Brock Lesnar & the MMA World Rankings
By Ben Bieker
HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION (over 205 pounds)*
1. Cain Velasquez
2. Junior Dos Santos
3. Fabricio Werdum
4. Brock Lesnar moves up one with the loss of Fedor. He has a big fight with the number two ranked JDS coming up soon that could propel him even higher.
5. Antonia Silva beat Fedor convincingly making him to make one of the biggest jumps someone can make on this chart. With so many good fighters in the top ten at Heavyweight for Silva to beat the person, who was the consensus number one for so long it says something. That is why he jumped 5 spots.
6. Shane Carwin
7. Frank Mir
8. Fedor Emelianenko is not most people because if most people lost twice in a row they would most likely drop off the top ten completely. Just like if GSP or if Anderson Silva were to loss two in a row they, most likely, would not drop off the ranking either. That is why Fedor drops to number 8, but if he losses again then he will most likely drop out of the top ten completely.
9. Josh Barnett
10. Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION (205-pound limit)
1. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua
2. Rashad Evans
3. Forrest Griffin
4. Quinton Jackson
5. Jon Jones
6. Lyoto Machida
7. Dan Henderson destroyed Rafael Cavalcante. He may have gotten dropped in the first round but to be forty and still competing at the highest level is something not everyone can do. With this performance and the promise of more to come Dan has jumped two spots.
8. Ryan Bader drops down with the win of Henderson
9. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira drops down with Henderson’s jump also.
10. Matt Hamill
MIDDLEWEIGHT DIVISION (185-pound limit)
1. Anderson Silva
2. Chael Sonnen
3. Yushin Okami
4. Nathan Marquardt
5. Demian Maia
6. Ronaldo “Jacare” de Souza
7. Hector Lombard
8. Jorge Santiago
9. Robbie Lawler
10.Mamed Khalidov
WELTERWEIGHT DIVISION (170-pound limit)
1. Georges St-Pierre
2. Jon Fitch
3. Thiago Alves
4. Josh Koscheck
5. Jake Shields
6. B.J. Penn even though he drew with Jon Fitch; Jon Fitch is the perennial number two in the Welterweight division. IT is clear that if B.J. did not gas then he would have won the fight. The fight was only a tie because the last round was scored 10-8, and if it wasn’t you would have seen Jon Fitch get his second loss in the octagon.
7. Carlos Condit moves down 1. This most likely would not have happened if he fought and beat Chris Lytle, but he got hurt and could not compete. With B.J. gaining a spot he drops down.
8. Paul Daley
9. Nick Diaz
10. Diego Sanchez debut
LIGHTWEIGHT DIVISION (160-pound limit)
1. Frankie Edgar
2. Gilbert Melendez
3. Gray Maynard
4. Jim Miller
5. Eddie Alvarez
6. Shinya Aoki
7. Anthony Pettis
8. Taytsu Kawajiri moves jump2 2 spots because of the shift in Kenny Florian’s weight and the loss of George Sotiropoulos. He has a fight coming up with Gilbert Melendez that could affect the Lightweight ranking a lot.
9. Dennis Siver debuts at 9 and does not take the spot his opponent, George Sotiropoulos, because Dennis has some losses on his record that did not permit him to go higher. Taytsu shifted up because he has more quality wins with only one loss that comes to the currently 6th ranked Shinya Aoki.
10. Benson Henderson re-debuts on the list after his loss to Anthony Pettis. He comes back to the list because Kenny Florian drops off since he is moving down to Featherweight.
FEATHERWEIGHT DIVISION (145 pound-limit)
1. Jose Aldo
2. Diego Nunes
3. Chad Mendes
4. Dustin Poierer
5. Michihiro Omigawa
6. Manny Gamburyan
7. Hatsu Hioki
8. Josh Grispi
9. Joe Warren
10. Mark Hominick
BANTAMWEIGHT DIVISION (135 pounds or less)
1. Dominick Cruz
2. Joseph Benavidez
3. Brian Bowles came back after a year layoff and absolutely killed Damacio Page. Given Damacio Page was not ranked, but he had given a good fight to many people in the top ten. Plus, to come back and look that good in a fight says a lot. With only one loss to the current kingpin of the Bantamweight division he can stake a good claim at one of the top spots in the Bantamweight division.
4. Scott Jorgensen shifts down one because of Brian’s move.
5. Miguel Torres also moves down one because of Brian’s win
6. Brad Pickett
7. Demetrious Johnson
8. Antonio Banuelos
9. Eddie Wineland
10. Uriah Faber
The next rankings will come out after the April 9th Strikeforce card. There are a few events in that span with many ranked fighters that will affect many of MMA’s divisions.
Strikeforce
Diaz vs. Daley
Nick Diaz (#9 Welterweight) vs. Paul Daley (#8 Welterweight)
Gilbert Melendez (#2 Lightweight) vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri (#8 Lightweight)
Shinya Aoki (#6 Lightweight) vs. Lyle Beerbohm
UFC
128
Shogun Rua (#1 Light Heavyweight) vs. Jon Jones (#5 Light Heavyweight)
Uriah Faber (#10 Bantamweight) vs. Eddie Wineland (#9 Bantamweight)
Jim Miller (#4 Lightweight) vs. Kamal Shalorus
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Nate Marquardt (#4 Middleweight)
Mirko Filipovic vs. Brendan Schaub
Joseph Benavidez (#2 Bantamweight) vs. Ian Loveland
Nogueira vs. Davis
Antonio Nogueira (#9 Light Heavyweight) vs. Phil Davis
Bellator
39
Eddie Alvarez (#5 Lightweight) vs. Pat Curran