Top 10 Grinders in the UFC

If Chael Sonnen is to have any chance of beating Anderson Silva this weekend at UFC 117, it's going to come from his ability to grind out a decision win using his wrestling and top position control.

Sonnen probably doesn't have the technical abilities to submit a guy like Silva, and isn't going to be knocking him out.

But if he can do what he did to Nate Marquardt, and take Silva down and chip away at him for five rounds, he can win the fight.

Here's the list of 10 UFC fighters who can win fights not through lightning offence, but by by griding opponents into dust.

10. Vladimir Matyushenko

Vladimir Matyushenko doesn't have blazing offensive skills, but his dominating wrestling has allowed him to control the pace of most of his fights, leading to 24 wins with only five losses.

9. Tito Ortiz

Ortiz has his fair share of stoppages, but his greatest success comes from taking guys down and using his strong wrestling base to pound away at guys from inside the guard for as long as it takes.

8. Gray Maynard

When he isn't winging punches at Nate Diaz and pretending that he's some sort of boxer, Maynard brings home the bacon by manhandling guys with his wrestling, over and over and over.

Maynard used his strength to grind out a decision win over Frankie Edgar, in what remains Edgar's only loss.

Maynard's slams can actually be very dangerous, as long as he doesn't knock himself out in the process.

7. Sean Sherk

Much like Maynard, Sherk seems to have come to the unfortunate conclusion that he's now a boxer.

While he's been able to out-box guys like Nick Diaz on occasion, Sherk's best success comes from using his explosive shot to take guys down, and then land short punches and elbows like he did against Kenny Florian.

6. Yushin Okami

While Okami has showcased some crisp striking in his recent fights with Lucio Linhares and Mark Munoz, his greatest ability is his ability to completely shut down the offence of his opponents.

He doesn't usually land any big power punches, but he's been able to neutralize most of his opponents with dominating top control and takedown defense that prevents grapplers from ever getting in a position where they can work some sort of submission game like he did against Dean Lister.

5. Chael Sonnen

Chael Sonnen's best career performance up to this point was his win over Nate Marquardt, where he simply ran through Marquardt's stand-up attacks, got takedowns, and proceeded to beat on Marquardt until the final bell.

Using this kind of game plan, he turned a fight that many thought was unwinnable, into a clear-cut decision victory.

4. Jon Fitch

There are few people in the UFC who are better at taking guys out of their games, and just beating them up over the course of three rounds.

It doesn't matter if his opponent is a striker like Ben Saunders, or a grappler like Diego Sanchez. Fitch grabs a hold of guys, and starts beating them up until the final bell.

This strategy has led to decision victories in six of his last seven bouts.

The only guy he couldn't grind down in that time was Georges St. Pierre.

3. Rashad Evans

It's hard to call Evans a grinder when he's got some vicious highlight reel knockouts, but Evans makes the list because when he needs to, he's more than capable of grabbing a hold of guys and winning the decision if he can't get any offense going with his hands.

Evans couldn't really afford to trade punches with Thiago Silva and Quinton Jackson, but he certainly could wrestle with them, and he used his wrestling to grind out some much deserved decisions.

2. Randy Couture

Couture may be the godfather of grinding.

He doesn't even need to take his opponent down to grind them out.

He just leans them up against the fence and uses his dirty boxing to keep the referee from breaking up the clinch. Even if it seems like he's totally overmatched in terms of skills, if Couture can wrestle a guy against a fence, he has a chance of winning.

1. Georges St. Pierre

St. Pierre isn't really a grinder. He's got far too many high-flying offensive moves, and he's a great guard passer and submission expert as well.

That said, he put on one of the greatest grinding performances of all time in his rematch with BJ Penn.

True, he was winning the stand-up as well, but the entire genius of the plan involved clinching with Penn to wear out his arms, and then striking with him once Penn had slowed down a few notches.

On the floor, St. Pierre didn't try for anything too flashy. It was a clinic in ground and pound that prevented Penn from doing anything at all. We've never before seen Penn dominated so thoroughly for such an extended period, and we probably never will again.