USAT/SBN August MMA Consensus Rankings: Bantamweight

Rankings compiled by Richard Wade.

The reign of the mullet is officially over. Or, at least, over for now.

With a dramatic stoppage win over former WEC bantamweight king Miguel Torres (now ranked #2) at WEC 42, current WEC bantamweight champion in #1 Brian Bowles has ascended to the peak of the 135lbs division. No word has yet been offered for either Bowles or Torres in terms of when they'll compete next, but expect Torres to get a tune-up fight before a possible rematch.

Shooto's "Featherweight" king #3 Masakatsu Ueda is still undefeated and holds steady at three after a unanimous decision rout of #13 Eduardo Dantas at "Revolutionary Exchanges". No word yet on when or who Ueda will fight next.

#4 Takeya Mizugaki holds steady in his spot after a controversial split decision win over #12 Jeff Curran at WEC 42. While Mizugaki did not soundly defeat Curran as expected, he did demonstrate strong punching power and resilience in bad positions/near submissions and looks to get another crack at the 135lbs title with the win.

Team Alliance's #5 Dominick Cruz looked positively sensational at WEC 42 with a drubbing of Team Alpha Male's #7 Joseph Benavidez. From bell to bell, Cruz stuffed Benavidez's offense and worked a superior, more technical striking game the whole way through. A Cruz vs. Mizugaki match would be a nice contender eliminator for the WEC's bantamweight division.

Another title contender bout in the WEC bantamweight division is set to take place at WEC 43 between #6 Akitoshi Tamura and #9 Damacio Page. Tamura is entering this bout fresh off of a win over previous contender #11 Manny Tapia at WEC 40 while Page is still basking in the glow of his brutal knockout of Marcos Galvao. Whichever fighter wins this bout is likely to earn a title shot or a title shot eliminator bout soon thereafter.

Submission ace #8 Rani Yahya looked impressive at WEC 42 with a tremendous if somewhat expected win over previously unbeaten Josh Hosman with a nasty North-South choke.

Lastly, DC local #25 Mike Easton (who is set to take on #21 Chase Beebe at UWC 7) drops one spot, but remains in the rankings.

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.