| It seems fitting with UFC 77 right around the corner, | | | | faced Rich Franklin, but neither has faced |
| with Rich Franklin fighting current UFC middleweight | | | | middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Since Okami |
| champion Anderson Silva to give my UFC | | | | got less beaten up by Franklin than MacDonald did, I |
| middleweight top 5 rankings now. | | | | give him the #3 spot. I think that if Okami had |
| The UFC middleweight division is probably the | | | | committed himself earlier in the fight he would have |
| weakest in all of the UFC. By weakest I mean that | | | | possibly decisioned Franklin. |
| there is one clear cut champion, a clear cut second | | | | 2. Rich Franklin is defintely deserving of his #2 status. |
| and then everyone else is way below. Mixed Martial | | | | He has defeated both the third and fourth best |
| Arts has come a long way in a very short period of | | | | fighters in the division and deserves to get his title |
| time, so things could change overnight. Let's get | | | | rematch against Anderson Silva. Until Silva arrived on |
| started with my rankings. | | | | the scene, it looked like Rich Franklin would remain on |
| 5. Chris Leben; I think most MMA fans would not | | | | top of the middleweight mountain for quite a while. |
| include Chris Leben in the top 5 of the UFC | | | | Franklin took a beating at the hands of Silva and I'm |
| middleweight division, but Leben is coming off an | | | | interested to see what improvements he has made |
| impressive come from behind win over a very tough | | | | to his game/strategy for the rematch. |
| Terry Martin and fought a close decision loss with | | | | 1. Anderson Silva is the best middleweight in the UFC, |
| Kalib Starnes. I personally thought that the Starnes | | | | maybe the best middleweight in the world. Real MMA |
| fight was a draw or even a narrow Leben victory. | | | | fans would love to see a bout between Matt Lindland |
| The thing I've been most impressed with lately with | | | | and Anderson Silva to decide the best MMA |
| Leben is his ground game. Sure, he's not at the level | | | | middleweight, but since Lindland doesn't fight in the |
| of Jason MacDonald or Travis Lutter yet, but he's | | | | UFC we have Anderson Silva reigning supreme. His |
| defended very well and even attempted some | | | | dominant performances against Chris Leben, Rich |
| submissions in the Starnes fight. It's clear after his | | | | Franklin, Travis Lutter and most recently Nate |
| loss to MacDonald Silva that Chris Leben has gone | | | | Marquardt indicate true dominance. In fact, in his last |
| back to the drawing board and made some real | | | | 4 fights only one has gone into the second round and |
| improvements to his game. | | | | they represent only 10 minutes of total fight time. |
| 4. Jason MacDonald had a real streak going before he | | | | Anderson Silva is extremely comfortable throwing |
| met Rich "Ace" Franklin. He had back to back wins | | | | punches from all angles. He isn't afraid of being taken |
| over ultimate fighters Ed Herman and Chris Leben | | | | down, so he allows himself to take risks throwing big |
| winning both fights by submission. MacDonald had a | | | | flying knees and other high profile strikes. It's that |
| bit of a set back when he faced recently de-throned | | | | kind of fighting which will both keep Anderson on or |
| champion Rich Franklin. This fight showed just how | | | | near the top of the middleweight division for quite |
| big of a gap there is in the UFC middleweight division, | | | | some time. Fans love to see the big strikes and there |
| but MacDonald is taking it all in stride and a recent | | | | is nothing more satisfying than a KO. |
| victory at UFC 72 over Rory Singer shows that "The | | | | That rounds out the UFC middleweight top 5. Time |
| Athlete" is back on track. Jason MacDonald takes on | | | | to start working on the UFC heavyweight top 5, but |
| Yushin Okami at UFC 77, likely to see who will face | | | | with the departure of Randy Couture and the recent |
| the winner of Anderson Silva and Rich Franklin. | | | | signing to M-1 of Fedor Emelianenko, that could be a |
| 3. Yushin Okami and Jason MacDonald have both | | | | real chore. |