Rankings compiled by Richard.

The UFC continues to utterly dominate this weight class with 20 of the top 25 under contract to Zuffa. Strikeforce is a (very) distant second with three and Affliction and DREAM both have a single ranked welterweight under contract.

Strikeforce's division is so lean that #4 Jake Shields will be moving up to challenge their middleweight champion (ranked #6 in his division) Robbie Lawler at their May Showtime event. Their other draw at welterweight, #20 Nick Diaz, trains with Shields and therefore he too is moving up to find fights. Diaz will face middleweight Scott Smith at a catchweight on that same card.

UFC champion #1 Georges St Pierre may find himself pulled up in weight if he convincingly defeats #2 Thiago Alves at UFC 100 on July 11. GSP will have pretty well cleared out the division at that point and a fight against #1 middleweight Anderson Silva would be very hard to resist.

UFC 100 will also see #3 Jon Fitch against #12 Paul Thiago as the American Kickboxing Academy fighter attempts to avenge his teammate #7 Josh Koscheck's loss to Thiago.

The big mover in the April welterweight rankings is #8 Martin Kampmann, jumping thirty places from #38 following his split decision win over #7 Carlos Condit at UFN 18 on April Fool's Day. The arrival of Kampmann, along with the continuing emergence of #9 Mike Swick, gives the UFC some new contenders to challenge for the title. Swick needs to beat the unranked Ben Saunders at UFC 99 in Germany on June 13 to continue his rise.

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.

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.