Rankings compiled by Richard Wade.

If you want to see utter dominance in MMA, take a look at the UFC welterweight division. Nineteen out of the top twenty-five fighters in the division. Nine out of the top ten. Twelve of the top fifteen.

The UFC puts the beatdown on the competition in this division worse than #1 Georges St Pierre does on his challengers.

Speaking of which, its looking like #7 Mike Swick vs #12 Dan Hardy at UFC 105 will determine the next challenger for GSP's belt.

Originally Swick was going to fight #11 Martin Kampmann (formerly #6) at UFC 103 to win a title shot, but he got hurt and then #9 Paul Daley hurt Kampmann.

Sadly for Dana White, Daley's record (and his weak performance against Jake Shields) means he is several impressive wins away from a title shot.

UFC 106 will see a pair of clashes that should impact the division: #2 Jon Fitch vs Ricardo Almeida and #13 Karo Parisyan vs #22 Dustin Hazelett.

Fitch will be welcoming Almeida to the division, down from middleweight where Almeida was a long-time contender who never quite made that title run. We'll see if Fitch snuffs out yet another potential contender.

The Parisyan vs Hazelett bout seems perfectly positioned to get the up and coming Hazelett over at the expense of the troubled long-time contender Parisyan. Hazelett is a huge welterweight with powerful striking to complement his aggressive jiu jitsu game. If Parisyan is able to win in impressive fashion he'll be back on track, but that's a tall order.

UFC 107 will pit #3 Thiago Alves against #10 Paulo Thiago. This is a chance for Alves to send a message to the division that he remains a very scary threat to any contender. Likewise, it is Paulo Thiago's chance to prove that his win over #4 Josh Koscheck was no fluke.

No word on what's next for Koscheck or the man he's tied for #4 Matt Hughes. One thing appears certain -- Hughes won't be fighting Koscheck, Fitch or Swick anytime soon. Apparently Hughes is another fighter on the new UFC "senior circuit" so look for him to be featured in lucrative but irrelevant matches. Personally I think its a bit of a waste and counter to the traditions of the fight game to protect the old guard. Joe Louis lost to Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali lost to Larry Holmes, Larry Holmes lost to Mike Tyson. It's the nature of the beast -- the new generation kills and eats the old guard.

#8 Carlos Condit was lucky to get away from his UFN 19 bout with Jake Ellenberger with a split decision. As gritty a performance as that was from Condit, it's far short of the expectations the former WEC champ brought into the UFC.

The big riser in the division is #14 Dan Hornbuckle whose victory over the former #19 Nick "the Goat" Thompson at Sengoku X, quickly on the heels of his brutal KTFO win over the respected Akihiro Gono at Sengoku IX propelled him up nineteen slots in the rankings.

The rise of Hornbuckle is comparable to the surge #15 Marius Zaromskis enjoyed a couple of months back after winning the DREAM 170lb tournament.

#16 Jay Hieron is still hoping he'll eventually get to face #18 Nick Diaz for the coveted Strikeforce welterweight belt. Hopefully that fight will happen at some point, but something tells me that Diaz won't be fighting on CBS any time soon after his string of problems with various athletic commissions.

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.