Official MMA Standard Rankings - 6/24/2013

I can't for the life of me figure out why Shogun always gets ranked so highly. It's like he's being credited for how good he's supposed to be and how much he's supposed to win, as opposed to how good he actually is and how much he actually does win.

Also Rory MacDonald at 3 kind of makes me scratch my head. Is it becuase he beat BJ Penn? I would think so, because I can't really think of anything else of note. But that's weird, because Nick Diaz manhandles Penn, and it's because BJ is old or out of shape or was on his period or something. But then Rory does the same thing to BJ after BJ comes out of retirement and he's ranked top 3 in the world for it.

I think a lot of it has to do with how impressive MacDonald has looked in his fights.  He seems to completely dominate everyone he fights.  He only has one loss, a TKO loss with 7 seconds to go in the fight to Carlos Conditt (that Rory could have arguably won on the scorecards). 
Since then he's had 4 straight dominating victories over Mike Pyle, Che Mills, Nate Diaz, and BJ Penn.  We will see how he does against Ellenberger.... a guy who doesn't get outmuscled too often.
I don't see who else you could put ahead of him that's a no-brainer.  Maybe Conditt?  But I have a problem putting a guy coming off two straight losses to different fighters in the top 3.


LHW is tough since all the guys (even) at the top have not been able to string wins together.  Shogun gets (probably) too much credit for knocking out Forrest, Vera, and Machida (who many have raned at #2 or #3). 

Let's look at the others ranked below him:
Nogueira - Dug himself an ugly hole losing back-to-back fights against Bader and Davis.  He then likely avoided retirement by being fed Tito Ortiz, and then jumped back into the top five by beating Rashad Evans in the most boring fight of the year. 

Evans - Lost two of his last 3 fights.  Hasn't finished a real fight since 2008.

Phil Davis - Was on a good run until he lost to Rashad Evans.  Then he beat (Prado - who cares), and looked very awkward in decision win over Megalhaes.  It think it's tough to move up into top 5 territory when your track record in the top 10 is nothing to write home about.

Ryan Bader - IMO, he is ranked too high here, but I digress.  His limelight includes a lackluster decision over lil Nog and a decision over a tired Rampage.  He's done nothing against other top guys (Jones/Machida).  Can't blame a guy for that.  However, when you get subbed to give Tito Ortiz his only win in his last 9 fights, it's too laughable to put a guy in the to 5 without something really big to show for it.

Teixeira - He's on a role.  But he still needs a win against a top guy (imo, Rampage does not fit that bill anymore).

Henderson - Coming off two fights in a row.  IMO, really tought to rank anyone in the top 4 coming off two straight losses to two different guys.

Again, I think any of these guys could   beat Shogun if the wind was blowing right.  However, I don't think any of their resumes are a no brainer decision to put ahead of Rua.

My $0.02.

I don't disagree that LHW is muddled, but I just can't justify ranking the guy as high as 4 when he has alternated wins and losses over the past 4-plus years and his biggest win is over Machida more than 3 years ago. I don't know, I guess spots 2 through 10 could shake out a lot of different ways, but it just seems like Shogun is getting the benefit of the doubt, while other fighters aren't- like his losses aren't "real" because he will maybe/probably/possibly do better in his next fight.

As far as MacDonald, yeah sure, he's looked good against Pyle, Mills, Nate Diaz, and BJ, but I'm betting Condit, Kampmann, Dong Hyun Kim, Josh Burkman, and Nick Diaz (ranked 6-10) would do just as well against those fighters, but that doesn't mean they should #2 in the world.
I think he's alright, but like you said- let's see how he does against some real competition when he fights Ellenberger.
(For the record, I actually have MacDonald ranked 5 and Ellenberger 6, but only because Ellenberger has a recent loss. I do think Ellenberger is the better fighter and has fought better competition, and will win this fight)

Can't argue that Shogun has a lot of losses.  However, when you have like 6 or 7 guys a similar record over the past few years... I do think guys with a long history of being one of the best in the world DO get more of a pass than guys with only wins against average competition.

I actually think LHW is a mess and maybe the worst top-to-bottom talent in the UFC. 
I think more than half of them have their best days behind them, and they will just continue to diminish.  One of the main reasons I am a Teixiera fan.  I want him to be good so badly, just to get some new blood in the mix.

That's kind of what I was thinking; the top 10 of LHWs is full of guys who are really just begging to be replaced by a new batch of younger fighters. It's basically a few newer fighters who have already arrived (Jones, Gustaffson) and then a bunch of guys who are quite literally aging gatekeepers who are only there because there aren't enough new, younger fighters to bump them out yet.