Rankings compiled by Richard Wade.

We have about six weeks to wait for #1 Georges St. Pierre vs Josh Koscheck for all the marbles at UFC 124 on December 11. The Ultimate Fighter will do its best to keep us riled up and ready for what promises to be an epic confrontation.

Meanwhile as Mike Fagan discussed this morning, poor #2 Jon Fitch seems to have lost the title shot he was promised if he beat #4 Thiago Alves at UFC 117.

Instead #5 Jake Shields will get the winner of GSP vs Koscheck for all the marbles. Shields' win over #6 Martin Kampmann was anything but impressive or entertaining, but Dana White is sticking to his guns on that one.

#4 Thiago Alves missed weight for his UFC 117 fight and that had Dana White urging him to move up to 185lbs. Instead Alves hired a new nutritionist and will face John Howard at UFC 124. If he wins that he wants #10 Dan Hardy who's fresh off a KO loss to #8 Carlos Condit at UFC 120.

Strikeforce champ #7 Nick Diaz beat K.J. Noons to retain his title and, since he fights for Strikeforce, there is no challenger on the horizon. Other than middleweight Jason "Mayhem" Miller who's been calling Diaz out since their on-air brawl in April.

#11 Paul Daley might get a title shot if he beats Scott Smith at his Strikeforce debut in December.

#13 Diego Sanchez is talking about returning to the 155lb division even after his win over #12 Paulo Thiago at UFC 121.

#15 Jay Hieron is apparently struggling to escape from his Strikeforce contract but hasn't quite gotten free apparently.

#17 Ben Askren won the Bellator welterweight title by beating #30 Lyman Good in a five round decision at Bellator 33.

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.

We are now moving to what JCS of Fight Matrix has described as assumed rankings in an attempt to rank fighters who move between weight classes. This has been the biggest problem with the consensus rankings and we believe this new methodology will rectify that.