Kimbo Slice | Source: MMAWeekly.com
Kimbo Slice’s first and final UFC pay per view appearance rocketed him to the top of the heavyweight buzz rankings in May despite losing at the event to fellow TUF 10 alumnus Matt Mattrione. Slice has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to generate huge casual fan interest in his fights, and his UFC 114 main card bout in Montreal was no different. Without being able to back up the hype with wins, however, the UFC released the Florida native into free agency. Dipping to second place was Strikeforce’s Fedor Emelianenko, while in third came the UFC’s Brock Lesnar. The two top heavyweights will fight on separate cards just a week apart at the end of June and early July, no doubt keeping the pair near the top of the leaderboard for some time to come. Full top 20 rankings below.
Tapology’s Buzz Rankings measure fan interest in individual MMA fighters based on online searches and pageviews for information about each athlete. The rankings are not a measure of a fighter’s skill or competitive standing within their division, but rather how much activity or “buzz” surrounds them (positive or negative).
Top 20 Heavyweight Buzz Rankings for recent months:
- April 2010 (#1 Rank: Fedor Emelianenko)
- March 2010 (#1 Rank: Brock Lesnar)
- February 2010 (#1 Rank: Fedor Emelianenko)
| May Rank | Heavyweight Fighter | Change From Last Month |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson | Up 2 |
| 2 | Fedor Emelianenko | Down 1 |
| 3 | Brock Lesnar | Down 1 |
| 4 | Alistair Overeem | Up 2 |
| 5 | Randy Couture | Down 1 |
| 6 | Matt Mitrione | Up 8 |
| 7 | Shane Carwin | Down 2 |
| 8 | Roy Nelson | Up 1 |
| 9 | Frank Mir | Down 2 |
| 10 | Andrei Arlovski | Up 1 |
| 11 | Fabricio Werdum | Up 2 |
| 12 | Ken Shamrock | Down 4 |
| 13 | Bobby Lashley | Down 3 |
| 14 | Brett Rogers | Up 2 |
| 15 | Todd Duffee | Up 18 |
| 16 | Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic | Down 4 |
| 17 | Junior Dos Santos | No Change |
| 18 | Cain Velasquez | Down 3 |
| 19 | Aleksander Emelianenko | Down 1 |
| 20 | Mike Russow | Up 34 |
Dropped out of Top 20:
Cheick Kongo (#26), Stefan Struve (#45)
