Last week I examined the top fighters in the UFC’s lightweight division.  As mentioned, UFC has abandoned the weight class for several years, allowing other MMA organizations to step up and fill the void.  Even though the lightweights are back in the UFC in a major way, it is K-1’s Dream promotion that boasts the most top fighters on their roster: four out of the Top 10, according to the latest Fightmatrix.com ranking.  The other major player in the division is World Victory Road – a Japanese promotion that rose from the ashes of Pride FC.

With three major lightweight showdowns coming up in the next month (Hansen vs. Calvancante and Aoki vs. Alvarez on K-1’s year-end extravaganza, as well as Gomi vs. Kitaoka in WVR on January 4th), this is a good time to take a look at the ten top lightweights outside of the UFC.

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The next two updates will take place on Wednesday, December 24, 2008, and on Wednesday, December 31, 2008.

To say that it has been a rough ride for the UFC’s 155 lbs division would be a bit of an understatement.  The trouble began when the first champion of the weight class Jens Pulver left the organization in 2002 amidst a contract dispute.  The UFC held a four-man tournament to crown a new champion, but failed to come up with a definitive winner when BJ Penn fought Caol Uno to a draw in the finals.  And so the division was completely dismantled as the Zuffa-owned promotion was struggling financially at the time.

Fast forward to 2006: after the success of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ reality series boosted UFC’s popularity and momentum, the organization decided to reinstate the lightweight division and crowned a new champion with a matchup between Kenny Florian and Sean Sherk.  But the troubles were not over – after Sherk’s very first title defense, Sean as well as the challenger Hermes Franca both tested positive for banned anabolics and were suspended by the California State Athletic Commission.  With the title once again vacated, BJ Penn defeated Joe Stevenson then Sean Sherk in back-to-back bouts, staking his claim as the new lightweight king.  However with Penn now set to challenge Georges St. Pierre for the welterweight title, the lightweight championship may once again be placed on hold if Penn wins.

All these tribulations left the division weakened: according to the latest Fightmatrix.com rankings, only 4 of the Top 10 and 8 of the Top 20 lightweights in the world compete in the UFC’s Octagon.    But don’t let the lack of top-ranked fighters fool you; this is a very deep division beyond the Top 20, with over 30 ranked fighters competing in UFC at 155 lbs.  Here is a closer look at the UFC’s 20 highest ranked lightweights.

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I noticed we had some incomplete and missing results from the weekend, so I decided to re-run the ratings update!

Notable Info

• New rankings reflect changes due to shows from the previous week and weekend, including those from Shooto, UFC, KOTC, Adrenaline, and many others.

Other interesting notes…

• More action on the Flyweight list, as the two winners of the 114 and 123lb Shooto rookie tournament enter at #16, and #17 respectively.
• The UFC’s Jim Miller, winner of 8 straight, makes a surprising entry into the Lightweight Top 10 at #8.
• Pat Miletich pulled off a mild upset over fellow veteran Thomas Denny.  However, Miletich is still far away from being ranked.
• Wilson Gouveia’s impressive win over Jason MacDonald propels him 13 spots, up to #16 in the Middleweight division.  Can he actually make 185 again?
• Justin McCully re-enters the Top 40 of the Heavyweight division with a win over Eddie Sanchez.
• Jeff Monson took a unanimous decision over Ricco Rodriguez on Saturday.  He is now the #17 ranked Heavyweight.

Notable Info

• New rankings reflect changes due to shows from the previous week and weekend, including those from Pancrase, WEC, GCM, and many others.
• Note: I only have partial results from some shows.

Other interesting notes…

• I always get excited when I see new Flyweights entering the Top 25.  Sad, I know.  Last week we had one, and this week we have two!  Isao Hirose came out of nowhere and enters at #10, while Jucie Formiga gets positioned at #22 with only his 2nd win.  Its a weak division, what can I say?
• Bantamweight and Featherweight saw a ton of movement.  Make sure you check those lists out.
• Tito Ortiz is on the slide, as he lost a position and now sits at #14 in the Light Heavyweight division.
• Stefan Struve (16-2) keeps inching up the Heavyweight division slowly, and he’s now at #46.  Maybe this guy can score a big fight so we can see if he’s worthy of being in the Top 50.

 Notable Info

• New rankings reflect changes due to shows from the previous week and weekend, including those from Shooto, Phoenix Fight, ZST, M-1, KOTC, and others.

Other interesting notes…

• Randy Couture drops to #5 in the Heavyweight division.
• Megumi Fujii is the new queen of the Women’s Open rankings due to Tara LaRosa’s inactivity.
• Takashi Nakakura steps into the crowded Top 20 of the Lightweight division with a win this weekend, improving his record to 11-2-1.
• Also at Lightweight, undefeated Rory McDonald scored a win over Clay French, which bumps him into the Top 100 at #65.
• Former Welterweight, Drew Fickett stepped down to the Lightweight division with a win, but is still ranked outside of the Top 100.
• With the weekend’s Shooto show comes an interesting potential match-up in the Featherweight division between Hatsu Hioki and Takeshi Inoue, who are in a virtual tie with one another.  The decisive winner of that match-up would (at this time) be a clear #3 in the division.
• Jared McMahan gets his 10th win, moving to 10-0-1.  He is now #22 in the Bantamweight division and on a similar career path to that of Abel Cullum, who lost valiantly to Wilson Reis earlier this year.
• A rare new entry into the Flyweight Top 25 was made by Atsushi Takeuchi, who scored a win over a decent opponent.

Notable Info

• New rankings reflect changes due to shows from the previous week and weekend, including those from Shooto, Strike force, Ring of Combat, M-1, and others.
• Added a few hundred old bouts that were not being considered.  This will cause minor fluctuations in the rankings.

I’ve seen a lot of negative comments on MMA forums about Junior dos Santos being ranked #7 at Heavyweight.  At first, I agreed… but after analyzing the Heavyweight division and reminding myself of a core principle we abide by, the ranking makes perfect sense.

Before reading the rest of this post, please consider that core principle I just spoke of:

• A winning fighter is placed over the losing fighter by a margin that is dependent on the type of win.

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Notable Info

• New rankings reflect changes due to shows from the weekend, including UFC and JEWELS.

UFC Heavyweight Championship
[#3] Randy Couture vs. [#13] Brock Lesnar

Lightweight
[#3] Kenny Florian vs. [#18] Joe Stevenson

Heavyweight
[#7] Gabriel Gonzaga vs. [#66] Josh Hendricks

Middleweight
[#15] Demian Maia vs. [#53] Nate Quarry

Welterweight
[#17] Dustin Hazelett vs. [#48] Tamdan McCrory

Lightweight
[#119] Aaron Riley vs. [#179] Jorge Gurgel

Lightweight
[#69] Jeremy Stephens vs. [#85] Rafael dos Anjos

Lightweight
[#80] Alvin Robinson vs. [#102] Mark Bocek

Welterweight
[#137] Matt Brown vs. [#400] Ryan Thomas

 Ranking Notes:  Rankings are projected when a fighter is fighting in a new weight class.  Gray font represents an approximate ranking. An asterisk represents a fighter who is ranked, but too low for an approximation. These two scenarios will clear up slightly as we move forward. “NR” means the fighter is not ranked, due to inactivity, or due to a rating that is at or below the default starter rating.

Notable Info

• New rankings reflect changes due to shows from the weekend.

Note:  Some of the minor show results were not yet available, while others are only partially entered.

Notable Info

• Special ranking release to reflect changes from WEC 36.

We don’t usually do previews of the WEC shows, but I figured, why not?  The main event is noteworthy as Urijah Faber has a chance to make a massive statement on the Division Dominance list with a win over Brown.

WEC Featherweight Championship
[#1] Urijah Faber vs. [#2] Mike Thomas Brown

Middleweight
[#2] Paulo Filho vs. [#23] Chael Sonnen

Featherweight
[#11] Jens Pulver vs. [#16] Leonard Garcia

Middleweight
[#133] Nissen Osterneck vs. [#191] Jake Rosholt

Lightweight
[#77] Donald Cerrone vs. [#92] Rob McCullough

Light Heavyweight
[#300] Aaron Simpson vs. [NR] David Avellan

Featherweight
[#25] Jose Aldo vs. [#43] Jonathan Brookins

Light Heavyweight
[#92] Carmelo Marrero vs. [#127] Steve Steinbeiss

Lightweight
[#189] Rafael Dias vs. [#450] Danny Castillo

Bantamweight
[#5] Yoshiro Maeda vs. [#9] Rani Yahya

Ranking Notes:  Rankings are projected when a fighter is fighting in a new weight class.  Gray font represents an approximate ranking. An asterisk represents a fighter who is ranked, but too low for an approximation. These two scenarios will clear up slightly as we move forward. “NR” means the fighter is not ranked, due to inactivity, or due to a rating that is at or below the default starter rating.

Notable Info

• Bouts added to database w/ recent shows from PURECOMBAT, Sengoku, CCFC, M-1, Strike and Submit, and some minor organizations.
• Added some old bouts from minor organizations.