MMA Rankings for January 2013
The 2012 year ended with a barrage of event in December, including UFC 155 that would reshape to the top of the heavyweight MMA rankings. Junior Dos Santos defended his title in a rematch against Cain Velasquez in the night’s main event with the challenger avenging his only loss and recapturing the title.
Other action last month that reshaped the MMA Rankings was Alexander Gustafsson defeated Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at the UFC on FOX event. The win moved Gustafsson into the top five for the first time, while dropping the former champion out of the ranks. Also on the UFC on FOX card was lightweight champion Benson Henderson retaining his title win a unanimous decision win over Nate Diaz. Despite the loss, Diaz remains in the top five in this edition of the MMA Rankings.
The first month of 2013 starts out slow but finishes strong with several interesting bouts. Ranked fighters in action this month include Michael Bisping, Ben Askren, Michael Chandler, Pat Curran, Patricio Freire, John Dodson and Demetrious Johnson. These fights along with several other will be pivotal for next month’s MMA rankings.
As always the goal here is to give you the best Rankings that we can provide you with and of course a spot below for you to disagree and complain. So without further ado here is the latest MMAValor.com MMA fighter Rankings:
Key – [↑] = Moved up, [↓] = Moved Down, [•] = New to the list
Heavyweight (205lbs. – 265lbs.)
1. Cain Velasquez [↑]
2. Junior Dos Santos [↓]
3. Fabricio Werdum
4. Frank Mir
5. Alistair Overeem
Knocking on the door: Daniel Cormier, Josh Barnett, Stefan Struve
Light Heavyweight (205lbs.)
1. Jon Jones
2. Dan Henderson
3. Rashad Evans
4. Lyoto Machida [↑]
5. Alexander Gustafsson [•]
Knocking on the door: Phil Davis, Ryan Jimmo, Glover Teixeira, Jimi Manuwa, Mauricio Rua
Middleweight (185lbs.)
1. Anderson Silva
2. Michael Bisping
3. Chael Sonnen
4. Luke Rockhold
5. Chris Weidman
Knocking on the door: Ronaldo Souza, Tim Boetsch, Alan Belcher, Jake Shields, Yushin Okami, Hector Lombard, Mark Munoz
Welterweight (170lbs.)
1. Georges St. Pierre
2. Carlos Condit
3. Nick Diaz
4. Johny Hendricks
5. Ben Askren
Knocking on the door: Rory MacDonald, Josh Koscheck, John Hathaway, Jake Ellenberger, Jon Fitch, Demian Maia, Mike Pyle
Lightweight (155lbs.)
1. Benson Henderson
2. Gilbert Melendez
3. Gray Maynard
4. Nate Diaz
5. Michael Chandler
Knocking on the door: Jim Miller, Donald Cerrone, Eddie Alvarez, Anthony Pettis, Pat Healy
Featherweight (145lbs.)
1. Jose Aldo
2. Pat Curran
3. Chad Mendes
4. Hatsu Hioki
5. Patricio Freire
Knocking on the door: Frankie Edgar, Joe Warren, Chan Sung Jung, Dustin Poirier, Erik Koch, Cub Swanson, Diego Nunes
Bantamweight (135lbs.)
1. Dominik Cruz
2. Renan Barao
3. Urijah Faber
4. Michael McDonald
5. Brian Bowles
Knocking on the door: Mike Easton, Eddie Wineland, Eduardo Dantas, Zach Makovsky, Scott Jorgenson
Flyweight (125lbs.)
1. Demetrious Johnson
2. Joseph Benavides
3. John Dodson
4. Ian McCall
5. Louis Gaudinot
Knocking on the door: Louis Gaudinot, Darren Uyenoyama
MMA Rankings as of 1/6/2013
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