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Around SBN: The Gift Of The 2003 Tigers

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.

Light Heavyweight MMA

Consensus Rankings posted March 25, 2009

Rank Fighter % Promotion Last Rank
1 Rashad Evans 99 UFC 1
2 Quinton Jackson 94 UFC 2
3 Lyoto Machida 92 UFC 3
4 Forrest Griffin 89 UFC 4
5 Chuck Liddell 77 UFC 5
6 Wanderlei Silva 71 UFC 6
7 Keith Jardine 64 UFC 7
8 Mauricio Rua 60 UFC 8
9 Antonio Rogerio Nogueira 53 Affliction 9
10 Renato Sobral 52 Strikeforce 11
11 Thiago Silva 49 UFC 10
12 Dan Henderson 42 UFC 12
13 Luis Cane 37 UFC 13
14 Rich Franklin 29 UFC 14
15 Tito Ortiz 25 UFC 15
16 Vladimir Matyushenko 21 Affliction 16
17 Brandon Vera 19 UFC 20
18 Matt Hamill 18 UFC 17
19 Steve Cantwell 16 UFC 18
20 Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou 15 Affliction 19
21 Rafael Cavalcante 15 Strikeforce 22
22 Jon Jones 14 UFC 30
23 Muhammed Lawal 13 WVR 23
23 Jared Hamman 13 Strikeforce 21
25 Jason Brilz 13 UFC 27
40

Analysis by Kid Nate

The next major fight at Light Heavyweight will be #5 Chuck Liddell against #8 Mauricio "Shogun" Rua at UFC 97 on April 18th. It's hard to believe that this fight is very close to being a "loser leaves town" match.

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