Gatekeepers are not Tomato Cans -- Lets get it straight

[CoffeeAndBeer]

Hashing-out the definition of what it means to be a "Gatekeeper" and "Journeyman"... "Contender" and "Prospect", etc...

**link to May 2012 Updates**

Champions - elite fighters with a Championship Title; excluding relatively less accomplished "Champions" from certain promotion orgs
HW - Overeem, Cigano
LHW - Hendo, Jones
MW - Anderson
WW - GSP
LW - Melendez, Frankie
FW - Aldo
BW - Cruz
FlyW - Ian McCall, Yasuhiro Urushitani

Contenders - fighters ready to fight for a (elite) Championship
HW - Cain, Barnett, Werdum, Frank Mir
LHW - Rashad
MW - Sonnen, Lombard, Okami (Lombard has a Title but isn't quite "elite")
WW - Ellenberger, Condit, Diaz
LW - Benson, Aoki, Chandler (Aoki, Chandler have Titles but isn't quite "elite")
FW - Kawajiri, Hioki, Patricio Freire
BW - Bibiano, Urijah, Barao (Bibiano has Titles but isn't quite "elite")
FlyW - Formiga, Joe Benavidez, Demetrious Johnson

Gatekeepers - fighter who separate the true Title Contenders from everyone else; who they themselves aren't likely to win a Championship
HW - Minotauro, Roy Nelson
LHW - *Rampage(new role as GKer), Forrest(lame-duck GKer), Minotoro(lower-level GKer)
MW - Nate Marquardt
WW - Diego Sanchez
LW - Clay Guida
FW - Diego Nunes
BW - Jorgensen, Mizugaki
FlyW - Yamaguchi

Top Prospects - fighter who have separated themselves from the crowd, but who has yet to prove their mettle on the Championship contender-level
HW - Daniel Cormier
LHW - Gustafsson, Mo Lawal, Mousasi, Phil Davis
MW - Mark Munoz
WW - Rory MacDonald, Johny Hendricks
LW - Nate Diaz, Barbosa
FW - Pat Curran, Koch
BW - Zach Makovsky, Michael McDonald
FlyW - Darrell Montague, John Dodson, Ulysses Gomez

Journeymen - fighters who will never be Champs or even true Contenders; basically failed Prospects who still manage to have a successful career in the sport; stepping stones for Prospects/Up-n-comers
HW - Ben Rothwell
LHW - Stephan Bonnar
MW - Chris Leben, Kendell Grove
WW - Brian Ebersole
LW - Yves Edwards
FW - Leonard Garcia
BW - Kenji Osawa
FlyW - Mitsuhisa Sunabe

Up-n-comers/Prospects - younger fighters (but also some resurgent veterans) with promising futures who have yet to truly break-out
HW - Stefen Struve, Shane del Rosario
LHW - Stanislav Nedkov
MW - Ronny Markes, Alen Belcher
WW - Bahadurzada, Douglas Lima
LW - Patricky Freire, Caros Fodor
FW - Diego Brandao
BW - Ed Dantas
FlyW - Dustin Ortiz, Haruo Ochi

Tomato Cans- fighters who serve mostly as filler; may not even be a stepping stone; generally hover around a 500-record or worse
HW - James Thompson
LHW - Jason Guida
MW - Phil Baroni (currently)
WW - Waachiim Spiritwolf, < Pete Spratt
LW - Junie Browning, < Rob Emerson
FW - Doug Evans
BW - Bryan Goldsby
FlyW - Neil Seery



All fighters generally fit somewhere in one of these categories but not all.
Some guys like Forrest Griffin might be "Gatekeeper" level at this point in their career, but who don't really do actual gate-keeping (don't fight/test top prospects)... but they're better than your everyday journeymen. And so forth.

P.S.
Some fighters like Michael Bisping or Thiago Silva seemingly become perpetual Top Prospects, where they get repeated chances at proving themselves to be Contenders, but don't quite make it all the way.

There are also fighters like a Frank Mir who refuse to become/remain Gatekeepers, but who may not truly be Championship Contenders either (we'll see).

*tough time settling on example of Gakekeeper at LHW

[Velasquez FC]

Nedkov is not a prospect. Just saying.

[TheKoreanZombie]

Lol Struve a Up and Comer? More like Gatekeeper or a Journeyman.

[Smw]

You forgot Sonnen under champions.

[Moopsiepuffs]

You've put a lot of effort into this and everyone is going to shit all over it by saying "x isn't y dude lol".

Good luck.

[KillaWV]

Totally agree that many new fans don't grasp this very well. This needs to be stickied or added into the FAQ. Maybe with some revisions after it is reviewed.

[SODACKER]

Originally Posted by TheKoreanZombie

Lol Struve a Up and Comer? More like Gatekeeper or a Journeyman.

The kids like 23. You are kidding right.

[Substance Abuse]

Good thread. But that is obvious. Only idiots think that way. Unfortunately, there are too many idiots around here.

Also, you left out a lot of good guys in certain weight classes, but the fighters you used got your points across properly.

[Ninjarobby]

no miguel torres on list.. i am not impressed. you fail

[Oki Love]

i applaude your efforts but i hate fitting people into nice, little organized boxes. compartmentalized, if you will. it's only that simple for a minority of the fighters out there. fighters will realize their full potential on any given night just like they will experience the agony of defeat on any given night.

i'd rather define someone by all their accomplishments along with their fighting spirit. this is why people like big nog will ALWAYS be a champion to me. shit, sakuraba is a champion to me and he never won a real belt (not counting ufc tourny)