Notable Info

• Rankings updated with effects from recent shows from Shooto, UFC, and others.
• Some older shows have been updated and/or added for increased accuracy.
• Slightly optimized the ranking pages. Should now load about 3% faster.

Update: O’Brien/Wellisch was not assigned to the proper division, plus I forgot about the Pancrase card so I re-ran the ratings.

Welterweight
[#1] Georges St. Pierre vs. [#1 LW] B.J. Penn

Light Heavyweight
[#4] Lyoto Machida vs. [#14] Thiago Silva

Light Heavyweight
[NR] Stephan Bonnar vs. [#57] Jon Jones

Welterweight
[#11] Karo Parisyan vs. [#45] Dong Hyun Kim

Lightweight
[#18] Clay Guida vs. [#28] Nathan Diaz

Welterweight
[#4] Jon Fitch vs. [#15] Akihiro Gono

Lightweight
[#102] Thiago Tavares vs. [#215] Manvel Gamburyan

Welterweight
[#20] Chris Wilson vs. [#130] John Howard

Heavyweight
[#43] Jake O’Brien vs. [#92] Christian Wellisch

Welterweight
[#500] Matt Arroyo vs. [NR] Dan Cramer

Ranking Notes: 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

• Ratings updated with recent shows from Affliction, WEC, Extreme Challenge, Beast of the East, ZST, and others.

Heavyweight
[#1] Fedor Emelianenko vs. [#5] Andrei Arlovski

Heavyweight
[#6] Josh Barnett vs. [#30] Gilbert Yvel

Light Heavyweight
[#12] Sokoudjou vs. [#13] Renato Sobral

Middleweight
[#15] Vitor Belfort vs. [#20] Matt Lindland

Lightweight
[#40] Dan Lauzon vs. [#100] Bobby Green

Heavyweight
[#43] Paul Buentello vs. [#180] Kirill Sidelnikov

Light Heavyweight
[#16] Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. [#17] Vladimir Matyushenko

Welterweight
[#12] Jay Hieron vs. [#140] Jason High

Featherweight
[#8 BW] Bao Quach vs. [#29] LC Davis

Featherweight
[#32 BW] Antonio Duarte vs. [#52 BW] Albert Rios

Welterweight
[#33] Brett Cooper vs. [#206] Patrick Speight

Ranking Notes: 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

• Ratings updated with recent shows from UFC, Shooto, and others.

Other interesting notes…

• Rich Franklin proves that he belongs near the top of the Light Heavyweight division, nearly taking a decision from Dan Henderson.  Henderson re-enters Light Heavy at #5, while Franklin drops to #6.
• In a disappointing performance against Coleman, Rua re-enters Light Heavy at #8.  Coleman enters the list just outside of the Top 20.
• Martin Kampmann makes a successful debut at Welterweight, entering at #23.  Though, in the UFC, there’s a tough road to climb to the top of the Welterweight division.
• Although he is the Shooto Flyweight champion, Shinichi Kojima nearly lost the top spot at Flyweight with a draw against (4-4-2) Jess Taitano.  Taitano shoots back into the Top 10, where he was before we discovered and entered some unreported losses on his record.

Light Heavyweight
[#3 MW] Dan Henderson vs. [#5] Rich Franklin

Light Heavyweight
[NR] Mauricio Rua vs. [NR] Mark Coleman

Middleweight
[#18] Denis Kang vs. [#43] Alan Belcher

Welterweight
[#22] Marcus Davis vs. [#26] Chris Lytle

Middleweight
[#37] Rousimar Palhares vs. [#59] Jeremy Horn

Welterweight
[#34 MW] Martin Kampmann vs. [#123] Alexandre Barros

Light Heavyweight
[#34] Eric Schafer vs. [#60] Antonio Mendes

Light Heavyweight
[NR] Tomasz Drwal vs. [#134] Ivan Serati

Welterweight
[#162 MW] John Hathaway vs. [#300] Thomas Egan

Lightweight
[#210] Dennis Siver vs. [*] Nate Mohr

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

• Ratings updated with recent shows from M-1, Ring of Fire, and others.
• Inserted some previously missing older shows.

Notable Info

• Ratings updated with recent shows from Sengoku and others.

Other interesting notes…

• Higher ranked fighters Satoru Kitaoka, and Jorge Santiago strengthen their positions with big wins over Takanori Gomi, and Kazuo Misaki respectively.
• Alexis Vila, former Cuban wrestling champion, is now properly placed in the Flyweight division.  His point total allows him to debut at #11 in the rankings.

Notable Info

• Ratings updated with recent shows from UFC and K-1, as well as some minor shows.

Other interesting notes…

• Frank Mir’s win shakes up the Heavyweight division as he shoots up to #2, while Nogueira drops to #4.
• The Griffin/Evans and Jackson/Silva results create a strange scenario at the top of the Light Heavyweight division.  Evans takes the top spot, while Jackson’s win was enough to keep him at #2.  Griffin drops to #3.  Is Jackson/Evans next?
• A similar situation happened at Lightweight, with Aoki submitting Alvarez, which was unexpected considering Hansen-Alvarez and Hansen-Aoki.

UFC Light Heavyweight Championship
[#1] Forrest Griffin vs. [#4] Rashad Evans

UFC Interim Heavyweight Championship
[#2] Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. [#26] Frank Mir

Light Heavyweight
[#2] Quinton Jackson vs. [#5] Wanderlei Silva

Middleweight
[#39] Mike Massenzio vs. [#175] C.B. Dollaway

Heavyweight
[#12] Cheick Kongo vs. [#86] Mustafa al Turk

Middleweight
[#15] Yushin Okami vs. [#25] Dean Lister

Light Heavyweight
[#29] Matt Hamill vs. [#42] Reese Andy

Welterweight
[#22] Brad Blackburn vs. [#27] Ryo Chonan

Welterweight
[#114] Dan Evensen vs. [#200] Pat Barry

 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

• Mainly a maintenance update.  There was a show from DEEP and some other bout updates, but mainly just a pre-UFC 92 refresh.

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.

Keep Reading

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.

Keep Reading

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