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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.

Lightweight MMA

Consensus Rankings posted June 25, 2009

Rank Fighter % Promotion Last Rank
1 B.J. Penn 97 UFC 1
2 Kenny Florian 90 UFC 2
3 Eddie Alvarez 86 Bellator 4
4 Shinya Aoki 82 DREAM 3
5 Joachim Hansen 77 DREAM 5
6 Tatsuya Kawajiri 69 DREAM 8
7 Frank Edgar 69 UFC 13
8 Sean Sherk 56 UFC 6
9 Satoru Kitaoka 54 WVR 10
10 Gray Maynard 50 UFC 12
11 Josh Thomson 46 Strikeforce 9
12 Diego Sanchez 40 UFC 11
13 Gesias Cavalcante 35 DREAM 7
14 Tyson Griffin 22 UFC 15
15 Takanori Gomi 22 WVR 14
15 Jamie Varner 22 WEC 19
17 Spencer Fisher 21 UFC 24
18 Eiji Mitsuoka 20 WVR 21
19 Clay Guida 20 UFC 18
20 Gilbert Melendez 18 Strikeforce 16
21 Vitor Ribeiro 18 DREAM 20
22 Roger Huerta 16 UFC 23
23 Nate Diaz 14 UFC 25
24 Mitsuhiro Ishida 14 DREAM 17
25 Joe Lauzon 14 UFC 25
16

Analysis by Kid Nate

Lightweight is currently the only division where there is not absolute consensus about who is #1. #1 B.J. Penn is well ahead of the next most-highly ranked fighter, but only gets 97% of the possible points. There are a number of factors in operation here.

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