Anderson Silva (Dave Mandel/Sherdog)

Combat Press Men’s MMA Rankings: Feb. 2, 2015

As MMA continues to grow its presence with the UFC, Bellator MMA, WSOF and ONE FC, fighters are constantly jockeying for position in the eyes (and rankings) of the media.

Every week, Combat Press will rank each weight class from heavyweight to flyweight, as well as the pound-for-pound rankings.

Note: the numbers in parentheses represent the fighter’s ranking from last week


Advertisement

Heavyweight
  1. Cain Velasquez (1)
  2. Fabricio Werdum (2)
  3. Junior dos Santos (3)
  4. Travis Browne (4)
  5. Josh Barnett (5)
  6. Stipe Miocic (6)
  7. Mark Hunt (7)
  8. Ben Rothwell (8)
  9. Andrei Arlovski (9)
  10. Roy Nelson (10)

No fighters in the top 10 were in action this week, so the rankings remain unchanged.

Light Heavyweight
  1. Jon Jones (1)
  2. Anthony “Rumble” Johnson (2)
  3. Alexander Gustafsson (3)
  4. Daniel Cormier (4)
  5. Rashad Evans (5)
  6. Ryan Bader (6)
  7. Phil Davis (7)
  8. Glover Teixeira (8)
  9. Vitor Belfort (9)
  10. Ovince Saint Preux (10)

No fighters in the top 10 were in action this week, so the rankings remain unchanged.

Middleweight
  1. Chris Weidman (1)
  2. Vitor Belfort (2)
  3. Anderson Silva (3)
  4. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (4)
  5. Lyoto Machida (5)
  6. Luke Rockhold (6)
  7. Yoel Romero (7)
  8. Tim Kennedy (8)
  9. Gegard Mousasi (9)
  10. Michael Bisping (10)

Following a gruesome broken leg at UFC 168, many wondered if Brazilian Anderson Silva would ever fight again. The former champion answered that question at UFC 183 against Nick Diaz. “The Spider” got back in the win column with a five-round decision win. It way not have been the dominant performance that many expected, but just seeing Silva compete again, after more than a year away from the cage, is great for the sport. Silva maintained his No. 3 ranking with the victory.

Saturday’s card featured numerous middleweight bouts and another Brazilian, Thales Leites, continued to work back toward title contention with his second-round submission win over Tim Boetsch. Leites hasn’t cracked the top 10 just yet, but the former title challenger is very close.

Welterweight
  1. Robbie Lawler (1)
  2. Johny Hendricks (2)
  3. Georges St-Pierre (3)
  4. Ben Askren (4)
  5. Rory MacDonald (5)
  6. Hector Lombard (6)
  7. Matt Brown (7)
  8. Tyron Woodley (8)
  9. Carlos Condit (9)
  10. Rousimar Palhares (-)

Dropped out of the rankings: Dong Hyun Kim (10)

The UFC 183 co-main event between No. 8-ranked Tyron Woodley and the previously undefeated Kelvin Gastelum didn’t live up to the hype, but Woodley still walked away with another win. The former Strikeforce title challenger may still be a couple of wins away from the title mix, but he overcame an opponent that missed weight by nearly double digits. As such, Woodley maintained his No. 8 slot.

Lightweight
  1. Anthony Pettis (1)
  2. Gilbert Melendez (2)
  3. Khabib Nurmagomedov (3)
  4. Rafael dos Anjos (4)
  5. Donald Cerrone (5)
  6. Benson Henderson (6)
  7. Eddie Alvarez (7)
  8. Will Brooks (8)
  9. Edson Barboza (9)
  10. Myles Jury (10)

No fighters in the top 10 were in action this week, so the rankings remain unchanged.

Featherweight
  1. Jose Aldo (1)
  2. Chad Mendes (2)
  3. Frankie Edgar (3)
  4. Cub Swanson (4)
  5. Conor McGregor (5)
  6. Ricardo Lamas (6)
  7. Dennis Bermudez (7)
  8. Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (8)
  9. Dustin Poirier (9)
  10. Pat Curran (10)

No fighters in the top 10 were in action this week, so the rankings remain unchanged.

Bantamweight
  1. T.J. Dillashaw (1)
  2. Renan Barão (2)
  3. Dominick Cruz (3)
  4. Urijah Faber (4)
  5. Bibiano Fernandes (5)
  6. Raphael Assuncao (6)
  7. Michael McDonald (7)
  8. Iuri Alcantara (8)
  9. Marlon Moraes (9)
  10. Joe Warren (10)

No fighters in the top 10 were in action this week, so the rankings remain unchanged.

Flyweight
  1. Demetrious Johnson (1)
  2. Joseph Benavidez (2)
  3. John Dodson (3)
  4. John Lineker (7)
  5. Ian McCall (4)
  6. Jussier “Formiga” da Silva (5)
  7. Zach Makovsky (6)
  8. Kyoji Horiguchi (8)
  9. John Moraga (9)
  10. Ali Bagautinov (10)

UFC 183 will likely go down as the most bittersweet moment of John Lineker’s career. The Brazilian came in four pounds heavy for his bout with Ian McCall, marking the fourth time in his UFC career he’s missed weight. He edged McCall on the scorecards to claim the No. 4 slot, but was told by UFC President Dana White that he’ll be moving up to the bantamweight division for his next fight.

Pound-For-Pound
  1. Jose Aldo (1)
  2. Jon Jones (2)
  3. Demetrious Johnson (3)
  4. Ronda Rousey (4)
  5. Cain Velasquez (5)
  6. Chris Weidman (6)
  7. Anthony Pettis (7)
  8. T.J. Dillashaw (8)
  9. Anderson Silva (10)
  10. Robbie Lawler (9)

Silva’s win over Diaz may not have been the most impressive of his storied career, but at 39 years of age, the Brazilian is still one the sport’s elite. The win edged him ahead of current welterweight champion Robbie Lawler for the No. 9 pound-for-pound ranking.


Advertisement