At a question-and-answer session for fans after Saturday's WEC 40 weigh-in, someone asked UFC interim heavyweight champion Frank Mir and WEC stars Mike Brown and Urijah Faber to name their choice for the best pound-for-pound fighter in MMA. The two featherweights chose a heavyweight, while the heavyweight chose a bantamweight.
Both Brown and Faber said Fedor Emelianenko is the best pound-for-pound fighter. Mir, however, said that while Fedor is the best heavyweight, WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Torres is the best pound-for-pound. Brown and Faber noted that Fedor dominates his opponents, but Mir said Torres is a far more versatile fighter who has more tools at his disposal. So who's right?
Pound-for-pound arguments can degenerate into pure silliness quite quickly, but part of the fun of being a sports fan is making silly arguments, and I think it's interesting to consider how Torres would match up with Fedor if they were in the same weight class. And I think what really stands out in that scenario is that Torres would have an enormous reach advantage over Fedor.
Cannon Jacques at Bloody Elbow picked up on my post from Saturday about how much taller and longer Torres is than other 135-pounders, and there was a good discussion about just how amazing a reach advantage Torres has over the rest of his weight class. At 5-foot-9, Torres is extremely tall for a bantamweight, and he has long arms and legs. Fedor, on the other hand, is only six feet tall, which is short for a heavyweight.
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What If Miguel Torres and Fedor Emelianenko Were the Same Weight?
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