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Top 25 World MMA Rankings (13 Divisions)

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MacGreeneMMA
MacGreeneMMA
  • Location: Virginia
  • Member Since: 2011.12.17
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12.10.2012 | 4:32 PM ET

I am about to update my rankings and thought I would share them all with you here first. Hope you enjoy.

Updated Monday, December 10th, 2012

Top 25 World MMA Rankings by Mac Greene

These rankings span 13 weight classes including 8 men’s and 5 women’s divisions and a pound-for-pound listing for both genders. I am sure there are quality fighters that I am not aware of, especially at the lighter weights and in the women’s divisions. I do not have the resources that many of the top MMA websites do so I can only rank fighters that I follow. These rankings are not based on who I think would beat who but who I believe deserves the rank based on what they’ve done in the cage, or ring. Continue reading for a more detailed explination of how the system works.

Moving Up In The Ranks:

-Record

-Win Streak

-Competition Level

-Finishing Rate

-Performance Within A Fight

I Do Not Rank Based On:

-Championship Status

-#1 Contender Status

-Name Value

-Hype

-Promotion

Exclusion From Rankings:

-2 Years Of Inactivity

-Missing Weight In Back-To-Back Fights

-Retirement

-Fighting In Another Weight-Class (Men)

-Announcing A Move To Another Weight-Class (Men)

Gaining/Losing Ranks: Moving up in the ranks depends on a few things, record, win streak, competition level, finishing rate. A strong performance in a losing effort may keep a competitor from dropping further down the ladder but an athlete can not gain rank with a loss, no matter how great a performance. Example, Alves did not drop very far in the WW ranks because of a strong performance in his loss to Kampann.

Fighters will not gain ranks based on their championship status, contender status, organization, name value or hype. The status of the previous titleholder is what usually pushes most fighters to the #1 spot. Depending on the depth of a division if a competitor is not ranked in the top 25 of a weight class it will be hard for him/her to move into the top 10 with only one big win, it may be enough for him/her to crack the top 20 or even the top 15, again depending on the depth of the class. Fighters do not automatically take over the spot of the fighter they just defeated or jump ahead of them in the rankings.

Just because an athlete competes in a certain organization does not mean that he/she has faced better competition than someone outside of ZUFFA/Bellator/InvictaFC in every case. Example, half of the fighters ranked in the men’s FW, BW and most in the FLW divisions aren’t under ZUFFA or Bellator contracts, so it would be easier for competitors in other promotions to make claim to a much higher placement in those weight categories, This would be much harder to pull off in divisions such as LW, WW. or the women’s BW division. Name value does not always equate to a quality win.

Removal from Rankings: Fighters that have not competed in two years will be removed from their spot in the Rankings. I understand that major injuries happen, this is why our rankings give athletes that extra year to recover and come back at full health instead of using the standard one year format. Fighters should gain ranks because they have earned it, not by default. Missing weight in back-to-back fights will get you removed from all rankings.

Retired fighters and those in the men’s divisions that announce a move to another weight class will no longer be ranked in their previous category, as the major organizations usually force fighters to focus on one division at a time. The women’s weight classes are different, since most of the top female fighters compete outside of major promotions they are eligible for spots in more than one listing. It is more common for female athletes to jump between divisions, especially in the case of 145. This may change with the emergance of Invicta FC who have been grabbing up many of the top competitors on the women’s circuit and other high profile organizations now promoting women’s bouts.

Holding a win over a top fighter may keep him/her from jumping you soon after but depending on the success of the fighter and competition they have faced since that point it may be possible for them to jump ahead of you later on.

Pound-For-Pound rankings are mythical but very fun to do. A loss in a division may not give the individual that defeated you automatic entry into the PFP rankings. Example, Hendricks/Fitch, while Hendricks is ranked above Fitch at 170 he has not done enough to warrant a PFP ranking.

That’s pretty much it. The reasons I started doing these rankings a few years back is because I felt that many high profile websites rank based on name value and the big name of a promotion, not really who deserves it the most. I understand that my system is not perfect but I do believe that it is fairly accurate. I welcome any suggestions on how to improve the system and feedback.

I hope you all enjoy these rankings because that’s really why I do them, for the fans and fighters that work so hard to achieve their goals in this great sport.

Men’s Divisions: (Top 25)

Heavyweight (206.1-266lbs)

1 Junior dos Santos

2 Cain Velasquez

3 Alistair Overeem

4 Fabricio Werdum

5 Daniel Cormier

6 Frank Mir

7 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

8 Antonio Silva

9 Stefan Struve

10 Josh Barnett

11 Shane Carwin

12 Travis Browne

13 Mark Hunt

14 Cheick Kongo

15 Roy Nelson

16 Damian Grabowski

17 Alexander Volkov

18 Brendan Schaub

19 Gabriel Gonzaga

20 Sergei Kharitonov

21 Mike Russow

22 Ben Rothwell

23 Stipe Mioćić

24 Shane del Rosario

25 Vitaly Minakov

Light Heavyweight (186.1-206lbs)

1 Jon Jones

2 Dan Henderson

3 Alexander Gustafsson

4 Rashad Evans

5 Lyoto Machida

6 Mauricio Rua

7 Quinton Jackson

8 Phil Davis

9 Forrest Griffin

10 Ryan Bader

11 Rafael Cavalcante

12 Muhammed Lawal

13 Gegard Mousasi

14 Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

15 Glover Teixeira

16 Thiago Silva

17 Vladimir Matyushenko

18 James Te Huna

19 Stanislav Nedkov

20 Ryan Jimmo

21 Vinny Magalhaes

22 Igor Pokrajac

23 Jan Blachowicz

24 Attila Vegh

25 Jimi Manuwa

Middleweight (171.1-186lbs)

1 Anderson Silva

2 Chris Weidman

3 Michael Bisping

4 Tim Boetsch

5 Yushin Okami

6 Mark Muñoz

7 Luke Rockhold

8 Alan Belcher

9 Jake Shields

10 Brian Stann

11 Rousimar Palhares

12 Vitor Belfort

13 Hector Lombard

14 Alexander Shlemenko

15 Mamed Khalidov

16 Ronaldo Souza

17 Chris Leben

18 Wanderlei Silva

19 Cung Le

20 Ronny Markes

21 Constantinos Philippou

22 Brad Tavares

23 Ed Herman

24 Maiquel Goncalves

25 Francis Carmont

Welterweight (156.1-171lbs)

1 Georges “RUSH” St. Pierre

2 Johny Hendricks

3 Carlos Condit

4 Jon Fitch

5 Martin Kampmann

6 Jake Ellenberger

7 Josh Koscheck

8 Nick Diaz

9 Rory MacDonald

10 Demian Maia

11 Thiago Alves

12 Ben Askren

13 Rick Story

14 Erick Silva

15 Mike Pierce

16 Siyar Bahadurzada

17 Nate Marquardt

18 Douglas Lima

19 Dong Hyun Kim

20 Andrey Koreshkov

21 Jay Hieron

22 Jason High

23 Kyle Noke

24 Charlie Brenneman

25 Tyron Woodley

Lightweight (146.1-156lbs)

1 Benson Henderson

2 Gray Maynard

3 Gilbert Melendez

4 Nathan Diaz

5 Michael Chandler

6 Eddie Alvarez

7 Jim Miller

8 Donald Cerrone

9 Shinya Aoki

10 Anthony Pettis

11 Joe Lauzon

12 Khabib Nurmagomedov

13 Gleison Tibau

14 T.J. Grant

15 Rafael dos Anjos

16 Matt Wiman

17 Paul Sass

18 Jacob Volkmann

19 Rick Hawn

20 Jamie Varner

21 Melvin Guillard

22 Evan Dunham

23 Josh Thomson

24 Mark Bocek

25 Pat Healy

Featherweight (136.1-146lbs)

1 José Aldo

2 Pat Curran

3 Chad Mendes

4 Erik Koch

5 Ricardo Lamas

6 Hatsu Hioki

7 Daniel Straus

8 Chan Sung Jung

9 Dennis Siver

10 Diego Nuñes

11 Robert Peralta

12 Cub Swanson

13 Patricio Freiré

14 Marlon Sandro

15 Hacran Dias

16 Hiroyuki Takaya

17 Dustin Poirier

18 Iuri Alcantara

19 Eddie Yagin

20 Darren Elkins

21 Tatsuya Kawajiri

22 Manny Gamburyan

23 Marcus Brimage

24 Takeshi Inoue

25 Charles Oliveira

Bantamweight (126.1-136lbs)

1 Dominick Cruz

2 Renan “Barão” Pegado

3 Urijah Faber

4 Brian Bowles

5 Michael McDonald

6 Brad Pickett

7 Marcos Galvão

8 Bibiano Fernandes

9 Scott Jorgensen

10 Eduardo Dantas

11 Eddie Wineland

12 Raphael Assuncão

13 Luis Nogueira

14 Miguel Torres

15 Tyson Nam

16 Masakatsu Ueda

17 Marlon Moraes

18 Mike Easton

19 Takeya Mizugaki

20 Ivan Menjivar

21 Travis Marx

22 Alexis Vila

23 Anthony Leone

24 Zach Makovsky

25 Jimmie Rivera

Flyweight (116.1-126lbs)

1 Demetrious Johnson

2 Ian McCall

3 Joseph Benavidez

4 John Dodson

5 Jussier “Formiga” da Silva

6 Mamoru Yamaguchi

7 Darrell Montague

8 Dustin Ortiz

9 Yasuhiro Uru****ani

10 John Moraga

11 Louis Gaudinot

12 John Lineker

13 Ryuichi Miki

14 Haruo Ochi

15 Shinichi “BJ” Kojima

16 Alexandre Pantoja

17 Kentaro Watanabe

18 Rambaa Somdet

19 Dileno Lopes

20 Fumihiro Kitakara

21 Kiyotaka Shimizu

22 Ulysses Gomez

23 Tim Elliott

24 José Maria Tomé

25 Sean Santella

25 Danny Martinez

Pound-For-Pound:

1 Georges St. Pierre

2 Anderson Silva

3 Jon Jones

4 José Aldo

5 Dominick Cruz

6 Dan Henderson

7 Frankie Edgar

8 Jon Fitch

9 Rashad Evans

10 Demetrious Johnson

Women’s Divisions: (Top 25)

Featherweight (136.1-146lbs)

1 Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos

2 Julia Budd

3 Elaina Maxwell

4 Marloes Coenen

5 Ediane Gomes

6 Milana Dudieva

7 Germaine de Randamie

8 Yuko “Hiroko” Yamanaka

9 Romy Ruyssen

10 Yana Kunitskaya

11 Lauren Taylor

12 Rin Nakai

13 Cindy Dandois

14 Shana Nelson

15 Ashley Sanchez

16 Katalina Malungahu

17 Kaitlin Young

18 Fiona Muxlow

19 Valerie Barney

20 Luciana Pereira

21 Elina Nilsson

22 Eeva Siiskonen

23 Gabrielle Holloway

24 Andria Caplan

25 Andrienne Seiber

Bantamweight (126.1-136lbs)

1 Ronda Rousey

2 Sarah Kaufman

3 Miesha Tate

4 Alexis Davis

5 Sara McMann

6 Shayna Baszler

7 Amanda Nuñes

8 Julie Kedzie

9 Liz Carmouche

10 Sarah D’Alelio

11 Hitomi Akano

12 Vanessa Porto

13 Cat Zingano

14 Roxanne Modafferi

15 Tonya Evinger

16 Leslie Smith

17 Kaitlin Young

18 Rin Nakai

19 Julia Berezikova

20 Shizuka Sugiyama

21 Raquel Pennington

22 Sarah Moras

23 Julianna Peña

24 Valerie Letourneau

25 Sheila Bird

Flyweight (116.1-126lbs)

1 Jessica Eye

2 Sheila Gaff

3 Rosi Sexton

4 Barb Honchak

5 Vanessa Porto

6 Aisling Daly

7. Zoila Gurgel

8 Michelle Ould

9 Munah Holland

10 Claudia Gadelha

11 Hanna Sillén

12 Juliana Lima

13 Marianna Kheyfets

14 Heather Clark

15 Angela Magaña

16 Brenda Gonzales

17 Reyna Cordoba

18 Kalindra Faria

19 Tonya Evinger

20 Carina Damm

21 Julia Berezikova

22 Sally Krumdiack

23 Kinberly Novaes

24 Maiju Kujala

25 Jasminka Cive

25 Ericka Almeida

25 Sofia Bagherdai

Strawweight (106.1-116lbs)

1 Jessica Aguilar

2 Megumi Fujii

3 Ayaka Hamasaki

4 Carla Esparza

5 Katja Kankaanpää

6 Seo Hee Ham

7 Mei Yamaguchi

8 Joanne Calderwood

9 Yuka Tsuji

10 Felice Herrig

11 Kyoko Takabayashi

12 Patricia Vidonic

13 Lisa Ellis

14 Saori Ishioka

15 Karla Benitez

16 Ashley Cummins

17 Tomomi Sunaba

18 Emi Fujino

19 Sanja Sučević

20 Lena Ovchynnikova

21 Sarah Schnieder

22 Ayame Miura

23 Mizuki Inoue

24 Chelsea Colarelli

25 Alex Chambers

25 Alyona Rassohyna

Atomweight: (96.1-106lbs)

1 Jessica Penne

2 Naho Sugiyama

3 Kikuyo Ishikawa

4 Michelle Waterson

5 Misaki Takimoto

6 Lisa Ellis

7 Stephanie Frausto

8 Sadae Suzumura

9 Yasuko Tamada

10 Naoko Omuro

11 Sachiko Yamamoto

12 Diana Rael

13 Satomi Takano

14 Amy Davis

15 Nicdali Calanoc

16 Angelica Chavez

17 Yukiko Seki

18 Cassie Rodish

19 Jodie Esquibel

20 Liz McCarthy

21 Shino VanHoose

22 Kayo Nagayasu

23 ***uko Hamada

24 Megumi Morioka

25 Miyoko Kusaka

Pound-For-Pound:

1 Ronda Rousey

2 Jessica Aguilar

3 Sarah Kaufman

4 Megumi Fujii

5 Cristiane Santos

6 Miesha Tate

7 Marloes Coenen

8 Alexis Davis

9 Rosi Sexton

10 Jessica Penne


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