Can Monson Crack the Top Ten?

No one has really talked about Jeff Monson’s fighting career since his legal issues cropped up earlier this year, but after his performance on Roy Jones Jr.’s hybrid “March Badness” card, it seems like somebody should.

Monson has had three tough losses in recent memory. One to Tim Sylvia in his UFC title shot, one to Pedro Rizzo and on to Josh Barnett. Now, Rizzo is the only guy to finish Monson, but three losses to the only three reputable fighters he’s fought is not going to reflect that well. You can beat all of the no names you want, but if you lose to everyone well known, then it’s hard to call yourself reputable.

Jeff, though, is coming off of a win over “Big Country” Roy Nelson, who is a fairly reputable guy. He’s got wins over many competitive fighters (his destructions of Pe De Pano and Fujita are starting to age, but he’s supplemented them with wins over Ricco Rodriguez and Mark Kerr, both of whom are not the fighters they used to be, but are pretty tough).

So I’ve been considering what Jeff Monson would need to do to reach the top ten again. Who would he have to beat for his name to be recognizable?

Certainly Fabricio Werdum, who’s ranked tenth by WAMMA and slips off in some other rankings, would help. A win over Ben Rothwell, a generally unranked by well noted fighter, would put him in contention, especially if he can dispatch Rothwell faster and more impressively than Arlovski did (which, given his grappling pedigree, is certainly possible).

The reality is, Monson is only two or three fights away from being talked about as a dark horse in the heavyweight division, and the reason why it’s easy for him to get there is simple: the UFC doesn’t have a monopoly on the division.

At middleweight, if a fighter wants to crack the top ten, they have to either post a prodigious number of impressive fights (see Gegard Mousasi) or fight in the UFC and post some good wins (see Michael Bisping and Demian Maia). That’s not to say that the UFC is the fast and easy way to a top ten slot, because the competition is tighter, but that’s really the point. The competition is tighter, so those wins mean more.

The UFC heavyweight division does not have a monopoly on talent, and so if Monson wants to claim a spot towards the bottom of the top ten, there are plenty of guys available for him to do that against. Alistair Overeem is another name that jumps to mind, because, as a matchup, that certainly works in Jeff’s favor (Overeem is the superior striker, but if it hits the mat, we know who’s going to be in charge).

There are a few guys lower on the rankings, or in the unranked positions, that Jeff could probably manhandle, and that has to be reassuring. After defeating a Roy Nelson figure, who’s fought some decent competition, it’s a good point for Monson to consider building some momentum and looking to string a few wins together before fighting in an organization like Affliction (which has some decent, notable opponents to develop some name value).

There are plenty of guys out there, many of whom would give Jeff an opportunity to call himself a top contender again and make his way back into the sportlight, and, if it’s not too audacious to say, they would offer him the chance to build off of some of the press he has developed as a personality. They say that any coverage at all is good, and while I don’t necessarily agree with that, it’s certainly good to take advantage of what coverage there is to further the career. So I guess it goes back to that old adage: smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.