Rankings compiled by Richard Wade.

He may have broken his hand against Miguel Torres, but he's set to defend his title.

I'm talking, of course, of #1 Brian Bowles who still reigns over the bantamweight division after defeating # 2 Miguel Torres at WEC 42. The WEC has finally announced his next fight, which will be against contender and former featherweight #3 Dominick Cruz at WEC 47 on March 6th in Columbus, Ohio. Like Josh Barnett prior to his ill-fated fight with Fedor Emelianenko, Cruz is enjoying a nice bump in the rankings due to his contender status.

Shooto's Featherweight standout #4 Masakatsu Ueda is still undefeated and and still holding the fourth spot after a unanimous decision win over BJJ ace #24 Eduardo Dantas at "Revolutionary Exchanges". According to Sherdog.com's Jordan Breen, we still have no word on when Ueda will fight next

#5 Takeya Mizugaki stays in the fifth position as he is set to take on #14 Scott Jorgensen as part of the feature card of WEC 45 this weekend.

#6 Rani Yahya trades places with now #7Joseph Benavidez. The two are set to tangle for bantamweight supremacy also this weekend at WEC 45 in Las Vegas.

#8 Damacio Page was all set to take on Mizugaki this weekend at WEC 45, but was forced to withdraw from the bout due to injury. No word yet on when "The Angel of Death" will return to the blue cage.

#9 Akitoshi Tamura continues to drop in the rankings from inactivity, but is finally back on track. The Japanese import will lock horns with #16 Charlie Valencia at WEC 46 in January.

#10 Eddie Wineland finally gets back into the top ten and is still on a high after defeating Manny Tapia at WEC 43. The former champion returns to action at WEC 46 in January where he'll face another Brazilian member of American Top Team in Rafael Rebello.

The badly injured #11 Will Ribeiro remains in the top fifteen of the division despite suffering what are likely to be career-ending injuries. He hasn't fought since

Strangely, former #19 Mark Oshiro drops completely out of the rankings despite not losing in the time since the previous rankings while Ribeiro is perched tightly to the top ten (or close to it) despite not competing due to what are likely to be career-ending injuries.

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.