to full effect. IF Semtex actually gets to the title shot by beating Koscheck, then I'm going to go way out on a limb by predicting an upset.

Paul Daley by 2nd round KO.

Paulo Thiago [13-1] - There have been few fighters who have made a bigger splash in the UFC recently, all while garnering minimal attention. Paulo has chalked up stoppage wins over Koscheck and Swick, and beating fighters of that caliber means your a contender. A Unanimous Decision loss to Jon Fitch means you get to sit down and wait awhile for a title shot. Thiago has an excellent ground game and enough power in his hands to KO Josh Koscheck, which is no small feat. With a win over Martin Kampmann, Paulo Thiago could line himself up for a title shot in the very near future. And how would the fight with GSP go?

I'm predicting George St Pierre by TKO in Round 4.

Josh Koscheck [16-4] - Here's your long-shot contender. Josh Koscheck already lost to the champion in 2007. Since then, he's lost to Thiago Alves and Paulo Thiago. At this point, Koscheck needs to string together a few impressive victories in a row in order to build a case for himself for a title shot. Beating Anthony Johnson was a good first step. Beating Paul Daley would be another solid step in the right direction. Rematch wins over Thiago Alves and Paulo Thiago would seal the deal. So how does Josh stack up against George St Pierre? I would say he's very similar to GSP -- almost a rough copy of the champion. He's also inferior to GSP in all areas. Koscheck would make a good fight of it though.

My prediction: George St Pierre by 5th round TKO.

The Welterweight division is the one division that the UFC absolutely dominates. There are very, very few legitimate threats to GSP outside the UFC.

You have Nick Diaz, Jay Hieron, Akihiro Gono, Dan Hornbuckle and Marius Zaromskis. Out of that group, the best Welterweight outside the UFC is Nick Diaz. While he was with the UFC, he struggled against UFC Welterweights. Since leaving, he's chalked up a lot of wins, but it certainly hasn't been over top competition. I don't think I'm really sold on Nick Diaz as the guy with the tools to dethrone George St Pierre.

George St Pierre is an incredibly dominant champion. If there is an MMA fighter you could point to as an example of a perfect specimen, it would be George. He has great skills everywhere: Great striking, great wrestling, great Brazilian Jiu Jitzu, overwhelming strength, incredible work ethic and he’s constantly adapting and improving. It makes finding the right formula for beating him a daunting task indeed!

GSP is the best in the world. He seems unbeatable right now. But in order to remain the best in the world, you've got to continue to fight and beat the best in the world.

UFC Title Fight Round Up Part One: Lightweight

by

Kevin Sampson

Correspondent Written on March 09, 2010

Don't like your poll? You can delete it.

Results - Author Poll

Who has the best chance of beating BJ Penn?

• Frankie Edgar 8.7%

• Gray Maynard 5.4%

• Takanori Gomi 10.9%

• George Sotiropoulos 26.1%

• Shinya Aoki 31.5%

• Eddie Alvarez 17.4%

• Mizuto Hirota 0.0%
• Total votes: 92

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This year should be an interesting year in Mixed Martial Arts. The return of Brock Lesnar, the rematch of Machida vs Shogun, and Strikeforce making it's run at trying to compete with the UFC.

The UFC is currently blessed with three champions that virtually every MMA expert out there considers unbeatable kings of their divisions: BJ Penn, Georges St. Pierre, and Anderson Silva.

But saying that a fighter is unbeatable is one thing. It must be put to the test fight after fight in order to remain true. Some voices out there clamor for the dominant champions to retire so their divisions can be interesting again.

I couldn't disagree more!! There is absolutely nothing in this world that does more to promote your sport like a dominant champion.

How much did Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali, and Mike Tyson hurt boxing by their domination of the sport? Well, actually they didn't! All they did was make themselves household names and massively increase the popularity of boxing in the process.

The Miami Dolphins, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys, and New England Patriots all took turns dominating football, and the sport has risen to greater popularity than anyone would have imagined.

There's nothing like living legends to put your sport on the map. New fans have something constant for a point of reference. "Oh so this Georges St Pierre guy is unbeatable at Welterweight, got it." Long-time fans can spend countless hours speculating about "who's gonna beat the champ and how are they gonna to do it?"

Almost across the board, the title picture for each and every weight class gives us plenty to talk about.

Let's begin at Lightweight.

Champion: BJ Penn [MMA record: 15 Wins, 5 Losses, 1 Draw] [* 12 Wins, 1 Loss and 1 Draw as a Lightweight]
Next Title fight: BJ Penn vs Frankie Edgar

Contenders who may be in line for a title shot in the near future:

Frankie Edgar - Good technical striker with adequate ground game. Not the world's greatest in either area of course, but good enough to hold his own against almost anyone. Frankie probably won't be looking to take the fight to the ground, so he'll have to beat Penn at the striking game, a very tall order indeed. My prediction: BJ Penn by third round TKO/KO.

Gray Maynard - Gray reminds me so much of Jon Fitch, and he seems to fit that role at Lightweight. Powerful and strong wrestler with decent striking. Most importantly, he always fights a way to squeeze out a win. And like Fitch, you could add "Unanimous Decision Victory" as a nickname. Maynard has some power in his strikes, but he's not a very good technical striker.

BJ has more power and better technique at striking. The key to this match up is takedown defense. If Diego Sanchez couldn't get BJ to the ground, I don't think Gray will do much better. Even GSP had a hard time taking down BJ Penn.

Even if Gray can get BJ to the ground, he's outclassed there as well. My prediction: BJ Penn by fourth Round KO/TKO.

Takanori Gomi - Any potential fight between "the Fireball Kid" and "the Prodigy" is contingent on one thing. Gomi has to beat Kenny Florian. I don't think he can, but if he does then he deserves an immediate title shot. Gomi is still technically the Pride FC champion since no unification bout ever occurred yet .

He's a very well rounded and very experienced fighter. His greatest strength is in his striking. He has a pretty good ground game but it's the weakest part of his arsenal. If he can get past Florian, I predict Gomi will lose the same way he lost in their last fight: Submission in the Third Round.

George Sotiropoulos - Here is your dark horse in the running. George just got past the gatekeeper Joe Stevenson. Now we'll see how he does against the big dogs at Lightweight. The more I look at George Sotiropoulos the more it strikes me that this guy is a lot better than anyone realizes. I'll feel a lot more convinced of that if he can win a fight against a top 10 Lightweight.

The only way he gets a title-fight is by winning his next two fights, and they're guaranteed to be against top notch fighters. This will tell us a lot more about how good George really is. If he wins through, my prediction is BJ Penn by Unanimous Decision.

The Lightweight Division is one of the few instances where most of the compelling match ups would be with non-UFC fighters. Truthfully, the most interesting potential matchups remaining for BJ Penn right now are with fighters that are not in the UFC:

Shinya Aoki - Probably the only Lightweight in the world who is probably better than Penn on the ground, Aoki is a brilliant ground fighter. He's so good at it that his abysmal striking game is seldom ever exposed. Shinya Aoki is the consensus No. 2 Lightweight in the world right now.

The challenge before him is that BJ Penn is almost impossible to get to the ground. If the UFC can make this fight happen, be prepared for Aoki to pull guard all night, but fail to get it to the ground. My prediction: BJ Penn by fourth round KO/TKO

Eddie Alvarez - Eddie Alvarez is the best challenge in the world for BJ Penn right now. He's is superb on the ground or standing. He's just an incredibly tough dude. Eddie is probably an even match for BJ standing and trading strikes. He's not BJ equal on the ground, but has the wrestling and grappling credentials to keep the fight standing. My prediction: BJ by Split Decision.

Mizuto Hirota – Hirota is very similar to Eddie Alvarez. Tough as nails and good in every aspect of MMA. In his 17 fights, he has never been knocked out and had never been submitted until Shinya Aoki just recently did the honors on Dec. 31, 2009. Hirota refused to tap and had his arm broken, proving that he's very tough but probably a bit foolish. My prediction: BJ by third round submission.

To be perfectly honest, I think BJ Penn defeated the two biggest threats to his title on the planet in his last two fights: Diego Sanchez and Kenny Florian. Florian in particular has absolutely dominated at Lightweight. He never loses to anyone outside of a title fight.

The fighters outside the UFC are no better than the UFC's list of contenders, but they are better than what's left in the UFC. I think Diego and Florian can beat all three of these non-UFC fighters. Trouble is, they already lost to the champion in convincing fashion, so a rematch will be a long time coming for either of them.

BJ Penn seems unbeatable at Lightweight right now, but for that to remain true, he has to continue to prove it against the best fighters in the world.

Vote: If Fedor Emelianenko Is Not the Best Heavyweight Ever, Who Is?

by

Kevin Sampson

Correspondent Written on February 22, 2010

Don't like your poll? You can delete it.

Results - Author Poll

Who is the greatest Heavyweight to ever fight in Mixed Martial Arts?

• Ken Shamrock 0.9%

• Bas Rutten 2.2%

• Randy Couture 3.9%

• Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Big-Nog) 3.4%

• Tim Sylvia 0.2%

• Josh Barnett 0.2%

• Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic 1.3%

• Frank Mir 1.9%

• Brock Lesnar 6.6%

• Fedor Emelianenko 79.4%
• Total votes: 534

From this article: If Fedor Emelianenko is Not the Best Heavyweight Ever Who Is?

Apparently, I can't add the poll to my slideshow article, so I'll have to do it this way.

So, who is the greatest Heavyweight in the History of Mixed Martial Arts?

Added: Interesting detail to consider. How many fights does each of them have against the other 12 best heavyweight fighters in MMA history? How many did they win and how many did they lose? Going from most to least:

• Antonio Nogueira: 8 fights, 5 wins, 3 losses.
• Fedor Emelianenko: 7 fights, 7 wins, 0 losses.
• Mirko Cro-Cop: 6 fights, 4 wins, 2 losses.
• Josh Barnett: 6 fights, 2 wins, 4 losses.
• Randy Couture: 5 fights, 2 wins, 3 losses.
• Tim Sylvia: 5 fights, 2 wins, 3 losses.
• Mark Coleman: 5 fights, 0 wins, 5 losses.
• Frank Mir: 4 fights, 3 wins, 1 loss.
• Andrei Arlovski: 4 fights, 1 win, 3 losses.
• Brock Lesnar: 3 fights, 2 wins, 1 loss.
• Ken Shamrock: 2 fights, 2 wins, 0 losses.
• Bas Rutten: 2 fights, 0 wins, 2 losses.

If Fedor Emelianenko Is Not the Best Heavyweight Ever, Who Is?

by

Kevin Sampson

Correspondent Written on February 22, 2010

Perhaps the most hotly contested topic among Mixed Martial Arts fans centers around Fedor Emelianenko. Is he the greatest MMA fighter of all time? Is he the greatest Heavyweight the sport has ever seen? Or is he unproven and over-rated?

Many MMA fans will say that Fedor Emelianenko is unquestionably the best Heavyweight MMA fighter in the history of the sport.

Others will tell you that this is absolute nonsense and that he's never proven himself against the best fighters in Mixed Martial Arts.

No matter which side of the argument anyone happens to be on, you have to answer this very important question: If Fedor Emelianenko is not the best Heavyweight in Mixed Martial Arts history, who is?

So I think it’s only appropriate that we create a list of all the possible candidates. With a list of all contenders, we can look at their respective careers and run a side-by-side comparison. Each person can decide for themselves who they believe is the greatest MMA Heavyweight ever.

The minimum standards to qualify for consideration are simple enough:
1.) They must have either been a UFC Champion or they must have beaten a former UFC Champion.
2.) They must have been a champion in some fashion within a strong MMA promotion at some point in their career.
3.) They must have fought at heavyweight for a significant portion of their career.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Perhaps the most hotly contested topic among Mixed Martial Arts fans centers around Fedor Emelianenko. Is he the greatest MMA fighter of all time? Is he the greatest Heavyweight the sport has ever seen? Or is he unproven and over-rated?

Many MMA fans will say that Fedor Emelianenko is unquestionably the best Heavyweight MMA fighter in the history of the sport.

Others will tell you that this is absolute nonsense and that he's never proven himself against the best fighters in Mixed Martial Arts.

No matter which side of the argument anyone happens to be on, you have to answer this very important question: If Fedor Emelianenko is not the best Heavyweight in Mixed Martial Arts history, who is?

So I think it’s only appropriate that we create a list of all the possible candidates. With a list of all contenders, we can look at their respective careers and run a side-by-side comparison. Each person can decide for themselves who they believe is the greatest MMA Heavyweight ever.

The minimum standards to qualify for consideration are simple enough:
1.) They must have either been a UFC Champion or they must have beaten a former UFC Champion.
2.) They must have been a champion in some fashion within a strong MMA promotion at some point in their career.
3.) They must have fought at heavyweight for a significant portion of their career.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Ken Shamrock

Ken Shamrock -- 27 Wins. 13 Losses. 2 Draws.

Qualifications: Ken was the first ever UFC Superfight Champion. While this certainly was a somewhat thrown together championship title, he defended and/or reclaimed the Superfight title three times.

How that championship title was won or lost was not very clear in those days, but it was the only perpetual championship title the UFC had in place during the prime years of Ken Shamrock's career. Ken is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Defeated Bas Rutten twice. Also defeated Maurice Smith, Dan Severn, and Kimo Leopoldo.

Key losses: Royce Gracie, Dan Severn, Minoru Suzuki twice and Masakatsu Funaki. Later in his career, and certainly when Ken was well past his prime years, Ken lost to Kazuyuki Fujita, Don Frye, Tito Ortiz three times, Rich Franklin, Kazushi Sakuraba and Robert Berry.

Case for Ken Shamrock as the greatest ever: Ken’s late career losses are a pretty big distraction from his earlier accomplishments. There is no doubt that Ken is nowhere close to being the “World Most Dangerous Man” today, and he hasn’t been for a long time.

But the younger Ken Shamrock who dominated the sport in the 1990's is easily one of the greatest MMA fighters in the history of the sport. Ken is the only man to beat Bas Rutten twice. He is also the only man to ever fight Rutten who never lost to him.

Shamrock dominated the UFC while this sport was still in it's infancy. His three Superfight victories are the stuff of legend.

Perhaps the most hotly contested topic among Mixed Martial Arts fans centers around Fedor Emelianenko. Is he the greatest MMA fighter of all time? Is he the greatest Heavyweight the sport has ever seen? Or is he unproven and over-rated?

Many MMA fans will say that Fedor Emelianenko is unquestionably the best Heavyweight MMA fighter in the history of the sport.

Others will tell you that this is absolute nonsense and that he's never proven himself against the best fighters in Mixed Martial Arts.

No matter which side of the argument anyone happens to be on, you have to answer this very important question: If Fedor Emelianenko is not the best Heavyweight in Mixed Martial Arts history, who is?

So I think it’s only appropriate that we create a list of all the possible candidates. With a list of all contenders, we can look at their respective careers and run a side-by-side comparison. Each person can decide for themselves who they believe is the greatest MMA Heavyweight ever.

The minimum standards to qualify for consideration are simple enough:
1.) They must have either been a UFC Champion or they must have beaten a former UFC Champion.
2.) They must have been a champion in some fashion within a strong MMA promotion at some point in their career.
3.) They must have fought at heavyweight for a significant portion of their career.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Ken Shamrock

Ken Shamrock -- 27 Wins. 13 Losses. 2 Draws.

Qualifications: Ken was the first ever UFC Superfight Champion. While this certainly was a somewhat thrown together championship title, he defended and/or reclaimed the Superfight title three times.

How that championship title was won or lost was not very clear in those days, but it was the only perpetual championship title the UFC had in place during the prime years of Ken Shamrock's career. Ken is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Defeated Bas Rutten twice. Also defeated Maurice Smith, Dan Severn, and Kimo Leopoldo.

Key losses: Royce Gracie, Dan Severn, Minoru Suzuki twice and Masakatsu Funaki. Later in his career, and certainly when Ken was well past his prime years, Ken lost to Kazuyuki Fujita, Don Frye, Tito Ortiz three times, Rich Franklin, Kazushi Sakuraba and Robert Berry.

Case for Ken Shamrock as the greatest ever: Ken’s late career losses are a pretty big distraction from his earlier accomplishments. There is no doubt that Ken is nowhere close to being the “World Most Dangerous Man” today, and he hasn’t been for a long time.

But the younger Ken Shamrock who dominated the sport in the 1990's is easily one of the greatest MMA fighters in the history of the sport. Ken is the only man to beat Bas Rutten twice. He is also the only man to ever fight Rutten who never lost to him.

Shamrock dominated the UFC while this sport was still in it's infancy. His three Superfight victories are the stuff of legend.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Mark Coleman

Mark Coleman -- 16 Wins. 10 Losses.

Qualifications: Mark won the UFC tournament twice and was the first ever UFC Heavyweight Champion. Mark Coleman was also the first ever Pride FC tournament champion.

Key wins: Don Frye twice, Dan Severn, Kazuyuki Fujita, Igor Vovchanchyn, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

Key losses: Maurice Smith, Pete Williams, Pedro Rizzo, Nobuhiko Takada, Antônio Rodrigo "Big-Nog" Nogueira, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović, Fedor Emelianenko (twice), Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Randy Couture.

Case for Mark Coleman as the greatest ever: Coleman is a fighter who has seen a lot of ups and downs through his career. One of the truly great attributes Mark possesses–he has demonstrated the ability to resurrect his career when it seemed to be over.

He has remained competitive well into his 40s and that is a noteworthy accomplishment, too. The biggest hurdle in the way of claiming that Mark Coleman is the greatest ever is quite simple: He’s lost over one third of his fights.

Perhaps the most hotly contested topic among Mixed Martial Arts fans centers around Fedor Emelianenko. Is he the greatest MMA fighter of all time? Is he the greatest Heavyweight the sport has ever seen? Or is he unproven and over-rated?

Many MMA fans will say that Fedor Emelianenko is unquestionably the best Heavyweight MMA fighter in the history of the sport.

Others will tell you that this is absolute nonsense and that he's never proven himself against the best fighters in Mixed Martial Arts.

No matter which side of the argument anyone happens to be on, you have to answer this very important question: If Fedor Emelianenko is not the best Heavyweight in Mixed Martial Arts history, who is?

So I think it’s only appropriate that we create a list of all the possible candidates. With a list of all contenders, we can look at their respective careers and run a side-by-side comparison. Each person can decide for themselves who they believe is the greatest MMA Heavyweight ever.

The minimum standards to qualify for consideration are simple enough:
1.) They must have either been a UFC Champion or they must have beaten a former UFC Champion.
2.) They must have been a champion in some fashion within a strong MMA promotion at some point in their career.
3.) They must have fought at heavyweight for a significant portion of their career.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Ken Shamrock

Ken Shamrock -- 27 Wins. 13 Losses. 2 Draws.

Qualifications: Ken was the first ever UFC Superfight Champion. While this certainly was a somewhat thrown together championship title, he defended and/or reclaimed the Superfight title three times.

How that championship title was won or lost was not very clear in those days, but it was the only perpetual championship title the UFC had in place during the prime years of Ken Shamrock's career. Ken is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Defeated Bas Rutten twice. Also defeated Maurice Smith, Dan Severn, and Kimo Leopoldo.

Key losses: Royce Gracie, Dan Severn, Minoru Suzuki twice and Masakatsu Funaki. Later in his career, and certainly when Ken was well past his prime years, Ken lost to Kazuyuki Fujita, Don Frye, Tito Ortiz three times, Rich Franklin, Kazushi Sakuraba and Robert Berry.

Case for Ken Shamrock as the greatest ever: Ken’s late career losses are a pretty big distraction from his earlier accomplishments. There is no doubt that Ken is nowhere close to being the “World Most Dangerous Man” today, and he hasn’t been for a long time.

But the younger Ken Shamrock who dominated the sport in the 1990's is easily one of the greatest MMA fighters in the history of the sport. Ken is the only man to beat Bas Rutten twice. He is also the only man to ever fight Rutten who never lost to him.

Shamrock dominated the UFC while this sport was still in it's infancy. His three Superfight victories are the stuff of legend.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Mark Coleman

Mark Coleman -- 16 Wins. 10 Losses.

Qualifications: Mark won the UFC tournament twice and was the first ever UFC Heavyweight Champion. Mark Coleman was also the first ever Pride FC tournament champion.

Key wins: Don Frye twice, Dan Severn, Kazuyuki Fujita, Igor Vovchanchyn, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

Key losses: Maurice Smith, Pete Williams, Pedro Rizzo, Nobuhiko Takada, Antônio Rodrigo "Big-Nog" Nogueira, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović, Fedor Emelianenko (twice), Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Randy Couture.

Case for Mark Coleman as the greatest ever: Coleman is a fighter who has seen a lot of ups and downs through his career. One of the truly great attributes Mark possesses–he has demonstrated the ability to resurrect his career when it seemed to be over.

He has remained competitive well into his 40s and that is a noteworthy accomplishment, too. The biggest hurdle in the way of claiming that Mark Coleman is the greatest ever is quite simple: He’s lost over one third of his fights.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Bas Rutten

Bas Rutten – 28 wins. 4 losses. 1 Draw.

Qualifications: Bas Rutten is the former UFC Heavyweight Champion and also has wins over former UFC champions Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock and Kevin Randleman. He is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Minoru Suzuki twice, Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock twice, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Kevin Randleman.

Key losses: Ken Shamrock twice, Frank Shamrock once, Masakatsu Funaki.

Case for Bas Rutten as the greatest ever: All of Bas Rutten’s losses came very early in his career. One can easily make the case that these early setbacks made him a better fighter in the long run.

Bas Rutten is the owner of the second longest unbroken win-streak in MMA today, holding 21 wins in a row. Because he has retired from the sport, this unbeaten streak will probably never be broken.

Within that 21 fight blitz, Rutten beat future UFC champion Maurice Smith twice, avenged his earlier losses to Frank Shamrock and Masakatsu Funaki, won the King of Pancrase title, and finished off his career by beating Kevin Randleman to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Injuries sustained in training for his next fight brought an abrupt end to the brilliant career of “El Guapo.” The fact that his career ended on such an unprecedented win streak easily makes Bas Rutten one of the great MMA fighters ever.

One could easily stake the claim that Rutten would have dominated for years to come if his career had not been ended by injury. He was possibly the best ever.

Perhaps the most hotly contested topic among Mixed Martial Arts fans centers around Fedor Emelianenko. Is he the greatest MMA fighter of all time? Is he the greatest Heavyweight the sport has ever seen? Or is he unproven and over-rated?

Many MMA fans will say that Fedor Emelianenko is unquestionably the best Heavyweight MMA fighter in the history of the sport.

Others will tell you that this is absolute nonsense and that he's never proven himself against the best fighters in Mixed Martial Arts.

No matter which side of the argument anyone happens to be on, you have to answer this very important question: If Fedor Emelianenko is not the best Heavyweight in Mixed Martial Arts history, who is?

So I think it’s only appropriate that we create a list of all the possible candidates. With a list of all contenders, we can look at their respective careers and run a side-by-side comparison. Each person can decide for themselves who they believe is the greatest MMA Heavyweight ever.

The minimum standards to qualify for consideration are simple enough:
1.) They must have either been a UFC Champion or they must have beaten a former UFC Champion.
2.) They must have been a champion in some fashion within a strong MMA promotion at some point in their career.
3.) They must have fought at heavyweight for a significant portion of their career.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Ken Shamrock

Ken Shamrock -- 27 Wins. 13 Losses. 2 Draws.

Qualifications: Ken was the first ever UFC Superfight Champion. While this certainly was a somewhat thrown together championship title, he defended and/or reclaimed the Superfight title three times.

How that championship title was won or lost was not very clear in those days, but it was the only perpetual championship title the UFC had in place during the prime years of Ken Shamrock's career. Ken is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Defeated Bas Rutten twice. Also defeated Maurice Smith, Dan Severn, and Kimo Leopoldo.

Key losses: Royce Gracie, Dan Severn, Minoru Suzuki twice and Masakatsu Funaki. Later in his career, and certainly when Ken was well past his prime years, Ken lost to Kazuyuki Fujita, Don Frye, Tito Ortiz three times, Rich Franklin, Kazushi Sakuraba and Robert Berry.

Case for Ken Shamrock as the greatest ever: Ken’s late career losses are a pretty big distraction from his earlier accomplishments. There is no doubt that Ken is nowhere close to being the “World Most Dangerous Man” today, and he hasn’t been for a long time.

But the younger Ken Shamrock who dominated the sport in the 1990's is easily one of the greatest MMA fighters in the history of the sport. Ken is the only man to beat Bas Rutten twice. He is also the only man to ever fight Rutten who never lost to him.

Shamrock dominated the UFC while this sport was still in it's infancy. His three Superfight victories are the stuff of legend.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Mark Coleman

Mark Coleman -- 16 Wins. 10 Losses.

Qualifications: Mark won the UFC tournament twice and was the first ever UFC Heavyweight Champion. Mark Coleman was also the first ever Pride FC tournament champion.

Key wins: Don Frye twice, Dan Severn, Kazuyuki Fujita, Igor Vovchanchyn, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

Key losses: Maurice Smith, Pete Williams, Pedro Rizzo, Nobuhiko Takada, Antônio Rodrigo "Big-Nog" Nogueira, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović, Fedor Emelianenko (twice), Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Randy Couture.

Case for Mark Coleman as the greatest ever: Coleman is a fighter who has seen a lot of ups and downs through his career. One of the truly great attributes Mark possesses–he has demonstrated the ability to resurrect his career when it seemed to be over.

He has remained competitive well into his 40s and that is a noteworthy accomplishment, too. The biggest hurdle in the way of claiming that Mark Coleman is the greatest ever is quite simple: He’s lost over one third of his fights.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Bas Rutten

Bas Rutten – 28 wins. 4 losses. 1 Draw.

Qualifications: Bas Rutten is the former UFC Heavyweight Champion and also has wins over former UFC champions Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock and Kevin Randleman. He is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Minoru Suzuki twice, Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock twice, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Kevin Randleman.

Key losses: Ken Shamrock twice, Frank Shamrock once, Masakatsu Funaki.

Case for Bas Rutten as the greatest ever: All of Bas Rutten’s losses came very early in his career. One can easily make the case that these early setbacks made him a better fighter in the long run.

Bas Rutten is the owner of the second longest unbroken win-streak in MMA today, holding 21 wins in a row. Because he has retired from the sport, this unbeaten streak will probably never be broken.

Within that 21 fight blitz, Rutten beat future UFC champion Maurice Smith twice, avenged his earlier losses to Frank Shamrock and Masakatsu Funaki, won the King of Pancrase title, and finished off his career by beating Kevin Randleman to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Injuries sustained in training for his next fight brought an abrupt end to the brilliant career of “El Guapo.” The fact that his career ended on such an unprecedented win streak easily makes Bas Rutten one of the great MMA fighters ever.

One could easily stake the claim that Rutten would have dominated for years to come if his career had not been ended by injury. He was possibly the best ever.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Randy Couture

Randy Couture -- 18 wins, 10 losses.

Qualifications: Randy Couture won the UFC 13 Heavyweight Tournament, is the three-time UFC Heavyweight Champion and the two-time UFC Light Heavyweight Champion.

Key wins: Maurice Smith, Jeremy Horn, Kevin Randleman, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Pedro Rizzo twice, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Vitor Belfort twice, Tim Silvia, Gabriel Gonzaga, Mark Coleman.

Key Losses: Valentijn Overeem, Josh Barnett, Ricco Rogriguez, Vitor Belfort once, Chuck Liddell twice, Brock Lesnar, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Case for Randy Couture: Like Muhammed Ali before him, Randy Couture can be beaten but he always comes back stronger and better than ever. He has reclaimed the title “UFC Champion” again and again.

Overall, he has been tournament champion once and UFC Champion five times. His win/loss record looks terrible until we consider that 16 of his 28 fights were all title fights.

Is that enough for us to overlook his 10 losses and legitimately claim that Randy Couture is the Greatest Heavyweight of All Time? It’s certainly debatable.

Perhaps the most hotly contested topic among Mixed Martial Arts fans centers around Fedor Emelianenko. Is he the greatest MMA fighter of all time? Is he the greatest Heavyweight the sport has ever seen? Or is he unproven and over-rated?

Many MMA fans will say that Fedor Emelianenko is unquestionably the best Heavyweight MMA fighter in the history of the sport.

Others will tell you that this is absolute nonsense and that he's never proven himself against the best fighters in Mixed Martial Arts.

No matter which side of the argument anyone happens to be on, you have to answer this very important question: If Fedor Emelianenko is not the best Heavyweight in Mixed Martial Arts history, who is?

So I think it’s only appropriate that we create a list of all the possible candidates. With a list of all contenders, we can look at their respective careers and run a side-by-side comparison. Each person can decide for themselves who they believe is the greatest MMA Heavyweight ever.

The minimum standards to qualify for consideration are simple enough:
1.) They must have either been a UFC Champion or they must have beaten a former UFC Champion.
2.) They must have been a champion in some fashion within a strong MMA promotion at some point in their career.
3.) They must have fought at heavyweight for a significant portion of their career.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Ken Shamrock

Ken Shamrock -- 27 Wins. 13 Losses. 2 Draws.

Qualifications: Ken was the first ever UFC Superfight Champion. While this certainly was a somewhat thrown together championship title, he defended and/or reclaimed the Superfight title three times.

How that championship title was won or lost was not very clear in those days, but it was the only perpetual championship title the UFC had in place during the prime years of Ken Shamrock's career. Ken is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Defeated Bas Rutten twice. Also defeated Maurice Smith, Dan Severn, and Kimo Leopoldo.

Key losses: Royce Gracie, Dan Severn, Minoru Suzuki twice and Masakatsu Funaki. Later in his career, and certainly when Ken was well past his prime years, Ken lost to Kazuyuki Fujita, Don Frye, Tito Ortiz three times, Rich Franklin, Kazushi Sakuraba and Robert Berry.

Case for Ken Shamrock as the greatest ever: Ken’s late career losses are a pretty big distraction from his earlier accomplishments. There is no doubt that Ken is nowhere close to being the “World Most Dangerous Man” today, and he hasn’t been for a long time.

But the younger Ken Shamrock who dominated the sport in the 1990's is easily one of the greatest MMA fighters in the history of the sport. Ken is the only man to beat Bas Rutten twice. He is also the only man to ever fight Rutten who never lost to him.

Shamrock dominated the UFC while this sport was still in it's infancy. His three Superfight victories are the stuff of legend.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Mark Coleman

Mark Coleman -- 16 Wins. 10 Losses.

Qualifications: Mark won the UFC tournament twice and was the first ever UFC Heavyweight Champion. Mark Coleman was also the first ever Pride FC tournament champion.

Key wins: Don Frye twice, Dan Severn, Kazuyuki Fujita, Igor Vovchanchyn, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

Key losses: Maurice Smith, Pete Williams, Pedro Rizzo, Nobuhiko Takada, Antônio Rodrigo "Big-Nog" Nogueira, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović, Fedor Emelianenko (twice), Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Randy Couture.

Case for Mark Coleman as the greatest ever: Coleman is a fighter who has seen a lot of ups and downs through his career. One of the truly great attributes Mark possesses–he has demonstrated the ability to resurrect his career when it seemed to be over.

He has remained competitive well into his 40s and that is a noteworthy accomplishment, too. The biggest hurdle in the way of claiming that Mark Coleman is the greatest ever is quite simple: He’s lost over one third of his fights.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Bas Rutten

Bas Rutten – 28 wins. 4 losses. 1 Draw.

Qualifications: Bas Rutten is the former UFC Heavyweight Champion and also has wins over former UFC champions Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock and Kevin Randleman. He is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Minoru Suzuki twice, Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock twice, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Kevin Randleman.

Key losses: Ken Shamrock twice, Frank Shamrock once, Masakatsu Funaki.

Case for Bas Rutten as the greatest ever: All of Bas Rutten’s losses came very early in his career. One can easily make the case that these early setbacks made him a better fighter in the long run.

Bas Rutten is the owner of the second longest unbroken win-streak in MMA today, holding 21 wins in a row. Because he has retired from the sport, this unbeaten streak will probably never be broken.

Within that 21 fight blitz, Rutten beat future UFC champion Maurice Smith twice, avenged his earlier losses to Frank Shamrock and Masakatsu Funaki, won the King of Pancrase title, and finished off his career by beating Kevin Randleman to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Injuries sustained in training for his next fight brought an abrupt end to the brilliant career of “El Guapo.” The fact that his career ended on such an unprecedented win streak easily makes Bas Rutten one of the great MMA fighters ever.

One could easily stake the claim that Rutten would have dominated for years to come if his career had not been ended by injury. He was possibly the best ever.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Randy Couture

Randy Couture -- 18 wins, 10 losses.

Qualifications: Randy Couture won the UFC 13 Heavyweight Tournament, is the three-time UFC Heavyweight Champion and the two-time UFC Light Heavyweight Champion.

Key wins: Maurice Smith, Jeremy Horn, Kevin Randleman, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Pedro Rizzo twice, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Vitor Belfort twice, Tim Silvia, Gabriel Gonzaga, Mark Coleman.

Key Losses: Valentijn Overeem, Josh Barnett, Ricco Rogriguez, Vitor Belfort once, Chuck Liddell twice, Brock Lesnar, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Case for Randy Couture: Like Muhammed Ali before him, Randy Couture can be beaten but he always comes back stronger and better than ever. He has reclaimed the title “UFC Champion” again and again.

Overall, he has been tournament champion once and UFC Champion five times. His win/loss record looks terrible until we consider that 16 of his 28 fights were all title fights.

Is that enough for us to overlook his 10 losses and legitimately claim that Randy Couture is the Greatest Heavyweight of All Time? It’s certainly debatable.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Big-Nog) – 33 wins. 5 losses. 1 draw. 1 no contest.

Qualifications: Former Interim UFC Heavyweight Champion. Former Pride FC Heavyweight Champion. Rings tournament champion. Big-Nog holds wins over former UFC Champions Mark Coleman, Ricco Rogriguez, Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia and Randy Couture.

Key Wins: Valentijn Overeem twice, Mark Coleman, Heath Herring three times, Jeremy Horn, Bob Sapp, Semmy Schilt, Dan Henderson, Ricco Rodriguez, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović, Sergei Kharitonov, Fabricio Werdum, Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia, Randy Couture.

Key Losses: Dan Henderson, Fedor Emelianenko twice, Josh Barnett, Frank Mir.

Case for Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira: Simply looking at his record and then looking at the quality of opponents that Nogueira has beaten, there is little room for doubt that this man is one of the greatest Heavyweights to ever compete in MMA.

And while his recent losses to Frank Mir and Cain Velasquez may have signaled the end to the glory days of Minotauro, his overall resume of fights and wins is incredible.

The biggest hurdle to overcome if you want to claim that Big-Nog is the greatest ever are his two losses to Fedor Emelianenko. Those losses remain his only unavenged losses to this day.

Big-Nog eventually avenged every other loss in his career. (Mir and Velasquez are too recent obviously.) Josh Barnett and Dan Henderson are both good examples of this.

Nogueira’s win percentage against the best fighters in the world makes a very strong case for his place among the most legendary mixed martial arts fighters ever.

Perhaps the most hotly contested topic among Mixed Martial Arts fans centers around Fedor Emelianenko. Is he the greatest MMA fighter of all time? Is he the greatest Heavyweight the sport has ever seen? Or is he unproven and over-rated?

Many MMA fans will say that Fedor Emelianenko is unquestionably the best Heavyweight MMA fighter in the history of the sport.

Others will tell you that this is absolute nonsense and that he's never proven himself against the best fighters in Mixed Martial Arts.

No matter which side of the argument anyone happens to be on, you have to answer this very important question: If Fedor Emelianenko is not the best Heavyweight in Mixed Martial Arts history, who is?

So I think it’s only appropriate that we create a list of all the possible candidates. With a list of all contenders, we can look at their respective careers and run a side-by-side comparison. Each person can decide for themselves who they believe is the greatest MMA Heavyweight ever.

The minimum standards to qualify for consideration are simple enough:
1.) They must have either been a UFC Champion or they must have beaten a former UFC Champion.
2.) They must have been a champion in some fashion within a strong MMA promotion at some point in their career.
3.) They must have fought at heavyweight for a significant portion of their career.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Ken Shamrock

Ken Shamrock -- 27 Wins. 13 Losses. 2 Draws.

Qualifications: Ken was the first ever UFC Superfight Champion. While this certainly was a somewhat thrown together championship title, he defended and/or reclaimed the Superfight title three times.

How that championship title was won or lost was not very clear in those days, but it was the only perpetual championship title the UFC had in place during the prime years of Ken Shamrock's career. Ken is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Defeated Bas Rutten twice. Also defeated Maurice Smith, Dan Severn, and Kimo Leopoldo.

Key losses: Royce Gracie, Dan Severn, Minoru Suzuki twice and Masakatsu Funaki. Later in his career, and certainly when Ken was well past his prime years, Ken lost to Kazuyuki Fujita, Don Frye, Tito Ortiz three times, Rich Franklin, Kazushi Sakuraba and Robert Berry.

Case for Ken Shamrock as the greatest ever: Ken’s late career losses are a pretty big distraction from his earlier accomplishments. There is no doubt that Ken is nowhere close to being the “World Most Dangerous Man” today, and he hasn’t been for a long time.

But the younger Ken Shamrock who dominated the sport in the 1990's is easily one of the greatest MMA fighters in the history of the sport. Ken is the only man to beat Bas Rutten twice. He is also the only man to ever fight Rutten who never lost to him.

Shamrock dominated the UFC while this sport was still in it's infancy. His three Superfight victories are the stuff of legend.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Mark Coleman

Mark Coleman -- 16 Wins. 10 Losses.

Qualifications: Mark won the UFC tournament twice and was the first ever UFC Heavyweight Champion. Mark Coleman was also the first ever Pride FC tournament champion.

Key wins: Don Frye twice, Dan Severn, Kazuyuki Fujita, Igor Vovchanchyn, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

Key losses: Maurice Smith, Pete Williams, Pedro Rizzo, Nobuhiko Takada, Antônio Rodrigo "Big-Nog" Nogueira, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović, Fedor Emelianenko (twice), Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Randy Couture.

Case for Mark Coleman as the greatest ever: Coleman is a fighter who has seen a lot of ups and downs through his career. One of the truly great attributes Mark possesses–he has demonstrated the ability to resurrect his career when it seemed to be over.

He has remained competitive well into his 40s and that is a noteworthy accomplishment, too. The biggest hurdle in the way of claiming that Mark Coleman is the greatest ever is quite simple: He’s lost over one third of his fights.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Bas Rutten

Bas Rutten – 28 wins. 4 losses. 1 Draw.

Qualifications: Bas Rutten is the former UFC Heavyweight Champion and also has wins over former UFC champions Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock and Kevin Randleman. He is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Minoru Suzuki twice, Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock twice, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Kevin Randleman.

Key losses: Ken Shamrock twice, Frank Shamrock once, Masakatsu Funaki.

Case for Bas Rutten as the greatest ever: All of Bas Rutten’s losses came very early in his career. One can easily make the case that these early setbacks made him a better fighter in the long run.

Bas Rutten is the owner of the second longest unbroken win-streak in MMA today, holding 21 wins in a row. Because he has retired from the sport, this unbeaten streak will probably never be broken.

Within that 21 fight blitz, Rutten beat future UFC champion Maurice Smith twice, avenged his earlier losses to Frank Shamrock and Masakatsu Funaki, won the King of Pancrase title, and finished off his career by beating Kevin Randleman to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Injuries sustained in training for his next fight brought an abrupt end to the brilliant career of “El Guapo.” The fact that his career ended on such an unprecedented win streak easily makes Bas Rutten one of the great MMA fighters ever.

One could easily stake the claim that Rutten would have dominated for years to come if his career had not been ended by injury. He was possibly the best ever.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Randy Couture

Randy Couture -- 18 wins, 10 losses.

Qualifications: Randy Couture won the UFC 13 Heavyweight Tournament, is the three-time UFC Heavyweight Champion and the two-time UFC Light Heavyweight Champion.

Key wins: Maurice Smith, Jeremy Horn, Kevin Randleman, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Pedro Rizzo twice, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Vitor Belfort twice, Tim Silvia, Gabriel Gonzaga, Mark Coleman.

Key Losses: Valentijn Overeem, Josh Barnett, Ricco Rogriguez, Vitor Belfort once, Chuck Liddell twice, Brock Lesnar, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Case for Randy Couture: Like Muhammed Ali before him, Randy Couture can be beaten but he always comes back stronger and better than ever. He has reclaimed the title “UFC Champion” again and again.

Overall, he has been tournament champion once and UFC Champion five times. His win/loss record looks terrible until we consider that 16 of his 28 fights were all title fights.

Is that enough for us to overlook his 10 losses and legitimately claim that Randy Couture is the Greatest Heavyweight of All Time? It’s certainly debatable.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Big-Nog) – 33 wins. 5 losses. 1 draw. 1 no contest.

Qualifications: Former Interim UFC Heavyweight Champion. Former Pride FC Heavyweight Champion. Rings tournament champion. Big-Nog holds wins over former UFC Champions Mark Coleman, Ricco Rogriguez, Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia and Randy Couture.

Key Wins: Valentijn Overeem twice, Mark Coleman, Heath Herring three times, Jeremy Horn, Bob Sapp, Semmy Schilt, Dan Henderson, Ricco Rodriguez, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović, Sergei Kharitonov, Fabricio Werdum, Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia, Randy Couture.

Key Losses: Dan Henderson, Fedor Emelianenko twice, Josh Barnett, Frank Mir.

Case for Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira: Simply looking at his record and then looking at the quality of opponents that Nogueira has beaten, there is little room for doubt that this man is one of the greatest Heavyweights to ever compete in MMA.

And while his recent losses to Frank Mir and Cain Velasquez may have signaled the end to the glory days of Minotauro, his overall resume of fights and wins is incredible.

The biggest hurdle to overcome if you want to claim that Big-Nog is the greatest ever are his two losses to Fedor Emelianenko. Those losses remain his only unavenged losses to this day.

Big-Nog eventually avenged every other loss in his career. (Mir and Velasquez are too recent obviously.) Josh Barnett and Dan Henderson are both good examples of this.

Nogueira’s win percentage against the best fighters in the world makes a very strong case for his place among the most legendary mixed martial arts fighters ever.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Tim "the Maine-iac" Sylvia

Tim Sylvia – 25 Wins. 6 Losses.

Qualifications: Two time UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Ricco Rodriguez, Gan McGee, Andrei Arlovski twice, Brandon Vera, and Jeff Monson.

Key Losses: Frank Mir, Andrei Arlovski, Randy Couture, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Fedor Emelianenko.

Case for Tim Sylvia: When the “Maine-iac” stormed onto the UFC scene with an unbeaten record of 16 wins and 0 losses. Timmy is proabaly the most proficient knockout artist to ever hold the UFC Heavyweight Title, with 17 of his 25 wins coming by KO.

There is little doubt that he was the most dominant Heavyweight in the UFC from 2003 to 2007, and that’s quite and impressive run.

His rival for domination of the UFC within that time period was Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia won two of their three fights.

The case for Timmy is weakened by unavenged losses to Randy Couture, Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, but it should be pointed out that only world-class elite MMA Heavyweights ever beat the Maine-iac in the UFC. Losing to Fedor Emelianenko falls into the same category.

His loss to Ray Mercer last year has a lot of fans doubting that Timmy is still relevant in this sport. But there is no doubt that he once was the greatest fighter in the UFC, and one of the best MMA Heavyweights of all time.

Perhaps the most hotly contested topic among Mixed Martial Arts fans centers around Fedor Emelianenko. Is he the greatest MMA fighter of all time? Is he the greatest Heavyweight the sport has ever seen? Or is he unproven and over-rated?

Many MMA fans will say that Fedor Emelianenko is unquestionably the best Heavyweight MMA fighter in the history of the sport.

Others will tell you that this is absolute nonsense and that he's never proven himself against the best fighters in Mixed Martial Arts.

No matter which side of the argument anyone happens to be on, you have to answer this very important question: If Fedor Emelianenko is not the best Heavyweight in Mixed Martial Arts history, who is?

So I think it’s only appropriate that we create a list of all the possible candidates. With a list of all contenders, we can look at their respective careers and run a side-by-side comparison. Each person can decide for themselves who they believe is the greatest MMA Heavyweight ever.

The minimum standards to qualify for consideration are simple enough:
1.) They must have either been a UFC Champion or they must have beaten a former UFC Champion.
2.) They must have been a champion in some fashion within a strong MMA promotion at some point in their career.
3.) They must have fought at heavyweight for a significant portion of their career.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Ken Shamrock

Ken Shamrock -- 27 Wins. 13 Losses. 2 Draws.

Qualifications: Ken was the first ever UFC Superfight Champion. While this certainly was a somewhat thrown together championship title, he defended and/or reclaimed the Superfight title three times.

How that championship title was won or lost was not very clear in those days, but it was the only perpetual championship title the UFC had in place during the prime years of Ken Shamrock's career. Ken is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Defeated Bas Rutten twice. Also defeated Maurice Smith, Dan Severn, and Kimo Leopoldo.

Key losses: Royce Gracie, Dan Severn, Minoru Suzuki twice and Masakatsu Funaki. Later in his career, and certainly when Ken was well past his prime years, Ken lost to Kazuyuki Fujita, Don Frye, Tito Ortiz three times, Rich Franklin, Kazushi Sakuraba and Robert Berry.

Case for Ken Shamrock as the greatest ever: Ken’s late career losses are a pretty big distraction from his earlier accomplishments. There is no doubt that Ken is nowhere close to being the “World Most Dangerous Man” today, and he hasn’t been for a long time.

But the younger Ken Shamrock who dominated the sport in the 1990's is easily one of the greatest MMA fighters in the history of the sport. Ken is the only man to beat Bas Rutten twice. He is also the only man to ever fight Rutten who never lost to him.

Shamrock dominated the UFC while this sport was still in it's infancy. His three Superfight victories are the stuff of legend.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Mark Coleman

Mark Coleman -- 16 Wins. 10 Losses.

Qualifications: Mark won the UFC tournament twice and was the first ever UFC Heavyweight Champion. Mark Coleman was also the first ever Pride FC tournament champion.

Key wins: Don Frye twice, Dan Severn, Kazuyuki Fujita, Igor Vovchanchyn, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

Key losses: Maurice Smith, Pete Williams, Pedro Rizzo, Nobuhiko Takada, Antônio Rodrigo "Big-Nog" Nogueira, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović, Fedor Emelianenko (twice), Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Randy Couture.

Case for Mark Coleman as the greatest ever: Coleman is a fighter who has seen a lot of ups and downs through his career. One of the truly great attributes Mark possesses–he has demonstrated the ability to resurrect his career when it seemed to be over.

He has remained competitive well into his 40s and that is a noteworthy accomplishment, too. The biggest hurdle in the way of claiming that Mark Coleman is the greatest ever is quite simple: He’s lost over one third of his fights.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Bas Rutten

Bas Rutten – 28 wins. 4 losses. 1 Draw.

Qualifications: Bas Rutten is the former UFC Heavyweight Champion and also has wins over former UFC champions Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock and Kevin Randleman. He is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Minoru Suzuki twice, Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock twice, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Kevin Randleman.

Key losses: Ken Shamrock twice, Frank Shamrock once, Masakatsu Funaki.

Case for Bas Rutten as the greatest ever: All of Bas Rutten’s losses came very early in his career. One can easily make the case that these early setbacks made him a better fighter in the long run.

Bas Rutten is the owner of the second longest unbroken win-streak in MMA today, holding 21 wins in a row. Because he has retired from the sport, this unbeaten streak will probably never be broken.

Within that 21 fight blitz, Rutten beat future UFC champion Maurice Smith twice, avenged his earlier losses to Frank Shamrock and Masakatsu Funaki, won the King of Pancrase title, and finished off his career by beating Kevin Randleman to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Injuries sustained in training for his next fight brought an abrupt end to the brilliant career of “El Guapo.” The fact that his career ended on such an unprecedented win streak easily makes Bas Rutten one of the great MMA fighters ever.

One could easily stake the claim that Rutten would have dominated for years to come if his career had not been ended by injury. He was possibly the best ever.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Randy Couture

Randy Couture -- 18 wins, 10 losses.

Qualifications: Randy Couture won the UFC 13 Heavyweight Tournament, is the three-time UFC Heavyweight Champion and the two-time UFC Light Heavyweight Champion.

Key wins: Maurice Smith, Jeremy Horn, Kevin Randleman, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Pedro Rizzo twice, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Vitor Belfort twice, Tim Silvia, Gabriel Gonzaga, Mark Coleman.

Key Losses: Valentijn Overeem, Josh Barnett, Ricco Rogriguez, Vitor Belfort once, Chuck Liddell twice, Brock Lesnar, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Case for Randy Couture: Like Muhammed Ali before him, Randy Couture can be beaten but he always comes back stronger and better than ever. He has reclaimed the title “UFC Champion” again and again.

Overall, he has been tournament champion once and UFC Champion five times. His win/loss record looks terrible until we consider that 16 of his 28 fights were all title fights.

Is that enough for us to overlook his 10 losses and legitimately claim that Randy Couture is the Greatest Heavyweight of All Time? It’s certainly debatable.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Big-Nog) – 33 wins. 5 losses. 1 draw. 1 no contest.

Qualifications: Former Interim UFC Heavyweight Champion. Former Pride FC Heavyweight Champion. Rings tournament champion. Big-Nog holds wins over former UFC Champions Mark Coleman, Ricco Rogriguez, Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia and Randy Couture.

Key Wins: Valentijn Overeem twice, Mark Coleman, Heath Herring three times, Jeremy Horn, Bob Sapp, Semmy Schilt, Dan Henderson, Ricco Rodriguez, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović, Sergei Kharitonov, Fabricio Werdum, Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia, Randy Couture.

Key Losses: Dan Henderson, Fedor Emelianenko twice, Josh Barnett, Frank Mir.

Case for Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira: Simply looking at his record and then looking at the quality of opponents that Nogueira has beaten, there is little room for doubt that this man is one of the greatest Heavyweights to ever compete in MMA.

And while his recent losses to Frank Mir and Cain Velasquez may have signaled the end to the glory days of Minotauro, his overall resume of fights and wins is incredible.

The biggest hurdle to overcome if you want to claim that Big-Nog is the greatest ever are his two losses to Fedor Emelianenko. Those losses remain his only unavenged losses to this day.

Big-Nog eventually avenged every other loss in his career. (Mir and Velasquez are too recent obviously.) Josh Barnett and Dan Henderson are both good examples of this.

Nogueira’s win percentage against the best fighters in the world makes a very strong case for his place among the most legendary mixed martial arts fighters ever.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Tim "the Maine-iac" Sylvia

Tim Sylvia – 25 Wins. 6 Losses.

Qualifications: Two time UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Ricco Rodriguez, Gan McGee, Andrei Arlovski twice, Brandon Vera, and Jeff Monson.

Key Losses: Frank Mir, Andrei Arlovski, Randy Couture, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Fedor Emelianenko.

Case for Tim Sylvia: When the “Maine-iac” stormed onto the UFC scene with an unbeaten record of 16 wins and 0 losses. Timmy is proabaly the most proficient knockout artist to ever hold the UFC Heavyweight Title, with 17 of his 25 wins coming by KO.

There is little doubt that he was the most dominant Heavyweight in the UFC from 2003 to 2007, and that’s quite and impressive run.

His rival for domination of the UFC within that time period was Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia won two of their three fights.

The case for Timmy is weakened by unavenged losses to Randy Couture, Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, but it should be pointed out that only world-class elite MMA Heavyweights ever beat the Maine-iac in the UFC. Losing to Fedor Emelianenko falls into the same category.

His loss to Ray Mercer last year has a lot of fans doubting that Timmy is still relevant in this sport. But there is no doubt that he once was the greatest fighter in the UFC, and one of the best MMA Heavyweights of all time.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Andrei Arlovski

Andrei Arlovski – 15 Wins. 7 Losses.

Qualifications: Former UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Tim Sylvia, Paul Buentello, Fabricio Werdum Ben Rothwell, Roy Nelson.

Key Losses: Ricco Rodriguez, Pedro Rizzo, Tim Sylvia twice, Fedor Emelianenko, Brett Rogers.

Case for Andrei Arlovski: The Pitbull has a shorter resume than most of the contenders for “greatest Heavyweight ever” but it must be acknowledged that 2002 to 2008 he was dominant a dominant fighter in the UFC.

In that span of time in the UFC, he only ever lost to Tim Sylvia. Everyone else the UFC put in front of Andrei he destroyed.

Andrei Arlovski is probably second only to Tim Sylvia as a knockout artist among UFC champions. 11 of his 15 wins came by KO. But unlike the Maine-iac, Andrei was a better all-around fighter, as demonstrated by the fact that he has never been submitted in his entire career.

Perhaps the most hotly contested topic among Mixed Martial Arts fans centers around Fedor Emelianenko. Is he the greatest MMA fighter of all time? Is he the greatest Heavyweight the sport has ever seen? Or is he unproven and over-rated?

Many MMA fans will say that Fedor Emelianenko is unquestionably the best Heavyweight MMA fighter in the history of the sport.

Others will tell you that this is absolute nonsense and that he's never proven himself against the best fighters in Mixed Martial Arts.

No matter which side of the argument anyone happens to be on, you have to answer this very important question: If Fedor Emelianenko is not the best Heavyweight in Mixed Martial Arts history, who is?

So I think it’s only appropriate that we create a list of all the possible candidates. With a list of all contenders, we can look at their respective careers and run a side-by-side comparison. Each person can decide for themselves who they believe is the greatest MMA Heavyweight ever.

The minimum standards to qualify for consideration are simple enough:
1.) They must have either been a UFC Champion or they must have beaten a former UFC Champion.
2.) They must have been a champion in some fashion within a strong MMA promotion at some point in their career.
3.) They must have fought at heavyweight for a significant portion of their career.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Ken Shamrock

Ken Shamrock -- 27 Wins. 13 Losses. 2 Draws.

Qualifications: Ken was the first ever UFC Superfight Champion. While this certainly was a somewhat thrown together championship title, he defended and/or reclaimed the Superfight title three times.

How that championship title was won or lost was not very clear in those days, but it was the only perpetual championship title the UFC had in place during the prime years of Ken Shamrock's career. Ken is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Defeated Bas Rutten twice. Also defeated Maurice Smith, Dan Severn, and Kimo Leopoldo.

Key losses: Royce Gracie, Dan Severn, Minoru Suzuki twice and Masakatsu Funaki. Later in his career, and certainly when Ken was well past his prime years, Ken lost to Kazuyuki Fujita, Don Frye, Tito Ortiz three times, Rich Franklin, Kazushi Sakuraba and Robert Berry.

Case for Ken Shamrock as the greatest ever: Ken’s late career losses are a pretty big distraction from his earlier accomplishments. There is no doubt that Ken is nowhere close to being the “World Most Dangerous Man” today, and he hasn’t been for a long time.

But the younger Ken Shamrock who dominated the sport in the 1990's is easily one of the greatest MMA fighters in the history of the sport. Ken is the only man to beat Bas Rutten twice. He is also the only man to ever fight Rutten who never lost to him.

Shamrock dominated the UFC while this sport was still in it's infancy. His three Superfight victories are the stuff of legend.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Mark Coleman

Mark Coleman -- 16 Wins. 10 Losses.

Qualifications: Mark won the UFC tournament twice and was the first ever UFC Heavyweight Champion. Mark Coleman was also the first ever Pride FC tournament champion.

Key wins: Don Frye twice, Dan Severn, Kazuyuki Fujita, Igor Vovchanchyn, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

Key losses: Maurice Smith, Pete Williams, Pedro Rizzo, Nobuhiko Takada, Antônio Rodrigo "Big-Nog" Nogueira, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović, Fedor Emelianenko (twice), Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Randy Couture.

Case for Mark Coleman as the greatest ever: Coleman is a fighter who has seen a lot of ups and downs through his career. One of the truly great attributes Mark possesses–he has demonstrated the ability to resurrect his career when it seemed to be over.

He has remained competitive well into his 40s and that is a noteworthy accomplishment, too. The biggest hurdle in the way of claiming that Mark Coleman is the greatest ever is quite simple: He’s lost over one third of his fights.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Bas Rutten

Bas Rutten – 28 wins. 4 losses. 1 Draw.

Qualifications: Bas Rutten is the former UFC Heavyweight Champion and also has wins over former UFC champions Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock and Kevin Randleman. He is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Minoru Suzuki twice, Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock twice, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Kevin Randleman.

Key losses: Ken Shamrock twice, Frank Shamrock once, Masakatsu Funaki.

Case for Bas Rutten as the greatest ever: All of Bas Rutten’s losses came very early in his career. One can easily make the case that these early setbacks made him a better fighter in the long run.

Bas Rutten is the owner of the second longest unbroken win-streak in MMA today, holding 21 wins in a row. Because he has retired from the sport, this unbeaten streak will probably never be broken.

Within that 21 fight blitz, Rutten beat future UFC champion Maurice Smith twice, avenged his earlier losses to Frank Shamrock and Masakatsu Funaki, won the King of Pancrase title, and finished off his career by beating Kevin Randleman to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Injuries sustained in training for his next fight brought an abrupt end to the brilliant career of “El Guapo.” The fact that his career ended on such an unprecedented win streak easily makes Bas Rutten one of the great MMA fighters ever.

One could easily stake the claim that Rutten would have dominated for years to come if his career had not been ended by injury. He was possibly the best ever.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Randy Couture

Randy Couture -- 18 wins, 10 losses.

Qualifications: Randy Couture won the UFC 13 Heavyweight Tournament, is the three-time UFC Heavyweight Champion and the two-time UFC Light Heavyweight Champion.

Key wins: Maurice Smith, Jeremy Horn, Kevin Randleman, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Pedro Rizzo twice, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Vitor Belfort twice, Tim Silvia, Gabriel Gonzaga, Mark Coleman.

Key Losses: Valentijn Overeem, Josh Barnett, Ricco Rogriguez, Vitor Belfort once, Chuck Liddell twice, Brock Lesnar, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Case for Randy Couture: Like Muhammed Ali before him, Randy Couture can be beaten but he always comes back stronger and better than ever. He has reclaimed the title “UFC Champion” again and again.

Overall, he has been tournament champion once and UFC Champion five times. His win/loss record looks terrible until we consider that 16 of his 28 fights were all title fights.

Is that enough for us to overlook his 10 losses and legitimately claim that Randy Couture is the Greatest Heavyweight of All Time? It’s certainly debatable.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Big-Nog) – 33 wins. 5 losses. 1 draw. 1 no contest.

Qualifications: Former Interim UFC Heavyweight Champion. Former Pride FC Heavyweight Champion. Rings tournament champion. Big-Nog holds wins over former UFC Champions Mark Coleman, Ricco Rogriguez, Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia and Randy Couture.

Key Wins: Valentijn Overeem twice, Mark Coleman, Heath Herring three times, Jeremy Horn, Bob Sapp, Semmy Schilt, Dan Henderson, Ricco Rodriguez, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović, Sergei Kharitonov, Fabricio Werdum, Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia, Randy Couture.

Key Losses: Dan Henderson, Fedor Emelianenko twice, Josh Barnett, Frank Mir.

Case for Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira: Simply looking at his record and then looking at the quality of opponents that Nogueira has beaten, there is little room for doubt that this man is one of the greatest Heavyweights to ever compete in MMA.

And while his recent losses to Frank Mir and Cain Velasquez may have signaled the end to the glory days of Minotauro, his overall resume of fights and wins is incredible.

The biggest hurdle to overcome if you want to claim that Big-Nog is the greatest ever are his two losses to Fedor Emelianenko. Those losses remain his only unavenged losses to this day.

Big-Nog eventually avenged every other loss in his career. (Mir and Velasquez are too recent obviously.) Josh Barnett and Dan Henderson are both good examples of this.

Nogueira’s win percentage against the best fighters in the world makes a very strong case for his place among the most legendary mixed martial arts fighters ever.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Tim "the Maine-iac" Sylvia

Tim Sylvia – 25 Wins. 6 Losses.

Qualifications: Two time UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Ricco Rodriguez, Gan McGee, Andrei Arlovski twice, Brandon Vera, and Jeff Monson.

Key Losses: Frank Mir, Andrei Arlovski, Randy Couture, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Fedor Emelianenko.

Case for Tim Sylvia: When the “Maine-iac” stormed onto the UFC scene with an unbeaten record of 16 wins and 0 losses. Timmy is proabaly the most proficient knockout artist to ever hold the UFC Heavyweight Title, with 17 of his 25 wins coming by KO.

There is little doubt that he was the most dominant Heavyweight in the UFC from 2003 to 2007, and that’s quite and impressive run.

His rival for domination of the UFC within that time period was Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia won two of their three fights.

The case for Timmy is weakened by unavenged losses to Randy Couture, Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, but it should be pointed out that only world-class elite MMA Heavyweights ever beat the Maine-iac in the UFC. Losing to Fedor Emelianenko falls into the same category.

His loss to Ray Mercer last year has a lot of fans doubting that Timmy is still relevant in this sport. But there is no doubt that he once was the greatest fighter in the UFC, and one of the best MMA Heavyweights of all time.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Andrei Arlovski

Andrei Arlovski – 15 Wins. 7 Losses.

Qualifications: Former UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Tim Sylvia, Paul Buentello, Fabricio Werdum Ben Rothwell, Roy Nelson.

Key Losses: Ricco Rodriguez, Pedro Rizzo, Tim Sylvia twice, Fedor Emelianenko, Brett Rogers.

Case for Andrei Arlovski: The Pitbull has a shorter resume than most of the contenders for “greatest Heavyweight ever” but it must be acknowledged that 2002 to 2008 he was dominant a dominant fighter in the UFC.

In that span of time in the UFC, he only ever lost to Tim Sylvia. Everyone else the UFC put in front of Andrei he destroyed.

Andrei Arlovski is probably second only to Tim Sylvia as a knockout artist among UFC champions. 11 of his 15 wins came by KO. But unlike the Maine-iac, Andrei was a better all-around fighter, as demonstrated by the fact that he has never been submitted in his entire career.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Josh Barnett

Josh Barnett – 24 Wins. 5 Losses.

Qualifications: Former UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Dan Severn, Gan McGee, Semmy Schilt twice, Randy Couture, Aleksander Emelianenko, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, Pedro Rizzo, Jeff Monson, Gilvert Yvel.

Key Losses: Pedro Rizzo, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic three times, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Case for Josh Barnett: The Baby-Faced Assassin has proven himself to be one of the most terrifying forces in MMA history. He handily beat Randy Couture for the UFC Title. He has destroyed one legendary fighter after another, after another.

The two banes of Josh Barnett’s career are Mirko Cro-Cop and Steroids. Barnett has tested positive at two of the most publicly humiliating moments possible: The first time was right after beating Randy Couture for the UFC belt.

The second time was right before his scheduled fight with Fedor Emelianenko, which probably put the final nail in the coffin of Affliction as a fighting promotion.

At worst, Barnett splits the series one and one with any man who has ever beaten him in a fight. All fighters but Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic that is. Mirko is the only the man who has beaten Barnett more than once, and Cro-Cop did it three times.

Mirko has clearly lost his edge as a fighter, so any attempt by Barnett to avenge his losses to Cro-Cop in the future would only be hollow victories if Barnett wins. Any hypothetical rematch would pit Barnett against a bare shadow of the man the Cro-Cop once was.

Truthfully, the Baby Faced Assassin just might be the baddest Heavyweight fighter in all of MMA today. But can he stay off the juice for long enough to actually prove it?

Perhaps the most hotly contested topic among Mixed Martial Arts fans centers around Fedor Emelianenko. Is he the greatest MMA fighter of all time? Is he the greatest Heavyweight the sport has ever seen? Or is he unproven and over-rated?

Many MMA fans will say that Fedor Emelianenko is unquestionably the best Heavyweight MMA fighter in the history of the sport.

Others will tell you that this is absolute nonsense and that he's never proven himself against the best fighters in Mixed Martial Arts.

No matter which side of the argument anyone happens to be on, you have to answer this very important question: If Fedor Emelianenko is not the best Heavyweight in Mixed Martial Arts history, who is?

So I think it’s only appropriate that we create a list of all the possible candidates. With a list of all contenders, we can look at their respective careers and run a side-by-side comparison. Each person can decide for themselves who they believe is the greatest MMA Heavyweight ever.

The minimum standards to qualify for consideration are simple enough:
1.) They must have either been a UFC Champion or they must have beaten a former UFC Champion.
2.) They must have been a champion in some fashion within a strong MMA promotion at some point in their career.
3.) They must have fought at heavyweight for a significant portion of their career.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Ken Shamrock

Ken Shamrock -- 27 Wins. 13 Losses. 2 Draws.

Qualifications: Ken was the first ever UFC Superfight Champion. While this certainly was a somewhat thrown together championship title, he defended and/or reclaimed the Superfight title three times.

How that championship title was won or lost was not very clear in those days, but it was the only perpetual championship title the UFC had in place during the prime years of Ken Shamrock's career. Ken is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Defeated Bas Rutten twice. Also defeated Maurice Smith, Dan Severn, and Kimo Leopoldo.

Key losses: Royce Gracie, Dan Severn, Minoru Suzuki twice and Masakatsu Funaki. Later in his career, and certainly when Ken was well past his prime years, Ken lost to Kazuyuki Fujita, Don Frye, Tito Ortiz three times, Rich Franklin, Kazushi Sakuraba and Robert Berry.

Case for Ken Shamrock as the greatest ever: Ken’s late career losses are a pretty big distraction from his earlier accomplishments. There is no doubt that Ken is nowhere close to being the “World Most Dangerous Man” today, and he hasn’t been for a long time.

But the younger Ken Shamrock who dominated the sport in the 1990's is easily one of the greatest MMA fighters in the history of the sport. Ken is the only man to beat Bas Rutten twice. He is also the only man to ever fight Rutten who never lost to him.

Shamrock dominated the UFC while this sport was still in it's infancy. His three Superfight victories are the stuff of legend.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Mark Coleman

Mark Coleman -- 16 Wins. 10 Losses.

Qualifications: Mark won the UFC tournament twice and was the first ever UFC Heavyweight Champion. Mark Coleman was also the first ever Pride FC tournament champion.

Key wins: Don Frye twice, Dan Severn, Kazuyuki Fujita, Igor Vovchanchyn, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

Key losses: Maurice Smith, Pete Williams, Pedro Rizzo, Nobuhiko Takada, Antônio Rodrigo "Big-Nog" Nogueira, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović, Fedor Emelianenko (twice), Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Randy Couture.

Case for Mark Coleman as the greatest ever: Coleman is a fighter who has seen a lot of ups and downs through his career. One of the truly great attributes Mark possesses–he has demonstrated the ability to resurrect his career when it seemed to be over.

He has remained competitive well into his 40s and that is a noteworthy accomplishment, too. The biggest hurdle in the way of claiming that Mark Coleman is the greatest ever is quite simple: He’s lost over one third of his fights.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Bas Rutten

Bas Rutten – 28 wins. 4 losses. 1 Draw.

Qualifications: Bas Rutten is the former UFC Heavyweight Champion and also has wins over former UFC champions Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock and Kevin Randleman. He is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Minoru Suzuki twice, Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock twice, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Kevin Randleman.

Key losses: Ken Shamrock twice, Frank Shamrock once, Masakatsu Funaki.

Case for Bas Rutten as the greatest ever: All of Bas Rutten’s losses came very early in his career. One can easily make the case that these early setbacks made him a better fighter in the long run.

Bas Rutten is the owner of the second longest unbroken win-streak in MMA today, holding 21 wins in a row. Because he has retired from the sport, this unbeaten streak will probably never be broken.

Within that 21 fight blitz, Rutten beat future UFC champion Maurice Smith twice, avenged his earlier losses to Frank Shamrock and Masakatsu Funaki, won the King of Pancrase title, and finished off his career by beating Kevin Randleman to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Injuries sustained in training for his next fight brought an abrupt end to the brilliant career of “El Guapo.” The fact that his career ended on such an unprecedented win streak easily makes Bas Rutten one of the great MMA fighters ever.

One could easily stake the claim that Rutten would have dominated for years to come if his career had not been ended by injury. He was possibly the best ever.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Randy Couture

Randy Couture -- 18 wins, 10 losses.

Qualifications: Randy Couture won the UFC 13 Heavyweight Tournament, is the three-time UFC Heavyweight Champion and the two-time UFC Light Heavyweight Champion.

Key wins: Maurice Smith, Jeremy Horn, Kevin Randleman, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Pedro Rizzo twice, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Vitor Belfort twice, Tim Silvia, Gabriel Gonzaga, Mark Coleman.

Key Losses: Valentijn Overeem, Josh Barnett, Ricco Rogriguez, Vitor Belfort once, Chuck Liddell twice, Brock Lesnar, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Case for Randy Couture: Like Muhammed Ali before him, Randy Couture can be beaten but he always comes back stronger and better than ever. He has reclaimed the title “UFC Champion” again and again.

Overall, he has been tournament champion once and UFC Champion five times. His win/loss record looks terrible until we consider that 16 of his 28 fights were all title fights.

Is that enough for us to overlook his 10 losses and legitimately claim that Randy Couture is the Greatest Heavyweight of All Time? It’s certainly debatable.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Big-Nog) – 33 wins. 5 losses. 1 draw. 1 no contest.

Qualifications: Former Interim UFC Heavyweight Champion. Former Pride FC Heavyweight Champion. Rings tournament champion. Big-Nog holds wins over former UFC Champions Mark Coleman, Ricco Rogriguez, Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia and Randy Couture.

Key Wins: Valentijn Overeem twice, Mark Coleman, Heath Herring three times, Jeremy Horn, Bob Sapp, Semmy Schilt, Dan Henderson, Ricco Rodriguez, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović, Sergei Kharitonov, Fabricio Werdum, Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia, Randy Couture.

Key Losses: Dan Henderson, Fedor Emelianenko twice, Josh Barnett, Frank Mir.

Case for Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira: Simply looking at his record and then looking at the quality of opponents that Nogueira has beaten, there is little room for doubt that this man is one of the greatest Heavyweights to ever compete in MMA.

And while his recent losses to Frank Mir and Cain Velasquez may have signaled the end to the glory days of Minotauro, his overall resume of fights and wins is incredible.

The biggest hurdle to overcome if you want to claim that Big-Nog is the greatest ever are his two losses to Fedor Emelianenko. Those losses remain his only unavenged losses to this day.

Big-Nog eventually avenged every other loss in his career. (Mir and Velasquez are too recent obviously.) Josh Barnett and Dan Henderson are both good examples of this.

Nogueira’s win percentage against the best fighters in the world makes a very strong case for his place among the most legendary mixed martial arts fighters ever.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Tim "the Maine-iac" Sylvia

Tim Sylvia – 25 Wins. 6 Losses.

Qualifications: Two time UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Ricco Rodriguez, Gan McGee, Andrei Arlovski twice, Brandon Vera, and Jeff Monson.

Key Losses: Frank Mir, Andrei Arlovski, Randy Couture, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Fedor Emelianenko.

Case for Tim Sylvia: When the “Maine-iac” stormed onto the UFC scene with an unbeaten record of 16 wins and 0 losses. Timmy is proabaly the most proficient knockout artist to ever hold the UFC Heavyweight Title, with 17 of his 25 wins coming by KO.

There is little doubt that he was the most dominant Heavyweight in the UFC from 2003 to 2007, and that’s quite and impressive run.

His rival for domination of the UFC within that time period was Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia won two of their three fights.

The case for Timmy is weakened by unavenged losses to Randy Couture, Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, but it should be pointed out that only world-class elite MMA Heavyweights ever beat the Maine-iac in the UFC. Losing to Fedor Emelianenko falls into the same category.

His loss to Ray Mercer last year has a lot of fans doubting that Timmy is still relevant in this sport. But there is no doubt that he once was the greatest fighter in the UFC, and one of the best MMA Heavyweights of all time.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Andrei Arlovski

Andrei Arlovski – 15 Wins. 7 Losses.

Qualifications: Former UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Tim Sylvia, Paul Buentello, Fabricio Werdum Ben Rothwell, Roy Nelson.

Key Losses: Ricco Rodriguez, Pedro Rizzo, Tim Sylvia twice, Fedor Emelianenko, Brett Rogers.

Case for Andrei Arlovski: The Pitbull has a shorter resume than most of the contenders for “greatest Heavyweight ever” but it must be acknowledged that 2002 to 2008 he was dominant a dominant fighter in the UFC.

In that span of time in the UFC, he only ever lost to Tim Sylvia. Everyone else the UFC put in front of Andrei he destroyed.

Andrei Arlovski is probably second only to Tim Sylvia as a knockout artist among UFC champions. 11 of his 15 wins came by KO. But unlike the Maine-iac, Andrei was a better all-around fighter, as demonstrated by the fact that he has never been submitted in his entire career.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Josh Barnett

Josh Barnett – 24 Wins. 5 Losses.

Qualifications: Former UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Dan Severn, Gan McGee, Semmy Schilt twice, Randy Couture, Aleksander Emelianenko, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, Pedro Rizzo, Jeff Monson, Gilvert Yvel.

Key Losses: Pedro Rizzo, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic three times, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Case for Josh Barnett: The Baby-Faced Assassin has proven himself to be one of the most terrifying forces in MMA history. He handily beat Randy Couture for the UFC Title. He has destroyed one legendary fighter after another, after another.

The two banes of Josh Barnett’s career are Mirko Cro-Cop and Steroids. Barnett has tested positive at two of the most publicly humiliating moments possible: The first time was right after beating Randy Couture for the UFC belt.

The second time was right before his scheduled fight with Fedor Emelianenko, which probably put the final nail in the coffin of Affliction as a fighting promotion.

At worst, Barnett splits the series one and one with any man who has ever beaten him in a fight. All fighters but Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic that is. Mirko is the only the man who has beaten Barnett more than once, and Cro-Cop did it three times.

Mirko has clearly lost his edge as a fighter, so any attempt by Barnett to avenge his losses to Cro-Cop in the future would only be hollow victories if Barnett wins. Any hypothetical rematch would pit Barnett against a bare shadow of the man the Cro-Cop once was.

Truthfully, the Baby Faced Assassin just might be the baddest Heavyweight fighter in all of MMA today. But can he stay off the juice for long enough to actually prove it?

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic

Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic – 26 Wins. 7 Losses. 2 Draws. 1 No Contest.

Qualifications: Defeated UFC Champions Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman and Josh Barnett. Pride FC 2006 Openweight Grand Prix Champion.

Key Wins: Kazuyuki Fujita twice, Heath Herring, Igor Vovchanchyn, Aleksander Emelianenko, Josh Barnett three times, Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman, Ikuhisa Minowa, Wanderlei Silva, Hong-man Choi, Bob Sapp.

Key Losses: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Kevin Randleman, Fedor Emelianenko, Mark Hunt, Gabriel Gonzaga, Cheick Kongo, Junior dos Santos.

Case for Mirko Filipovic: If Tim Sylvia is the most lethal knockout artist champion in UFC history, Mirko "Cro-Cop" was the same thing in spades in Pride FC. In Cro-Cop’s prime, I would rate him as the superior striker and Tim Sylvia. He's also a better over-all fighter than Tim.

From 2001 to 2006 Mirko terrorized the Heavyweight ranks of Pride FC. In that stretch, there were only two fighters that handed him losses that were ultimately never avenged: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Fedor Emelianenko.

Cro-Cop’s trademark head-kicks and powerful punches probably ended the prime of the career of Wanderlei Silva in 2006.

Ironically, less than a year later Gabriel Gonzaga knocked him out with a head-kick of his own–probably the most gruesome knockout in UFC history. Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic has only been a shadow of the fighter he once was since the day that Gonzaga knocked him out. Mirko is certainly one of the most dominant fighters in MMA history.

Perhaps the most hotly contested topic among Mixed Martial Arts fans centers around Fedor Emelianenko. Is he the greatest MMA fighter of all time? Is he the greatest Heavyweight the sport has ever seen? Or is he unproven and over-rated?

Many MMA fans will say that Fedor Emelianenko is unquestionably the best Heavyweight MMA fighter in the history of the sport.

Others will tell you that this is absolute nonsense and that he's never proven himself against the best fighters in Mixed Martial Arts.

No matter which side of the argument anyone happens to be on, you have to answer this very important question: If Fedor Emelianenko is not the best Heavyweight in Mixed Martial Arts history, who is?

So I think it’s only appropriate that we create a list of all the possible candidates. With a list of all contenders, we can look at their respective careers and run a side-by-side comparison. Each person can decide for themselves who they believe is the greatest MMA Heavyweight ever.

The minimum standards to qualify for consideration are simple enough:
1.) They must have either been a UFC Champion or they must have beaten a former UFC Champion.
2.) They must have been a champion in some fashion within a strong MMA promotion at some point in their career.
3.) They must have fought at heavyweight for a significant portion of their career.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Ken Shamrock

Ken Shamrock -- 27 Wins. 13 Losses. 2 Draws.

Qualifications: Ken was the first ever UFC Superfight Champion. While this certainly was a somewhat thrown together championship title, he defended and/or reclaimed the Superfight title three times.

How that championship title was won or lost was not very clear in those days, but it was the only perpetual championship title the UFC had in place during the prime years of Ken Shamrock's career. Ken is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Defeated Bas Rutten twice. Also defeated Maurice Smith, Dan Severn, and Kimo Leopoldo.

Key losses: Royce Gracie, Dan Severn, Minoru Suzuki twice and Masakatsu Funaki. Later in his career, and certainly when Ken was well past his prime years, Ken lost to Kazuyuki Fujita, Don Frye, Tito Ortiz three times, Rich Franklin, Kazushi Sakuraba and Robert Berry.

Case for Ken Shamrock as the greatest ever: Ken’s late career losses are a pretty big distraction from his earlier accomplishments. There is no doubt that Ken is nowhere close to being the “World Most Dangerous Man” today, and he hasn’t been for a long time.

But the younger Ken Shamrock who dominated the sport in the 1990's is easily one of the greatest MMA fighters in the history of the sport. Ken is the only man to beat Bas Rutten twice. He is also the only man to ever fight Rutten who never lost to him.

Shamrock dominated the UFC while this sport was still in it's infancy. His three Superfight victories are the stuff of legend.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Mark Coleman

Mark Coleman -- 16 Wins. 10 Losses.

Qualifications: Mark won the UFC tournament twice and was the first ever UFC Heavyweight Champion. Mark Coleman was also the first ever Pride FC tournament champion.

Key wins: Don Frye twice, Dan Severn, Kazuyuki Fujita, Igor Vovchanchyn, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

Key losses: Maurice Smith, Pete Williams, Pedro Rizzo, Nobuhiko Takada, Antônio Rodrigo "Big-Nog" Nogueira, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović, Fedor Emelianenko (twice), Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Randy Couture.

Case for Mark Coleman as the greatest ever: Coleman is a fighter who has seen a lot of ups and downs through his career. One of the truly great attributes Mark possesses–he has demonstrated the ability to resurrect his career when it seemed to be over.

He has remained competitive well into his 40s and that is a noteworthy accomplishment, too. The biggest hurdle in the way of claiming that Mark Coleman is the greatest ever is quite simple: He’s lost over one third of his fights.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Bas Rutten

Bas Rutten – 28 wins. 4 losses. 1 Draw.

Qualifications: Bas Rutten is the former UFC Heavyweight Champion and also has wins over former UFC champions Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock and Kevin Randleman. He is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Minoru Suzuki twice, Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock twice, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Kevin Randleman.

Key losses: Ken Shamrock twice, Frank Shamrock once, Masakatsu Funaki.

Case for Bas Rutten as the greatest ever: All of Bas Rutten’s losses came very early in his career. One can easily make the case that these early setbacks made him a better fighter in the long run.

Bas Rutten is the owner of the second longest unbroken win-streak in MMA today, holding 21 wins in a row. Because he has retired from the sport, this unbeaten streak will probably never be broken.

Within that 21 fight blitz, Rutten beat future UFC champion Maurice Smith twice, avenged his earlier losses to Frank Shamrock and Masakatsu Funaki, won the King of Pancrase title, and finished off his career by beating Kevin Randleman to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Injuries sustained in training for his next fight brought an abrupt end to the brilliant career of “El Guapo.” The fact that his career ended on such an unprecedented win streak easily makes Bas Rutten one of the great MMA fighters ever.

One could easily stake the claim that Rutten would have dominated for years to come if his career had not been ended by injury. He was possibly the best ever.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Randy Couture

Randy Couture -- 18 wins, 10 losses.

Qualifications: Randy Couture won the UFC 13 Heavyweight Tournament, is the three-time UFC Heavyweight Champion and the two-time UFC Light Heavyweight Champion.

Key wins: Maurice Smith, Jeremy Horn, Kevin Randleman, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Pedro Rizzo twice, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Vitor Belfort twice, Tim Silvia, Gabriel Gonzaga, Mark Coleman.

Key Losses: Valentijn Overeem, Josh Barnett, Ricco Rogriguez, Vitor Belfort once, Chuck Liddell twice, Brock Lesnar, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Case for Randy Couture: Like Muhammed Ali before him, Randy Couture can be beaten but he always comes back stronger and better than ever. He has reclaimed the title “UFC Champion” again and again.

Overall, he has been tournament champion once and UFC Champion five times. His win/loss record looks terrible until we consider that 16 of his 28 fights were all title fights.

Is that enough for us to overlook his 10 losses and legitimately claim that Randy Couture is the Greatest Heavyweight of All Time? It’s certainly debatable.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Big-Nog) – 33 wins. 5 losses. 1 draw. 1 no contest.

Qualifications: Former Interim UFC Heavyweight Champion. Former Pride FC Heavyweight Champion. Rings tournament champion. Big-Nog holds wins over former UFC Champions Mark Coleman, Ricco Rogriguez, Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia and Randy Couture.

Key Wins: Valentijn Overeem twice, Mark Coleman, Heath Herring three times, Jeremy Horn, Bob Sapp, Semmy Schilt, Dan Henderson, Ricco Rodriguez, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović, Sergei Kharitonov, Fabricio Werdum, Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia, Randy Couture.

Key Losses: Dan Henderson, Fedor Emelianenko twice, Josh Barnett, Frank Mir.

Case for Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira: Simply looking at his record and then looking at the quality of opponents that Nogueira has beaten, there is little room for doubt that this man is one of the greatest Heavyweights to ever compete in MMA.

And while his recent losses to Frank Mir and Cain Velasquez may have signaled the end to the glory days of Minotauro, his overall resume of fights and wins is incredible.

The biggest hurdle to overcome if you want to claim that Big-Nog is the greatest ever are his two losses to Fedor Emelianenko. Those losses remain his only unavenged losses to this day.

Big-Nog eventually avenged every other loss in his career. (Mir and Velasquez are too recent obviously.) Josh Barnett and Dan Henderson are both good examples of this.

Nogueira’s win percentage against the best fighters in the world makes a very strong case for his place among the most legendary mixed martial arts fighters ever.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Tim "the Maine-iac" Sylvia

Tim Sylvia – 25 Wins. 6 Losses.

Qualifications: Two time UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Ricco Rodriguez, Gan McGee, Andrei Arlovski twice, Brandon Vera, and Jeff Monson.

Key Losses: Frank Mir, Andrei Arlovski, Randy Couture, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Fedor Emelianenko.

Case for Tim Sylvia: When the “Maine-iac” stormed onto the UFC scene with an unbeaten record of 16 wins and 0 losses. Timmy is proabaly the most proficient knockout artist to ever hold the UFC Heavyweight Title, with 17 of his 25 wins coming by KO.

There is little doubt that he was the most dominant Heavyweight in the UFC from 2003 to 2007, and that’s quite and impressive run.

His rival for domination of the UFC within that time period was Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia won two of their three fights.

The case for Timmy is weakened by unavenged losses to Randy Couture, Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, but it should be pointed out that only world-class elite MMA Heavyweights ever beat the Maine-iac in the UFC. Losing to Fedor Emelianenko falls into the same category.

His loss to Ray Mercer last year has a lot of fans doubting that Timmy is still relevant in this sport. But there is no doubt that he once was the greatest fighter in the UFC, and one of the best MMA Heavyweights of all time.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Andrei Arlovski

Andrei Arlovski – 15 Wins. 7 Losses.

Qualifications: Former UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Tim Sylvia, Paul Buentello, Fabricio Werdum Ben Rothwell, Roy Nelson.

Key Losses: Ricco Rodriguez, Pedro Rizzo, Tim Sylvia twice, Fedor Emelianenko, Brett Rogers.

Case for Andrei Arlovski: The Pitbull has a shorter resume than most of the contenders for “greatest Heavyweight ever” but it must be acknowledged that 2002 to 2008 he was dominant a dominant fighter in the UFC.

In that span of time in the UFC, he only ever lost to Tim Sylvia. Everyone else the UFC put in front of Andrei he destroyed.

Andrei Arlovski is probably second only to Tim Sylvia as a knockout artist among UFC champions. 11 of his 15 wins came by KO. But unlike the Maine-iac, Andrei was a better all-around fighter, as demonstrated by the fact that he has never been submitted in his entire career.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Josh Barnett

Josh Barnett – 24 Wins. 5 Losses.

Qualifications: Former UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Dan Severn, Gan McGee, Semmy Schilt twice, Randy Couture, Aleksander Emelianenko, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, Pedro Rizzo, Jeff Monson, Gilvert Yvel.

Key Losses: Pedro Rizzo, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic three times, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Case for Josh Barnett: The Baby-Faced Assassin has proven himself to be one of the most terrifying forces in MMA history. He handily beat Randy Couture for the UFC Title. He has destroyed one legendary fighter after another, after another.

The two banes of Josh Barnett’s career are Mirko Cro-Cop and Steroids. Barnett has tested positive at two of the most publicly humiliating moments possible: The first time was right after beating Randy Couture for the UFC belt.

The second time was right before his scheduled fight with Fedor Emelianenko, which probably put the final nail in the coffin of Affliction as a fighting promotion.

At worst, Barnett splits the series one and one with any man who has ever beaten him in a fight. All fighters but Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic that is. Mirko is the only the man who has beaten Barnett more than once, and Cro-Cop did it three times.

Mirko has clearly lost his edge as a fighter, so any attempt by Barnett to avenge his losses to Cro-Cop in the future would only be hollow victories if Barnett wins. Any hypothetical rematch would pit Barnett against a bare shadow of the man the Cro-Cop once was.

Truthfully, the Baby Faced Assassin just might be the baddest Heavyweight fighter in all of MMA today. But can he stay off the juice for long enough to actually prove it?

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic

Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic – 26 Wins. 7 Losses. 2 Draws. 1 No Contest.

Qualifications: Defeated UFC Champions Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman and Josh Barnett. Pride FC 2006 Openweight Grand Prix Champion.

Key Wins: Kazuyuki Fujita twice, Heath Herring, Igor Vovchanchyn, Aleksander Emelianenko, Josh Barnett three times, Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman, Ikuhisa Minowa, Wanderlei Silva, Hong-man Choi, Bob Sapp.

Key Losses: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Kevin Randleman, Fedor Emelianenko, Mark Hunt, Gabriel Gonzaga, Cheick Kongo, Junior dos Santos.

Case for Mirko Filipovic: If Tim Sylvia is the most lethal knockout artist champion in UFC history, Mirko "Cro-Cop" was the same thing in spades in Pride FC. In Cro-Cop’s prime, I would rate him as the superior striker and Tim Sylvia. He's also a better over-all fighter than Tim.

From 2001 to 2006 Mirko terrorized the Heavyweight ranks of Pride FC. In that stretch, there were only two fighters that handed him losses that were ultimately never avenged: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Fedor Emelianenko.

Cro-Cop’s trademark head-kicks and powerful punches probably ended the prime of the career of Wanderlei Silva in 2006.

Ironically, less than a year later Gabriel Gonzaga knocked him out with a head-kick of his own–probably the most gruesome knockout in UFC history. Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic has only been a shadow of the fighter he once was since the day that Gonzaga knocked him out. Mirko is certainly one of the most dominant fighters in MMA history.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Frank Mir

Frank Mir – 13 Wins. 4 Losses.

Qualifications: Former UFC Heavyweight Champion. Former Interim Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Pete Williams, David "Tank" Abbott, Tim Sylvia, Brock Lesnar, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, Cheick Kongo.

Key Losses: Ian Freeman, Marcio Cruz, Brandon Vera, Brock Lesnar.

Case for Frank Mir: Frank Mir just might be the greatest Heavyweight submissions artist in the world today. A strong case can be made for both Mir and Big-Nog for that honor.

Mir’s career can be evenly divided in two parts: Before the motorcycle accident and after his recovery.

Pre-injury, Frank Mir followed up thrilling submission victories over Pete Williams and Tank Abbott with and even more impressive submission win. In a fight for the Heavyweight Belt, he locked an armbar onto the champion Tim Sylvia and proceeded to break Sylvia's arm to take the Heavyweight Title.

That same year, on Sept. 17, 2004, Mir was knocked off his motorcycle by a car. This accident broke Mir's femur in two places and tore all the ligaments in his knee. It is a miracle that Frank Mir ever fought in MMA again.

In his first four fights after his returning to the UFC, Mir went 2-2 racking up embarrassing losses to Marcio Cruz and Brandon Vera.

Then Frank Mir welcomed Brock Lesnar to the UFC. This stunning submission victory over the man who would soon become champion resurrected Frank Mir's MMA career.

There is still plenty of uncertainty about how well Mir stacks up to against the top-most elite MMA fighters in the world, but right now Frank Mir is two victories away from being acknowledged as the best Heavyweight in the UFC and arguably the best Heavyweight in the world today. All he has to do is beat Shane Carwin and Brock Lesnar.

Perhaps the most hotly contested topic among Mixed Martial Arts fans centers around Fedor Emelianenko. Is he the greatest MMA fighter of all time? Is he the greatest Heavyweight the sport has ever seen? Or is he unproven and over-rated?

Many MMA fans will say that Fedor Emelianenko is unquestionably the best Heavyweight MMA fighter in the history of the sport.

Others will tell you that this is absolute nonsense and that he's never proven himself against the best fighters in Mixed Martial Arts.

No matter which side of the argument anyone happens to be on, you have to answer this very important question: If Fedor Emelianenko is not the best Heavyweight in Mixed Martial Arts history, who is?

So I think it’s only appropriate that we create a list of all the possible candidates. With a list of all contenders, we can look at their respective careers and run a side-by-side comparison. Each person can decide for themselves who they believe is the greatest MMA Heavyweight ever.

The minimum standards to qualify for consideration are simple enough:
1.) They must have either been a UFC Champion or they must have beaten a former UFC Champion.
2.) They must have been a champion in some fashion within a strong MMA promotion at some point in their career.
3.) They must have fought at heavyweight for a significant portion of their career.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Ken Shamrock

Ken Shamrock -- 27 Wins. 13 Losses. 2 Draws.

Qualifications: Ken was the first ever UFC Superfight Champion. While this certainly was a somewhat thrown together championship title, he defended and/or reclaimed the Superfight title three times.

How that championship title was won or lost was not very clear in those days, but it was the only perpetual championship title the UFC had in place during the prime years of Ken Shamrock's career. Ken is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Defeated Bas Rutten twice. Also defeated Maurice Smith, Dan Severn, and Kimo Leopoldo.

Key losses: Royce Gracie, Dan Severn, Minoru Suzuki twice and Masakatsu Funaki. Later in his career, and certainly when Ken was well past his prime years, Ken lost to Kazuyuki Fujita, Don Frye, Tito Ortiz three times, Rich Franklin, Kazushi Sakuraba and Robert Berry.

Case for Ken Shamrock as the greatest ever: Ken’s late career losses are a pretty big distraction from his earlier accomplishments. There is no doubt that Ken is nowhere close to being the “World Most Dangerous Man” today, and he hasn’t been for a long time.

But the younger Ken Shamrock who dominated the sport in the 1990's is easily one of the greatest MMA fighters in the history of the sport. Ken is the only man to beat Bas Rutten twice. He is also the only man to ever fight Rutten who never lost to him.

Shamrock dominated the UFC while this sport was still in it's infancy. His three Superfight victories are the stuff of legend.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Mark Coleman

Mark Coleman -- 16 Wins. 10 Losses.

Qualifications: Mark won the UFC tournament twice and was the first ever UFC Heavyweight Champion. Mark Coleman was also the first ever Pride FC tournament champion.

Key wins: Don Frye twice, Dan Severn, Kazuyuki Fujita, Igor Vovchanchyn, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

Key losses: Maurice Smith, Pete Williams, Pedro Rizzo, Nobuhiko Takada, Antônio Rodrigo "Big-Nog" Nogueira, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović, Fedor Emelianenko (twice), Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Randy Couture.

Case for Mark Coleman as the greatest ever: Coleman is a fighter who has seen a lot of ups and downs through his career. One of the truly great attributes Mark possesses–he has demonstrated the ability to resurrect his career when it seemed to be over.

He has remained competitive well into his 40s and that is a noteworthy accomplishment, too. The biggest hurdle in the way of claiming that Mark Coleman is the greatest ever is quite simple: He’s lost over one third of his fights.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Bas Rutten

Bas Rutten – 28 wins. 4 losses. 1 Draw.

Qualifications: Bas Rutten is the former UFC Heavyweight Champion and also has wins over former UFC champions Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock and Kevin Randleman. He is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Minoru Suzuki twice, Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock twice, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Kevin Randleman.

Key losses: Ken Shamrock twice, Frank Shamrock once, Masakatsu Funaki.

Case for Bas Rutten as the greatest ever: All of Bas Rutten’s losses came very early in his career. One can easily make the case that these early setbacks made him a better fighter in the long run.

Bas Rutten is the owner of the second longest unbroken win-streak in MMA today, holding 21 wins in a row. Because he has retired from the sport, this unbeaten streak will probably never be broken.

Within that 21 fight blitz, Rutten beat future UFC champion Maurice Smith twice, avenged his earlier losses to Frank Shamrock and Masakatsu Funaki, won the King of Pancrase title, and finished off his career by beating Kevin Randleman to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Injuries sustained in training for his next fight brought an abrupt end to the brilliant career of “El Guapo.” The fact that his career ended on such an unprecedented win streak easily makes Bas Rutten one of the great MMA fighters ever.

One could easily stake the claim that Rutten would have dominated for years to come if his career had not been ended by injury. He was possibly the best ever.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Randy Couture

Randy Couture -- 18 wins, 10 losses.

Qualifications: Randy Couture won the UFC 13 Heavyweight Tournament, is the three-time UFC Heavyweight Champion and the two-time UFC Light Heavyweight Champion.

Key wins: Maurice Smith, Jeremy Horn, Kevin Randleman, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Pedro Rizzo twice, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Vitor Belfort twice, Tim Silvia, Gabriel Gonzaga, Mark Coleman.

Key Losses: Valentijn Overeem, Josh Barnett, Ricco Rogriguez, Vitor Belfort once, Chuck Liddell twice, Brock Lesnar, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Case for Randy Couture: Like Muhammed Ali before him, Randy Couture can be beaten but he always comes back stronger and better than ever. He has reclaimed the title “UFC Champion” again and again.

Overall, he has been tournament champion once and UFC Champion five times. His win/loss record looks terrible until we consider that 16 of his 28 fights were all title fights.

Is that enough for us to overlook his 10 losses and legitimately claim that Randy Couture is the Greatest Heavyweight of All Time? It’s certainly debatable.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Big-Nog) – 33 wins. 5 losses. 1 draw. 1 no contest.

Qualifications: Former Interim UFC Heavyweight Champion. Former Pride FC Heavyweight Champion. Rings tournament champion. Big-Nog holds wins over former UFC Champions Mark Coleman, Ricco Rogriguez, Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia and Randy Couture.

Key Wins: Valentijn Overeem twice, Mark Coleman, Heath Herring three times, Jeremy Horn, Bob Sapp, Semmy Schilt, Dan Henderson, Ricco Rodriguez, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović, Sergei Kharitonov, Fabricio Werdum, Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia, Randy Couture.

Key Losses: Dan Henderson, Fedor Emelianenko twice, Josh Barnett, Frank Mir.

Case for Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira: Simply looking at his record and then looking at the quality of opponents that Nogueira has beaten, there is little room for doubt that this man is one of the greatest Heavyweights to ever compete in MMA.

And while his recent losses to Frank Mir and Cain Velasquez may have signaled the end to the glory days of Minotauro, his overall resume of fights and wins is incredible.

The biggest hurdle to overcome if you want to claim that Big-Nog is the greatest ever are his two losses to Fedor Emelianenko. Those losses remain his only unavenged losses to this day.

Big-Nog eventually avenged every other loss in his career. (Mir and Velasquez are too recent obviously.) Josh Barnett and Dan Henderson are both good examples of this.

Nogueira’s win percentage against the best fighters in the world makes a very strong case for his place among the most legendary mixed martial arts fighters ever.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Tim "the Maine-iac" Sylvia

Tim Sylvia – 25 Wins. 6 Losses.

Qualifications: Two time UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Ricco Rodriguez, Gan McGee, Andrei Arlovski twice, Brandon Vera, and Jeff Monson.

Key Losses: Frank Mir, Andrei Arlovski, Randy Couture, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Fedor Emelianenko.

Case for Tim Sylvia: When the “Maine-iac” stormed onto the UFC scene with an unbeaten record of 16 wins and 0 losses. Timmy is proabaly the most proficient knockout artist to ever hold the UFC Heavyweight Title, with 17 of his 25 wins coming by KO.

There is little doubt that he was the most dominant Heavyweight in the UFC from 2003 to 2007, and that’s quite and impressive run.

His rival for domination of the UFC within that time period was Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia won two of their three fights.

The case for Timmy is weakened by unavenged losses to Randy Couture, Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, but it should be pointed out that only world-class elite MMA Heavyweights ever beat the Maine-iac in the UFC. Losing to Fedor Emelianenko falls into the same category.

His loss to Ray Mercer last year has a lot of fans doubting that Timmy is still relevant in this sport. But there is no doubt that he once was the greatest fighter in the UFC, and one of the best MMA Heavyweights of all time.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Andrei Arlovski

Andrei Arlovski – 15 Wins. 7 Losses.

Qualifications: Former UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Tim Sylvia, Paul Buentello, Fabricio Werdum Ben Rothwell, Roy Nelson.

Key Losses: Ricco Rodriguez, Pedro Rizzo, Tim Sylvia twice, Fedor Emelianenko, Brett Rogers.

Case for Andrei Arlovski: The Pitbull has a shorter resume than most of the contenders for “greatest Heavyweight ever” but it must be acknowledged that 2002 to 2008 he was dominant a dominant fighter in the UFC.

In that span of time in the UFC, he only ever lost to Tim Sylvia. Everyone else the UFC put in front of Andrei he destroyed.

Andrei Arlovski is probably second only to Tim Sylvia as a knockout artist among UFC champions. 11 of his 15 wins came by KO. But unlike the Maine-iac, Andrei was a better all-around fighter, as demonstrated by the fact that he has never been submitted in his entire career.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Josh Barnett

Josh Barnett – 24 Wins. 5 Losses.

Qualifications: Former UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Dan Severn, Gan McGee, Semmy Schilt twice, Randy Couture, Aleksander Emelianenko, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, Pedro Rizzo, Jeff Monson, Gilvert Yvel.

Key Losses: Pedro Rizzo, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic three times, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Case for Josh Barnett: The Baby-Faced Assassin has proven himself to be one of the most terrifying forces in MMA history. He handily beat Randy Couture for the UFC Title. He has destroyed one legendary fighter after another, after another.

The two banes of Josh Barnett’s career are Mirko Cro-Cop and Steroids. Barnett has tested positive at two of the most publicly humiliating moments possible: The first time was right after beating Randy Couture for the UFC belt.

The second time was right before his scheduled fight with Fedor Emelianenko, which probably put the final nail in the coffin of Affliction as a fighting promotion.

At worst, Barnett splits the series one and one with any man who has ever beaten him in a fight. All fighters but Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic that is. Mirko is the only the man who has beaten Barnett more than once, and Cro-Cop did it three times.

Mirko has clearly lost his edge as a fighter, so any attempt by Barnett to avenge his losses to Cro-Cop in the future would only be hollow victories if Barnett wins. Any hypothetical rematch would pit Barnett against a bare shadow of the man the Cro-Cop once was.

Truthfully, the Baby Faced Assassin just might be the baddest Heavyweight fighter in all of MMA today. But can he stay off the juice for long enough to actually prove it?

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic

Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic – 26 Wins. 7 Losses. 2 Draws. 1 No Contest.

Qualifications: Defeated UFC Champions Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman and Josh Barnett. Pride FC 2006 Openweight Grand Prix Champion.

Key Wins: Kazuyuki Fujita twice, Heath Herring, Igor Vovchanchyn, Aleksander Emelianenko, Josh Barnett three times, Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman, Ikuhisa Minowa, Wanderlei Silva, Hong-man Choi, Bob Sapp.

Key Losses: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Kevin Randleman, Fedor Emelianenko, Mark Hunt, Gabriel Gonzaga, Cheick Kongo, Junior dos Santos.

Case for Mirko Filipovic: If Tim Sylvia is the most lethal knockout artist champion in UFC history, Mirko "Cro-Cop" was the same thing in spades in Pride FC. In Cro-Cop’s prime, I would rate him as the superior striker and Tim Sylvia. He's also a better over-all fighter than Tim.

From 2001 to 2006 Mirko terrorized the Heavyweight ranks of Pride FC. In that stretch, there were only two fighters that handed him losses that were ultimately never avenged: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Fedor Emelianenko.

Cro-Cop’s trademark head-kicks and powerful punches probably ended the prime of the career of Wanderlei Silva in 2006.

Ironically, less than a year later Gabriel Gonzaga knocked him out with a head-kick of his own–probably the most gruesome knockout in UFC history. Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic has only been a shadow of the fighter he once was since the day that Gonzaga knocked him out. Mirko is certainly one of the most dominant fighters in MMA history.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Frank Mir

Frank Mir – 13 Wins. 4 Losses.

Qualifications: Former UFC Heavyweight Champion. Former Interim Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Pete Williams, David "Tank" Abbott, Tim Sylvia, Brock Lesnar, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, Cheick Kongo.

Key Losses: Ian Freeman, Marcio Cruz, Brandon Vera, Brock Lesnar.

Case for Frank Mir: Frank Mir just might be the greatest Heavyweight submissions artist in the world today. A strong case can be made for both Mir and Big-Nog for that honor.

Mir’s career can be evenly divided in two parts: Before the motorcycle accident and after his recovery.

Pre-injury, Frank Mir followed up thrilling submission victories over Pete Williams and Tank Abbott with and even more impressive submission win. In a fight for the Heavyweight Belt, he locked an armbar onto the champion Tim Sylvia and proceeded to break Sylvia's arm to take the Heavyweight Title.

That same year, on Sept. 17, 2004, Mir was knocked off his motorcycle by a car. This accident broke Mir's femur in two places and tore all the ligaments in his knee. It is a miracle that Frank Mir ever fought in MMA again.

In his first four fights after his returning to the UFC, Mir went 2-2 racking up embarrassing losses to Marcio Cruz and Brandon Vera.

Then Frank Mir welcomed Brock Lesnar to the UFC. This stunning submission victory over the man who would soon become champion resurrected Frank Mir's MMA career.

There is still plenty of uncertainty about how well Mir stacks up to against the top-most elite MMA fighters in the world, but right now Frank Mir is two victories away from being acknowledged as the best Heavyweight in the UFC and arguably the best Heavyweight in the world today. All he has to do is beat Shane Carwin and Brock Lesnar.

Vote Here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/350399-vote-if-fedor-emelianenko-is-not-the-best-heavyweight-ever-who-is

Brock Lesnar

Brock Lesnar – 4 Wins. 1 Loss.

Qualification: Current UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Frank Mir, Randy Couture.

Key Losses: Frank Mir.

Case for Brock Lesnar: Brock is certainly one of the most physically gifted champions that the UFC has ever seen. His sheer strength is terrifying enough, but he is also surprisingly quick and agile, with very real power in his XXXXL gloved hands.

He may very well be the best pure wrestler the UFC Heavyweight Division has ever seen.

Brock has beaten two legends of the sport, and this is commendable, but it is extremely difficult to make the case for him as “the greatest Heavyweight in the history of MMA.” He’s only fought five times and Lesnar already lost one of those fights. Brock might one day be widely known as the best ever, but he needs to win a lot of fights before anyone can legitimately make a that claim.

Perhaps the most hotly contested topic among Mixed Martial Arts fans centers around Fedor Emelianenko. Is he the greatest MMA fighter of all time? Is he the greatest Heavyweight the sport has ever seen? Or is he unproven and over-rated?

Many MMA fans will say that Fedor Emelianenko is unquestionably the best Heavyweight MMA fighter in the history of the sport.

Others will tell you that this is absolute nonsense and that he's never proven himself against the best fighters in Mixed Martial Arts.

No matter which side of the argument anyone happens to be on, you have to answer this very important question: If Fedor Emelianenko is not the best Heavyweight in Mixed Martial Arts history, who is?

So I think it’s only appropriate that we create a list of all the possible candidates. With a list of all contenders, we can look at their respective careers and run a side-by-side comparison. Each person can decide for themselves who they believe is the greatest MMA Heavyweight ever.

The minimum standards to qualify for consideration are simple enough:
1.) They must have either been a UFC Champion or they must have beaten a former UFC Champion.
2.) They must have been a champion in some fashion within a strong MMA promotion at some point in their career.
3.) They must have fought at heavyweight for a significant portion of their career.

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Ken Shamrock

Ken Shamrock -- 27 Wins. 13 Losses. 2 Draws.

Qualifications: Ken was the first ever UFC Superfight Champion. While this certainly was a somewhat thrown together championship title, he defended and/or reclaimed the Superfight title three times.

How that championship title was won or lost was not very clear in those days, but it was the only perpetual championship title the UFC had in place during the prime years of Ken Shamrock's career. Ken is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Defeated Bas Rutten twice. Also defeated Maurice Smith, Dan Severn, and Kimo Leopoldo.

Key losses: Royce Gracie, Dan Severn, Minoru Suzuki twice and Masakatsu Funaki. Later in his career, and certainly when Ken was well past his prime years, Ken lost to Kazuyuki Fujita, Don Frye, Tito Ortiz three times, Rich Franklin, Kazushi Sakuraba and Robert Berry.

Case for Ken Shamrock as the greatest ever: Ken’s late career losses are a pretty big distraction from his earlier accomplishments. There is no doubt that Ken is nowhere close to being the “World Most Dangerous Man” today, and he hasn’t been for a long time.

But the younger Ken Shamrock who dominated the sport in the 1990's is easily one of the greatest MMA fighters in the history of the sport. Ken is the only man to beat Bas Rutten twice. He is also the only man to ever fight Rutten who never lost to him.

Shamrock dominated the UFC while this sport was still in it's infancy. His three Superfight victories are the stuff of legend.

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Mark Coleman

Mark Coleman -- 16 Wins. 10 Losses.

Qualifications: Mark won the UFC tournament twice and was the first ever UFC Heavyweight Champion. Mark Coleman was also the first ever Pride FC tournament champion.

Key wins: Don Frye twice, Dan Severn, Kazuyuki Fujita, Igor Vovchanchyn, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

Key losses: Maurice Smith, Pete Williams, Pedro Rizzo, Nobuhiko Takada, Antônio Rodrigo "Big-Nog" Nogueira, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović, Fedor Emelianenko (twice), Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Randy Couture.

Case for Mark Coleman as the greatest ever: Coleman is a fighter who has seen a lot of ups and downs through his career. One of the truly great attributes Mark possesses–he has demonstrated the ability to resurrect his career when it seemed to be over.

He has remained competitive well into his 40s and that is a noteworthy accomplishment, too. The biggest hurdle in the way of claiming that Mark Coleman is the greatest ever is quite simple: He’s lost over one third of his fights.

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Bas Rutten

Bas Rutten – 28 wins. 4 losses. 1 Draw.

Qualifications: Bas Rutten is the former UFC Heavyweight Champion and also has wins over former UFC champions Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock and Kevin Randleman. He is also the former King of Pancrase.

Key wins: Minoru Suzuki twice, Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock twice, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Kevin Randleman.

Key losses: Ken Shamrock twice, Frank Shamrock once, Masakatsu Funaki.

Case for Bas Rutten as the greatest ever: All of Bas Rutten’s losses came very early in his career. One can easily make the case that these early setbacks made him a better fighter in the long run.

Bas Rutten is the owner of the second longest unbroken win-streak in MMA today, holding 21 wins in a row. Because he has retired from the sport, this unbeaten streak will probably never be broken.

Within that 21 fight blitz, Rutten beat future UFC champion Maurice Smith twice, avenged his earlier losses to Frank Shamrock and Masakatsu Funaki, won the King of Pancrase title, and finished off his career by beating Kevin Randleman to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Injuries sustained in training for his next fight brought an abrupt end to the brilliant career of “El Guapo.” The fact that his career ended on such an unprecedented win streak easily makes Bas Rutten one of the great MMA fighters ever.

One could easily stake the claim that Rutten would have dominated for years to come if his career had not been ended by injury. He was possibly the best ever.

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Randy Couture

Randy Couture -- 18 wins, 10 losses.

Qualifications: Randy Couture won the UFC 13 Heavyweight Tournament, is the three-time UFC Heavyweight Champion and the two-time UFC Light Heavyweight Champion.

Key wins: Maurice Smith, Jeremy Horn, Kevin Randleman, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Pedro Rizzo twice, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Vitor Belfort twice, Tim Silvia, Gabriel Gonzaga, Mark Coleman.

Key Losses: Valentijn Overeem, Josh Barnett, Ricco Rogriguez, Vitor Belfort once, Chuck Liddell twice, Brock Lesnar, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Case for Randy Couture: Like Muhammed Ali before him, Randy Couture can be beaten but he always comes back stronger and better than ever. He has reclaimed the title “UFC Champion” again and again.

Overall, he has been tournament champion once and UFC Champion five times. His win/loss record looks terrible until we consider that 16 of his 28 fights were all title fights.

Is that enough for us to overlook his 10 losses and legitimately claim that Randy Couture is the Greatest Heavyweight of All Time? It’s certainly debatable.

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Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Big-Nog) – 33 wins. 5 losses. 1 draw. 1 no contest.

Qualifications: Former Interim UFC Heavyweight Champion. Former Pride FC Heavyweight Champion. Rings tournament champion. Big-Nog holds wins over former UFC Champions Mark Coleman, Ricco Rogriguez, Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia and Randy Couture.

Key Wins: Valentijn Overeem twice, Mark Coleman, Heath Herring three times, Jeremy Horn, Bob Sapp, Semmy Schilt, Dan Henderson, Ricco Rodriguez, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović, Sergei Kharitonov, Fabricio Werdum, Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia, Randy Couture.

Key Losses: Dan Henderson, Fedor Emelianenko twice, Josh Barnett, Frank Mir.

Case for Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira: Simply looking at his record and then looking at the quality of opponents that Nogueira has beaten, there is little room for doubt that this man is one of the greatest Heavyweights to ever compete in MMA.

And while his recent losses to Frank Mir and Cain Velasquez may have signaled the end to the glory days of Minotauro, his overall resume of fights and wins is incredible.

The biggest hurdle to overcome if you want to claim that Big-Nog is the greatest ever are his two losses to Fedor Emelianenko. Those losses remain his only unavenged losses to this day.

Big-Nog eventually avenged every other loss in his career. (Mir and Velasquez are too recent obviously.) Josh Barnett and Dan Henderson are both good examples of this.

Nogueira’s win percentage against the best fighters in the world makes a very strong case for his place among the most legendary mixed martial arts fighters ever.

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Tim "the Maine-iac" Sylvia

Tim Sylvia – 25 Wins. 6 Losses.

Qualifications: Two time UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Ricco Rodriguez, Gan McGee, Andrei Arlovski twice, Brandon Vera, and Jeff Monson.

Key Losses: Frank Mir, Andrei Arlovski, Randy Couture, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Fedor Emelianenko.

Case for Tim Sylvia: When the “Maine-iac” stormed onto the UFC scene with an unbeaten record of 16 wins and 0 losses. Timmy is proabaly the most proficient knockout artist to ever hold the UFC Heavyweight Title, with 17 of his 25 wins coming by KO.

There is little doubt that he was the most dominant Heavyweight in the UFC from 2003 to 2007, and that’s quite and impressive run.

His rival for domination of the UFC within that time period was Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia won two of their three fights.

The case for Timmy is weakened by unavenged losses to Randy Couture, Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, but it should be pointed out that only world-class elite MMA Heavyweights ever beat the Maine-iac in the UFC. Losing to Fedor Emelianenko falls into the same category.

His loss to Ray Mercer last year has a lot of fans doubting that Timmy is still relevant in this sport. But there is no doubt that he once was the greatest fighter in the UFC, and one of the best MMA Heavyweights of all time.

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Andrei Arlovski

Andrei Arlovski – 15 Wins. 7 Losses.

Qualifications: Former UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Tim Sylvia, Paul Buentello, Fabricio Werdum Ben Rothwell, Roy Nelson.

Key Losses: Ricco Rodriguez, Pedro Rizzo, Tim Sylvia twice, Fedor Emelianenko, Brett Rogers.

Case for Andrei Arlovski: The Pitbull has a shorter resume than most of the contenders for “greatest Heavyweight ever” but it must be acknowledged that 2002 to 2008 he was dominant a dominant fighter in the UFC.

In that span of time in the UFC, he only ever lost to Tim Sylvia. Everyone else the UFC put in front of Andrei he destroyed.

Andrei Arlovski is probably second only to Tim Sylvia as a knockout artist among UFC champions. 11 of his 15 wins came by KO. But unlike the Maine-iac, Andrei was a better all-around fighter, as demonstrated by the fact that he has never been submitted in his entire career.

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Josh Barnett

Josh Barnett – 24 Wins. 5 Losses.

Qualifications: Former UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Dan Severn, Gan McGee, Semmy Schilt twice, Randy Couture, Aleksander Emelianenko, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, Pedro Rizzo, Jeff Monson, Gilvert Yvel.

Key Losses: Pedro Rizzo, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic three times, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Case for Josh Barnett: The Baby-Faced Assassin has proven himself to be one of the most terrifying forces in MMA history. He handily beat Randy Couture for the UFC Title. He has destroyed one legendary fighter after another, after another.

The two banes of Josh Barnett’s career are Mirko Cro-Cop and Steroids. Barnett has tested positive at two of the most publicly humiliating moments possible: The first time was right after beating Randy Couture for the UFC belt.

The second time was right before his scheduled fight with Fedor Emelianenko, which probably put the final nail in the coffin of Affliction as a fighting promotion.

At worst, Barnett splits the series one and one with any man who has ever beaten him in a fight. All fighters but Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic that is. Mirko is the only the man who has beaten Barnett more than once, and Cro-Cop did it three times.

Mirko has clearly lost his edge as a fighter, so any attempt by Barnett to avenge his losses to Cro-Cop in the future would only be hollow victories if Barnett wins. Any hypothetical rematch would pit Barnett against a bare shadow of the man the Cro-Cop once was.

Truthfully, the Baby Faced Assassin just might be the baddest Heavyweight fighter in all of MMA today. But can he stay off the juice for long enough to actually prove it?

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Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic

Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic – 26 Wins. 7 Losses. 2 Draws. 1 No Contest.

Qualifications: Defeated UFC Champions Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman and Josh Barnett. Pride FC 2006 Openweight Grand Prix Champion.

Key Wins: Kazuyuki Fujita twice, Heath Herring, Igor Vovchanchyn, Aleksander Emelianenko, Josh Barnett three times, Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman, Ikuhisa Minowa, Wanderlei Silva, Hong-man Choi, Bob Sapp.

Key Losses: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Kevin Randleman, Fedor Emelianenko, Mark Hunt, Gabriel Gonzaga, Cheick Kongo, Junior dos Santos.

Case for Mirko Filipovic: If Tim Sylvia is the most lethal knockout artist champion in UFC history, Mirko "Cro-Cop" was the same thing in spades in Pride FC. In Cro-Cop’s prime, I would rate him as the superior striker and Tim Sylvia. He's also a better over-all fighter than Tim.

From 2001 to 2006 Mirko terrorized the Heavyweight ranks of Pride FC. In that stretch, there were only two fighters that handed him losses that were ultimately never avenged: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Fedor Emelianenko.

Cro-Cop’s trademark head-kicks and powerful punches probably ended the prime of the career of Wanderlei Silva in 2006.

Ironically, less than a year later Gabriel Gonzaga knocked him out with a head-kick of his own–probably the most gruesome knockout in UFC history. Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic has only been a shadow of the fighter he once was since the day that Gonzaga knocked him out. Mirko is certainly one of the most dominant fighters in MMA history.

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Frank Mir

Frank Mir – 13 Wins. 4 Losses.

Qualifications: Former UFC Heavyweight Champion. Former Interim Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Pete Williams, David "Tank" Abbott, Tim Sylvia, Brock Lesnar, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, Cheick Kongo.

Key Losses: Ian Freeman, Marcio Cruz, Brandon Vera, Brock Lesnar.

Case for Frank Mir: Frank Mir just might be the greatest Heavyweight submissions artist in the world today. A strong case can be made for both Mir and Big-Nog for that honor.

Mir’s career can be evenly divided in two parts: Before the motorcycle accident and after his recovery.

Pre-injury, Frank Mir followed up thrilling submission victories over Pete Williams and Tank Abbott with and even more impressive submission win. In a fight for the Heavyweight Belt, he locked an armbar onto the champion Tim Sylvia and proceeded to break Sylvia's arm to take the Heavyweight Title.

That same year, on Sept. 17, 2004, Mir was knocked off his motorcycle by a car. This accident broke Mir's femur in two places and tore all the ligaments in his knee. It is a miracle that Frank Mir ever fought in MMA again.

In his first four fights after his returning to the UFC, Mir went 2-2 racking up embarrassing losses to Marcio Cruz and Brandon Vera.

Then Frank Mir welcomed Brock Lesnar to the UFC. This stunning submission victory over the man who would soon become champion resurrected Frank Mir's MMA career.

There is still plenty of uncertainty about how well Mir stacks up to against the top-most elite MMA fighters in the world, but right now Frank Mir is two victories away from being acknowledged as the best Heavyweight in the UFC and arguably the best Heavyweight in the world today. All he has to do is beat Shane Carwin and Brock Lesnar.

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Brock Lesnar

Brock Lesnar – 4 Wins. 1 Loss.

Qualification: Current UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Key Wins: Frank Mir, Randy Couture.

Key Losses: Frank Mir.

Case for Brock Lesnar: Brock is certainly one of the most physically gifted champions that the UFC has ever seen. His sheer strength is terrifying enough, but he is also surprisingly quick and agile, with very real power in his XXXXL gloved hands.

He may very well be the best pure wrestler the UFC Heavyweight Division has ever seen.

Brock has beaten two legends of the sport, and this is commendable, but it is extremely difficult to make the case for him as “the greatest Heavyweight in the history of MMA.” He’s only fought five times and Lesnar already lost one of those fights. Brock might one day be widely known as the best ever, but he needs to win a lot of fights before anyone can legitimately make a that claim.

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Fedor Emelianenko

Fedor Emelianenko – 32 Wins. 1 Loss. 1 No Contest.

Qualification: Former Pride FC Heavyweight Champion. Has beaten UFC Champions Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman, Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski.

Key Wins: Renato Sobral, Semmy Schilt, Heath Herring, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira twice, Mark Coleman twice, Kevin Randleman, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Mirko “Cro-Cop” Filipović, Zuluzinho (Wagner da Conceição Martins), Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski, Brett Rogers.

Keys Losses: Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (Note: This loss is extremely controversial. In the Rings promotion, elbows were illegal. Kohsaka opened a cut on Fedor with an elbow strike and the doctor stopped the fight. Ordinarily this would have led to a disqualification loss for Kohsaka, but the elbow strike was deemed accidental and the victory was given to Kohsaka – mostly to ensure that there was a victor that was fit to proceed to the next round of the tournament. This is Fedor’s only loss in his 34 fight career.)

Case for Fedor Emelianenko: Making the case that Fedor is the Greatest Heavyweight in the History of MMA is probably the easiest case to make among all possible contenders.

He’s beaten plenty of MMA legends, including five UFC Heavyweight Champions and five fighters from this list. With the exception of the controversial loss noted above, Fedor has never lost a fight. In the rematch with Kohsaka, Fedor absolutely destroyed TK.

Virtually undefeated after 34 fights – that is unprecedented in MMA history. He is on a record setting 28 fight win streak. And over the years, one thing has remained constant: Nobody has figured out how to beat The Last Emperor. Until somebody actually beats him, it will be impossible to claim that anyone is truly better than Fedor.

The one valid argument against Fedor is a significant one: Because of his stubborn refusal to fight in the UFC, Fedor Emelianenko is no longer competing with the best Heavyweights in the world. In Pride FC, Fedor faced off against the best in the world.

Since Pride died, all the best fighters in the world have found their way into the UFC. The best new prospects in the world are also fighting for the UFC. If you are truly a fighter, you fight to win. You are on a mission to prove that you are the best in the world.

If Fedor wants to prove he is the best in the world right now, he needs to be fighting guys like Lesnar, Velasquez, Mir, Dos Santos, and Carwin. These guys are relevant right now. They’ve proven themselves. If Fedor is not in the game to prove he is the best in the world, why is he still fighting?

If he has nothing left to prove, then he should retire and that should be the end of it. By continuing to fight in MMA while staying in the minor leagues of the sport, Fedor is tarnishing his legacy.

But ultimately, somebody has to actually beat Fedor in convincing fashion before anyone can lay claim to his throne as Best Heavyweight in the world. And even after that day comes, Fedor still has the strongest case for Best Heavyweight Ever without exception.