USAT/SBN April MMA Consensus Rankings: Bantamweight

Rankings compiled by Richard Wade.

The Alliance Gym's bantamweight king, broken hand and all, still sits atop the division.

At WEC 47, the Alliance Gym bantamweight #1 Dominick Cruz easily out kickboxed #2 Brian Bowles at WEC 47 last month. There's no word yet on when either man will return to action. WEC 49 will not feature a title defense and while most suspect #3 Joseph Benavidez will be the next title challenger, there are plenty of reasons to not make that fight right away.

#4 Miguel Torres stays in the fourth spot, although his marketability has taken a hit after the loss to Bowles and then Benavidez. His gruesome forehead cut has likely healed, but there's no word yet on when the former champion will return to action.

#5 Scott Jorgensen jumps a spot to the fifth position. The former Boise State wreslter is on a tear and recently avenged a loss at WEC 48 to #15 Antonio Banuelos. 

#6 Takeya Mizugaki does himself some favors in the rankings by besting jiu-jitsu ace Rani Yahya on the undercard of WEC 48. Still, it's not clear going forward how Mizugaki can either make a name for himself or find a comfortable spot in the top five.

Strangely, Greg Jackson-product #7 Damacio Page jumps two spots despite not competing. "The Angel of Death" was  set to comppete at WEC 48 against Banuelos, he was forced off the card with an injury. No word on his return date yet.

In a much more sensible position, #8 Masakatsu Ueda falls three spots to number 8. In a major upset, Ueda recently lost his Shooto Featherweight title to Shuichiro Katsumura by guillotine choke in the second round at "The Way of Shooto 2". The good news? The previously unranked Katsumura is now number fourteen in the world for his slick submission.

#9 Rani Yahya manages to hang on to the top ten despite up and down performances in the WEC. Most recently, he lost to #6 Mizugaki on the undercard of WEC 48. Given his limited skill set, Yahya will likely remain competitive but will find it hard to ever make headway in the WEC.

#10 Wagnney Fabiano remains in the top ten. His last win and first at bantamweight at WEC 46 remains his claim to fame for being ranked at 135lbs, however, he is set to take on Frankie Gomez at WEC 49 in June.

Strange movement of the month? Previously ranked Mike Easton (#25) is now gone from the rankings. Who replaced him? The man who lost to him and subsequently to Yoshiro Maeda: Chase Beebe. Beebe hasn't competed since his loss to Maeda.

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.