Can a Fighter Who Isn't in the UFC Be the World's Best?

I understand that, but is ranking based off what could possibly happen the best way to go? Just because Melendez and Alvarez have looked great outside of the UFC doesn’t necessarily mean they’d rip through the top four or five guys in the UFC, and the same can be said four those four or five against these two. But the fact that they haven’t had a chance to fight Penn doesn’t change the fact that Frankie beat him. Twice. And a former Champion in Sean Sherk who had previously been beaten by Penn and two welterweights. Results should count for something.

The best of the best is all marketing. Anybody can get it on any given Sunday. If some one shouts something long enough, eventually some people will believe it or at least consider it.

This post gets a ’rec for simply asking the question. I feel that many of the rankings are . . . of course . . . biased towards all things UFC. Brock Lesnar the #1 or #2 heavyweight in MMA. OK, yeah, we are all entitled to our opinion. Whatever.

BJ Penn is this, that, the other and the third. There’s absolutely no way Edgar can beat him. After Abu Dhabi, it was a fluke. Whatever.

Snowden you’re absolutely correct, Edgar doesn’t command that respect at all and Gray Maynard is more or less ignored. Really?

“Vitor Belfort? I beat that guy 2-3 years ago.” Belfort is currently considered a top ranked MW fighter? Yeah. Meanwhile Jake Shields was never really considered anything close to GSP. yeah whatever. We are all entitled to our opinion.

The answer to the title, of course, is “no”. The best win Eddie Alvarez has in the last two wins is Josh Neer and the Aoki/Kawajiri/Hansen triangle just ain’t what it used to be. Gilbert will have to beat someone above him (Frankie and Gray at the very least) to take their spot.

Gray Maynard will be undefeated and 2-0 against a man that’s 2-0 against BJ Penn if he wins that fight. Haters.

he lost to aoki he would atleast wanna avenge that for some redemption,but i doubt they will ever fight anytime soon

If Melendez and Alvarez fought, I’d have no problem naming the winner number 1.

Things get interesting if Edgar loses to Maynard though.

penn has long been the number one guy at 155… edgar beat him twice…the second time dominated him… if that doesn’t make edgar number 1…then rankings are even more useless than i had previously thought.

i think alvarez can compete with any lightweight in the ufc and would love to see it but until he does, it’s hard to say where he ranks…def a top 10 guy, probably top 5. he has the style to beat maynard, the power to hurt and handle florian…i want to see it. i think eddie beats melendez who is a good fighter but a little over rated at the moment.

I’d pick Melvin Guillard to beat Gilbert Melendez :p

Penn/Edgar 3 is about to go down. How many of us still pick Penn as the favorite?

but I don’t see how you can give that title to anyone else. He beat the best LW in the world, twice. He has only one blemish on his record, and that against a top-five LW and the #1 contender. He has had to fight his way through the deepest, best LW division in the world, and when he got his title shot he took advantage.

Neither Alvarez nor Melendez has anywhere near his strength of schedule, and that won’t change if one beats up on the other.

And if Gray Maynard beats Edgar again [shudders] then he will be undefeated in the same division, and a clear number 1.

no
there just isn’t enough depth elsewhere in other orgs. I’ve seen fighters that look awesome somewhere else come to the UFC and not even make it close to the top. I think that unless a division fell apart completely in the UFC, and strikeforce or another org really filled up that same div with quality people, then it doesn’t make sense.

And as it is, I would be Penn, Edgar and a few others could beat Melendez. But I guess he looks impressive fighting guys that aren’t really top fivers in the sport.

Because like in college football, if you’re that far out in the rankings the “beat #1 to be #1” argument is invalid.

But Frankie Edgar got his shot, beat Penn twice when he was the underdog in both, and now he’s the #1 in the world. Melendez and Alvarez have no argument in this whatsoever.

May not be as tested, but in that second BJ fight, he looked like a very very talented fighter and he beat the hell out of BJ. His striking game looked great—he might not be as much of a knockout artist, but he certainly has more stand-up skills than Gil.

And you know why we lean toward the UFC champion? Because he’s going to get tested in his very next fight. What’s the one thing that BJ didn’t test on Frankie? His wrestling. Now he’s going to go up against a bonifide wrestler who is much bigger than he is.

Do you really think Gli is better than Gray at wrestling? I don’t.

For me, its not about rankings. Whatever, the UFC fighters can have the higher rankings, that doesn’t matter to me. In fact, it doesn’t really matter to anybody. Its about who would win the hypothetical fight. I would take Gilbert over anybody in the UFC not named Gray, and I would take Alvarez over anybody in the UFC besides Gray, Kenny, or Edgar. Aoki could definitely catch Edgar or a couple of guys at the top. Florian and Maynard are tough fights for him that’s for sure, but he would be a force.

I will try to keep this short.

Melendez and Alvarez (who I am a huge fan of) are talented top 10 fighters. But they lose out on Ichiban status due to their strength of opposition.

If Melendez can put up a string of solid title defenses against guys like JZ,Noons (not a high caliber opponent but still dangerous) and Alvarez then he can make a case.

Gil almost fnished Aoki (still don’t know why Yamasaki stood them up as Gil was dropping bombs) and made him look like an rookie by shutting down his main offensive tool.

Eddie, despite losing to Aoki has not lost since and has improved his sub game to compliment his heavy handed boxing style. That being said ruling the roost over at Bellator over decent but fringe top 20 and 30 opposition inspires confidence but I doubt his status as a world beater.

In Frankie Edgar you have a perpetual underdog who will always be regarded as such because of his diminutive size and fleet footed technique heavy style. I was a fan of his and still picked BJ to win both times. His next defense will have him avenging his only loss and if he does that, as many have said before it reinforces his #1 lightweight status.

As long as Edgar is the champ he will face nothing but top 10 guys, same can’t be said for Gil and Eddie.

Can’t wait to see McKee and Bendo in the UFC.