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Home , Alistair Overeem, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Cain Velasquez, Fabricio Werdum, Fedor Emelianenko, Frank Mir

MMA Heavyweight Power Rankings

1. : With a first round TKO victory over at UFC 121, Velazquez becomes MMA’s top by default, for now. His toughest fight to date was against at UFC 99, a three round unanimous decision. If there is one knock against Velazquez (8-0), it is that he hasn’t faced the best. Beside Lesnar—an underwhelming stand-up fighter—and Kongo, the most talented fighter he has stepped in the cage with was a past-his-prime . Up next for the thick 28-year-old Mexican American kickboxer is . The biggest thing Velazquez has going for him: he’s never lost a single round in competition.

2. : The Strikeforce title-holder suffered through a string of losses in 2006-2007 to , Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and Mauricio Rua, but hasn’t taken more than a single round to win any of his last eight fights.

Like Velazquez, Overeem began his career as a kickboxer, though he has been far less busy of late, defending his Strikeforce crown only once in the past two years. He is currently fighting in K-1 and will be participating in the World Grand Prix Final in December and remains at least six months away from returning to the cage in North America. It will be interesting to see just how much he has improved. If he can take care of Werdum and Fedor in Strikeforce, it might be enough for him to be thought of as the top heavyweight around.

3. Junior dos Santos: Maybe the best stand-up heavyweight in mixed martial arts, dos Santos is 6-0 since joining the UFC. His skills will be heavily tested when the day comes to fight Velazquez for the title, but he has definitely earned his shot. Under the tutelage of fellow Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and , dos Santos has won ten of his twelve career victories in the first round.

Prior to the Lesnar-Velazquez match at UFC 121, dos Santos told MMA Junkie that it didn’t matter who was going to win the fight. “When they fight against me, I will knock them out.” Well, now he’ll have his chance.

4. Fabricio Werdum: Since beating Fedor, Fabricio Werdum has been recovering from elbow surgery, though when he’s cleared to fight he should get first crack at the returning Strikeforce champ, Alistair Overeem, who he beat in a Pride match in 2006. Of the top four heavyweights, he owns the most extensive resume, with other notable victories over (twice) and Antonio Silva.

With black belts in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and , the 33-year- old Werdum has a real chance to cement his status as one of the top heavyweights of his generation, but only if he can build off the momentum gained from being the first man to ever decisively stop the great Emelianenko. But when comparing Werdum to dos Santos at this point, it’s impossible to ignore Werdum’s KO loss to his fellow Brazilian in 2008.

5. : It was very surprising to witness the fall of The Last Emperor play out after his error-filled loss to Werdum in San Jose in June. No mixed martial artist in history even comes close to matching Fedor’s stock, so it’s hard to discount him at this point. Until someone decisively knocks out the stoic Russian, he will remain a top five threat. And that’s not expected to happen anytime soon, with Overeem and Werdum both unavailable to fight Fedor in Strikeforce.

Meanwhile, he will remain in flux, though beating up on a lesser fighter or two might allow Emelianenko the time he needs to recapture some of that quickly forgotten legend status.

6. Brock Lesnar: Just another two and done ex-champ. Without a significant improvement in his stand-up game, Lesnar would be an underdog against any of the top five. His beating at knuckles of was the beginning of the end. He was lucky to even be in the position of fighting Velazquez.

The one-time dream matchup of Lesnar-Emelianenko is now a distant memory, much like the one-time dream matchup of Couture-Emelianenko. I watched his UFC 121 loss in a huge Canadian sports bar with over 1,000 other MMA fans. The reaction of those in attendance when Lesnar was crawling around, bleeding all over the mat, spoke of one thing: he will not be missed as champ.

7. Shane Carwin: It was thought that if he could beat on New Year’s Day, then he would be next in line for the winner of the dos Santos-Velazquez fight. Roy Nelson is the only fighter to date to go the distance with dos Santos, which shows you how tight the heavyweight division is. But now with the recent announcement that Carwin has pulled out of his bout with Nelson, it will take longer than expected to sort itself out.

The Engineer from Colorado will now spend the next several months rehabbing an injured back. With him and Lesnar—who will need six months to heal the gash on his cheek—both on the shelf, UFC’s heavyweight cupboard is nearly bare.

8. : What should be a scary thought for Mir: he may have to fight Lesnar a third time and beat his hated rival to ever have another shot at the title. A third round KO of Mirko Filipovic at UFC 119 went a little way to restoring Mir’s confidence, but he’s still a long way from re-establishing himself as a true contender. With quickly putting an end to talks of Mir movint down to , it looks like the 31-year-old southpaw is here to stay, battling it out with the rest the bigs.

9. Roy Nelson: As tough as they come, he was a decision away in the dos Santos fight in August from becoming the number one contender for the UFC Heavyweight Championship.

With Carwin no longer healthy to fight Nelson on New Year’s Day, Nelson has been using his Twitter account to promote a possible future fight with Lesnar. It’s the fight he wants, but the better test would be against Carwin. Either way, Roy “Big Country” Nelson has come a long way since his early days before Ultimate Fighter.

10. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira: One of the great mixed martial artists of all-time, the 32-6 Brazilian should have at least a couple of fights left in him. He beat almost everyone during his prime, except Fedor Emelianenko, and remains a threat to anyone who opposes him. He’s beaten Fabricio Werdum, but has lost to Cain Velazquez, so it’s hard to grasp exactly where he stands, except that he stands. As long as he’s around, no one will be comfortable fighting him.

Nogueira was supposed to fight Mir in UFC 119 in an attempt to avenge a previous loss to him, but pulled out with a bad . Surgery will keep the veteran out of the cage until 2011.