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Compiling the rankings of twenty top mixed martial arts web sites, the USA TODAY / MMA Nation Consensus MMA Rankings present the top 25 fighters in MMA for the seven major weight classes. These world MMA rankings are the most accurate reflection of how the top fighters in MMA across all promotions like UFC, Strikeforce and ProElite are viewed by the experts who cover the sport.

Bantamweight MMA

Consensus Rankings posted August 27, 2009

Rank Fighter % Promotion Last Rank
1 Brian Bowles 100 WEC 2
2 Miguel Torres 96 WEC 1
3 Masakatsu Ueda 88 Shooto 3
4 Takeya Mizugaki 87 WEC 4
5 Dominick Cruz 84 WEC 11
6 Akitoshi Tamura 74 WEC 6
7 Joseph Benavidez 67 WEC 5
8 Rani Yahya 61 WEC 9
9 Damacio Page 55 WEC 8
10 Will Ribeiro 51 WEC 7
11 Manny Tapia 44 WEC 10
12 Jeff Curran 30 WEC 22
13 Eduardo Dantas 28 Shooto 14
14 Masakazu Imanari 26 DREAM 14
15 Antonio Banuelos 25 WEC 17
16 Atsushi Yamamoto 25 DREAM 16
16 Charlie Valencia 25 WEC 18
18 Koetsu Okazaki 24 Shooto 13
19 Abel Cullum 23 WEC NR
19 Daiki Hata 23 DREAM 19
21 Chase Beebe 22 DREAM 20
22 Jared McMahan 21 Corral Combat 23
22 Jeff Bedard 21 Fight Party 29
22 Yoshiro Maeda 21 DREAM 21
25 Mike Easton 20 UWC 24
0

Analysis by Luke Thomas

The reign of the mullet is officially over. Or, at least, over for now. With a dramatic stoppage win of former WEC bantamweight king Miguel Torres (now ranked #2) at WEC 42, current WEC bantamweight champion in #1 Brian Bowles has ascended to the peak of the 135lbs division.

Disagree? Read more & discuss at Bloody Elbow »

About the Rankings

compiled by Kid Nate and Richard Wade of Bloody Elbow

Bloody ElbowBased 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. Show more »

Sources

Jeremy Botter, Heavy MMA
Fight Matrix
Jordan Breen, Sherdog
Jim Genia, Full Contact Fighter
Jesse Holland, MMA Mania
Kevin Iole, Yahoo!
Eric Kamander, MMA Ratings
MMA Playground
MMA Weekly
Leland Roling, Bloody Elbow
Matthew Roth, Head Kick Legend
Wojslaw Rysiewski, MMA Rocks
Michael David Smith, MMA Fighting
Derek Suboticki, Fightlinker
Luke Thomas, SB Nation