Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Pound-for-Pound Men

6. Fedor Emelianenko

The lone heavyweight who deserves to be on a Top 10 pound-for-pound list almost made it to the Top 5. Emelianenko's list of victims isn't as skilled as those of other inclusions, but that's through no fault of his, but a problem with heavyweight as a whole. He beat all the best opponents available, and his streak of success is the longest among the sport's elite, even surpassing that of previous entry Nurmagomedov. Emelianenko was essentially undefeated in his first 32 fights; his loss to Tsuyoshi Kosaka in Rings was due to an inadvertent but illegal elbow in the opening seconds that opened a huge cut. The tournament needed someone to advance, so a no contest was out of the question and with Emelianenko unfit to fight due to the cut, Kosaka was awarded the victory.

Emelianenko’s time as heavyweight king lasted for an amazing seven years and 19 straight victories after first triumphing over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at Pride 25 in 2003. There were plenty of weak touches during that time, including Wagner da Conceicao Martins, Hong Man Choi and Yuji Nagata, but he also dominated the trilogy against Nogueira, finished four former UFC heavyweight champions in the first round—Andrei Arlovski, Tim Sylvia, Kevin Randleman and Mark Coleman twice—and won the “Fight of the Century” against Mirko Filipovic in that span, too. How did Emelianenko manage to stave off defeat for so long? It wasn't always easy, but in addition to lightning hand and foot speed for a heavyweight, enormous punching power, a great judo and sambo-based grappling and submission game, Emelianenko's incredible cardio, heart and intelligence, combined with his very tough chin and good recuperative powers allowed him to avoid many perilous situations, whether against Kazuyuki Fujita or Mark Hunt. Emelianenko's time at the top ended when he was about to turn 34, knocking down and hurting Fabricio Werdum early in their fight, but then being caught in a triangle the BJJ ace threw up off his back. There is some argument for Emelianenko being even higher here—I personally had him fourth—but again, heavyweight just doesn't give us the same caliber of skill as lighter weight classes.

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