Sportsnet.ca's mixed martial arts rankings

by (Big Game) James Brydon

as of Aug. 31, 2009

No changes to the rankings this week following UFC 102.

Krzysztof Soszynski lost but to a tough guy in Brandon Vera, and one defeat won't drop his position in the Canadian pound-for-pound list. He stays above Jason MacDonald, who has lost two in a row.

Thiago Silva won in nice fashion, but he's already No. 4 in the light-heavyweights -- he's certainly not better than Rampage.

The only division that could have seen some change was heavyweight. But I'm leaving it as is. A few notes:

-- Despite the fact he's fighting for the title, I still consider Shane Carwin relatively unproven against top competition, which is why he's at No. 10. Same for Brett Rogers, who doesn't crack the list yet.

-- Yes, Andrei Arlovski has lost two straight. But one was to the best heavyweight on the planet, the other could be considered a fluke. Should Demian Maia be dropped from the middleweight list for getting KO'd in 21 seconds by Nate Marquardt. No. It happens. Neither should Arlovski be dropped from the heavyweight Top 10, in my opinion. (Yet.)

-- Randy Couture stays at No. 8 after how well he performed Saturday. Any objections? (We'll wait until his first fight back at light-heavyweight before moving him to that division.)

-- Josh Barnett is still waiting on his appeal of his positive steroid test, which is scheduled for late October. Until then, I'm going to consider him innocent as far as these rankings go.

Pound-for-Pound

1. Anderson Silva

2. Georges St. Pierre

3. Fedor Emelianenko

4. Lyoto Machida

5. B.J. Penn

6. Brock Lesnar

7. Mike Brown

8. Rashad Evans

9. Quinton Jackson

10. Jon Fitch

Canadian pound-for-pound

1. Georges St. Pierre (St. Isidore, Que.)

2. Patrick Cote (Quebec City)

3. Sam Stout (London, Ont.)

4. Denis Kang (Vancouver)

5. Mark Bocek (Toronto)

6. Krzysztof Soszynski (Winnipeg)

7. Jason MacDonald (Red Deer, Alta.)

8. Mark Hominick (Thamesford, Ont.)

9. Jonathan Goulet (Victoriaville, Que.)

10. John Alessio (Duncan, B.C.)

Heavyweight

1. Fedor Emelianenko

2. Brock Lesnar

3. Frank Mir

4. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

5. Josh Barnett

6. Fabricio Werdum

7. Alistair Overeem

8. Randy Couture

9. Andrei Arlovski

10. Shane Carwin

Light heavyweight

1. Lyoto Machida

2. Rashad Evans

3. Quinton Jackson

4. Thiago Silva

5. Forrest Griffin

6. Keith Jardine

7. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

8. Mauricio Rua

9. Rich Franklin

10. Gegard Mousasi

Middleweight

1. Anderson Silva

2. Nate Marquardt

3. Dan Henderson

4. Patrick Cote

5. Yushin Okami

6. Ricardo Almeida

7. Demian Maia

8. Paulo Filho

9. Robbie Lawler

10. Yoshihiro Akiyama

Welterweight

1. Georges St. Pierre

2. Jon Fitch

3. Thiago Alves

4. Jake Shields

5. Mike Swick

6. Carlos Condit

7. Josh Koscheck

8. Dustin Hazelett

9. Matt Hughes

10. Martin Kampmann

Lightweight

1. B.J. Penn

2. Shinya Aoki

3. Kenny Florian

4. Sean Sherk

5. Eddie Alvarez

6. Joachim Hansen

7. Diego Sanchez

8. Gilbert Melendez

9. Gray Maynard

10. Frank Edgar

Featherweight

1. Mike Brown

2. Urijah Faber

3. Hatsu Hioki

4. Waggney Fabiano

5. Jose Aldo

6. Leonard Garcia

7. Raphael Assuncao

8. Hideki Kadowaki

9. Norifumi Yamamoto

10. Masakuza Imanari

Bantamweight

1. Brian Bowles

2. Miguel Torres

3. Takeya Mizugaki

4. Masakatsu Ueda

5. Dominick Cruz

6. Manny Tapia

7. Rani Yahya

8. Joseph Benavidez

9. Will Ribeiro

10. Akitoshi Tamura