Who really Has the Best Heavyweight division?
With the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix set to kick off on the 12th of this month, there has been much talk about the heavyweight division. Strikeforce CEO has been telling anybody that will listen that his promotion has the best class of heavyweight in all of MMA.
During last Saturday’s Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg post fight press conference Coker stated “this tournament can stand on its own, it’s got the greatest heavyweight division in the world as you know. I think Cain is the missing guy.” While it was nice for him to acknowledge the current UFC heavyweight champion it was one of the few times he has included an outside heavyweight.
Who is considered the best at heavyweight is going to be in the eye of the beholder here and thus subject to heavy interpretation. The only thing that can be concluded with little criticism it that between the UFC and Strikeforce the two own the market on top-level heavyweight fighters.
So does Strikeforce actually have the best heavyweight division in MMA?
Of the eight fighters participating in the Strikeforce Grand Prix only half are ranked in the top 10. In fact of ranked fighters currently in the top 10, Strikeforce only has those four fighters while the UFC has six, this according to the latest heavyweight rankings on Sherdog.com (shown below).
1. Cain Valasquez (9-0) – UFC
2. Brock Lesnar (5-2) – UFC
3. Fabricio Werdum (14-4-1) – Strikeforce
4. Fedor Emelianenko (31-2, 1NC) – M-1/Strikeforce
5. Junior Dos Santos (12-1) – UFC
6. Shane Carwin (12-1) – UFC
7. Frank Mir (14-5) – UFC
8. Alistair Overeem (34-11, 1NC) – Strikeforce
9. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (32-6-1, 1NC) – UFC
10. Antonio Silva (15-2) – Strikeforce
The UFC has a massive roster overall, but with the exception of bantamweights their heavyweight division it the thinnest. Strikeforce on the other hand has a much smaller roster but their heavyweight division is their deepest division. No matter the size of the division both promotions have a mixture of experienced MMA veterans, middle of the road talent and young up and coming prospects.
You can’t blame Scott Coker for making the statement regarding his heavyweight division; you’d expect nothing but the same statements from Dana White on his heavyweight division. Thing is only one of them would be telling the truth, while the other is just fooling themselves.
What do you think?
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Category: Exclusive, Featured, MMA, Opinion, Strikeforce, UFC
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I don’t care for this list. They put Frank Mir above Overeem? Are you joking me? I think the Strikeforce tournament will settle a lot of this, and place a few more SF HW’s higher up on the list.
Agreed. Overeem is big enough to not get bullied by Lesnar and the technique to take out anyone on the list. Once he wins the GP, having beat Fedor & Werdum along the way, he should be #1. I predict this list will look drastically different by the end of the year. I think Kharitonov will shock everyone and make it to the finals. Beating Barnett and Arloski will catapult him into the top 10. Lesnar will be 5-3 after loosing badly to Cigano and drop to the bottom of the list.
wow sherdog is a joke those rankings are . strike force has the better division by far. its amazing that people can think other wise.
@Mark
Yeah there is some questions in the rankings, but the thing is the SBNation ranks are almost identical with the only difference being Fedor and Werdum were switched. What would your top 5 be in the heavyweight division?