Cung Le brought a wave of interest with him to his December 19th return to fighting at Strikeforce Evolution and topped the middleweight divisional buzz rankings for the month. Unfortunately for Le, his momentum was blunted by his opponent Scott Smith, who knocked out the former champion in surprising fashion late in the 3rd round. While Smith rose to 3rd in the buzz rankings, Cung Le clearly still draws in a large number of casual fans and Strikeforce will need to carefully decide how to best build their star back up. Last month’s middleweight rankings leader Anderson Silva remains inactive as he recovers from minor elbow surgery. Among the big movers were Renzo Gracie, who announced a return to the UFC expected to take place at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi. Full Top 20 rankings are below.
Tapology’s Buzz Rankings measure fan interest in individual MMA fighters based on online searches and pageviews for information about each athlete. The rankings are not a measure of a fighter’s skill or competitive standing within their division, but rather how much activity or “buzz” surrounds them (positive or negative).
Top 20 Middleweight Buzz Rankings for recent months:
- November 2009 (#1 Rank: Anderson Silva)
- October 2009 (#1 Rank: Anderson Silva)
- September 2009 (#1 Rank: Vitor Belfort)
December 2009 Middleweight (185 lbs) Rankings
| December Rank |
Middleweight Fighter | November to December Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cung Le | Up 2 |
| 2 | Anderson Silva | Down 1 |
| 3 | Scott Smith | Up 13 |
| 4 | Dan Henderson | Up 4 |
| 5 | Wanderlei Silva | Up 2 |
| 6 | Renzo Gracie | Up 6 |
| 7 | Vitor Belfort | Down 1 |
| 8 | Jason “Mayhem” Miller | Down 6 |
| 9 | Alan Belcher | Up 24 |
| 10 | Royce Gracie | Down 5 |
| 11 | Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza | Up 16 |
| 12 | Melvin Manhoef | Up 45 |
| 13 | Frank Shamrock | Down 2 |
| 14 | Evan Tanner | Down 1 |
| 15 | Robbie Lawler | Down 1 |
| 16 | Jake Shields | Down 12 |
| 17 | Michael Bisping | Down 7 |
| 18 | Nate Marquardt | Up 14 |
| 19 | Rousimar Palhares | Up 54 |
| 20 | Kazushi Sakuraba | Up 1 |
Dropped out of Top 20:
Chris Leben (#23), Yoshihiro Akiyama (#27), Denis Kang (#39), Murilo “Ninja” Rua (#51), Jake Rosholt (#58), Mamed Khalidov (#60)
[...] 20 Middleweight Buzz Rankings for recent months: – December 2009 (#1 Rank: Cung Le) – November 2009 (#1 Rank: Anderson Silva) – October 2009 (#1 Rank: Anderson Silva) – September 2009 [...]
[...] 20 Middleweight Buzz Rankings for recent months: – January 2010 (#1 Rank: Anderson Silva) – December 2009 (#1 Rank: Cung Le) – November 2009 (#1 Rank: Anderson [...]