UFC Welterweight Title Picture

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The current top 15 ranking of UFC Welterweights:

(C) Leon Edwards
1. Kamaru Usman
2. Colby Covington
3. Khamzat Chimaev
4. Belal Muhammad
5. Gilbert Burns
6. Geoff Neal
7. Stephen Thompson
8. Sean Brady
9. Vicente Luque
10. Shavkat Rakhmov
11. Jorge Masvidal
12. Michael Chiesa
13. Neil Manny
14. Daniel Rodriguez
15. Michel Pereira

Bolded everyone who I think has a chance to hold the title (not including Edwards who is the current champ).

  • Usman probably beats Edwards in the rematch if he’s not a broken mentally and chin is still intact. Shavkat beats him either way.

  • Shavkat is my pick to be the next dominant WW champ. Best overall skills and fight IQ.

  • Belal is being slept on greatly, he has an 8 fight win streak and seems to be peaking. I think it will be hell for him to get a titleshot though. He’s not what the UFC are after from a promotional standpoint.

  • Khamzat is a beast but I’m not sold on him. He’s a destroyer against guys who can’t grapple, and is probably the most dangerous in the first round and a half guy here, but I think he could be in trouble in 5 round fights against some of these guys because they’re all cardio machines with good wrestling and decent to good striking. Anyone who makes it to the third round with him has a solid chance. He matches up the best against Edwards on this list.

  • Colby. Solid, known quantity, cardio for days, but he’s not much of a finisher. He might win a title at some point (not a great chance though, if he’s up against the right champ) but he’ll have a hard time holding the title.

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What hurts Belal a lot too is the fight with Leon. Before the eye poke that fight looked like it was going to be one sided. Granted it was only one round and anything can happen…but we saw them in the octagon together and he had nothing for Leon, that’s what people remember

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Max won a pretty questionable split decision against Tim

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Bellator WW champ Yaroslav Amasov will be in those rankings too when he returns from fighting in the war.

He has already beat Ruth, Lima and Storley. 26-0 in MMA.

I think if Lee was outside ONE he would cut to 55 like most of their LWs. He makes 70 now while hydrated.

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Would Amasov be favored to beat Edwards if he could be next to challenge for the UFC WW title is the real question. Very, very possible.

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Amasov also has a win over 20-3 KSW MW/WW champ Roberto Soldic who just signed with ONE.

Soldic KOed 3-0 UFC fighter du Plessis when they were in KSW together.

Not having Amasov and Soldic under contract is a great example of the current UFC “top 15” not really being the global top 15.

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He did look great though at 280. And he got a finish finally lol

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I forgot all about that. That’s pretty wild honestly

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I mean that’s one round against the current champ, in the middle of an 8 fight winstreak. Belal is a lot like Colby, a grinder who’s not really elite at anything, but he puts up a great pace and overwhelms guys in wars of attrition. I’m not sure if that camp with team Khabib was a one-off, but if he keeps that up he’ll be a menace.

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I expect big things from Shavkat. He seems like Khamzat if he fought smarter and took his time.

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Geoff Neal is coming off the brutal KO of Vicente Luque. But Shavkat is a completely different animal. This is a big step up on competition for him, regardless of the rankings. I fully expect him to take Neal down and finish him before round 3

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I love Holland. I’m a big fan. I don’t know how good he is, but we will definitely see

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I was impressed with his 2 wins at WW against Alex Oliveira and Tim Means. Fighting Stephen Thompson
is a step up at least in terms of name recognition but I see no reason why he shouldn’t win

Holland is far younger, bigger, has a good reach advantage, and has been more active. Thompson hasn’t fought since December and is coming off two straight losses

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Yeah Wonderboy has looked slower and older recently. His knee problems have finally caught up with him. It hurts his striking style greatly

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He’s too fat

Moved up

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Donald Trump GIF by Election 2016

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I think it was a mistake for Holland to change weight classes. He had already lost to the best wrestlers at MW. Now he’s in a division filled with them. He needs to chart an Alex Pereira type path to the top. Theres a reason they havent given that guy a wrestler.