The International Judo Federation (IJF) world rankings for the men's 81 kg division as of March 2011 are as follows:
1. Jae Bum Kim (Korea)
Though Kim is not the most active of champions, when he does make an appearance, he makes it count. Since becoming World Champion in 2010 with a fantastic ippon of Guilheiro in the final, Kim has won every tournament he's entered in. He's won the World Cup in Suwon and then captured gold at the prestigious Tournois de Paris. Kim is gutsy and can scrap out a win against anybody. Watch his match against Schmitt of France to see what I'm talking about. For a sweet ippon, check out this morote seionage of his in Paris.
2. Leandro Guilheiro (Brazil)
Since placing second to Kim at the World's, Guilheiro has managed to win silver at the World Masters. Though many rate Guilheiro as being technically superior to Kim, Guilheiro seems to have trouble with Kim's toughness, athleticism and incredible gas tank. Things would be a lot different now if Guilheiro had managed to finish Kim with his signature seionage in their finals match at the Worlds. Watch his awesome match at the Masters against Nakai where he is forced to break Nakai's arm because the Nakai refused to tap. To top it off, the fight continued and Guilheiro finished him off with a huge seionage.
3. Ivan Nifontov (Russia)
Nifontov has not been active much since he won the 2010 Grandslam in Moscow and participated in the 2010 World Championships.
4. Euan Burton (Great Britain)
After placing third at the World Championships in Tokyo, Burton has gone on to place third at the Tokyo Grand Slam and third at the Masters. Though able to beat Travis Stevens , he suffered a controversial loss to Mammadli.
5. Takahiro Nakai (Japan)
Other than being famous now for having his arm broken by Guilheiro and then fighting with one arm, this new challenger is known for his gold medal at the Kano Cup. As this makikomi on Gess of Germany shows, Nakai can pull off some slick judo. Now that Ono has moved on to the 90kg division, could Nakai be the next great hope in the 81 kg category that the Japanese have been waiting for?
6. Guillaume Elmont (Netherlands)
Elmont had a strong performance and placed second at the Tournoi de Paris. Until he lost to Kim in the final, Elmont was on a hot streak - decisively beating everybody that he faced.
7. Sirazhudin Magomedov (Russia)
Magomedov has not been the most active either but his most recent action at the Qing Dao Grand Prix did not disappoint. Watch his sweet uchimata ippon in the finals against Li of China and this great uchimata to armbar combination on Travis Stevens.
8. Flavio Canto (Brazil)
One of CNN's "heroes", Flavio Canto is a class act on and off the mats with his charity work. Unfortunately, all his philanthropy may be getting in the way of his judo as he hasn't participated in a tournament since the 2010 World Championship where he placed fifth. Let's hope this Brazilian newaza guru gets back on the mat soon.
9. Ole Bischof (Germany)
The 2008 Olympic champion has not been doing as well as he'd like come 2011. He was not able to medal at the Tournoi de Paris and only placed fifth in Dusseldorf. Bischof was also eliminated at the World Masters this year.
10. Elnur Mammadli (Azerbaijan)
The 2008 Olympic champion at 73 kg has moved up a weight class and 2011 has treated him well. Mammadli went into beast-mode at the World Masters in Baku and smashed all comers to win the gold. Look at his awesome sode on Attaf, his finishing of Burton and the final gold medal win on Guilheiro. His win at the Masters moved him up from 37th ranked to 10th. I look forward to seeing what his ranking will be once he finishes a full year's cycle of competition at 81 kg.
Ron Cheung - The author
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