If there has been one criticism of MMA's premier heavyweight, it's that Emelianenko hasn't met the best of his contemporaries over the last three years. He responded with a 36-second thrashing of Tim Sylvia in July, and he will look to further prove his supremacy over the division on Jan. 24 when he takes on another former UFC heavyweight champion, Andrei Arlovski, in the headliner of the second Affliction bill.
The consensus favorite in his December UFC interim heavyweight title scrap with Frank Mir, the TUF 8 coach will have a tall task ahead of him should he emerge victorious. Nogueira's prize for defeating Mir will be the chance to unify the UFC heavyweight crown with upstart Brock Lesnar in 2009, in what would make for an enormous heavyweight clash.
3. Andrei Arlovski (14-5-0)
2008 offered Arlovski a great opportunity to rebuild himself, and he did so brilliantly. With his knockouts of Ben Rothwell and Roy Nelson, he has earned himself the biggest fight of his career -- a meeting with the sport's finest heavyweight, Fedor Emelianenko, in the main event of Affliction's sophomore effort on Jan. 24.
4. Josh Barnett (23-5-0)
Barnett's management nixed hopes of him facing Fedor Emelianenko in January as the headliner for Affliction's second event. Unfortunately, Barnett's proposed participation on the Nov. 1 Sengoku card didn't come to fruition either.
5. Brock Lesnar (3-1-0)
Now perhaps MMA's most polarizing athlete, it took Lesnar but 17 months and four bouts to wear UFC gold. His high-profile smashing of Randy Couture has validated the enormous hype surrounding the former D1 wrestling champ. Now, Lesnar will have the chance to become the UFC's undisputed heavyweight king in the new year, as he awaits the winner of December's Nogueira-Mir clash.
6. Randy Couture (16-9-0)
Couture's post-retirement run came to a screeching halt in his first post-resignation bout. He returned to the Octagon for the first time in 15 months and was knocked out by Brock Lesnar in the second round, leaving questions as to what "The Natural" has left in the tank.
7. Tim Sylvia (24-5-0)
In the biggest fight of his career, Sylvia was summarily smashed by Fedor Emelianenko in a humbling 36 seconds. Although his missteps have come against the top heavyweights in the world, Sylvia has lost three of his last four and he is a year removed from his last win in a suddenly active heavyweight division.
8. Ben Rothwell (29-6-0)
Unfortunately for the Miletich heavyweight, a bout with Pedro Rizzo for Affliction's January card didn't develop. However, the former IFL standout will still get some action, as he'll take a tune-up bout against the relatively anonymous Chris Guillen at the Dec. 11 Adrenaline MMA card.
9. Alistair Overeem (29-11-0, 1 NC)
While the flying Dutchman has his fingers crossed for a chance to settle unfinished business with Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic on New Year's Eve, he won an easy tune-up bout in his native Netherlands on Nov. 9 by routinely submitting worn veteran Gary Goodridge in the first round.
10. Junior dos Santos (7-1-0)
After causing a stir in the blogosphere with some nasty mittwork leading up to UFC 90, Junior dos Santos used Fabricio Werdum's face as a focus mitt in one of the year's bigger upsets. Whether or not the young protégé of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is legitimately one of the best heavyweights in the world remains to be seen, but for now, no one can take his nasty knockout of Werdum away from him.
*Randy Couture, now having fought within the last 365 days, is eligible to be ranked again. With the re-entry of Couture and the addition of Lesnar, formerly ninth-ranked Fabricio Werdum and 10th-ranked Gabriel Gonzaga fall just beyond the top 10.