USA TODAY/MMA Nation October 2011 Consensus Rankings: Bantamweight

by Richard Wade on Oct 27, 2011 6:00 PM EDT

Rank	Fighter	%	Promotion	Last Rank
1	Dominick Cruz	100	UFC	1
2	Joseph Benavidez	93	UFC	2
3	Brian Bowles	91	UFC	3
4	Urijah Faber	90	UFC	4
5	Demetrious Johnson	80	UFC	5
6	Scott Jorgensen	79	UFC	6
7	Miguel Torres	68	UFC	7
8	Brad Pickett	62	UFC	8
9	Takeya Mizugaki	54	UFC	9
10	Masakatsu Ueda	41	Shooto	10
11	Renan Barao	35	UFC	12
12	Wagnney Fabiano	33	UFC	11
13	Eddie Wineland	30	UFC	13
13	Michael McDonald	30	UFC	14
15	Alexis Vila	27	Bellator	16
16	Bibiano Fernandes	26		19
17	Antonio Banuelos	25		15
18	Damacio Page	23		18
19	Zach Makovsky	22	Bellator	17
20	Masakazu Imanari	20		20
21	Joe Warren	18	Bellator	21
22	Hideo Tokoro	16		22
23	Charlie Valencia	14	UFC	23
24	Takafumi Otsuka	13		24
25	Raphael Assuncao	13		25

UFC 139 features one of the best possible bantamweight match ups available in #3 Brian Bowles vs. Urijah Faber.

#8 Brad Pickett will take on #11 Renan Barao at UFC 138 in a bout that should place the winner "in the mix."

And UFC 137 will see #6 Scott Jorgensen welcome the unranked Jeff Curran back to the UFC.

Bellator 59 will be headlined by the Bantamweight tournament finals as #15 Alexis Vila takes on unranked Eduardo Dantas.

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.