Pyle of List

…And it’ll probably stay that way for a while. With  three out of five titles being successfully defended in the last two pay-per-views (and a fourth champ downright embarrassing a contender from a higher weight class) it seems that none of these guys will be relinquishing their belts any time soon. That being said, it is a sport where anything can happen and any man is beatable on a given night. So let’s take a look at these guys and the way things look in each division.

BJ Penn

“The Prodigy” looked about as good as he ever has in his four round destruction of Kenny Florian. Now we all know that BJ has had his trouble with motivation and showing up to his fights in shape. But let’s face it, if you lived in Hawaii would you spend 8 hours a day in the gym working your ass off? That’s what I thought. Luckily for BJ he is one of the most talented fighters in the UFC. He has good boxing skills, and is a jiu jitsu ace. As long as he continues to put in the effort and spend less time hanging out in the hot tub with a bunch of dudes, there really isn’t anyone in the lightweight division that can challenge him. He could even try another run at 170 if he wants. Just so long as he actually builds some muscle instead of just pounding down the bbq pork and macaroni salad. To add to the matter there is a huge lack of challengers in his division. Diego Sanchez seems to be next in line, but after that there isn’t much left. Guess BJ will have plenty of time for pool parties. More girls next time BJ…

Georges “Rush” St. Pierre

GSP defended his title recently against what seemed to be the biggest threat to his crown in the welterweight division in Thiago Alves. Alves was supposed to be too big and too strong for Georges to take down and control the way he had with his previous opponents. But that was exactly what GSP did. He spent five rounds taking Alves down and imposing his will. Exactly what he did to Jon Fitch. Early in his career, GSP looked great on his way to winning his first championship. Then he lost a shocker to Matt Serra. Since that loss he has looked outright better than everyone he has faced. He out wrestled Josh Koscheck, took it to Matt Hughes on short notice, dramatically avenged the loss to Serra and regained his belt, imposed his will on Fitch, wore out BJ Penn until he said “no more,” and took out the “dangerous striker” in Alves. So that leaves really no contender until either Mike Swick or Martin Kampmann distinguish themselves a little more. Leaving GSP to make the mistake of listening to everyone who says he’s the pound for pound king and challenging Anderson Silva. Georges is good at 170, but at 185 he will be undersized and out matched. Especially by a guy who has been embarrassing 205ers.Georges, stay put. Trust me. Or don’t. Hey, I never get tired of being right.

Anderson “The Spider” Silva

What do you even say about this guy? He is undefeated in the UFC and has really only lost one round since entering the octagon. He destroyed Rich Franklin’s face, held a guy in a triangle choke and before making him go to sleep he punched him in the face a few times and flexed for the crowd. Dan Henderson came the closest anyone has to figuring out Silva by trying to out wrestle him, but when the first round ended Anderson had a “never again” look on his face and promptly came out and ended the fight in the second round. He had a few lackluster performances but they were against guys that everyone in the building knew had no business being in the cage with him. He IS the pound for pound king and spends his free time knocking out guys in a higher weight class than his. And, for the record, doing it quickly with two first round KO’s of James Irvin and Forrest Griffin. He has some house cleaning waiting for him at 185 with Dan Henderson waiting for a rematch and Nate Marquardt and Damian Maia squaring off this weekend for a shot at the middleweight title. Whoever it is that ends up staring down The Spider, I hope his wife loves him for his personality.

Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida

The newest of the five champs, Lyoto is undefeated in his career. He started off looking like a fighter who would do just enough to win a fight and had little interest in engaging his opponents further. Also like he had a touch of the of the downs. But in his last two fights, he put a hurting on a supposed feared striker in Thiago Silva and then knocked out Rashad Evans in an ugly fashion.  So maybe I was wrong. Maybe his fast hands and ability to get in and out without getting hit will take him far. He gets to show us by fighting a Muricio Rua who hasn’t looked great since coming over from PRIDE while he waits for Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans to beat the black…… shorts off of each other. The fact that the last three champions haven’t successfully defended their title, leaves an unclear picture as to who exactly deserves a shot so it may be a while ’til Lyoto gets a strong challenger. The final message is for anyone fighting Lyoto, watch out for the retard strength.

Brock Lesnar

The man most likely to make me eat my words when I say that none of the champs will lose for a while. Let’s face it. Brock is huge. Seriously huge. He has to cut weight to get down to the 265lb cap on heavyweights. But he moves very fast for a guy that size. And he has paint cans for hands. It seems that as long as he keeps from making a mistake and giving a fight away (like he did the first time against Mir) he will be tough to take down. That being said, he only has four fights under his belt. So the potential for him to make a mistake like that against a more experienced fighter is fairly high. Also, when he fought Randy Couture it seemed that his conditioning could be an issue if an opponent was able to push him to the championship rounds. And with both Couture and Antonio Nogueira in a position to get a shot at the big guy, and both of them being very experienced/tough guys, we may see Brock get tested a little more than he was when Frank Mir laid under him and allowed Brock to punish his face. Worst case scenario though, Brock can alway summon the power locked in the super-cock tattooed on his chest.

In closing, the baddest man on the list is totally Anderson Silva, strictly because people are talking about throwing him against all of the other champs (except BJ) and in any of those fights he has a better than average shot at winning. Even against the big guys. And while it might be better for the UFC if some of these guys would lose to free things up at the top, I can’t see anyone that is just waiting for a fall.