Image from www.cdn.sherdog.com

No, this is not an official Bloody Elbow meta-ranking, since I don't work for them, but I did manage to find 5 sites that had Flyweight rankings that didn't mix genders (like MMA ELO), and decided to combine their rankings using BE's formula modified for a mere Top 10, giving anyone ranked #1 ten points, #2 nine points, and so forth. Sherdog, Fight Matrix, MMARocks, FiveKnuckles.com, and MMARising.com all have relatively recent Flyweight rankings, and were the sources for this. The consensus #1 Flyweight was Jussier "Formiga" da Silva, who has been inactive since beating longtime #1 Shinichi "B.J." Kojima last July. Kojima was the consensus #2. See the rest of the rankings after the jump.

Also receiving points: Daniel Otero (6 points), Jessie Riggleman (4 points), Mitsuhara Sunabe (4 points), Masaaki Sunabe (3 points), Jesse Taitano (2 points), and Fumihiro Kitahara (1 point).

It seems Shooto has a near monopoly on top Flyweights. Furthermore, there's a remarkable amount of stagnancy there, as #1 Jussier da Silva, #2 Shinichi Kojima, #3 Yasuhiro Urushitani, and #9 Alexis Vila all have gone 6 months or more without a fight. It should also be noted that #8 Rambaa Somdet doesn't fight exclusively at Flyweight, as he also fights in Shooto's 114 lbs. Strawweight class (which they call "Flyweight"; they call their Flyweight class "Bantamweight," because apparently that's just how they roll), as the division's first Champion. As such, he was only listed in two of the five rankings, although it was still enough to get him into the top 10.

In my opinion, the WEC Flyweight division cannot come soon enough. If you've ever seen Rambaa Somdet fight, you know how talented and charismatic the guy is. There are currently some very good WEC fighters who could comfortably drop to Flyweight but aren't doing so since that's not an option. No offense to Shooto, which is an extremely important promotion to MMA history, and is still the gold standard at 125 lbs. and under (well, technically 123 lbs.), but I think a lot of questions would be answered about who truly are the world's top Flyweights if Zuffa could get behind the division and start running regular fights at the weight class.