This past weekend MMA journalists were subjected to another lecture regarding rankings by a promoter grandstanding for his fighters.

No, Dana White wasn't making the case for Anderson Silva as the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world this past Saturday in San Jose, Calif. Instead, we had EliteXC Live Events President Gary Shaw stating that Jake Shields in the number one fighter in his weight class and that Cung Le is a top ten middleweight.

Shaw is entitled to his opinion but so am I. And I beg to differ on both of his assertions. Normally I wouldn't make a big stink but I hate it when a promoter tries to guilt the media into giving his fighters more props. It's self-serving and insulting in the sense that it implies we aren't knowledgeable enough to form our own opinions and we should just take their word for it -- as if they are impartial in regards to the matter of world rankings.

My issue when White made his campaign for Silva following UFC 82 wasn't the content of his message, but the context. It's hard to make a case against Silva as the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Personally, I don't agree. That said, I realize I am in the minority in the belief that Georges St. Pierre is number one with Silva being ranked two. My issue was White pretty much saying that if you don't think Silva is number one that you're an idiot and or you're only withholding him as number one because you don't like Dana White.

In regards to Shaw, I had issues with both the content and context. He pretty much came out and said those who aren't ranking more of his fighters are hurting the sport. That's hardly going to warm the MMA media up to his perspective. Condescension just isn't all that tactful.

So context was an issue, but I had a bigger beef with the content. Shields number one at 170 pounds? Look, I hate having to take this position because it comes off as me denigrating Shields when that isn't the case. Save Gary Shaw, I don't know anyone who has him ranked higher than I do as the fourth best welterweight in the world. I think Shields is great and is one of the most underrated fighters in the sport. While he hasn't been presented with top fighter while with EliteXC, he was able to defeat some top guys before signing with EliteXC.

But Shields as number one? C'mon now. I haven't seen a single website, blog, magazine, or television show that has Shields ranked as number one. White at least has a ground swell of public support out there supporting his claim about Silva. But what Shaw is basically saying is that everyone is wrong about Shields.

I understand that it's the job of a promoter to sell their product and get people excited about their fighters, but I just think some of them need to improve their stumping methods. The old school style of a boxing promoter just talking a bunch of nonsense hasn't helped boxing in recent years and it's just not going to fly in MMA. If you are going to take a contrarian viewpoint, you at least have to interject some logic into your argument in order for anything you say to have any credibility. A promoter in MMA needs to hype his product but he needs to do it in a semi-realistic fashion.

With the way Shaw expressed his viewpoint Saturday night, I feel like he might actually be doing Shields a disservice because some pundits might feel that moving him up in the rankings could be construed as them bowing to Shaw's wishes. And before a reader points the finger at me -- I'll rank a fighter the way I see it without concern of how a fan, fighter, or promoter will react. My thoughts are my thoughts. People can either take them or leave them.

Shaw needs to give the people more substance when he stumps for his guys. Saying Shields is number one and everyone needs to just accept his word as gospel (not his exact words but pretty close in my opinion) just isn't going to cut it. Why not come out and say, "My personal opinion is that Shields is number one in his weight class and if the UFC gave him an opportunity to fight Georges St. Pierre or Matt Serra, he'd beat either of those fighters. I realize the UFC doesn't like the idea of co-promotions, so I'll go far as to offer to loan Shields to them without asking them to mention EliteXC. Not only that, but I will pay Shields' purse and the purse of his opponent. I just want Shields to have the opportunity to prove that he's the best."

Okay, we all know the UFC would never accept such an offer and such a public proposal would be grandstanding. However, people can at least grab onto such a concept as opposed to completely dismissing Shaw's original statement. If promoters want to campaign for their fighters they need to give us something with some teeth.

In regards to Le, Shaw made his case by saying that "Le isn't even one of my fighters." Well, that's partially true. Le is under contract to Strikeforce. However, he appeared on a SHOWTIME pay-per-view last June and his win over Tony Fryklund has been shown several times on SHOWTIME. Le's win against Frank Shamrock on Saturday was televised live on SHOWTIME. And since Shamrock's remaining fight with Strikeforce will be shown on SHOWTIME or SHOWTIME pay-per-view and a rematch with Le is likely at some point, Shaw has a financial interest in pundits helping lend credibility to Le.

Once again, I'm put in a position as coming off negative about a fighter when I respond to Shaw's statement. I think Cung Le is a very exciting fighter with top ten ability. I'm just as big of a Le fan in MMA as anyone. Having a background in traditional standup martial arts, I think I know more about him than the typical MMA fan or writer because Le was promoted as a god in traditional styles. Le might come from San Shou, but San Shou is more than a sport in my eyes than an actual style. It's essentially full contact Karate/Kung Fu with takedowns. Le was embraced by the Kung Fu and Karate community and in fact first became exposed to him through Kung Fu Magazine.

So I do believe Le will one day be a top ten middleweight. But today? No way. My belief has always been that in order to be top ten you need to beat fighters that are in the top ten. Either that or you need to pull a Ben Rothwell and fight 5-6 times a year and completely dominate everyone put in front of you. Le's win over Shamrock was huge but Shamrock isn't top ten. When he left the sport in '99, he was the pound-for-pound best. But since he's come back, Shamrock has selected his opponents based off box office potential and not world ranking. Considering Frank was short changed during the first act of his career, I have no problems with how he's guiding his own career. But a wins over Cesar Gracie and Phil Baroni and losses to Renzo Gracie (via DQ) and Cung Le aren't enough to get him back into the top ten.

But regardless of content, it all comes down to context as to whether a promoter's stance is going to get the push from the press he seeks. When a promoter comes off as desperate such as Shaw and White have when they've issued their rhetoric, the natural reaction is skepticism. Shaw, White, and any other promoter can campaign all they want for their fighter but they need to realize that whining and trying to persecute the media for their beliefs isn't going to do any favors for their fighters.

From a friend's perspective, I'd love to see these pointless debates end and just have the best of the best fight each other so we can end the inherent subjectiveness that comes with rankings. There's nothing more honest than one fighter beating another.

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Sam Caplan

Lead Writer/Editor - ProElite.com

SamCaplan.ProElite.com