BJ Penn, Nick Diaz and the 10 Most Skilled Boxers in the UFC

I used to love the sweet science of boxing and I followed most of the matches and boxers from about the time I was eight or nine years old or even back to my earliest memories. My first memories of boxing stem from the tragedy of Mancini-Kim, to the golden years of Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Motown's own Thomas Hearns, Marvin Hagler-Hearns, and my most favorite fight of all time Leonard-Hagler.

From there I was drawn to the Mike Tyson and Oscar De La Hoya years, and my interest peaked in following the career of Canada's own Lennox Lewis.

When the UFC came on the scene in 1993 I found total combat, something more complete and boxing would never be the same for me. Combine the other option with the fact that Boxing lost it's way with too many associations and not enough good fights.

From there mixed martial arts took over and offered me reality boxing. Boxing is one thing and it is beautiful, but boxing with smaller gloves and the possibility of being taken down is real fighting, with real consequences.

Here are BJ Penn, Nick Diaz and the 10 Most Skilled Boxers in MMA

10. Frank Mir

There are many different ways to measure and look at whether a fighter is a skilled MMA boxer, and I will probabaly use them all in this show.

Frank Mir makes the top 10 on the strength that he has outboxed many of his opponents in his wins in his career and Mirko Cro Cop, Roy Nelson and most notably Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira come quickly to mind. Big Nog used to be considered one of if not the best boxer in the game so when Mir out classed him with his hands in their fight in 2008, it gave legitimacy to Frank's skills.

I have watched most of Mir's fights since that one, and he has never been out boxed. Even in his losses against Lesnar and Carwin, boxing was not his downfall.

9. Cain Velasquez

The current heavyweight champion can do it all. His base is wrestling and his cardio is off the hook, but overlook his boxing skills and you are in for a rude awakening.

His striking accuracy has proven to be at the highest level in his fights against Nogeuira and Ben Rothwell.

The champ may not want to rely on it too much in his up coming tilt against Junior Dos Santos, but don't be surprised if he tests his luck and shows Cigano more than he has seen to date in the UFC

8. Vitor Belfort

Vitor Belfort's hands are legendary and speed is the poison when Vitor unleashes on his feet. It looks more like Wing Chun kung fu at times the way he strikes straight ahead, but Vitor has the footwork and combinations to make any boxer bob and weave.

Vitor has big power, has out boxed the likes of Gilbert Yvel, Wanderlei Silva and Rich Franklin in his career, and he always prefers to throw hands and box in his fights rather than go to the ground and grapple.

7. Dominick Cruz

Dominick Cruz is a perfect example of how boxing is not all about hands and power. His footwork and elusiveness in the cage is paramount to boxing and boxing philosophy. Inside out, outside in, side to side, plant and throw on a dime, these are all trademarks of Cruz' rhythm and game.

Although he mixes in many leg kicks as well, Cruz likes to bounce and dance all night a la the greatest of all time Muhammed Ali. It is a boxing strategy meant to frustrate and wear an opponent out. It's not a running style, and it's no different than a wrestler leaning on a guy on the ground and cage all night.

You have to utilize what you do best in the cage and what Cruz does best is footwork.

6. Quinton Jackson

Quinton Rampage Jackson is not your typically skilled boxer. If you remove the jab and the light footwork out of boxing's arsenal, than Jackson would have it nailed to a tee. It's the loading up of shots that makes Jackson's boxing so lethal, and those are also skills from a boxing base.

He knows when to plant and throw. He can counter with power with the best of them, and we will see if he can load up on the champ Jon Jones in September. Some people might say, Jackson isn't a boxer he's a thrower, and that's true to some degree, but you look close at his hooks and uppercuts and they are more technically sound and pack more punch than most fighters and boxers out there.

He has good striking wins over Wanderlei Silva and Chuck Liddell and he is always a threat to knock you out with one shot

5. Anderson Silva

It's tough to tell with a guy with Spider lanky limbs like Anderson Silva but he is one of the best total package boxers in the game. He is notorious for mimicking the exact movements and skills of many boxers and with Silva, he has the chi sao down to a perfect science.

The chi sao part of boxing is the ability to know or foresee, when and what shot your opponent will throw next and Anderson is one of the two best at it. Sometimes it is somewhat natural but most times it takes incredible training and experience.

Silva is incredible at knowing what is coming and countering it with pin point venom a the while making his opponent look like an amateur in the process.

4. Frankie Edgar

Frankie Edgar is another champion in the UFC who uses his superior boxing skills and footwork to set up many of his take downs and victories.

Edgar has unbelievably fast footwork, and his head movement is second to none as he displayed in his second win over BJ Penn and in his win over Sean Sherk.

He does not have extreme power and only has one knockout on his resume, but his ability to score and leave a mark has played a large role in his wins.

3. BJ Penn

BJ Penn is not the champion of any weight class anymore and he is also not number one on this list for the first time in a long time. He did get a nice knockout a couple fights back against legend Matt Hughes, and like Anderson Silva before him, BJ has better chi sao than all the fighters out there today.

His hands are dangerous in both speed and power and his head movement is extremely hard to nail down. he will need his boxing to be sharp in his next fight against Carlos Condit, and it will go a long way to seeing if BJ still has it at the highest level.

It says here that he does and Condit takes his first loss in a long time, perfectly setting up Penn-GSP III or Penn-Diaz

2. Nick Diaz

Nick Diaz is what I like to call the "slickest" boxer in the game. He can dip, jab and uppercut all in one swoop as well as move in and out and pick his way to victory. He is not the type of guy you may fear a huge shot from, but Diaz uses his boxing to do cumilitive damage beyond belief sometimes when watching his fights.

He proved against a boxer in KJ Noons that he can stand and withstand, and it will be a huge factor for him if he can keep it standing against George St. Pierre. Diaz has also beaten the likes of Scott Smith and Evangelista Santos and just does not stop throwing from bell to bell in all of his fights.

1. Junior Dos Santos

Junior Dos Santos is the best boxer in the UFC without question in my mind and when all is said and done, once again size does matter. For a man of 245 to 260 pounds to move and groove and float on his feet and then to switch and plant a shot on a guy is an awesome sight.

A smaller fighter can never punch with the power and force of a big man when in watching Junior, you can see that a bigger man can move and box like a smaller fighter.

What possibly tipped the scales on this one is that I saw him train and shadow box first hand and then saw him box Shane Carwin into oblivion at UFC 131 in Vancouver.

Cigano's boxing will be his chance at the heavyweight pinnacle when he fights Cain Velasquez in November.

Honorable Mentions: Rashad Evans and Cheick Kongo

Dwight Wakabayashi is a Feature Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA (also a correspondent for MMACanada.net).

Catch him on Twitter @wakafightermma .