Dana White is a rankings junkie. There’s no other way around his obsession over who is and who isn’t in the media’s various top ten lists. First it was Fedor Emelianenko’s place as the number one heavyweight and pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Then it was Benson Henderson, rightfully, missing from most anyone’s lists. He rejected any notion of Jose Aldo, his own golden child, as belonging in the pound-for-pound discussion.
Now Dana’s found his latest fix in the form of Alistair Overeem. From MMA Junkie:
“Listen, I like Alistair Overeem,” he told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) following UFC 122. “I see him all the time. Cool guy. But there’s no urgency on my part to get him into the UFC.
“I actually find it hilarious that he’s ranked in the top 10 by some of the websites. I find it hilarious. What has he done in MMA to be ranked in the top 10? I’d like somebody here to answer that question. We’ve got a lot of media guys here; what has Alistair Overeem done to be ranked in the top 10 of mixed martial arts’ heavyweight division?”
The Bloody Elbow Meta-Rankings place Overeem eighth among his heavyweight brethren. That puts him right between former UFC champs Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Is it warranted? Does he even deserve to be in the top ten?
More on Overeem’s place in the rankings after the jump.
Let’s assume Dana has no issues with the top six – Velasquez, Lesnar, Emelianenko, Werdum, Carwin, Dos Santos. Overeem is the next non-UFC heavyweight on the list, and let’s assume that White agrees with that sentiment. Along with Mir and Nogueira, here are the next five UFC heavyweights: Brendan Schaub, Cheick Kongo, Roy Nelson, Mirko Filipovic, and Ben Rothwell. Let’s take a look at their records over the last 3 years.
| Fighter | Wins | Loss |
Overeem | Rogers | |
Mir | Filipovic | Carwin Lesnar |
| Nogueira | Couture Sylvia | Velasquez Mir |
Schaub | Gonzaga Tuchsherer Gormley Bojan Spalevic Alex Rozman Johnny Curtis Jay Lester | Nelson |
Kongo | Buentello Hardonk Al-Turk Evensen | Mir Velasquez Herring |
Nelson | Struve | Dos Santos Monson Arlovski |
Filipovic | Barry Perosh Al-Turk Choi Mizuno | Mir Dos Santos |
| Rothwell | Yvel Chris Guillen | Velasquez Arlovski |
Yes, Overeem doesn’t have any quality wins outside of Brett Rogers (and that’s borderline itself), but it’s hard to argue any one of those guys has a distinctly better resume outside of Mir. Nogueira’s living on his legend. Kongo’s best win is a guy who washed out of the UFC (and who Overeem beat just outside the 3-year window). Schaub just beat the ghost of Gabriel Gonzaga. He also lost to Roy Nelson, who is 4-3. And Mirko Filipovic and Ben Rothwell don’t have a good win between them.
It’s not just human voters that put Overeem in the top ten, either. Fight Matrix, a computerized ranking system based on a modified chess ELO system, ranks the Dutchman at nine, a shade below Nogueira.
If Overeem doesn’t belong in the top ten, Dana, who does?