| Rank | Fighter | % | Promotion | Last Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cain Velasquez | 99 | UFC | 1 |
| 2 | Brock Lesnar | 91 | UFC | 2 |
| 3 | Fedor Emelianenko | 89 | M-1 Global / Strikeforce | 3 |
| 4 | Fabricio Werdum | 87 | Strikeforce | 4 |
| 5 | Junior Dos Santos | 85 | UFC | 5 |
| 6 | Shane Carwin | 82 | UFC | 6 |
| 7 | Alistair Overeem | 77 | Strikeforce | 8 |
| 8 | Frank Mir | 75 | UFC | 7 |
| 9 | Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira | 69 | UFC | 9 |
| 10 | Antonio Silva | 54 | Strikeforce | 10 |
| 11 | Josh Barnett | 46 | Strikeforce | 11 |
| 12 | Brett Rogers | 39 | Strikeforce | 12 |
| 13 | Brendan Schaub | 36 | UFC | 13 |
| 14 | Roy Nelson | 34 | UFC | 14 |
| 15 | Cheick Kongo | 29 | UFC | 15 |
| 16 | Ben Rothwell | 26 | UFC | 17 |
| 17 | Andrei Arlovski | 25 | Strikeforce | 16 |
| 18 | Pedro Rizzo | 25 | Impact Fighting Championship | 18 |
| 19 | Cole Konrad | 21 | Bellator | 21 |
| 20 | Mirko Filipovic | 21 | UFC | 19 |
| 21 | Gabriel Gonzaga | 20 | UFC | 19 |
| 22 | Tim Sylvia | 19 | CageFX | 23 |
| 23 | Mike Russow | 18 | UFC | 22 |
| 24 | Stefan Struve | 17 | UFC | 24 |
| 25 | Jon Madsen | 14 | UFC | 28 |
Rankings compiled by Richard Wade.
With #1 Cain Velasquez out for up to eight months with rotator cuff surgery, the UFC had to do something big in the heavyweight division.
Especially since Strikeforce is suddenly making moves with their heavyweight tournament.
But Dana White came through big time by signing #2 Brock Lesnar and #5 Junior dos Santos to coach the next season of The Ultimate Fighter and then face off in a #1 contender's match.
#3 Fedor Emelianeko will kick off the Strikeforce tournament in February against #10 Antonio Silva.
#17 Andrei Arlovski will face Sergei Kharitonov on that same card in the opposite tournament bracket.
#4 Fabricio Werdum and #7 Alistair Overeem will be the other first round bout in the Fedor/Silva bracket. No date has been set yet although April seems likely. Strikeforce boss Scott Coker has talked openly of holding that round in Canada or possibly even Japan.
If #11 Josh Barnett can face #12 Brett Rogers in Japan that will post-pone Barnett's day of reckoning with American fighting commissions.
#8 Frank Mir is on to face #14 Roy Nelson at UFC 130.
#6 Shane Carwin and #15 Cheick Kongo are both rumored to be looking at returning at UFC 131, possibly against one another.
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.
We are now moving to what JCS of Fight Matrix has described as assumed rankings in an attempt to rank fighters who move between weight classes. This has been the biggest problem with the consensus rankings and we believe this new methodology will rectify that.
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