Why are MMA fans so cranky? Yep, it's that time of the month again.
Rankings!
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 August 2011.
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.
Heavyweight:
1. Cain Velasquez
2. Junior dos Santos
3. Alistair Overeem
4. Brock Lesnar
5. Antonio Silva
6. Fabricio Werdum
7. Frank Mir
8. Shane Carwin
9. Josh Barnett
10. Brendan Schaub
Light heavyweight:
1. Jon Jones
2. Rashad Evans
3. Mauricio Rua
4. Quinton Jackson
5. Lyoto Machida
6. Forrest Griffin
7. Dan Henderson
8. Phil Davis
9. Gegard Mousasi
10. Rafael Cavalcante
Middleweight:
1. Anderson Silva
2. Yushin Okami
3. Chael Sonnen
4. Ronaldo Souza
5. Mark Munoz
6. Vitor Belfort
7. Brian Stann
8. Michael Bisping
9. Demian Maia
10. Nate Marquardt
Welterweight:
1. Georges St. Pierre
2. Jon Fitch
3. Jake Shields
4. Nick Diaz
5. Carlos Condit
6. B.J. Penn
7. Josh Koscheck
8. Rick Story
9. Thiago Alves
10. Charlie Brenneman
Lightweight:
1. Frankie Edgar
2. Gray Maynard
3. Gilbert Melendez
4. Shinya Aoki
5. Eddie Alvarez
6. Clay Guida
7. Ben Henderson
8. Jim Miller
9. Melvin Guillard
10. Anthony Pettis
Featherweight:
1. Jose Aldo
2. Chad Mendes
3. Hatsu Hioki
4. Kenny Florian
5. Mark Hominick
6. Marlon Sandro
7. Diego Nunes
8. Tyson Griffin
9. Manny Gamburyan
10. Dustin Poirier
Bantamweight:
1. Dominick Cruz
2. Joseph Benavidez
3. Brian Bowles
4. Urijah Faber
5. Demetrious Johnson
6. Scott Jorgensen
7. Miguel Torres
8. Brad Pickett
9. Takeya Mizugaki
10. Masakatsu Ueda
What do you think? Looking good on all fronts or are there a few issues with the consensus opinions here?
Share your ranking rants in the comments section below.