USAT/SBN October MMA Consensus Rankings: Featherweight

Somebody's gotta live like this, indeed.

American Top Team's #1 Mike Thomas Brown continues to be the top-ranked fighter in MMA's featherweight division. He is set to defend his title against #3 Jose Aldo at WEC 44 on November 18th in Las Vegas. As many have suggested, no one has truly pushed the Novia Uniao black belt, so it's not clear what can really be expected of the talented prospect. There is the rumor Aldo could drop to bantamweight in order to avoid facing Wagnney Fabiano, but with his loss at WEC 43 such a move many not be in the cards.

Small word on #2 Urijah Faber: he's been cleared to resume training. The former WEC champion has resumed both boxing, bag hitting and wrestling at his Team Alpha Male headquarters and is set to take on #6 Rafael Assuncao at WEC 46.

"The Iron Broomstick" in #4 Hatsu Hioki is still hanging around the top five and could see a return at Sengoku's New Year's Eve event. But first Hioki and Omigawa will fight at Sengoku's November 7th show, with the winner likely challenging #17 Masanori Kanehara for the title on New Year's Eve.

Making a leap into the top team for the first time is DREAM's Featherweight Grand Prix winner #6 Bibiano Fernandes who bested Joe Warren and #12 Hiroyuki Takaya at DREAM's October 6th show.

After besting #19 Jameel Massouh at WEC 42, Greg Jackson-product #7 Leonard Garcia drops one spot but hangs on to top-10 placing for the time being. He takes on recent featherweight convert Manny Gamburyan at WEC 44.

Taking a monster hit and drop in the rankings is formerly number three and now #8 Wagnney Fabiano. After a shocking triangle choke loss to now #10 Mackens Semerzier at WEC 43, the Novia Unaio product was expected to contend for a title in 2010, but now looks merely to rebound after the major upset. As for Semerzier, no word yet on when he'll get back in the WEC cage, but expect him to be used soon as he sustained little damage during his bout with Fabiano.

Lastly, #9 Takeshi Inoue falls one spot, but remains in the top 10 after beating the Rumina Sato in Shooto back in May. He takes on Alexandre "Pequeno" Nogueira at the return of Vale Tudo Japan.

Based on the premise that all MMA rankings are subjective but that it’s still useful and informative to know who the online MMA community as a whole ranks as the best fighters in MMA, we collect and average the rankings of the top MMA websites to produce our consensus rankings. Show more "

We compile the top MMA rankings from each of our sources and award 25 points for a first place ranking, 16 for a 10th place ranking, 1 for a 25th place ranking. A formula is used to "normalize" the data so all fighters are awarded points from those lists that do not include a full 25 fighters. This formula ensures that each ranking site awards the same number of total points regardless of how many fighters they choose to rank. Each fighter’s total is divided by the number of possible points to determine their standing in the Consensus Rankings.