| Rank | Fighter | % | Promotion | Last Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brian Bowles | 100 | WEC | 1 |
| 2 | Miguel Torres | 95 | WEC | 2 |
| 3 | Dominick Cruz | 85 | WEC | 5 |
| 4 | Masakatsu Ueda | 80 | Shooto | 3 |
| 5 | Takeya Mizugaki | 79 | WEC | 4 |
| 6 | Joseph Benavidez | 71 | WEC | 7 |
| 7 | Rani Yahya | 69 | WEC | 6 |
| 8 | Akitoshi Tamura | 68 | WEC | 6 |
| 9 | Damacio Page | 64 | WEC | 9 |
| 10 | Will Ribeiro | 38 | WEC | 10 |
| 11 | Masakazu Imanari | 26 | DEEP | 11 |
| 12 | Eddie Wineland | 26 | WEC | 13 |
| 13 | Scott Jorgensen | 26 | WEC | 14 |
| 14 | Antonio Banuelos | 24 | WEC | 20 |
| 15 | Jeff Curran | 24 | Strikeforce | 16 |
| 16 | Charlie Valencia | 23 | WEC | 15 |
| 17 | Koetsu Okazaki | 19 | Shooto | 17 |
| 18 | Yoshiro Maeda | 19 | DREAM | 25 |
| 19 | Mark Oshiro | 18 | Up N Up | NR |
| 20 | Abel Cullum | 18 | WEC | 23 |
| 20 | Mike Easton | 18 | UWC | 18 |
| 22 | Wilson Reis | 17 | Bellator | NR |
| 23 | Daiki Hata | 17 | DREAM | 20 |
| 24 | Atsushi Yamamoto | 16 | Shooto | 31 |
| 25 | Eduardo Dantas | 16 | DEEP | 19 |
He hasn't let his broken hand stop his media appearances.
#1 Brian Bowles still sits atop the bantamweight division after upsetting previous bantamweight king # 2 Miguel Torres at WEC 42. Bowles has been dealing with a hand injury, but has been actively making the rounds. Bowles is expected to return to fighting action in March where he will take on fast-rising contender and former featherweight #3 Dominick Cruz. Cruz, by the way, has enjoyed a significant bump in rankings due to his newfound contender status.
Shooto's "Featherweight" king #4 Masakatsu Ueda is still undefeated and and holding the fourth spot after a unanimous decision win over BJJ ace #25 Eduardo Dantas at "Revolutionary Exchanges". According to Sherdog.com's Jordan Breen, we still have no word on when Ueda will fight next. That likely contributed to his slight drop in the rankings
#5 Takeya Mizugaki drops a spot to the fourth position as he prepares to take on #9 Damacio Page as the main event of WEC 45 in December.
#6 Joseph Benavidez of Team Alpha Male jumps a spot to the sixth position. He is set to take on #7 Rani Yahya at WEC 45.Yahya also gets a bump up one spot in the rankings.
#8 Akitoshi Tamura moves out of the sixth position, likely due to inactivity from injury. Originally Tamura was set to face #9 Damacio Page at WEC 43, but pulled out due to injury and was replaced by Will Campuzano.
The badly injured #10 Will Ribeiro remains in the top ten of the division despite suffering what are likely to be career-ending injuries.
Interestingly, #19 Mark Oshiro enters the top 25 for the first time. Sadly, after suffering his fifth career loss in a row, Chase Beebe drops out of the top 25 altogether after being choked out by #18 Yoshiro Maeda at DREAM.12.
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. Show more "
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.