Upset city

SPORTSNET.CA's mixed martial arts rankings

by (Big Game) James Brydon

as of March 8, 2010

February was another quiet month in the world of MMA in terms of major events (at least in comparison to what the next few weeks will be).

But there were plenty of upsets among the fights that did go down since the last rankings. Be it Cain Velasquez and George Sotiropoulos at the Feb. 20 UFC event in Australia or Dominick Cruz and Joseph Benavidez at the WEC this past weekend. What this means is new stars have emerged, while former top dogs have fallen.

Overall, not too many changes, but here are the new rankings...

Pound-for-pound

1. Anderson Silva

2. Georges St. Pierre

3. Fedor Emelianenko

4. B.J. Penn

5. Lyoto Machida

6. Mauricio Rua

7. Gegard Mousasi

8. Brock Lesnar

9. Jon Fitch

10. Jose Aldo

No changes.

Canadian pound-for-pound

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

2. Patrick Cote (Quebec City)

3. Sam Stout (London, Ont.)

4. Mark Bocek (Toronto)

5. Mark Hominick (Thamesford, Ont.)

6. Krzysztof Soszynski (Winnipeg)

7. Denis Kang (Vancouver)

8. Jason MacDonald (Red Deer, Alta.)

9. T.J. Grant (Cole Harbour, N.S.)

10. Rory MacDonald (Kelowna, B.C.)

Soszynski got a big win over Stephan Bonnar, and while it was controversial and will likely lead to a rematch, he looked strong enough in the fight to move up one spot over Denis Kang, who was released by the UFC not too long ago.

Heavyweight

1. Fedor Emelianenko

2. Brock Lesnar

3. Frank Mir

4. Shane Carwin

5. Cain Velasquez

6. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

7. Alistair Overeem

8. Junior Dos Santos

9. Fabricio Werdum

10. Josh Barnett

Velasquez stunned most people, including Nogueira, as much for the way he beat the former interim champ as for the fact he pulled out the upset. With one knockout blow, Velasquez rockets up the list, while Nogueira drops two rungs. I still like Carwin above Cain, but the former’s upcoming showdown vs. Mir should help further shape the division. Barnett still hangs on to the bottom spot; we’ll see how he does in his next fight, which is expected to be at the Dream show in two weeks.

Light heavyweight

1. Lyoto Machida

2. Mauricio Rua

3. Gegard Mousasi

4. Rashad Evans

5. Quinton Jackson

6. Thiago Silva

7. Forrest Griffin

8. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

9. Rich Franklin

10. Randy Couture

The unbeaten Ryan Bader, who took out Keith Jardine, is knocking on the door here (along with Brandon Vera, Jon Jones and Luiz Cane). The upcoming Vera vs. Jones bout will be key.

Middleweight

1. Anderson Silva

2. Dan Henderson

3. Chael Sonnen

4. Nate Marquardt

5. Demian Maia

6. Vitor Belfort

7. Jake Shields

8. Patrick Cote

9. Robbie Lawler

10. Jorge Santiago

Jorge Santiago defended his belt against Mamed Khalidov at the Sengoku show Sunday (getting revenge for their first fight) and he moves into the 10-hole, knocking off Paulo Filho. The winner between a pending bout between Yoshihiro Akiyama and Wanderlei Silva, who has suddenly gotten back into the mix after his win over Michael Bisping, could well move onto this list, depending on how things shake up in the next few months.

Welterweight

1. Georges St-Pierre

2. Jon Fitch

3. Thiago Alves

4. Dan Hardy

5. Paulo Thiago

6. Josh Koscheck

7. Mike Swick

8. Paul Daley

9. Nick Diaz

10. Martin Kampmann

This list stays the same, though there are a bunch of 35-year-olds who could threaten the rankings soon. Chris Lytle won at UFC 110, while Akihiro Gono won at Sengoku. Matt Serra is coming off a win in early February and Matt Hughes has an important fight against Renzo Gracie next month. (Technically, Hughes turned 36 late last year, but who’s counting?)

Lightweight

1. B.J. Penn

2. Shinya Aoki

3. Kenny Florian

4. Eddie Alvarez

5. Diego Sanchez

6. Gilbert Melendez

7. Gray Maynard

8. Joachim Hansen

9. Tatsuya Kawajiri

10. Frank Edgar

George Sotiropoulos delivered a pretty significant upset of Joe Stevenson in front of his home crowd, but the lightweight division is way too jammed to fit him in there at this stage. (And forget about the lightweight winners at WEC 47.) No changes here.

Featherweight

1. Jose Aldo

2. Mike Brown

3. Urijah Faber

4. Hatsu Hioki

5. Wagnney Fabiano

6. Raphael Assuncao

7. Bibiano Fernandes

8. Michihiro Omigawa

9. Josh Grispi

10. Manny Gamburyan

Marlon Sandro won at Sengoku, while L.C. Davis won at WEC 47, and both are on a bit of a roll. The last loss for each was against Omigawa (though Sandro’s loss -- his only one in his career -- would have been a majority draw had they not been required to select a winner.) In both guys cases, I’d like to see one more win before they crack the top 10.

Bantamweight

1. Dominick Cruz

2. Brian Bowles

3. Joseph Benavidez

4. Miguel Torres

5. Scott Jorgensen

6. Takeya Mizugaki

7. Masakatsu Ueda

8. Damacio Page

9. Rani Yahya

10. Will Ribeiro

This is where the major changes happened, thanks to the main and co-main event results on Saturday. I won’t break down all the movement at the top, only to say they pretty much rank themselves. (I never would have thought I’d see Torres down to No. 4 so quickly, but that’s what happens when you lose two straight to guys above you, both of whom lost to the No. 1. I guess I just did break it down.)

Previous rankings can be found by clicking here.