Time to get back to business and see who the Maniacs feel is the cream of the crop in the Featherweight / Bantamweight divisions.

We will poll each fight individually, for 1 day, beginning with opening round Match #1.  MMA Mania has the most knowledgeable MMA online community, so please feel free to post your pick in the comments along with your analysis of how you see the fights breaking down.  Hopefully this will give us something to do on slow news days.

It was extremely hard to come up with seeding for this tourney as I bought in the best fighters from multiple promotions and 2 weight classes.  Accordingly, the top seeds went to current title holders.  For the rest of the seedings, I utilized multiple MMA rankings, while also taking styles into consideration.  I also tossed a few names in a hat, as there are so many good fighters in these classes, it was hard to decide who to put in/keep out.

Just so I don't get bombarded with fighters who were left out, here are the other names that were in the hat that didn't make it:  Josh Grispi, Shuichiro Katsumura, Scott Jorgenson, Michihiro Omigawa, L.C. Davis, Patricio Pitbull, Leonard Garcia, Raphael Assuncao, Takeya Mizugaki

***NOTE***  In the event of a tie, a randomly selected Maniac will act as the tie breaker.  That Maniac will be the 1st person to write a comment in the post thread.  So if you are the 1st to post a comment, make sure to include which fighter you voted for!!!!

1   Jose Aldo (WEC 17-1)

16  Masakatsu Ueda (Shooto 10-1-2)      

Match 1                                            1 Jose Aldo

                                                             QF1                  Winner QF1

Match 2                                            Winner 8/9

8  Hatsu Hioki (WVR 20-4-2)                            

9  Bibiano Fernandez (Dream 8-2)                                                                                              

                                                                                       Semi-Final 1

5  Joseph Benivedes (WEC 12-1)                                                       

12  Brian Bowles (WEC 8-1)                                                               

Match 3                                           Winner 5/12                              

                                                            QF2                    Winner QF2

Match 4                                           Winner 4/13                                 

4  Mike Brown (WEC 23-6)                                                        

13  Abel Cullum (KOTC 18-3)

                                                                                                                           Tournament Championship                                                                                                                                                              

6  Urijah Faber  (WEC 23-4)                                                             

11  Manny Gambuyan (WEC 11-4)                                                               

Match 5                                         Winner 6/11                                 

                                                           QF3                     Winner QF3

Match 6                                         Winner 3/14                                 

3  Marlon Sandro (WVR 16-1)                                      

14  Joe Soto (Bellator 9-0)                                                                                             

                                                                                         Semi-Final 2                                         

7  Miguel Torres (WEC 37-3)

10  Wagnney Fabiano (WEC 13-2)

Match 7                                          Winner 7/10

                                                            QF4                     Winner QF4

Match 8                                          Winner 2/15

2  Dominic Cruz (WEC 15-1)

15 Jung Chan Sung (WEC 10-2)

Match #1:  In the opening fight of the tourney, Jr Aldo showed why he is quickly rising in the P4P rankings as he easily defeated Ueda with 86% of the Vote...  He cruises into the Quaterfinals to await the winner of Match #2. 

Match #2:  For those who are unfamiliar with Hioki and Fernandez,  I truly think this is the most exciting fight (with Cruz / Sung being a close 2nd), of the 1st round.  Both fighters have retarded ground games, but are also willing to stand and exchange.  Hioki, on occasion, has been known to throw caution to the wind in favor of a slug fest.  In fact, over the weekend he displayed greatly improved hands and a relentless yet controlled attack as he took the Fight to Lion Takeshi, and won the Shooto Featherweight Title.

Likewise, The Flash has had quite the run over in Dream, going 5-0 for the promotion, and winning the 1st Dream Featherweight Grandprix.  

I think this match-up would be wall to wall fireworks with some sick groundwork and some crazy exchanges.

So lets hear it Maniacs.  Will the favorites move on, or will we see an underdog rise to the top?  You decide.