{"id":7957,"date":"2010-07-28T22:34:08","date_gmt":"2010-07-29T05:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=7957"},"modified":"2010-07-28T22:37:25","modified_gmt":"2010-07-29T05:37:25","slug":"inside-the-fight-game-top-20-mma-welterweights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=7957","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Fight Game: Top 20 MMA Welterweights"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Thiago Alves is ranked number five <\/p><\/div>\n

By George Hernandez<\/p>\n

1. Georges St. Pierre (20-2, UFC WW Champ) – King of the welterweights, has already ran through the division.<\/p>\n

2. Jon Fitch (22-3) – Already lost to GSP but is probably the number one contender.<\/p>\n

3. Josh Koscheck (15-4) – Gets next shot at GSP, already has lost to him once.<\/p>\n

4. Nick Diaz (22-7, Strikeforce WW Champ) – Not in the UFC; probably the biggest threat to take the crown.<\/p>\n

5. Thiago Alves (16-6) – Has been out of action for a while. Will face Fitch next as he tries to avenge an earlier loss.<\/p>\n

6. Martin Kampmann (17-3) \u2013 A win over newly signed Jake Shields could get him next shot at title.<\/p>\n

7. Dan Hardy (23-7) – Ready to get back on track after a loss to GSP.<\/p>\n

8. Matt Hughes (44-7) – Almeida is next in line to meet the legend.<\/p>\n

9. Matt Serra (11-6) – Probably the most overrated fighter in the division.<\/p>\n

10. Carlos Condit (25-5) – Trying to make a run at the title.<\/p>\n

11. Jay Hieron (19-4) \u2013 Out of action recently, Hieron needs to get some fights if he wants a shot at Diaz.<\/p>\n

12. Richardo Almeida (12-3) – Hughes will be a big win for \u201cCachorrao\u201d.<\/p>\n

13. Paulo Thiago (13-2) – Almost had a title shot before loss to Kampmann.<\/p>\n

14. Paul Daley (23-9-2) – Could still be in UFC if he didn\u2019t throw that punch after the bell.<\/p>\n

15. John Hathaway (13-0) – Win over Sanchez was big.<\/p>\n

16. Lyman Good (10-0, Bellator WW Champ) – Needs to be in the UFC to make a name for himself.<\/p>\n

17. Ben Askren (6-0) – Best wrestler in the division.<\/p>\n

18. Dan Hornbuckle (21-3) – One of the most well rounded fighters in the division. Hornbuckle is a poor mans GSP.<\/p>\n

19. John Howard (14-4) – Knockout power in both hands.<\/p>\n

20. Chris Lytle (28-17-5) – Is a threat to anyone in the division.<\/p>\n

Upcoming Bouts:<\/p>\n

– July 30- #7 area fighter Anthony Olivas will be in action at El Monte Expo, also on the card will be Jerry Flores cornered by Donald Bernard as he faces Craig Dunlop in a welterweight bout.<\/p>\n

– July 31- #6 fighter Isreal \u201cIzzy\u201d Flores will be in action at Hollywood Park in a Muay Thai bout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By George Hernandez 1. Georges St. Pierre (20-2, UFC WW Champ) – King of the welterweights, has already ran through the division.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[779,3496,3331,2326,3497,2158,3500,3498,3491,3492,3494,3499,2731,3495,3493],"class_list":["post-7957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-anthony-olivas","tag-ben-askren","tag-chris-lytle","tag-dan-hardy","tag-dan-hornbuckle","tag-georges-st-pierre","tag-isreal-flores","tag-john-howard","tag-jon-fitch","tag-josh-koscheck","tag-matt-serra","tag-mma-welterweights","tag-nick-diaz","tag-richardo-almeida-john-hathaway","tag-thiago-alves"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7957"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7962,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7957\/revisions\/7962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}