Champs & Rankings
MMATorch.com Official Rankings - October 2009
By By Matt Pelkey, MMATorch Columnist
Oct 8, 2009 - 1:40:30 PM

HEAVYWEIGHT

1. Fedor Emelianenko (60 pts.)
2. Brock Lesnar (54)
3. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera (44)
4. Frank Mir (42)
5. Shane Carwin (30)
6. Josh Barnett (26)
7. Randy Couture (20)
8. Junior Dos Santos (18)
9. Cain Velasquez (15)
10. Brett Rogers (13)

Others receiving votes: Alistair Overeem (3), Fabricio Werdum (3), Andrei Arlovski (2)


LIGHT-HEAVYWEIGHT

1. Lyoto Machida (60)
2. Quinton Jackson (51)
3. Rashad Evans (49)
4. Mauricio Rua (37)
5. Gegard Mousasi (33)
6. Forrest Griffin (30)
7. Thiago Silva (22)
8. Antonio Rogerio Noguiera (19)
9. Rich Franklin (16)
10. Luiz Cane (11)

Others receiving votes: Vladimir Matyushenko (2)


MIDDLEWEIGHT

1. Anderson Silva (60)
2. Dan Henderson (50)
3. Nate Marquardt (49)
4. Vitor Belfort (43)
5. Yushin Okami (34)
6. Robbie Lawler (22)
7. Demian Maia (20)
8. Jorge Santiago (18)
9. Yoshihiro Akiyama (9)
10. Jake Shields (6)

Others receiving votes: Jason Miller (5), Michael Bisping (5), Kazuo Misaki (3), Chael Sonnen (3), Matt Lindland (2), Chris Leben (1)


WELTERWEIGHT

1. Georges St. Pierre (60)
2. Jon Fitch (51)
3. Thiago Alves (42)
4. Jake Shields (39)
5. Josh Koscheck (35)
6. Mike Swick (21)
7. Matt Hughes (16)
8.(tie) Paul Daley (12)
8.(tie) Carlos Condit (12)
10. Nick Diaz (11)

Others receiving votes: Martin Kampmann (10), Brock Larson (7), Paulo Thiago (7), Dan Hardy (4), Jay Hieron (2), Mike Pierce (1)


LIGHTWEIGHT

1. BJ Penn (60)
2. Shinya Aoki (48)
3. Eddie Alvarez (40)
4. Diego Sanchez (30)
5. Kenny Florian (29)
6. Frankie Edgar (25)
7. Gray Maynard (24)
8. Joachim Hansen (20)
9. Tatsuya Kawajiri (16)
10. Gilbert Melendez (8)

Others receiving votes: Josh Thomson (7), Sean Sherk (5), Gesias Calvancante (4), Tyson Griffin (4), Mizuto Hirota (4), Satoru Kitaoka (3), Joe Stevenson (2), Takanori Gomi (1)


Voters: Jamie Penick, Frank Hyden, Alex Williams, Matt Pelkey, Rich Boles, Bjorn Hansen


Pelkey's Analysis: We added a couple new voters this week and it did a pretty good job of shaking up the rankings. Big winners since last time were Vitor Belfort and Paul Daley, while the losers were Martin Kampmann and Brock Larson dropped out of the welterweight top-10. Diego Sanchez backers should be satisfied. He's gone from unranked all the way up to #4 without even having to fight. Strange. Same goes for Matt Hughes, who I thought was gone for good, only to reappear despite not having fought in months.

Lightweight continues to be the deepest division around, with 18 fighters total receiving votes. Light-heavyweight is the most top-heavy with a near consensus top-10. For people who complain about the UFC's title shots being handed out without rhyme or reason, the middleweight division seems to have set up a nice little mini-tournament, right down to the 1 seed facing the 4, the 2 vs. the 3, and the winners of the two fights assuredly meeting to crown one true champion. It won't change the fact that Anderson Silva is beyond unbeatable at 185, but it sure looks nice on paper. If you have any other questions or comments about the rankings, let me know at matt6buckeye@hotmail.com or leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

[Fedor art credit Cory Gould (c) MMATorch]

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