Fightmania November Rankings

A busy November now yields to an equally-packed December, with a lot of movement taking place in some of the biggest divisions in MMA, particularly at the lighter weights.  Quinton “Rampage” Jackson won a razor-thin decision over Lyoto Machida, and he moves up. With a few good upsets and some important bouts having taken place, who else has moved up this month? Read on to find out.

BANTAMWEIGHT DIVISION (135 LBS.)
1. Dominick Cruz
2. Joseph Benavidez
3. Miguel Torres (4)
4. Urijah Faber (5)
5. Scott Jorgensen (6)
6. Brian Bowles (3)
7. Takeya Mizugaki
8. Masakatsu Ueda (9)
9. Wagnney Fabiano (10)
10. Brad Pickett (NR)

Dropped out: Damacio Page (8)

This month quite a bit happened here, with Urijah Faber defeating Takeya Mizugaki by a first round rear naked choke, while Joseph Benavidez choked out his opponent, Wagnney Fabiano. Also, Damacio Page dropped a fight to the unranked Demetrious Johnson, too.

I dropped Page out, and moved Ueda and had to move Fabiano up (even though he lost) to accommodate the change. For the tenth spot I chose Brad Pickett, who may have just lost, but also owns a recent win over Johnson (who would have been my choice otherwise).

I also took advantage of the opportunity to do a little house-cleaning near the top. Sorry, but I just think that Torres, Faber and Jorgensen are better than Bowles. Of course, Bowles is hurt and won’t be able to prove me wrong for a little while. I also considered Eddie Wineland for the tenth spot, and he’ll face Ken Stone at the last WEC event, where Pickett will also face Ivan Menjivar. The biggest fight that night is the title fight between Cruz and Jorgensen. Meanwhile, Torres will make his UFC debut on the Super Bowl weekend card at UFC 126 against Antonio Banuelos.

FEATHERWEIGHT DIVISION (145 LBS.)
1. Jose Aldo
2. Manny Gamburyan
3. Mike Brown
4. Bibiano Fernandes
5. Michihiro Omigawa
6. Marlon Sandro
7. Josh Grispi
8. Diego Nunes (9)
9. Hatsu Hioki (10)
10. Raphael Assuncao (NR)

Dropped out: LC Davis (8)

Sadly, injuries will keep Aldo from debuting in the UFC on January 1st. Grispi will likely face…well, someone that day, still. In November, Raphael Assuncao defeated LC Davis, and took his now-vacated spot in the top ten, too. While there are no fights for top featherweights on the last WEC card next month, Omigawa has been courted to appear and fight, and Fernandes will fight on New Year’s Eve against Hiroyuki Takaya, too.

LIGHTWEIGHT DIVISION (155 LBS.)
1. Frankie Edgar
2. Gilbert Melendez (3)
3. Gray Maynard (4)
4. Evan Dunham (5)
5. Eddie Alvarez (6)
6. Kenny Florian (7)
7. Shinya Aoki (8)
8. Ben Henderson (9)
9. Josh Thomson (10)
10. George Sotiropoulos (NR)

Not much happened here, though astute observers will notice that George Sotiropoulos has moved in, while BJ Penn is gone. Here’s the deal: Penn is signed to make his second straight appearance at welterweight, so that’s where I’ll rank him. When he comes back to lightweight, I’ll gladly rank him there again. This obviously moves everyone up a notch. As for future plans, Florian will face Dunham at UFC Fight for the Troops 2 in January. Henderson will defend his WEC lightweight title for the last time at the final WEC event against Anthony Pettis.

At number ten, I brought in Sotiropoulos. He’s talented, aggressive, he’s on a hell of a tear, and hey…why not? I now have fighters from the UFC, Strikeforce and Bellator Fighting Championships within the top five, which is really something. Hopefully, we’ll eventually get to see a fight between Eddie Alvarez and Gil Melendez at some point. Also, I’m excited to see how everything works out for the WEC lightweights who are entering the UFC in 2011. I know there are some legitimate top lightweights in the WEC- it’s going to be exciting to find out who they are.

WELTERWEIGHT DIVISION (170 LBS.)
1. Georges St. Pierre
2. Jon Fitch
3. Thiago Alves
4. Josh Koscheck
5. Jake Shields
6. BJ Penn (NR)
7. Nick Diaz (6)
8. Martin Kampmann (7)
9. Carlos Condit (8)
10. Diego Sanchez (9)

Everything up top is pretty familiar by now. I moved Penn in at number 6, more due to his overall ability and resume than his win over Matt Hughes, who is a bit of an unknown commodity at this point in his career. So, the winner of next weekend’s St Pierre-Koscheck fight will apparently face Jake Shields. Meanwhile, Penn and Fitch will face off at UFC 127, as will Carlos Condit against Chris Lytle in what should be an entertaining bout.

MIDDLEWEIGHT DIVISION (185 LBS.)
1. Anderson Silva
2. Chael Sonnen
3. Yushin Okami (7)
4. Nate Marquardt (3)
5. Dan Henderson (4)
6. Demian Maia (5)
7. Vitor Belfort (6)
8. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza
9. Alan Belcher
10. Jorge Santiago

The big event here was that Marquardt lost to Okami, of course. Henderson will face Renato “Babalu” Sobral this weekend. We’ll also have Demian Maia against Kendall Grove this weekend. Vitor Belfort will face Anderson Silva at some point in early 2011. Meanwhile, Okami is just waiting in line. Unfortunately, a good portion of this group have no immediate bouts looming in the near future.

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION (205 LBS.)
1. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua
2. Rashad Evans (3)
3. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (4)
4. Lyoto Machida (2)
5. Forrest Griffin
6. Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal
7. Gegard Mousasi
8. Rich Franklin
9. Ryan Bader
10. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

The big story- indeed, the only story- here is that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson defeated Machida by decision. It was a close one, but Machida has not looked like his old dominant self in three straight fights now, so I bumped him down. Everything else is the same. UFC 126 will shake things up, as Forrest Griffin will face Rich Franklin, while the long-awaited bout between prospects Ryan Bader and Jon Jones will also go down.

HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION (up to 265 LBS.)
1. Cain Velasquez
2. Brock Lesnar
3. Fabricio Werdum
4. Fedor Emelianenko
5. Shane Carwin
6. Junior dos Santos
7. Frank Mir
8. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
9. Alistair Overeem
10. Josh Barnett

Nothing to see here! No, really, there’s nothing to see. All of the heavyweights were inactive, with a few nursing injuries that will require surgery, even. Of this list, we have no idea when eight of them will fight again.

POUND FOR POUND (No Limit)
1. Georges St. Pierre
2. Anderson Silva
3. Jose Aldo
4. Frankie Edgar
5. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua
6. Dominick Cruz
7. BJ Penn (9)
8. Jon Fitch (8)
9. Rashad Evans (10)
10. Lyoto Machida (7)

Not much going on here, though I believe that whether you think Machida won or lost, his performance was very lackluster. Even if you think he narrowly won the first round, second round, or both, that was definitely not the Machida we had grown accustomed to seeing. Fitch and Penn move up to accommodate Machida’s little drop.

E-Mail Jon Hartley

Tags: Bellator Fighting Championships, DREAM, Sengoku, Strikeforce, UFC, WEC