Welterweight: Nick Diaz

There are so many extremely gifted men in the welterweight division it's borderline absurd. Jake Ellenberger, Martin Kampmann, Carlos Condit and Johny Hendricks are all absolute nightmares. Any one of them could potentially topple Diaz, and Condit himself actually managed to do just that when he took a somewhat controversial decision over the Stockton bad boy at UFC 143. The loss set Diaz back, leaving Condit the interim title holder, now waiting in the wings to battle longtime champ Georges St. Pierre. Should GSP defeat Condit when they do finally meet it would theoretically make Carlos the consensus number two man in the division. I myself however am not completely convinced Condit is the second best in the division, and the only way to know where Condit and Diaz stand is to align a rematch. As it is, Condit holds a title, and I'm thus bypassing him for my pick as greatest welterweight gatekeeper. Right now, that title goes to Nick Diaz, who has proven himself virtually unbreakable, boasts the greatest cardio in the division, one of, if not the most dangerous submission games at 170, and he brings the striking output of two flyweights put together. The lone question mark surrounding Diaz is his further developing wrestling, and he's got the kind of bottom game to negate a great wrestler, even if his own chops aren't quite up to par.

Middleweight: Chael Sonnen

Chael Sonnen has come up short in both of his title bids against the sports' most dominating champion, Anderson Silva. There's absolutely no shame in that, and the prove lies in the Oregonian's recent middleweight run. Chael's bullied his way through a series of top contenders over the last few years including Yushin Okami, Nate Marquardt, Michael Bisping and the blossoming Brian Stann. Perhaps the most aggressive wrestler in the game today, Chael is the very clear number two ranked middleweight. Following his second loss to Anderson Silva plenty of chatter has arisen: there's been talk of Sonnen retiring, there's been talk of Sonnen moving up to light heavyweight. As of today, Sonnen is a middleweight, and he holds the undisputed title of next-best middleweight behind Silva, hands down.

Light Heavyweight: Dan Henderson

Champion Jon Jones has nearly cleaned out the entire 205 pound division, having captured the title with an amazing throttling of Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, followed by extremely convincing victories over challengers Lyoto Machida, Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans. All that remains for “Bones” is Dan Henderson, who looks to be the greatest fighter campaigning at 205 pounds without gold around his waste. Amazingly, Henderson seems to be better than ever before, even at the age of 41. He's recently trounced the likes of Rafael Cavalcante, Shogun and even Fedor Emelianenko in a heavyweight affair. Quite simply put, if you cannot defeat Dan Henderson, there's not a snowball's chance in Hell of making a fight with Jon Jones competitive. Hendo is clearly deserving of his ranking, and looks to be one of the greatest gatekeepers in the business. Want inside? Good luck getting past the “H Bomb”.

Heavyweight: Cain Velasquez

Outside of perhaps Alistair Overeem, champion Junior dos Santos looks to be a nearly unrivaled fighter. Daniel Cormier serves as the divisions greatest promise, but he's still got a little work to do before he's proven worthy of a top 3 ranking. Cain Velasquez on the other hand, possesses all the tools required to make JDS's next title defense a living nightmare. With top notch wrestling, fluent boxing and a generally high fight IQ, Velasquez still blocks the path between challenger and top contender. While I suspect the current champ may once again batter the AKA representative when their rematch finally unfolds, I just don't see anyone else in the division with the proper tools to put Cain away, which makes him the obvious bodyguard at the gates of title contention.

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