| Rank | Fighter | % | Promotion | Last Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frankie Edgar | 99 | UFC | 1 |
| 2 | Gray Maynard | 94 | UFC | 2 |
| 3 | Gilbert Melendez | 91 | Strikeforce | 3 |
| 4 | Eddie Alvarez | 81 | Bellator | 4 |
| 5 | Shinya Aoki | 81 | DEEP | 5 |
| 6 | Kenny Florian | 71 | UFC | 6 |
| 7 | Jim Miller | 68 | UFC | 9 |
| 8 | George Sotiropoulos | 62 | UFC | 7 |
| 9 | Tatsuya Kawajiri | 59 | K-1 | 8 |
| 10 | Sean Sherk | 53 | UFC | 10 |
| 11 | B.J. Penn | 52 | UFC | 11 |
| 12 | Anthony Pettis | 43 | UFC | 13 |
| 13 | Melvin Guillard | 41 | UFC | 12 |
| 14 | Clay Guida | 38 | UFC | 14 |
| 15 | Takanori Gomi | 27 | UFC | 16 |
| 16 | Evan Dunham | 25 | UFC | 15 |
| 17 | Ben Henderson | 23 | UFC | 17 |
| 18 | Josh Thomson | 21 | Strikeforce | 18 |
| 19 | Kurt Pellegrino | 19 | UFC | 19 |
| 20 | Mizuto Hirota | 17 | K-1 | 20 |
| 21 | Mac Danzig | 16 | UFC | 21 |
| 22 | Gesias Cavalcante | 15 | Strikeforce | 22 |
| 23 | Joe Stevenson | 13 | UFC | 23 |
| 24 | Matt Wiman | 13 | UFC | 24 |
| 25 | Satoru Kitaoka | 12 | Pancrase | 25 |
#1 Frankie Edgar and #2 Gray Maynard will meet for the third time at UFC 130 following their incredible UFC 125 clash that ended in a draw.
#12 Anthony Pettis who was initially in line for the next shot at Edgar will instead face #14 Clay Guida at The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale in June.
#6 Kenny Florian will make the move to featherweight to take on #6 FW Diego Nunes at UFC 131.
A rematch between #3 Gilbert Melendez and #9 Tatsuya Kawajiri is being floated as a possible headliner for Strikeforce’s April 9 card.
This weekend will see #8 George Sotiropoulos who has to be getting close to a title shot take on unranked Dennis Siver. Another potential title contender will face an unranked opponent at UFC 128 when #7 Jim Miller meets Kamal Shalorus.
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.
