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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.

Light Heavyweight MMA

Consensus Rankings posted December 17, 2009

Rank Fighter % Promotion Last Rank
1 Lyoto Machida 100 UFC 1
2 Mauricio Rua 92 UFC 2
3 Rashad Evans 91 UFC 3
4 Quinton Jackson 83 UFC 4
5 Forrest Griffin 79 UFC 5
6 Antonio Rogerio Nogueira 76 UFC 9
7 Gegard Mousasi 76 Strikeforce 6
8 Thiago Silva 71 UFC 7
9 Anderson Silva 51 UFC 8
10 Randy Couture 41 UFC NR
11 Luis Arthur Cane 40 UFC 10
12 Rich Franklin 37 UFC 11
13 Dan Henderson 31 Strikeforce 13
14 Renato Sobral 30 Strikeforce 14
15 Keith Jardine 30 UFC 12
16 Jon Jones 27 UFC 15
17 Brandon Vera 22 UFC 17
18 Matt Hamill 21 UFC 20
19 Sokoudjou 21 DREAM/Strikeforce 18
20 Chuck Liddell 20 UFC 16
21 Tito Ortiz 20 UFC 25
22 Vitor Belfort 19 UFC 23
23 Wanderlei Silva 19 UFC 22
24 Mark Coleman 18 UFC 21
25 Paulo Filho 18 DREAM 24
44

Analysis by Nate Wilcox

No division has seen more movement at the very top ranks in the last year than light heavyweight. MMA fans have said "The King is Dead, Long Live the (new) King" of the division more times at 205lbs than happens in most divisions in five years.

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