L.A. Times October MMA Rankings

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Heavyweight

1. Brock Lesnar

2. Cain Velasquez

3. Junior Dos Santos

4. Fabricio Werdum

5. Fedor Emelianenko

6. Alistair Overeem

7. Shane Carwin

8. Frank Mir

9. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

10. Antonio Silva

It wasn’t pretty, but Frank Mir scored a knockout victory over legendary striker Mirko Cro Cop at UFC 119. The fight was reminiscent of a dreadful 2005 bout between Gabriel Gonzaga and Kevin Jordan. Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez will finally meet for the UFC heavyweight title this month in Anaheim. It’s the most important fight of Velasquez’s life.

Light Heavyweight

1. Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua

2. Lyoto Machida

3. Rashad Evans

4. Quinton Jackson

5. Forrest Griffin

6. Jon Jones

7. Gegard Mousasi

8. Thiago Silva

9. Ryan Bader

10. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira tumbles down the rankings following a second consecutive uninspired performance. Rogerio may have more gas left in the tank than his twin brother Rodrigo, but it hasn’t been evident recently. Gegard Mousasi won for the second straight time via first round submission following an upset loss to King Mo Lawal.

Middleweight

1. Anderson Silva

2. Chael Sonnen

3. Jake Shields

4. Nate Marquardt

5. Dan Henderson

6. Yushin Okami

7. Jacare Souza

8. Demian Maia

9. Vitor Belfort

10. Cung Le

Nate Marquardt’s September win over Rousimar Palhares featured a little bit of divine justice. Palhares ignored a referee’s instruction to break a submission hold in his last fight, injuring his opponent in a display of extremely poor sportsmanship. Against Marquardt, Palhares complained of greasing. The referee ignored his cries and Marquardt quickly capitalized on his opponent’s indecision to score a TKO victory. A check after the fight revealed no truth to the greasing allegation.

Welterweight

1. Georges St. Pierre

2. Jon Fitch

3. Josh Koscheck

4. Nick Diaz

5. Thiago Alves

6. Dan Hardy

7. Martin Kampmann

8. Matt Hughes

9. John Hathaway

10. Paul Daley

Nick Diaz scored a hard fought victory over K.J. Noons to retain his Strikeforce welterweight title, but he needs to improve his wrestling to defeat upper echelon wrestling-oriented welterweights. Paul Daley moves back into the top 10 with his second post-UFC victory.

Lightweight

1. Frank Edgar

2. Gilbert Melendez

3. Gray Maynard

4. B.J. Penn

5. Eddie Alvarez

6. Kenny Florian

7. Shinya Aoki

8. George Sotiropoulos

9. Tatsuya Kawajiri

10. Evan Dunham

Evan Dunham doesn’t slip out of the top 10 following a loss to Sean Sherk, in large part because it was a terrible judges’ decision. Josh Thomson and JZ Cavalcante showed their elite skills in an excellent Strikeforce bout, but it is tough to squeeze into the lightweight top 10. It is the deepest division in MMA.

Featherweight

1. Jose Aldo

2. Urijah Faber

3. Bibiano Fernandes

4. Mike Brown

5. Hatsu Hioki

6. Marlon Sandro

7. Josh Grispi

8. Manny Gamburyan

9. Joe Warren

10. Joachim Hansen

Jose Aldo decisively defeated Manny Gamburyan and moved Gamburyan down the rankings. There aren’t a lot of strong contenders left for Aldo in the WEC 145 pound division. Joe Warren moves into the top 10 following four consecutive wins in Bellator.

Bantamweight

1. Dominick Cruz

2. Brian Bowles

3. Joseph Benavidez

4. Miguel Torres

5. Scott Jorgensen

6. Takeya Mizugaki

7. Wagnney Fabiano

8. Masakatsu Ueda

9. Damacio Page

10. Eddie Wineland

Miguel Torres scored a much needed win over Charlie Valencia. He could be headed for a showdown with Urijah Faber at 135 pounds. It would likely be the most marketable fight WEC can make at any weight.

--Todd Martin