The Pound-for-Pound Debate

I hate rankings.

They are MMA’s equivalent of collard greens or steamed vegetables, stuff to be pushed off your plate so you can enjoy everything else. I haven’t participated in any kind of voting on the subject in years, initially because it was impossible to quantify elite athletes when they were separated by the Pride/UFC turf war; now, because the absence of even one single top fighter (Norifumi Yamamoto (Pictures) in U.S. featherweight action, for example) throws the whole system into tumult.

I’m obviously in the minority, since a favorite vocation of fans and observers is to shuffle athletes in ascending order of talent, accomplishments, physiques, body hygiene and acting ability. And when pundits grow tired of hierarchal discussion within divisions, talk usually turns to who the “pound-for-pound” king is, the guy that expresses the most complete understanding and application of mixed martial arts irrespective of his size.

Though I’m a miser when it comes to applying these kinds of labels, it’s hard to argue that the pound-for-pound crown could only conceivably be awarded to three possible men: UFC middleweight king Anderson Silva (Pictures), freelance mercenary Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) or UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre (Pictures).

Emelianenko? He’s fast, he’s powerful, his stand-up is devastating, his ground-and-pound is IQ-altering and he’s got an arsenal of submissions. His dominance in the heavyweight division is so appreciable that we can’t even examine his losses -- save for one illegal elbow that sliced him open in 2000, there aren’t any. We can only point to sporadic instances where he seemed in danger of losing: when Kazuyuki Fujita (Pictures) had him doing the ice-rink shuffle, or when Mark Hunt (Pictures) landed in side control.

As an all-ranges fighter, he’s ridiculously complete. As a fighter who makes a habit of facing significant threats, he’s a disappointment.

In three years, he’s throttled only one opponent -- Tim Sylvia (Pictures) -- that presented a substantial challenge to him. When you’re busy fighting oversized henchmen from James Bond movies in Japan, claims to be the sport’s best are hypothetical. Emelianenko displays near-absolute mastery of this young sport, but against largely mediocre competition, it’s not hard to come off looking like a wrecking ball. He’s out of the equation.

Anderson Silva: the most effective striking in the sport today, an offense so properly calibrated that he frequently comes out of bouts with barely a scratch on him. He’s got knockout power and formidable submissions, and they’ve been put on display against solid competition: Dan Henderson (Pictures), Nathan Marquardt (Pictures) and Rich Franklin (Pictures) could all be reasonably assessed as top-tier middleweights at the time of their encounters with Silva. Best of all, he’s prone to finishing fights.

A recent move up in weight proved -- well, it proved he could knock out James Irvin (Pictures), which is not something I’m sure was under much dispute.

Hobbling Silva’s hypothetical “best fighter ever” status is his wrestling, which appears incapable of defending takedowns or even executing some of his own. The slight hasn’t impacted his career much, of course, but if we’re to consider a Best Ever contender, it would seem necessary to have a better freestyle game than the one Silva currently possesses. MMA is a trifecta program: wrestling, grappling and striking. He is but two-thirds deadly. (Granted, it’s a little like saying a venomous snake is one-dimensional.)

That leaves us with St. Pierre, who just left welterweight contender Jon Fitch (Pictures) looking as though he had been hit in the face with a Louisville Slugger. Despite not having much in the way of collegiate wrestling credentials, St. Pierre took down Fitch repeatedly, just as he had done with accomplished grapplers Matt Hughes (Pictures), Sean Sherk (Pictures) and Josh Koscheck (Pictures). He’s capable of blitzing people on the feet, as he did against Hughes. In his UFC career, he’s stomped more top-ranked opposition (six, by my count) than anyone else respective to their division. Besting both Hughes and Serra in rematches cements St. Pierre’s claim to have beaten everyone ever put in front of him.

Gripers are likely to point out that St. Pierre fell victim to Matt Serra (Pictures) not long ago, and that loss demotes his status. But it also hasn’t been an eternity since Silva tapped to a flying heel hook courtesy of an otherwise underwhelming Ryo Chonan (Pictures).

Quantity of quality opponents? St. Pierre. Efficiency in all ranges of fighting? St. Pierre. Apparent lack of weaknesses? St. Pierre.

At the risk of damning my patriotism, the French-Canadian is -- in my mind -- the current king of the ring.

For the inevitable comments, e-mail jrossen@sherdog.com