It was hard to imagine Jose Aldo not joining this list at some point. It just happens that his ascent was a tad quicker than expected.
However, there is something to be said for tempering expectations of dominance for newly crowned champions. Coming off his brutal blowouts of Thiago Silva and Rashad Evans, it was assumed that Lyoto Machida would easily reign over the light heavyweight division. However, his contentious unanimous decision over Mauricio "Shogun" Rua on Oct. 24 has cast doubt as to whether the karateka from Belem will lord over 205 pounds.
Then again, some things don't change. Fedor Emelianenko made his Strikeforce debut on Nov. 7 against an unbeaten Brett Rogers. Despite some early drama, Fedor showed why he's the greatest heavyweight in MMA history, crushing Rogers in the second round to stay atop the division he has ruled since 2003.
1. Anderson Silva (25-4)
After sparking the ire of MMA fans with a woeful performance against Thales Leites in April, Silva resuscitated his hype in August with an epic beatdown of former UFC light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin. Unfortunately for Silva, an enigmatic and lingering elbow injury has kept him on the shelf ever since. The injury has postponed a slated bout against fellow Brazilian Vitor Belfort, which Dana White and company are now praying can find a February date. However, what is perhaps more important is that the middleweight division appears to be turning a corner of sorts, with a string of potential challengers emerging for Silva that includes Belfort, Marquardt and Maia, who offer more appealing matchups than the likes of Leites and Cote.
2. Georges St. Pierre (19-2)
The search for St. Pierre's next challenger took longer than anticipated, but we now finally have an answer: Come February, it will be "The Outlaw" Dan Hardy vying for the UFC welterweight title and 170-pound supremacy against "Rush." Despite Hardy's 4-0 mark in the UFC, the matchup has drawn criticism from the MMA populace, which doesn’t see the bout as an especially stiff test for St. Pierre. However, there is something to be said for the fact that St. Pierre's last three title defenses have all come against pound-for-pound quality fighters in Jon Fitch, B.J. Penn and most recently Thiago Alves. That standard of competition is hard for any fighter -- even one on a 12-1 run -- to measure up to.
3. Fedor Emelianenko (31-1, 1 NC)
The longest tenured of any of MMA's pound-for-pound stalwarts, Emelianenko has lorded over the heavyweight division for nearly seven years, a staggering amount of time to reign in any sport, let alone MMA. In Emelianenko's major introduction to the American audience, he crushed previously unbeaten Brett Rogers in front of millions of primetime viewers on CBS, showing both the skills expected of the sport's top heavyweight as well as a flair for the dramatic. Although his pound-for-pound status is always mitigated by the lack of quality depth at heavyweight, even in Strikeforce Emelianenko has some worthy potential opponents such as Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum.
4. Lyoto Machida (16-0)
It may not be the worst decision of 2009, but it was certainly the least popular. Machida's unanimous points verdict over Mauricio "Shogun" Rua in October so inflamed the MMA world, all parties involved agreed to a rematch. The necessity of hand surgery for "The Dragon" pushed the date of the fight back until May 1 in Montreal, but it will still be one of 2010's biggest bouts when it does happen. The whole Machida-Rua scenario should serve as a vivid reminder that the anointing oil is often called for prematurely in MMA.
5. B.J. Penn (14-5-1)
Penn may be the most gifted fighter on this list. At UFC 101, he showed exactly why the MMA world anointed him from day one. He put on arguably his most consummate performance as a prizefighter, nullifying Kenny Florian for 15 minutes before routing him in the fourth frame and finishing him by submission. The next challenger to Penn’s UFC lightweight title will be Diego Sanchez at UFC 107 on Dec. 12. If Penn chooses to continue his reign as a lightweight -- the role everyone but he himself has long desired -- he will only climb this list and validate his enormous talent.
6. Jose Aldo (16-1)
Perhaps it is fitting that 2009 will come to a close with Jose Aldo on top of the 145-pound division, punctuating a year in which the featherweight class has played a prominent role on all corners of the globe. Since his WEC debut in June 2008, Aldo is 6-0 with six stoppages, including four in 2009 alone. In his WEC title capture over Mike Thomas Brown, Aldo was positively dominant in crushing a pound-for-pound entrant. The featherweight division continues to expand and improve, and may have some flux still in store, but Aldo's youth, skill set and killer instinct have positioned him as a potentially long-term dominant figure.
7. Jon Fitch (19-3, 1 NC)
Fitch is not a name that often comes up when the pound-for-pound world is discussed. He is not a divisional leader, and he doesn't have a style that lends itself to drama and excitement in the way of Silva, Emelianenko or Penn. However, Fitch carries a gaudy 10-1 mark in the UFC, racking up top-10 victories in MMA’s historically deepest and most talented division. Fitch's unflashy stockpiling of scalps may not make him the UFC's most popular commodity, but it warrants recognition. Next on the agenda for the AKA product is a tough but unheralded Mike Pierce at UFC 107 on Dec. 12.
8. Mike Thomas Brown (22-5)
With 10 straight victories, including dominant wins over the likes of Jeff Curran, Leonard Garcia and former divisional ruler Urijah Faber twice, Brown more than earned his place on this list. However, the sturdy veteran was outmatched and outgunned in his third WEC title defense against Jose Aldo on Nov. 18. While Brown will undoubtedly be knocking off other elite featherweights in the future, the lopsided performance does cast some doubt on his ability to recapture the divisional mantle.
9. Brian Bowles (8-0)
In August, Bowles rewrote the script on the bantamweight division. He soundly clobbered Miguel Torres, who had been tabbed as the all-action fighter to bring the bantamweight division to the public. Now Bowles is the big fish in a quickly expanding pond, given the task of becoming the first truly sustainable and dominant bantamweight MMA has had. Bowles' road to owning the 135-pound division will continue in March, when he'll receive what should be a thrilling challenge against once-beaten prospect Dominick Cruz.
10. Thiago Alves (16-6)
A knee injury kept Alves from meeting Jon Fitch in a rematch of their June 2006 bout, in which the AKA product had upkicked and pounded the Brazilian into a stoppage. While Alves did not get the chance to simultaneously move on from his one-sided loss to Georges St. Pierre in August and avenge his loss to a fellow divisional standout, he still remains one of the Big Three in the ever-outstanding 170-pound division. “Pitbull” has a host of crushing wins over quality fighters -- the very criterion at the heart of the sport's "best."