Sorry for dropping to Ball on this tourney guys.  I have been on the road for work (Miami, Phoenix, next Colorado Springs) and have let it fall to the wayside.

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                                           8 Hatsu Hioki

8  Hatsu Hioki (Shooto 20-4-2)                            

9  Bibiano Fernandez (Dream 8-2)                                                                                              

                                                                                       Semi-Final 1

5  Joseph Benavides (WEC 12-1)                                                       

12  Brian Bowles (WEC 8-1)                                                               

Match 3                                          12 Brian Bowles

                                                            QF2                    Winner QF2

Match 4                                           4  Mike Brown

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                                         11  Manny Gamburyan

                                                           QF3                     Winner QF3

Match 6                                         3  Marlon Sandro

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                                          7  Miguel Torres

                                                            QF4                     Winner QF4

Match 8                                         15 Korean Zombie

2  Dominic Cruz (WEC 15-1)

15 Chan Sung Jung (WEC 10-2)

Quarterfinal #1:   By the thinnest of margins, taking 52% of the vote, The Korean Zombie pulls the upset and becomes the lowest seed ever to advance in our 16 man tourneys.  That sets us up for guaranteed explosives as he moves on to face Miguel Angel Torres in QF #4. 

Quarterfinal #2:  Jr is back facing the very dangerous Shooto champion Hatsu Hioki.  If the past is any indicator, Aldo will be looking to keep it on the feet, while Hatsu will look to make it a ground contest.

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