Who is the Greatest Pound for Pound ?
Pound for Pound, who is the greatest Mixed Martial Arts fighter in the world right here, right now? This obtrusive and unanswerable question has been tainting my sleep of late by seducing my still lying brain cells into analyzing and computing when it hardly has enough shut eye to begin with.

Who is the Greatest Pound for Pound ?
Pound for Pound, who is the greatest Mixed Martial Arts fighter in the world right here, right now? This obtrusive and unanswerable question has been tainting my sleep of late by seducing my still lying brain cells into analyzing and computing when it hardly has enough shut eye to begin with. I have asked myself about this many times over, and although I keep telling myself there will never be an absolute, the questions continue to screwdrive themselves through my thick skull and into my dreams. It reengages my thinking cap when I am trying to lull it to sleep, and analyzes itself in my subconscious whether I try to squelch it or not. I ask myself too often, who is the one fighter that, if he could fight at any weight, would fight and beat any fighter in the same weight division?

Champions from around the globe sport belts of every color, size and variety from a plethora of organizations everywhere across every border. The Ultimate Fighting Championship alone has five championship belts in five different weight classes, but which belt truly matters in the fickle minds of the fans? Which belt is "THE" belt? Which award puts you alone at the top of the food chain as the best fighter in the world, based purely on skill and talent, not on size and weight? Does any single award matter more or less? Do all of them mean nothing? Do all of them have equal status in the world of MMA? For the "Title" of Mr. Pound for Pound, there is no belt. There is no belt in the small world I am familiar with, for laying claim to being the best "Pound for Pound" fighter in the world. To some fans and media, that title means more to them, than any belt, anywhere, anytime. Some hold the "Title" of best pound for pound fighter in a higher regard than any title or championship belt from any organization. Some disregard it as an unanswerable question that does not hold any bearing on any aspect of the fight world. My question is, Why should it matter? Isn’t it really nothing more than a figment of somebody’s imagination? On the flipside, why shouldn’t it matter, isn’t it the same age old question that everyone wants answered and re-answered?

The title of Mr. Pound for Pound is bestowed upon the fighters by the people, no current governed organization has a top ten that recognizes the top Pound for Pound fighters. Currently it is nothing more than whispers amongst the fans and media, that whisper amongst themselves and no others. The somewhat controversial title means more to some people than others, some say that it is something that should be organized and tabulated on a monthly basis by a single governed organization, and some say that there is no real way to know for sure, so there is no real purpose in wasting energy on it. I for one, am comfortably perched upon the fence. Fighters who are brought up in conversations concerning the best pound for pound, seem to revel in the title a little bit, but for the most part it is considered more of a compliment than anything too serious. One thing that is up for debate is its place in the fight game. Does it have a place? Let’s see if this sounds familiar, "Two fighters square of to determine once and for all who the best Pound for Pound fighter in the world truly is." Rings a bell doesn’t it? It is often overused as a hype maker for promoters and promotions that make money from the connotations. These connotations really take away from the seriousness of the title and hurt the validity of the title because really anyone can use the title because it is unmanaged by anybody or organization. So where does it really fit in the scheme of things?

It is obvious to me that there is no real way to know for certain.
Best Pound for Pound fighter is a fun topic to argue about but does it really matter in the eyes of the most important people, mainly the fans? Or is it a Hype machine that is raised by the organizations to help promote their own fights? Can anyone really subjectively quantify and tabulate the merits of each fighter based on no weight class bouts that will, in all likelihood, never take place? The topic is nothing more than a meeting place for the fans to gather around like a campfire that is raging out of control. Everyone throws a little firewood on the campfire but no one is responsible for the fire if it rages out of control. It is a great way to bring the troops together to battle it out amongst themselves and that is the way it will likely stay. How can you compare different fighters that fight in different worlds? Randy Couture resides in a completely different world than Jens Pulver. They will never fight, and as far as I am concerned, they never should. Semmy Schilt Vs Akira Shoji was an example of why bad weight disadvantages can actually hurt the sport and should never take place. Schilt is listed at 6’11" 260 lbs and Shoji is 5’8 200 lb. Even though it was a fight that ended in the ever lusted K.O it was still unsatisfactory in the sense that It almost felt like a bully was picking on a smaller kid. I am all for seeing knockouts and heavy hitters but was I the only one a little turned off by the beat down that Schilt laid down on him? To be fair, the matchmakers did not set out to make this fight, In fact Schilt was to face Vovchanchyn and Shoji to face Brad Kohler on that card but both Kohler and Vovchanchyn got injured. Instead of looking elsewhere for a good fight, the matchmakers thought, "Hey lets just cut our losses and instead of losing two fights, lets just lose one and throw them together"! That would be no different from Joe Silva (Matchmaker of the UFC) Throwing Randy Couture against Matt Hughes if Barnett and Hayato Sakurai were injured respectively. The weight difference would be similar to the difference between Schilt and Shoji. I just does not make sense and fights like that have no place anywhere but in our imaginations. Who would win if they were in the same weight division? Nobody will ever know for certain but therein lies the beauty of the thinking. Does anybody really know every fighter in the world and how they would react in a given situation? How can you know everything? Everyone knows, and knows well what goes on in their own worlds and their own worlds alone. How big that world is really a matter of how much knowledge and info he/she gathers for him/herself. Everyone looks, and seems a little different to someone in a different world.

Who really is the best pound for pound fighter in the world? The only world that I can speak for is my own so I can confidently say it is me. In my own personal world of MMA, in my head and in my heart, no one can out strike, out wrestle or out think me. No one can work the Armlock like I can, and no one has the submission skills to even get close to tapping me out. But then again the only contenders to the crown are my mother, my grandmother, and my baby brother. In my world I am king, and in yours I am nothing. That in essence is what I think of the debate. Everyone is THE man in their own world with their own set of rules, but being the man in someone else’s world is a different proposition all together. For this reason everyone’s different Pound for Pound lists should all be taken with a grain of salt, or a boulder of salt, if it that is what it takes. The debate rages on. All I know is pound for pound I am the toughest Sushiboy in my house. Don’t laugh.

For MMA Ring Report This was "The Sushiboy" Arnold Lim
What do you think? Send in your questions and comments to
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it