It’s that time of the year to make my top 10 pound-for-pound fighter list.I’ll try to do the best I can to rank the fighters and give you my reason on why they’re there. I can’t reiterate enough that this is simply one man’s opinion.

The honorable mentions on this list are Jon Fitch, Dominic Cruz, Nick Diaz, Alistair Overeem and Eddie Alvarez.

At No. 10 is none other than “The Prodigy” himself, B.J. Penn. Penn lost his last two fights to lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, thus the reason why he is so low on the list.

You can’t have an MMA pound-for-pound list without Penn in the mix. Even though he’s lost his last two fights, the man has beaten a who’s who in MMA and is a legend.

Coming in at No. 9 is Jake Shields. He won 15 fights in a row against a lot of great competition, but they weren’t the most spectacular.

At No. 8 is Lyoto Machida. Before losing the rematch against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Machida was 16-0 and the UFC light-heavyweight champion.

Due to the controversy of Machida and Rua’s first fight and Machida being knocked out in the rematch, Machida finds himself in the eighth spot on my list.

After reclaiming Machida’s title at UFC 113, Shogun has climbed his way to the No. 7 spot on my list, beating the likes of Overeem, Rampage Jackson, Kevin Randleman, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona.

Shogun stumbled in the UFC against Machida and Forrest Griffin, but the Machida fight was very controversial, and he has already avenged that loss by knocking Machida out in his last fight.

Coming in at No. 6 is the new heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez. Velasquez is undefeated and has recently just conquered the Goliath that is Brock Lesnar.

Velasquez is 9-0, with eight of those fights ending by way of KO or TKO.

No. 5 is possibly the greatest MMA fighter of all-time: Fedor Emelianenko.

Before losing to Werdum in his last fight, Emelianenko was 32-1 with his only loss coming from a doctor’s stoppage.

Coming in at No. 4 is Edgar. Like I said earlier, Edgar defeated Penn in his last two fights and has a record of 13-1. Edgar’s only loss was against Gray Maynard, and he’ll get a chance to avenge that loss in January.

World Extreme Cagefighting’s featherweight champion, Jose Aldo, comes in at No. 3 on my list.

Aldo is a blackbelt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and we have yet to see him showcase this as he has been knocking guys out left and right in the WEC.

All of Aldo’s wins in the WEC have come by TKO or KO except for his fight against Urijah Faber. Aldo completely dominated that fight.

At No. 2 is welterweight champion George St-Pierre. GSP has already cleaned out the welterweight division in the UFC and is on his way to doing it again.

GSP is a true MMA fighter with all the tools and no weaknesses.

It’s obvious now who’s No. 1 on my list, Anderson Silva. Who else could it be? It’s true that his last two fights weren’t the best performances of his career. The bottom line is he hasn’t lost a fight since January of 2006.

Silva’s on a 13-fight win streak and has nearly cleaned out the middleweight division. The last man in Silva’s way is Vitor Belfort, and they will fight early next year.