Our partners in crime over at BloodyElbow.com have once again published their divisional rankings for mixed martial arts in the nation’s largest daily newspaper, USA Today, for the month of December 2009.
For those of you unfamiliar with the process, here’s how it works:
"The rankings, which will offer a definitive perspective of top MMA fighters across all weight-classes, will be released monthly and published in the Sports section of USA TODAY, online at USATODAY.com and on SB Nation’s MMA commentary and community blog, BloodyElbow.com … The USA TODAY/SB Nation Consensus MMA Rankings are compiled each month by Nate Wilcox and Richard Wade of BloodyElbow.com. The rankings utilize each of the top MMA rankings from multiple unique sources. A weighted-formula is applied to normalize and distill the various rankings into one consensus ranking per weight class."
To check out the latest USAT/SBN rankings click here. We’ve also listed their top 10 in each class after the jump for your convenience.
What do you think? Share your ranking rants in the comments section below.
Heavyweight:
1. Fedor Emelianenko
2. Brock Lesnar
3. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
4. Frank Mir
5. Junior Dos Santos
6. Cain Velasquez
7. Josh Barnett
8. Shane Carwin
9. Brett Rogers
10. Alistair Overeem
Light Heavyweight:
1. Lyoto Machida
2. Mauricio Rua
3. Rashad Evans
4. Quinton Jackson
5. Forrest Griffin
6. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
7. Gegard Mousasi
8. Thiago Silva
9. Anderson Silva
10. Randy Couture
Middleweight:
1. Anderson Silva
2. Nate Marquardt
3. Dan Henderson
4. Demian Maia
5. Vitor Belfort
6. Chael Sonnen
7. Jake Shields
8. Yushin Okami
9. Yoshihiro Akiyama
10. Mamed Khalidov
Welterweight:
1. Georges St. Pierre
2. Jon Fitch
3. Thiago Alves
4. Josh Koscheck
5. Dan Hardy
6. Mike Swick
7. Paulo Thiago
8. Matt Hughes
9. Carlos Condit
10. Paul Daley
Lightweight:
1. B.J. Penn
2. Shinya Aoki
3. Eddie Alvarez
4. Kenny Florian
5. Gray Maynard
6. Frank Edgar
7. Diego Sanchez
8. Tatsuya Kawajiri
9. Sean Sherk
10. Joachim Hansen
Featherweight:
1. Jose Aldo
2. Mike Brown
3. Urijah Faber
4. Bibiano Fernandes
5. Hatsu Hioki
6. Rafael Assuncao
7. Manny Gamburyan
8. Wagnney Fabiano
9. Michihiro Omigawa
10. Mackens Semerzier
Of course, nothing brings MMA fans closer together than a list of divisional rankings. Let’s hear it: Who belongs and who doesn’t? And be sure to say why. "He sucks" is not a valid argument.
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