Showdown's year-end rankings

Showdown Joe Ferraro's year-end MMA rankings

As of December 31, 2011

These rankings, like many others, are subjective in nature and are simply an opinion based on fighters' performances, past record of competition and various hypotheses, facts, etc. Don't take them personally.

Heavyweight

1. Junior dos Santos

2. Cain Velasquez

3. Alistair Overeem

4. Brock Lesnar

5. Shane Carwin

6. Frank Mir

7. Fabricio Werdum

8. Josh Barnett

9. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

10. Daniel Cormier

Light heavyweight

1. Jon Jones

2. Dan Henderson

3. Mauricio Rua

4. Rashad Evans

5. Quinton Jackson

6. Lyoto Machida

7. Forrest Griffin

8. Phil Davis

9. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

10. Tito Ortiz

Middleweight

1. Anderson Silva

2. Chael Sonnen

3. Yushin Okami

4. Nate Marquardt

5. Mark Munoz

6. Demian Maia

7. Vitor Belfort

8. Luke Rockhold

9. Robbie Lawler

10. Brian Stann

Welterweight

1. Georges St-Pierre

2. Nick Diaz

3. Jon Fitch

4. Carlos Condit

5. Jake Ellenberger

6. Jake Shields

7. Josh Koscheck

8. Anthony Johnson

9. Johny Hendricks

10. Charlie Brenneman

Lightweight

1. Frankie Edgar

2. Gray Maynard

3. Gilbert Melendez

4. Ben Henderson

5. Jim Miller

6. Clay Guida

7. Nate Diaz

8. Anthony Pettis

9. Michael Chandler

10. Eddie Alvarez

Featherweight

1. Jose Aldo

2. Chad Mendes

3. Hatsu Hioki

4. Chan Sung Jung

5. Mark Hominick

6. Kenny Florian

7. Pat Curran

8. Marlon Sandro

9. Diego Nunes

10. Bart Palaszewski

Bantamweight

1. Dominick Cruz

2. Joseph Benavidez

3. Urijah Faber

4. Brian Bowles

5. Demetrious Johnson

6. Miguel Torres

7. Scott Jorgensen

8. Takeya Mizugaki

9. Masakatsu Ueda

10. Renan Barao

The rankings below are fictional, and the basis surrounding them are if the athletes were all the same weight (e.g. 170 pounds), how would they perform against one another.

Pound-for-pound (P4P)

1. Anderson Silva

2. Jon Jones

3. Georges St-Pierre

4. Frankie Edgar

5. Jose Aldo

6. Dan Henderson

7. Dominick Cruz

8. Nick Diaz

9. Rashad Evans

10. Jon Fitch

Women's pound-for-pound

1. Cristiane (Cyborg) Santos

2. Miesha Tate

3. Marloes Coenen

4. Zoila Frausto

5. Megumi Fujii

6. Sarah Kaufman

7. Liz Carmouche

8. Ronda Rousey

9. Tara Larosa

10. Rosi Sexton