Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) now features "official" rankings on its website, UFC.com, covering all eight weight classes (including women) plus a pound-for-pound list. Rankings are updated approximately 36 hours after every UFC event, which means we're back with another installment following this past weekend's (April 13, 2013) The Ultimate Fighter 17 Finale show in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The biggest movers and shakers this week were in the women's bantamweight division as former number four ranked Cat Zingano TKO'd Miesha Tate to take the top contender spot and a coaching position in TUF season 18 opposite champion Ronda Rousey, which reverberated throughout the rankings. Also debuting in the heavyweight rankings is Travis Browne, who knocked out Gabriel Gonzaga in the first round of their clash on Saturday.
If you're wondering how the world's largest mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion (in conjunction with FightMetric) compiles its list, here's the criteria:
Rankings were generated by a voting panel made up of media members. The media members were asked to vote for who they feel are the top fighters in the UFC by weight-class and pound-for-pound. A fighter is only eligible to be voted on if they are in active status in the UFC and a fighter can only appear in one weight division at a time. The champion and interim champion are considered to be in the top positions of their respective divisions and therefore are not eligible for voting by weight-class. However, the champions can be voted on for the pound-for-pound rankings.
That voting panel now includes yours truly as well as MMAmania's own George Halvatzis Jr. You can check how our rankings stack up compared to the overall consensus by selecting either "Brian Hemminger (MMAmania.com)" or "George Halvatzis Jr. (MMAmania.com)" in the voting panelists tab at the top of the page.
Below are the updated UFC.com rankings (+/- = movement in rankings, NR = not ranked last week)
Pound-for-Pound
1 Anderson Silva
2 Jon Jones
3 Georges St. Pierre
4 Jose Aldo
5 Benson Henderson
6 Cain Velasquez
7 Demetrious Johnson
8 Renan Barao
9 Dominick Cruz
10 Frankie Edgar
Flyweight
Champion: Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 John Dodson
3 Ian McCall
4 John Moraga
5 Jussier Da Silva
6 Louis Gaudinot
7 Chris Cariaso
8 Darren Uyenoyama
9 John Lineker
10 Timothy Elliott
Bantamweight
Champion: Dominick Cruz
1 Renan Barao (Interim Champion)
2 Urijah Faber
3 Michael McDonald
4 Eddie Wineland
5 Brad Pickett
6 Rafael Assuncao
7 Scott Jorgensen
8. Brian Bowles
9 Mike Easton
10 Ivan Menjivar
Featherweight
Champion: Jose Aldo
1 Chad Mendes
2 Ricardo Lamas
3 Frankie Edgar
4. Chan Sung Jung
5 Cub Swanson
6 Dennis Siver
7 Dustin Poirier
8 Clay Guida
9 Erik Koch +1
10: Nik Lentz -1
Lightweight
Champion: Benson Henderson
1 Gilbert Melendez
2 Anthony Pettis
3 Gray Maynard
4 Nate Diaz
5 Jim Miller
6 Donald Cerrone
7 TJ Grant
8 Rafael dos Anjos
9 Khabib Nurmagomedov
10 Joe Lauzon
Welterweight
Champion: Georges St-Pierre
1 Johny Hendricks
2 Carlos Condit
3 Rory MacDonald
4. Jake Ellenberger
5 Demian Maia
6 Nick Diaz
7 Martin Kampmann
8 Tarec Saffiedine
9 Robbie Lawler
10 Josh Koscheck
Middleweight
Champion: Anderson Silva
1 Chris Weidman
2 Vitor Belfort
3 Yushin Okami
4 Michael Bisping
5. Luke Rockhold
6. Constantinos Philippou
7 Mark Munoz
8 Ronaldo Souza
9 Chael Sonnen
10 Alan Belcher
Light Heavyweight
Champion: Jon Jones
1 Lyoto Machida
2 Alexander Gustafsson
3 Dan Henderson
4 Glover Teixeira
5 Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
6 Rashad Evans
7 Mauricio Rua
8 Phil Davis
9 Gegard Mousasi +1
10 Ryan Bader -1
Heavyweight
Champion: Cain Velasquez
1 Junior dos Santos
2 Fabricio Werdum
3 Daniel Cormier
4 Antonio Silva
5 Alistair Overeem
6 Frank Mir
7 Roy Nelson
8 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
9 Mark Hunt
10 Travis Browne NR
Women's Bantamweight
Champion: Ronda Rousey
1 Cat Zingano +3
2 Sarah Kaufman
3 Miesha Tate -2
4 Liz Carmouche -1
5 Alexis Davis
6 Sara McMann
7 Amanda Nunes
8 Julie Kedzie
9 Shiela Gaff +1
10 Germaine de Randamie -1
See anything that stands out?
Let's get some feedback, Maniacs, then compare this list to the one recently compiled by the SB Nation rankings committee here. To compare these to last week's official UFC rankings, click here. Also, if you want to debate/complain about my personal rankings, I'll be on and off all day to discuss them.