Pound for Pound Ponderings

There's been a lot of talk about who the best pound for pound mixed martial artist is recently with Fedor Emelianenko's free agency and Anderson Silva, BJ Penn and Miguel Torres all fighting this past weekend as those four fighters are almost always in the conversation. It's an interesting topic to discuss so I figured I'd throw in my two cents with 1.5 hours left and not much else on my mind.

Essentially, pound for pound is about which fighter is the best regardless of weight and who, if their skills translated perfectly across weight classes, would be the most effective. The idea of p4p generally favors lighter fighters. Heavyweights normally can't cut down to fight out of their weight class for one thing. Another factor is that p4p almost always is about speed and power. Technique is kind of a wash because it's more about the effectiveness of one's fighting style rather than actual technical prowess. For example, someone with picture perfect boxing can still get KOed by a jiujitsu stylist who knows kickboxing and sets it up well even if it's a little sloppy. Now talking about power never favors heavier fighters since people sometimes assume that just because they're big, they can hit hard. Relative power is pretty easy to see based on just watching a guy fight. Is he able to knock out people in his own weight class? Can he finish people with strikes? It's pretty easy to tell who has power and who doesn't. Speed is where big guys really get shafted. Judging speed relatively isn't as easy as power since fighters often adjust their speed depending on who they're fighting. And it's also very simple to get caught up in absolute terms and just look at big, lumbering heavyweights versus speedy, quick lightweights and associate speed with only those lighter guys.

Because of this, it becomes more important to look at records, but this is largely imperfect because it's hard to judge the quality of competition. Is Fedor beating Mirko Filipovic by decision more impressive than BJ Penn choking out Jens Pulver? The question of quality wins and body of work can be hard enough to answer within one weight division, so trying to do that across classes is very tricky.

Another wrench that gets thrown into the equation is when fighters actually take fights in different weight classes. This solves the problem right? We get to see fighters fight in different divisions and we can get our answer. Of course, it's not that simple. As we said, pound for pound takes for a given that the fighters' skills translate perfectly across classes. In reality, this is impossible. When a fighter bulks up or cuts down, inevitably his attributes change because he changes physiologically. For example, Penn is one of the most notable examples because he's fought from 155 lb to 205 lb. You can't tell me that at 205 he wasn't bulkier and pudgier than his ideal fighting weight.

In terms of pound for pound, you don't want to know what happens when BJ Penn fights at 170 or when Anderson Silva fights at 205. You're interested in 155 BJ at 170 and 185 Anderson at 205.

Here is another tricky part. Establishing a fighter's natural or best fighting weight. In my mind, fighting outside one's best weight class shouldn't be able to hurt a fighter, only benefit. When BJ Penn took fights at 170 and lost, I didn't hold that against him as a p4p fighter because it wasn't his best version, namely his 155 lb self. However, when Anderson Silva moves up to 205 and dominates as he did this weekend against former champ Forrest Griffin, that benefits him tremendously. If we accept that bulking up would be a disadvantage to him because it is not natural, then the fact that he can still be so effective with this disadvantage is amazing. Basically, there is no reason to expect that a 185 Anderson bulking up to 205 would be better than a 185 Anderson perfectly translated to 205. Of course this argument works the other way. If we accept that Anderson at 205 is his most effective weight, then it would be a disadvantage for him to fight outside of that, which would be at 185.

I'm way too wordy tonight, but too lazy to edit. Basically, a fighter has a weight class he feels most comfortable fighting in or is most effective in. To change that, either cutting extra weight to go down or adding muscle to go up, is a disadvantage no matter what the results say. Thus, it should be judged as such and shouldn't count against him. But if he can overcome that, it is to his benefit because it shows that his style at his most effective weight is effective even with disadvantages.

There are some guys who make this tricky. BJ Penn has held a title at 155 and 170. But he's only lost once at 155 and is 1-3 at 170. Anderson Silva and Dan Henderson are others. I lump them together because they're both exceptional at 185 and 205 and Anderson's even won at 170. Hendo held both titles in Pride before losing them in the UFC. Anderson's been the longtime reigning 185 title holder in the UFC and has looked scary good in his two fights at 205. Interestingly, while it usually benefits the fighter to cut as much as possible, I'd say Dan's best weight class is 205 even though he usually comes in right around 200 lb. In general, he's had better showings and even his losses are to better competition. He's big and strong at 185 but can look sluggish, lost to Kazuo Misaki, and has even said he prefers 205.

So which is the best fighting weight for those guys? Who knows. Not to mention Randy Couture, who's also held belts across weight classes, or Joe Riggs, a guy who's fought everywhere from heavyweight to welterweight and seems to be a mediocre pool of potential no matter how much he weighs.

How do I end this long, aimless ramble? With this. I think pound for pound is useless. There are too many matters which complicate the issue and we will never see these fighters truly compete against each other in their top form anyway. Having said that, I think that Anderson Silva is the definitive top pound for pound fighter in the world, but I do understand arguments for Fedor, Georges St. Pierre, and BJ Penn. But it really is a meaningless measure. There is no real pound for pound title, it's just something for fans and promoters to throw around.