The Name of the Game: DOMINATION!

We are just one week into what is being called the “Machida Era” of MMA and things have already gotten interesting. Before Lyoto Machidas’ dominating win over Rashad Evans, UFC officials announced that the winner of that fight would face former champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. The plan was to have both fighters coach the next edition of The Ultimate Fighter and then face each other when the season ends, a proven TUF formula. Then on Thursday, Spike TV (which airs TUF) made a shocking announcement, that “Rampage” would be coaching and fighting against Rashad this next season. What happened to Machida? Why is the number one contender risking a loss to the man that just got owned in the cage by the champ? It turns out that Quinton Jacksons’ name needs to be put in the same list as: Brendan Vera, Keith Jardine and Forrest Griffin. This is growing the list of fighters that have openly said: “they want nothing to do with Lyoto Machida”. That’s right, they don’t even want to fight him, mostly due to Machidas’ ability to make his opponents look real bad. Will Lyoto Machida be the most dominate champion ever with so many people ready to pass up a shot at the title and not even try to figure out the puzzle? This had me thinking- who was each weight classes most dominating champion? So without further ado, in my opinion, the greatest…

Picture Credits: SherDog

Heavyweight- Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko

This was by far the easiest weight class to decide! Widely considered the best pound for pound fighter in the world and often called “the baddest man on the planet”, Fedor holds a professional MMA record of 30-1. The one loss was due to a cut suffered from an illegal elbow that forced a doctor stoppage back in December of 2000. He won the Pride Heavyweight Title on March of 2003 and held it until the companies closing in 2006. He is the current WAMMA Heavyweight Champion and recently defeated two former UFC champions in a combined time of under four minutes. His next fight is against Josh Barnett at Affliction: Trilogy on August 1^st.

Light Heavyweight- Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell

As easy as picking the heavyweight was, the same can not be said for the light heavyweight division. The list of amazing and dominating champions is quite long. Wanderlei Silva held the Pride middleweight title (Japans weight class for 205lbs.) from November 2002 til February of 2007, however he only defended it a few times. If you look to the UFC, Frank Shamrock defended his title four times before retiring and leaving the title vacant. The next champ Tito Ortiz, defended it the most- five times. But who was the most dominate- it’s a tough call so I went to the numbers, the pay per view numbers. And they don’t lie! It may be hard to tell who the most dominate is, but nobody draws and dominates a crowd like former champ Chuck Liddell. One of the most popular fighters ever, “The Iceman” defended his title on four occasions and his one of the men responsible for propelling MMA to the mainstream. Since his reign, no one has defended it that many times and he is four champions removed. Quite possibly retired now, UFC President Dana White says he won’t allow him to fight, Chuck Liddell will forever be remembered in the world of the UFC.