“Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko (30-1) entered his 15th month as Fighters.com Heavyweight Champion in October. Emelianenko will defend his title versus fifth-ranked “Grim” Brett Rogers (10-0) at Strikeforce west of Chicago and broadcast in the U.S. on CBS November 7.
Fighters.com has learned Rogers has trained at American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose for the fight, where UFC contender Cain Velasquez (6-0) and “Headhunter” Paul Buentello (27-9) train full-time.
In September, seventh-ranked “Cigano” Junior dos Santos (9-1) cemented his ranking for October when he forced once-feared “Cro Cop” Mirko Filipovic (25-8-2) to quit at 2:00 of round three at UFC 103 in Dallas. The win wasn’t enough to push dos Santos ahead in the rankings though. Let’s face the fact that Cro Cop is a shell of the fighter he once was. Still, the “W” further justifies dos Santos’s place among the elite heavyweights.
The heavyweight “Cigano” forced from the top ten with a first round KO at UFC 90 in Montréal last October, “Vai Cavalo” Fabricio Werdum (11-4-1), returned to the elite list in October at the nine spot. He tapped “MAK” Mike Kyle (11-7-1) in a guillotine in 1:24 at Strikeforce in San Jose August 15.
Second-ranked Brock Lesnar (4-1) will defend his UFC title from Shane Carwin (10-0) UFC 106 at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas November 21. The hype around this monster fight has been strangely muted, hasn’t it?
Former UFC champ and recent challenger, third-ranked Frank Mir (12-4) will fight Cheick Kongo (14-5-1) at UFC 107 in Memphis 12 December.
Tenth-ranked “The Natural” Randy Couture (16-10) has evidently followed through on his intimations to leave the heavyweight division and return to 205 where he’ll fight “Truth” Brandon Vera (11-3) at UFC 105 at M.E.N. Arena in Manchester November 14.
“Minotauro” Rodrigo-Nogueira”>Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (32-5-1) and “Babyface Assassin” Josh Barnett (20-5) are waiting in limbo for potential title shots, Nog’ versus the winnner between Lesnar and Carwin and Barnett possibly versus “Junior” Antonio Silva (13-1) for a Sengoku title.
Fighters.com October Heavyweight Rankings
1. “Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko (30-1)
2. Brock Lesnar (4-1)
3. Frank Mir (12-4)
4. “Minotauro” Rodrigo-Nogueira”>Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (32-5-1)
5. “Grim” Brett Rogers (10-0)
6. Shane Carwin (10-0)
7. “Cigano” Junior dos Santos (9-1)
8. “Babyface Assassin” Josh Barnett (20-5)
9. “Vai Cavalo” Fabricio Werdum (11-4-1)
10. “The Natural” Randy Couture (16-10)
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Comments
How in the HELL is Brett Rogers #5? Let me guess, this is another fighter inflation to make it look like Fedor is fighting real competition, right? Like how Arlovski was suddenly #2 after beating two unranked HWs in Roy Nelson and Ben Rothwell, after being cut from the UFC for lackluster performance.
Brett Rogers, should be at most #10. I can’t believe that he becomes #5 after beating Arlovski by (lucky?) KO. Werdum should be mentioned in the ranking. Randy should disappear and Cain Valesquez should be in the ranking. Barnett should be out since he got caught on steroids.
Arlovski was NOT kicked out of the UFC after lackluster performance. This is the common misunderstanding of people who didn’t follow AA’s career after Tim Svlvia bout.
AA fought Werdum, a solid top 10 fighter, and won via decision. The fight was boring but it’s because both fighters feared each other. AA has fast hands and better striking technique than Werdum. But Werdum was at that time getting better with striking (joining Chute Boxe) and AA respected Werdum’s standup. Also, Werdum’s ground is better than AA so AA had to watch out for that. It was Werdum’s debut fight and he wanted to play it safe.
AA then fought 2 or 3 no names in the UFC, UNDERCARD! People were talking shit on Dana back then for doing this. It made no sense that Chris Leben was fighting main card while AA was fighting under. AA knocked out this opponents via dominating fashion in those fights.
Then he went to Affliction and destroyed Ben Rothwell. His boxing looked very crisp and consensus was that AA looks stronger than ever. Then he fought Roy Nelson and knocked him out as well. AA was definitely in the best shape of his career.
So, Brett Rogers should be ranked at most #10 (giving him the benefit of the doubt). But #5 above, Dos Santos (who has two solid wins) and Werdum (a solid #10) sounds little ridiculous.
Also, Werdum was not KICKED OUT of the UFC. Dana kicked him out because of some other under-the-table reason.
Dana screwed Werdum in two ways:
1) Werdum beat Gonzaga and Vera (UFC top 10 HW at the time) in a dominating fashion. He should of fought Nog for the title, NOT Mir. Werdum got robbed so that UFC could have a better chance to dismissing Fedor. Dana never accepted Nog as the HW champ and said Randy is the real champ because Nog lost to Fedor. Dana didn’t want two ex-Pride fighters (Nog and Werdum) to compete against two UFC guys (Lesnar and Randy). So instead he revived Mir (a completely washed up fighter) and put him in there against Nog.
2) Werdum was kicked out after the Dos Santos fight. Come on. You get kicked out for a KO like that? Werdum was doing okay before the KO. Chuck Liddell got KTFO 3 times before he was let go. And Chuck DID get KTFO. Werdum should of gotting one of chance. But I remember Dana saying that he was looking for opportunities to let Werdum go. So ask soon as Werdum was knocked out, Dana used that against him and kicked him out.
ITS ALL MMA POLITICS
Arlovski above is correct.
Anon is a noob.
Mirko is the best fighter.. Samo kidaj Mirko. Pozdrav iz Srbije MIlan
BROCK LESNAR is the greatest fighter to come out of the heavywieghts for years.Shane to slow Carwin has no chance he,s ground game is SHIT to say the less
BROCK LESNAR IS THE GREATEST THING TA COME OUT OF HW CLASS….yea ok ur just a lil bit to hyped up on lesnar, to say that carwin has a shitty ground game is a joke, tha mans a decorated division 1 wrestler, allthough he probably doesn’t have lesnar’s pedigree is wrestleing, but to have a champion with a record of 4-1 is insulting, not to mention that the man has no class, definetly doesn’t have tha attitude of a champion,I can’t believe he’s ranked #2. but then again josh barnett is ranked and he’s just a steroid freak,,,but lesnar is all hype and he’s gonna get beat on by somebody, hopefully carwin cause that mans got power in his hands that brock ain’t got..
how is lesnar #2 he beat mir and randy and some unknown asian guy which probably had more losses than wins lol