What makes a Top Ten Fighter

Does it bother you seeing top flight light heavyweights with more than 3 losses.

I come from a boxing background, and I understand that in boxing, guys usually fight nobodies for their first 15-20 pro fights in order to pad a record/ego. But in this sport we see top fighters fighting eachother rather consistently once they have reached that upper echelon. And I like that, it makes for very interesting, marketable fights, that we don't usually have to wait years for to happen.

However what that has resulted in for Forrest and Jardine in particular (who are considered to be top 10), is a great deal of inconsistency. We see guys who are ranked in the top 10, who can barely string together 2 wins. Their record suffers over time and becomes unimpressive, even though they are top flight competition, to the layperson that record appears as though they are sub-par fighters.

I mean it is pretty clear to anyone who follows the sport that jardine and forrest are cream of the crop competition and if they were fighting in any other organization they would be champions and would be running through the competition and would likely have very impressive records. But the UFC has a higher standard, and because of that does that mean we should be less lenient on inconsistent fighters who constantly fight top competition, or more lenient.

IE Does someone like jardine, if he loses his next fight, really deserve to be in the ufc/be in the top 10 WHEN CONSIDERING THAT WOULD MAKE HIM 2-4 in the last 3 years? Regardless of the fact that he has fought liddell, vera, jackson, silva, that is still quite a bad record, and even though it is top guys I think it shows either he needs to start fighting lesser opponents or move to a different org because he clearly is not good enough to hang.

Same thing goes with Forrest, I understand the UFC holds on to him for marketing purposes but if he loses to Anderson then what? He would be 3-3 in the last 3 years. Even though he has beaten top competition, it shows that he is inconsistent, and that there are a multitude of guys in the division who are just better than him, and that it is unlikely he will ever be a champ again? Where does he go? Does he keep fighting top competition?

I just think this is a trend we are starting to see, marketable guys, who are GOOD, but not good enough, who the UFC keeps around fighting top competition, even when it's possible they need to take a step down in competition. Honestly where does forrest go if he loses to Silva? It's clear he won't be a 205 champ again, he can't go to 185, and he can't go to HW. He is really far into his career now so he can't exactly reinvent himself.