Rankings compiled by Richard Wade.

The biggest MW news this month didn't impact the rankings but will have a lasting impact on the UFC title picture. I'm referring to #2 Chael Sonnen's failed drug test which has cancelled his rematch with #1 Anderson Silva.

With Sonnen out, Silva will face #5 Vitor Belfort in early 2011. #8 Yushin Okami will face #3 Nate Marquardt instead of Belfort at UFC 122.

Before we get there though, #12 Michael Bisping and #17 Yoshihiro Akiyama will headline UFC 120.

Strikeforce made a lot of noise a few months back talking about a middleweight tournament. Instead we got #10 Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza fighting Tim Kennedy for the vacant belt.

Since then, Strikeforce has been quiet about its plans for the division. They booked Matt Lindland vs Luke Rockhold but had to cancel that fight due to injuries to Rockhold.

#7 Dan Henderson is moving up to 205lbs to fight Renato "Babalu" Sobral in a #1 contender's bout, but no word on what's next for Souza, Kennedy, Lindland or #11 Robbie Lawler. Also no word on whether Sengoku champ #9 Jorge Santiago will be returning to Strikeforce anytime soon.

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.

Let's take Anderson Silva for instance. 87% (13 of 15) of our panelists have him at Light Heavyweight and 100% (15 of 15) at Middleweight. On the 13 ballots that ranked Silva at 205, we took the average (21.2). We then reduced that number by half the percentage of Light Heavyweight ballots that he was not included on. Say he's not on 30% of them, then we do a 15% penalty on the average that we found in the previous step. That number is then used instead of the usual "normalization number" to provide points from those not ranking the fighter in the weight class in question. This avoids fighters being excessively penalized by confusion about which weight class they belong.