| Rank | Fighter | % | Promotion | Last Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cain Velasquez | 99 | UFC | 1 |
| 2 | Brock Lesnar | 92 | UFC | 2 |
| 3 | Fedor Emelianenko | 89 | M-1 Global / Strikeforce | 3 |
| 4 | Fabricio Werdum | 87 | Strikeforce | 4 |
| 5 | Junior dos Santos | 84 | UFC | 5 |
| 6 | Shane Carwin | 83 | UFC | 6 |
| 7 | Frank Mir | 76 | UFC | 7 |
| 8 | Alistair Overeem | 75 | Strikeforce | 8 |
| 9 | Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira | 70 | UFC | 9 |
| 10 | Antonio Silva | 51 | Strikeforce | 10 |
| 11 | Josh Barnett | 46 | Strikeforce | 11 |
| 12 | Brett Rogers | 37 | Strikeforce | 12 |
| 13 | Brendan Schaub | 30 | UFC | 13 |
| 14 | Roy Nelson | 30 | UFC | 14 |
| 15 | Cheick Kongo | 24 | UFC | 15 |
| 16 | Andrei Arlovski | 23 | Strikeforce | 16 |
| 17 | Ben Rothwell | 22 | UFC | 17 |
| 18 | Pedro Rizzo | 21 | Free Agent | 18 |
| 19 | Mirko Filipovic | 20 | UFC | 19 |
| 19 | Gabriel Gonzaga | 20 | UFC | 19 |
| 21 | Cole Konrad | 19 | Bellator | 22 |
| 22 | Mike Russow | 18 | UFC | 23 |
| 23 | Tim Sylvia | 17 | Free Agent | 24 |
| 24 | Stefan Struve | 16 | UFC | 25 |
| 25 | Jeff Monson | 13 | Free Agent | 26 |
Rankings compiled by Richard Wade.
There hasn't been a whole lot of good news for fans of heavyweight MMA lately.
#1 Cain Velasquez is out for six to eight months for shoulder surgery.
#2 Brock Lesnar hasn't been heard from since his loss to Velasquez at UFC 121. The rumors are mounting as to Lesnar's next move.
#7 Frank Mir is hoping Lesnar will coach the next season of The Ultimate Fighter opposite Mir. That will set up a lucrative rubber match for the pair.
#5 Junior Dos Santos is a possible alternative to Lesnar. JDS was next to fight Cain for the title, but he could face Mir or Lesnar for an interim belt.
#3 Fedor Emelianenko has been torturing Strikeforce with interminable contract renegotiations and may fight in February. It's doubtful that he'll face Strikeforce champ #8 Alistair Overeem.
If they can actually pull it off, the rumored Strikeforce heavyweight tournament possibly featuring Fedor, Overeem, #4 Fabricio Werdum, #10 Antonio Silva, #11 Josh Barnett, #12 Brett Rogers, #16 Andrei Arlovski and Sergei Kharitonov could dramatically impact the rankings in this division.
Given the UFC's sudden struggles at heavyweight -- Cain is out, Brock is exposed and may be holding out, Junior Dos Santos can't get a fight, #6 Shane Carwin is injured, Mir isn't looking so hot, #14 Roy Nelson is in a contractual limbo -- Strikeforce is seemingly well positioned to leap frog into the dominant fight promotion at heavyweight IF they can actually pull off the tournament.
That won't be easy given Fedor, Werdum and Overeem's contractual and scheduling demands, Josh Barnett's difficulties with the licensing process after multiple failed drug tests, and the need for Rogers, Arlovski and Kharitonov to pick up some wins before their careers head permanently in the wrong direction.
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.
Let's take Anderson Silva for instance. 87% (13 of 15) of our panelists have him at Light Heavyweight and 100% (15 of 15) at Middleweight. On the 13 ballots that ranked Silva at 205, we took the average (21.2). We then reduced that number by half the percentage of Light Heavyweight ballots that he was not included on. Say he's not on 30% of them, then we do a 15% penalty on the average that we found in the previous step. That number is then used instead of the usual "normalization number" to provide points from those not ranking the fighter in the weight class in question. This avoids fighters being excessively penalized by confusion about which weight class they belong.
