Luke Rockhold (Dave Mandel/Sherdog)

Combat Press Men’s MMA Rankings: April 20, 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 (including both genders).

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


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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. Alistair Overeem (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. Ovince Saint Preux (10)
  10. Vitor Belfort (9)

The methodical rise of Ovince Saint Preux through the light heavyweight ranks continued on Saturday at UFC on Fox 15. The 32-year-old used a left uppercut to turn out the lights on Patrick Cummins and claim his sixth win in seven Octagon appearances.

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

It’s a good thing that UFC President Dana White was noncommittal to which fighter gets the next title shot at 185 pounds, because there are plenty of deserving candidates. Former Strikeforce champion Luke Rockhold made the most noise at UFC on Fox 15, thoroughly dominating former light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida like no one since Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. Not to be outdone, another former Strikeforce titleholder, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, kept his UFC record unblemished by submitting late replacement Chris Camozzi for a second time.

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

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

Lightweight
  1. Rafael dos Anjos (1)
  2. Anthony Pettis (2)
  3. Khabib Nurmagomedov (3)
  4. Gilbert Melendez (4)
  5. Donald Cerrone (5)
  6. Benson Henderson (6)
  7. Eddie Alvarez (7)
  8. Will Brooks (8)
  9. Myles Jury (9)
  10. Michael Johnson (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. Conor McGregor (5)
  5. Ricardo Lamas (6)
  6. Dennis Bermudez (7)
  7. Max Holloway (9)
  8. Cub Swanson (4)
  9. Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (8)
  10. Charles Oliveira (10)

If fans hadn’t noticed Hawaii’s Max Holloway before UFC on Fox 15, his complete domination of veteran Cub Swanson should have put him on the map. The 23-year-old continued his march up the 145-pound ladder with his sixth straight win and another “Performance of the Night” bonus.

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. Marlon Moraes (8)
  9. Marcos Galvao (9)
  10. Eduardo Dantas (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 (4)
  5. Ian McCall (5)
  6. Jussier “Formiga” da Silva (6)
  7. Zach Makovsky (7)
  8. Kyoji Horiguchi (8)
  9. John Moraga (9)
  10. Henry Cejudo (10)

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

Pound-For-Pound
  1. Jose Aldo (1)
  2. Jon Jones (2)
  3. Ronda Rousey (3)
  4. Demetrious Johnson (4)
  5. Cain Velasquez (5)
  6. Chris Weidman (6)
  7. T.J. Dillashaw (7)
  8. Robbie Lawler (8)
  9. Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino (9)
  10. Johny Hendricks (10)

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


Editor’s Note: Fighters are eligible to be ranked if they have competed in the last 18 months. Any fighter that chooses to switch weight classes will be ranked in their previous weight class until they have competed in their new division.


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