bbjd7

Ok I don't think people really understand how deep LW is so in order to help people really understand try and put together a top 20 list.

This isn't easy at all so many great fighters will get left off lists so I also ask we spend time debating the meat of the list and not who people have at #1 since their is already a thread about that.

Ok so here's my top 20.

1. Shinya Aoki
2. BJ Penn
3. JZ Calvancanti
4. Sean Sherk
5. Eddie Alvarez
6. Joachim Hansen
7. Kenny Florian
8. Josh Thomson
9. Satoru Kitaoka
10. Mitsuhiro Ishida
11. Frankie Edgar
12. Tatsuya Kawajiri
13. Tyson Griffin
14. Jamie Varner
15. Caol Uno
16. Takanori Gomi
17. Roger Huerta
18. Gray Maynard
19. Eiji Mitsuoka
20. Hermes Franca

Honestly this took me awhile and I'm 100% sure that I forgot guys and that it could be better.

BTW just a note of some guys who I left off this list so you understand how deep the division is.

Shaolin Ribeiro, Gilbert Melendez, and Joe Stevenson.

No other division has guys that talented outside of their top 20.

TERMINATOR

not bad but if you are gonna put maynard on there or franca ya gotta put guida on there for sure. I dont understand aoki over Penn but for the most i agree some what. Tough to do top tewnty

__________________
Grinding Gears

bbjd7

Who has Guida has beaten? Danzig, and Aurelio that's it. Tough close fights are great but you need to win in MMA and Guida doesn't.

Personally I have a ton more guys ranked ahead of Guida he might not even be top 30 with Shaolin, Melendez ahead of him and young guys like Jim Miller and Cowboy Cerrone also possibly ahead of him.

dontazo

who did penn beat in lw?

bbjd7

Do you read the OP? There is already a thread for discussing BJ vs Aoki at #1 if you want to do that go there dontazo.

coldcall420

I think you should have Joe Stevenson in there if your gonna put Franca in.......

bbjd7

Franca's won a fight this year over Aurelio and his win was much more impressive the Joe's over Tibau which was a dreadful performance.

coldcall420

Is that the way you picked the list with it based off each fighters last performance??

What about overall performance, record, better skill sets.....
I dont think its a bad list but Aurelio looked like shit in that fight and hermes had an easy time....

MLS

I think a fair argument could be made to have Alvarez ranked above Sherk

bbjd7

I don't look at skill set but I did look at overall record i'll give you a whole breakdown of why I put Hermes over Joe.

Wins
Hermes
Varner
Diaz
Fisher
Aurelio

Joe
Yves
Mishima
Pellegrino
Tibau

Losses
Hermes
Edgar
Sherk

Stevenson
BJ
Florian

Hermes wins are much better IMO and I would say Stevenson has slightly better losses but that doesn't matter all that much.

And Yea MLS it could be made but Sherk is coming off a good win against Tyson and Alvarez is coming off a loss.

However to be fair Alvarez 3-1 with wins over Dida, Hansen, and Kawajiri and loss to Aoki could be considered better then Sherks wins over Florian, Hermes, and Tyson and loss to BJ.