411's Fighter Of The Month: July 2008
Posted by Adam Tool on 07.31.2008
It was an explosive month for mixed-martial arts, as Forrest Griffin, Fedor Emelienanko, Joachim Hansen, Robbie Lawler, Jake Shields, and Antonio Silva all ended the month wearing gold! We also saw tremendous performances from Anderson Silva, Andre Arlovski, and Christiane Cyborg! One of these fighters took top honors this month, but you'll have to click to find out!
Welcome to 411mania's official Fighter Of The Month rankings. I'm your moderator Adam Tool, otherwise known as the Friday news/video review guy. The time has come once again for the 411 staff to take their turn on the digital soapbox so they can voice their opinions on the best fighters of the last 31 days.
We're fresh off of one of the biggest months in mixed-martial history. We've seen huge shows from the UFC, EliteXC, DREAM and the new kids on the MMA block, Affliction. New champions have been crowned in all four of the previously mentioned organizations, which led to a number of great fighters getting votes. Previous FOTM winners BJ Penn and Urijah Faber won top honors in a clean sweep. Will this month's winner do the same? You're about to find out…
How It Works
Each staff member picks five fighters and ranks them. I'll assign a point value to those rankings. Points are determined as:
1st - 5
2nd - 4
3rd - 3
4th - 2
5th - 1
The fighter with the most points is our Fighter of the Month and then new points are assigned that will go towards Fighter of the Year. Those points are:
1st - 15
2nd - 12
3rd - 9
4th - 6
5th - 3
6th - 1
The Voting
Dustin James
1) Forrest Griffin
Whether you agreed with the decision or not, Forrest Griffin defeated Rampage Jackson and won the UFC light heavyweight title. That's a pretty damn good month for this primate look-a-like. The defeat was enough to send Rampage off the deep end, so how can you NOT give Forrest the "Fighter of the Month" award?
2) Fedor Emelianenko - Fedor finally was able to shut his critics up and proved to the world his dominance. The big knock on Fedor was the lack of top 10 competition he has faced, so in walks former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia. Fedor only needed 36 seconds to make Sylvia tap like a little bitch. That's a GREAT month!
3) Anderson Silva - Silva has dominated the UFC's middleweight division for pretty much the past 2 years. He felt he needed more of a challenge and wanted to fight more, so he steps up a weight class and basically does what he has been doing since he arrived in the UFC, kicking ass. Some people gave James Irvin a shot here, which just surprised me. Do they NOT know who Anderson Silva is?
4) Joachim Hansen - Hansen was a long shot to win the DREAM lightweight grand prix. Why? BECAUSE HE WAS ALREADY ELIMINATED! Hansen was chosen to compete in an alternate bout in case one of the finalists couldn't compete, and lo and behold Eddie Alvarez goes down with an injury. So what happens? Hansen steps in and fights Shinya Aoki and BOOM wins the DREAM lightweight championship. Not a bad month at all for Hellboy.
5) Andrei Arlovski - Arlovski was finally able to get the UFC drama out of his mind and stepped in and defeated fellow top 10 heavyweight Ben Rothwell in impressive fashion at Affliction "Banned". Not only that but it has since been announced that Arlovski will face Fedor Emelianenko on October 11th at Affliction's next show. Yes, it has been a great month for "The Pitbull".
Jonathan Solomon
1) Forrest Griffin
No question about it. Forrest Griffin had the best month of any fighter in the sport. He defeated the previously unstoppable Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and won the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. The best division in the sport (in terms of quantity + quality) is now headed by Griffin. He is THE MAN.
2) Anderson Silva – Recognized by many as the best pound-for-pound fighter on Earth, Silva destroyed James Irvin in mere seconds. The move up to 205 did not look like bothered Silva one bit (as opposed to the drop to 205 from Brandon Vera) and he maintained the explosive striking game that has made him the best. Add to the equation the fact that he did this to a world-wide cable television audience and he is seen as a bad ass by even more eyeballs.
3) Fedor Emelianenko – After a year of criticism from the likes of Dana White for not fighting any "legit" competition, he made Tim Sylvia look like a rookie. Fedor headlined the first Affliction pay-per-view (which depending on who you believe, did better numbers than expected) and looked like a king. There are no doubts about Fedor anymore, not that there should have been in the first place.
4) Jake Shields – Finally, he was able to fight for the EXC Welterweight Championship. He beat Nick Thompson in a matter of seconds with a great chokehold. To put the cherry on top, it happened on CBS so the world saw it all. The only problem in the future is Shields may not have a big fight in 2008, so this may be the last time you see his name here.
5) Joachim Hansen – Quite the story when just a few months ago, he lost to Eddie Alvarez in the DREAM tournament. However, he turned it around after Alvarez could not continue. Hansen defeated two men on the same night to win the DREAM Light Weight Grand Prix tournament. One of those men, Shinya Aoki, was 3rd in June's Fighter of the Month rankings.
Jeremy Lambert
1) Forrest Griffin
He went from Ultimate Fighter 1 Champion to Light Heavyweight Champion and did so by defeating the consensus top Light Heavyweight in Quinton Jackson. Whether you liked the decision or not, Forrest had a game plan, implemented it, and frusted Jackson. He's now on top of the division with the highest profile.
2) Fedor Emelianenko - It was a toss up between Anderson Silva and Fedor for #2 but in the end, Fedor made a reported $300,000 and a real total of over 1 million dollars in just 35 seconds of work. He also showed that he is still has it even though he probably never lost it.
3) Anderson Silva - Easily one of my favorite fighters to watch and he showed why with his 1:01 domination of James Irvin. He moved up in weight, beat a guy with a lot of power, and did an awesome Bruce Lee impression when it was all over. This man rules.
4) Joachim Hansen - HELLBOY! He got knocked out of the DREAM Lightweight GP by Eddie Alvarez, took Alvarez' place in the finals, and then knocked out the favorite to win it all Shinya Aoki. He's the palest man that you'd never want to fight.
5) Christiane 'Cyborg' Santos - She gets the nod at #5 for many different reasons. First, she beat down Shayna Baszler when many thought that Baszler was the best female fighter in the world. Second, the provided me with a great laugh when she celebrated before the ref stopped the fight. Finally, she led to a lot of awesome shots of Gina Carano afer her win.
Larry Csonka
1) Forrest Griffin
To me the biggest accomplishment of the month was Forrest Griffin taking the Undisputed Lightweight Title from RAMPAGE. While there has been a lot of controversy over the decision, and it COULD have gone either way, Griffin took one of MMA's most popular titles from one of MMA's most popular stars. UFC officially has their first homegrown talent, coming out of obscurity to The Ultimate Fighter to Champion; a great story and a great accomplishment.
2) FEDOR - FEDOR showed that he is THE dominant heavyweight in MMA, and he destroyed TIM-MAH in seconds. I for one thought he would have more trouble than he did with him, but FEDOR shows why he is the bringer of death.
3) Cristiane CYBORG - She was beyond impressive in her star making performance on CBS, and with that performance and the crowd's reaction to it may just have created the first MONEY FIGHT for women as far as US MMA goes.
4) Anderson Silva - In my opinion THE BEST pound for pound fighter showed his awesomeness as he moved up a weight class and destroyed young Mr. Irvin.
5) Andrei Arlovski - The BEAST is BACK! I wrote about him on Friday and stated that he looked great and that I not only want to see, but will also pay to see he and FEDOR battle. This is a great comeback for the former UFC Champion.
John Curry
1) Forrest Griffin
The fact is that Forrest did two things this month. 1st he beat Rampage to win the Light Heavyweight Title, which is enough to claim this spot for himself. Second, and most importantly, Forrest Griffin solidified the importance and integrity of The Ultimate Fighter, which is no easy feat these days.
2) Fedor Emelianenko – A lot of people will put Anderson Silva in the 2 spot but the fact is who was the better competition? James Irvin or the former Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia? I think the truth of the matter is Fedor made the Affliction event a serious show, dismantled Tim Sylvia in what was probably THE single worst beat down I have ever seen. There is now absolutely no doubt that Fedor is number 1 in the world and you can bet that Dana White will be calling before long.
3) Joachim Hansen – This is easy. Hellboy beat Aoki for the title. If that isn't a surprise and deserving of a spot on this list I don't know what else is.
4) Jake Shields – Looked phenomenal winning his fight against Thompson. Hopefully we see him fight again before the year is out.
5) Anderson Silva – Yeah, I listed Silva 5. For very good reason too. You can't tell me that you didn't see that one against Irvin.
Bren Oliver
1) Forrest Griffin
He defied the odds at UFC 86 and walked away Light Heavyweight Champion. Though the judges' decision to award him the title was questionable in the eyes of many, Griffin still did enough in the bout to, at minimum, make it a debatable point and the original TUF Champion is now considered the top 205-pound fighter in the world by most in the MMA community.
2) Fedor Emelianenko - He destroyed a two-time UFC Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia in less than a minute and erased all doubts as to whether or not he was still deserving of his ranking as the top Heavyweight in the world.
3) Anderson Silva - He dominated James Irvin at Light Heavyweight, looking as dangerous at 205-pounds as he is at 185, and showed once again why he is considerd one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in MMA (if not the best).
4) Joachim Hansen - Knocked out Shinya Aoki, avenging an earlier career loss and laying claim to the DREAM Lightweight Championship in the process.
5) Andrei Arlovski - Picking Ben Rothwell apart en route to a knockout victory, Arlovski showed the world that "The Pitbull" is still around regardless of the doubts he created in lackluster performances against Tim Sylvia and Fabricio Werdum. He's also been announced as Fedor Emelianenko's next opponent which, win or lose, will be another step up in Andrei's career as a professional fighter.
Wendell Mitchell
1) Forrest Griffin
As per my rule, winning a title automatically puts you in the front of the pack for these things. You have a very charismatic fighter that in the process of beating one of the world's best for a major championship in a very deep division, essentially validated the existence of one of the few reality t.v. shows that don't make me want to kill someone.
2) Fedor Emelianenko – Controversial Fact of Fiction statement aside, Fedor's emasculation of Sylvia was nothing less than impressive. Whatever I thought of Sylvia, he's still a former champion and got choked out like the kid on the first day of practice that calls out one of the top students. 36 seconds of work for an entire month has to rank right up there with nailing super models every day of the week as a top male fantasy. He's made a believer out of this skeptic, even if I still think he's going down when he faces Randy. That's right, I'm calling it - 411mania's own Randy Harrison will be the man to stop the unstoppable. Oh yeah, he won a title too. (Editor's note - Randy doesn't work here anymore. It's okay though, I miss him too.)
3) Anderson Silva – Though I was PERSONALLY more impressed by Silva knocking Irvin out, he has to rank just below Fedor because Fedor beat a former World Champion for a new World Championship. I know it's unheard of, but could we see the first fighter Dana allows to hold two championships at once? No one is going to even make him break a sweat at Middleweight, and who doesn't he match up well against at 205?
4) Robbie Lawler – The other major televised Middleweight champion successfully defended his title in a good back and forth battle with Scott Smith. I enjoy how he called out Silva after the fight. Ambitious, perhaps. Crazy, definitely; but I'd pay to see that fight for some reason.
5) Christiane 'Cyborg' Santos – Absolutely dominated who many considered the top female fighter in the world to the point that even after celebrating her victory prematurely, Cyborg still killed Baszler. How many times have we seen people let down their guard only to get caught with a submission of unguarded shot to the chin? Wasn't happening with Cyborg. Very impressive debut and they have their marquee woman's match already set up. I'm not even a "Gina's overrated" type, but she is going to die when they have this match.
Adam Tool
1) Forrest Griffin
When he was announced as the new #1 contender for the light heavyweight belt, very few people gave Forrest a chance against Rampage Jackson. In the days leading up to the fight I read numerous predictions, and most of them were Jackson by TKO in the early rounds. Forrest took Rampage's best shots and worked a solid gameplan to come away with a close decision victory. The end of the fight led to controversy, and hopefully once Jackson gets his life straightened out we'll see these two hook up again, but for now Griffin reigns supreme as the first "true" Ultimate Fighter to win UFC gold.
2) Fedor Emelianenko - The questions were all over the place about Fedor's showdown with Tim Sylvia. While there were those that claimed Fedor was overrated and didn't deserve his ranking as the #1 heavyweight in the world, nobody can say those things now. Against a two-time former UFC champion, Fedor dominated and proved to the world that he is the guy to beat in the heavyweight division.
3) Robbie Lawler - EliteXC's second CBS show had a lot of great fights. It would be easy enough to give some love to Nick Diaz, Chris Cyborg, Antonio Silva or Jake Shields. However the fight that most people were tuning in to see was the rematch between Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith. Lawler gave a great performance and finally got the Scott Smith monkey off his back. He is easily one of the biggest stars in EliteXC and I look forward to seeing him fight for many more years to come.
4) Joachim Hansen/Eddie Alvarez - Yes, I'm cheating a bit here. However I have my reasons. Certainly Joachim Hansen deserves a spot in the rankings for putting away the lightweight tournament favorite Shinya Aoki. He is the first DREAM lightweight champion and that's something to be proud of. But let us not forget the man that could've won that belt. Eddie Alvarez had a tremendous showdown with Tatsuya Kawajiri and he certainly would've given Aoki a run for his money in the finals before the eye injury forced him out. Hansen has already stated that we'll be seeing these two hook up again, and I can't wait to see if they can top their Fight of the Year candidate from earlier this year.
5) Anderson Silva - Sure his middleweight title wasn't on the line at Fight Night 14, but Anderson Silva certainly had something to fight for. He was out to prove that no matter what weight class he is in, he is the best in the world right now. James Irvin isn't in anybody's top ten, but he's obviously no can either. Silva straight up MURDERED the man, and he did it in front of the largest audience to ever see him fight. Up next is a showdown with Patrick Cote, and for his sake I hope Cote has all his affairs in order.
The Results
Honorable Mention: Jake Shields (4 points)
5th Place (TIE) - Christiane Cyborg and Robbie Lawler (5 points)
EliteXC‘s second primetime special saw Lawler successfully defend his middleweight title in the main event. Cyborg makes history by becoming the first woman to appear on this list following her demolition of Shayna Baszler.
4th Place - Joachim Hansen (14 points)
He was eliminated from the DREAM lightweight grand prix, so obviously nobody expected him to come back and win the whole thing. A great month for the first DREAM lightweight champion.
3rd Place - Anderson Silva (20 points)
"The Spider" remains unbeaten in the UFC, and I have a good feeling we'll see him make another appearance on this list after his next middleweight title defense in October.
2nd Place - Fedor Emelianenko (31 points)
A tremendous showing from Fedor, however he was disqualified from taking top honors due to the fact that his body is less than 50% organic material.
Fighter of the Month for July - Forrest Griffin (40 points)
He beat Rampage, took the light heavyweight title, and now he wins July's Fighter Of The Month. Obviously two of those accomplishments are more significant, but there's no doubt that this was Griffin's best month ever.
Posted By: Joshifan (Guest) on July 31, 2008 at 10:12 AM
fedor - defeated three time uf champ in 36 seconds, shut up sherdog in 36 seconds, and won over the new generation (post TUF) mma fanbase in 36 seconds...and won the prestigious WAMMA belt on top of it.
Forrest - Gotta love the underdog, only reason he doesn't get top nod for me is how close the fight was...i just don't think that his statement was quite as big as the last emperor's was. (btw, we all look like primates, seeing as how we are all primates.)
Hellboy - beating the baka survivor is no small feat
Robbie Lawler - withstood scott smith's aggressive first round, and a nasty gash on his melon to win impressively on national tv.
Andrei Arlovski - the much maligned former ufc champion showed the world that even the great dana white can be wrong about something....Arlovski showed improved boxing and sweet combinations to bring down the tough as nails ben rothwell.
-note---i'm not hating on the spider, but i'm not all that impressed with a win over james irvin...actually, my whole thought process concerning Anderson Silva is a little messed up since i heard that he walks around at 220...there is absolutely no reason for him to cut 35-40 pounds to fight at middleweight, especially since he's cleaned out the division...i mean does anyone buy patrick cote as a legit contender? Anyone overly impressed by Silva's move should rethink their postition...silva could easily add some muscle and win the ufc heavyweight belt, therefore i don't consider his win at against a marginal top twenty light heavyweight fighter to be all that awe inspiring.
Posted By: romano (Guest) on July 31, 2008 at 10:57 AM
so romano, i suppose you are one of the people who want there to be more weight classes. it doesnt work at all, because fighters will cut even more weight to have every advantage possible. if you were a fighter... would you cut 15 pounds, and have guys naturally bigger than you all around you, or cut more, so you could have the advantage. you could hate on chuck then, because he walks around at around 235, so whats the difference? silva proved that he would murder anyone in higher divisions rather quickly, and i realize that irvin is a bit of a can, but he has a solid chin, and silva one punched him. personally im impressed, but forrest deserves the fighter of the month in my view.
Posted By: woolfrey (Guest) on July 31, 2008 at 09:56 PM
woolfrey
i don't care about how many weight classes there are...i do care about fighters fighting the best available opponents. silva used to call himself "the roy jones of vale tudo", well roy was another guy that hid in a weak weight class, which is exactly what silva is doing...what silva proved was that he could beat an inferior opponent who's about the same size as him...if chuck walks around at 235, it's all in his gut, and i have no clue as to why you brought him up...actually on further inspection, i'm not sure why i'm answering your nonsensical comment at all...really, why did you bring up chuck? he's cutting weight to fight in mma's premier division, silva's cutting weight to fight in mma's weakest division....did i say anything about chuck in my original comment? nope. look, it's stupid...if you think that beating james irvin is impressive enough of a performance to rank, then go ahead...i'm just starting to see through the hype...as talented as silva is, he needs to fight at 205 on a permanent basis
Posted By: romano (Guest) on August 01, 2008 at 01:17 AM
Fedor and Cyborg are the real deal .
Fedor is easily the best fighter in the universe, he made a former three times UFC Champ and Top 10 Heavy looking like a can .
On the female side of things how not getting impressed at Christina Santos ?
She is a frickin beast , she is the Wanderlei Silva of female MMA plain and simple .
She is one billion times more exciting to watch than all the Barnett/Rizzo fights of this world
Can't wait for her to totally murderer the ultra overrated Gina Carano
Gina you're hot sweety but get ready to have your face destroyed forever !
Posted By: Mr Freeze (Guest) on August 01, 2008 at 04:56 AM
I can't wait to see the Forrest Griffin vs. Fedor fight for the 411mania's Fighter of the Month Title
Posted By: Cody Rhodes Ted Dibiase PRICELESS (Registered) on August 03, 2008 at 10:38 PM
