FightLines: Welterweights - Vol. II

St. Pierre = Serra
Koscheck > Sanchez > Parisyan > Fickett > Koscheck

FightLines: FAQ
FightLines: Welterweight Vol. 1

The July welterweight graph was the last of the anomaly Meta-Rankings, but we can still pull some comparisons.  For starters, the basic tenets of from last month haven't changed drastically.  Georges St. Pierre and Jon Fitch still dominate large portions of the graph, with Josh Koscheck, Diego Sanchez, and Thiago Alves not far behind.

That core group has a strong hold on the top of the division.  The middle gets murked up after that until you hit the last leg after Renato Verissimo, Frank Trigg, and Brock Larson.

All-in-all, we haven't seen much change from last month, outside of a net gain of fighters to look at.

Detailed notes and analysis after the break

-Jake Shields is one of the few fighters who gains a lot this month by adding a pretty huge link after his destruction Nick Thompson.  At this point, the only real worthwhile compeition for him are the top 5 or so guys, St. Pierre, Fitch, Alves, Sanchez, and Koscheck.  The only realistic fight that would be relevant for FightLines purposes is Joe Riggs, but subjectively, Joe Riggs offers very little real life credibility at the moment.  So while some people thought him calling out GSP, et al, came off as corny, I dug it.

-Brad Blackburn does not deserve his spot on the graph.  He's fortunate that guys that beat him over the past few years (Mark Miller, Rory Markham) didn't qualify under the criteria, while he happened to beat a couple of guys (Jay Hieron, Chris Wilson) that made the Meta-Rankings. 

-Now that the Sanchez/Alves fight has been finalized, the UFC has two really high-leverage welterweight fights coming up with that and GSP/Fitch.  The championship fight is a no-brainer, but I really give props to Joe Silva and Zuffa for the title eliminator.  The winner will give a real clear contender for the winner of GSP/Fitch.

-I'm not sure if Zuffa should cull the WEC's 170 class (they definitely should for 185+), but they need to get over the Carlos Condit Experience and just bring him up to the big show.  He's just wasting away in a division that is dominated by UFC fighters.  I'm not really sure I understand what they gain by leaving him there.

-One semi-interesting observation, this is probably the lightest division that's dominated by non-Japanese/far Eastern fighters.  By my count, we only have 5 total.  I don't know how much relevance it has, but it might be something those more sociologically inclined want to look at.

Majority Rankings - Top 5

1. John Fitch 70.8% (34/0)
2. Thiago Alves 60.4% (28/1)
3. Dan Hardy 60.4% (1/28)
4. Hidetaka Monma 58.3% (0/28)
5. Georges St. Pierre 54.2% (26/0)
5. Nick Thompson 54.2% (22/4)