MMA Connected rankings

Sportsnet Staff December 21, 2010, 8:42 PM

Showdown Joe Ferraro’s MMA Connected rankings
As of December 20, 2010

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. Cain Velasquez

2. Brock Lesnar

3. Shane Carwin

4. Junior dos Santos

5. Fabricio Werdum

6. Fedor Emelianenko

7. Frank Mir

8. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

9. Alistair Overeem

10. Josh Barnett

Light heavyweight

1. Mauricio Rua

2. Rashad Evans

3. Quinton Jackson

4. Lyoto Machida

5. Forrest Griffin

6. Ryan Bader

7. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

8. Jon Jones

9. Thiago Silva

10. Rafael Cavalcante

Middleweight

1. Anderson Silva

2. Chael Sonnen

3. Yushin Okami

4. Nate Marquardt

5. Dan Henderson

6. Demian Maia

7. Vitor Belfort

8. Robbie Lawler

9. Alan Belcher

10. Michael Bisping

Welterweight

1. Georges St. Pierre

2. Jon Fitch

3. Thiago Alves

4. Josh Koscheck

5. Nick Diaz

6. Jake Shields

7. Martin Kampmann

8. Carlos Condit

9. Dan Hardy

10. Paul Daley

Lightweight

1. Frank Edgar

2. BJ Penn

3. Gray Maynard

4. Kenny Florian

5. Gilbert Melendez

6. Anthony Pettis

7. Ben Henderson

8. Shinya Aoki

9. Eddie Alvarez

10. Evan Dunham

Featherweight

1. Jose Aldo

2. Manvel Gamburyan

3. Mike Brown

4. Hatsu Hioki

5. Bibiano Fernandes

6. Marlon Sandro

7. Michihiro Omigawa

8. Masanori Kanehara

9. Josh Grispi

10. Mark Hominick

Bantamweight

1. Dominick Cruz

2. Brian Bowles

3. Joseph Benavidez

4. Miguel Torres

5. Scott Jorgensen

6. Urijah Faber

7. Takeya Mizugaki

8. Damacio Page

9. Masakatsu Ueda

10. Rani Yahya

<!–For comparison, Big Game James Brydon's sportsnet.ca rankings can be viewed here.–>

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

1. Georges St. Pierre

2. Anderson Silva

3. Jose Aldo

4. Fedor Emelianenko

5. Mauricio Rua

6. Frank Edgar

7. BJ Penn

8. Jake Shields

9. Jon Fitch

10. Lyoto Machida

Women’s pound-for-pound