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Independent World MMA Rankings – October 16, 2009

By Zach Arnold | October 16, 2009

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From the office of the Independent World MMA Rankings

October 16, 2009: The October 2009 Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple web sites.

Some of the best and most knowledgeable MMA writers from across the MMA media landscape have come together to form one independent voting panel.

Some of the best and most knowledgeable MMA writers from across the MMA media landscape have come together to form one independent voting panel. These voting panel members are, in alphabetical order: Zach Arnold (Fight Opinion); Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jared Barnes (Freelance), Jordan Breen (Sherdog); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter, MMA Memories, and MMA Journalist Blog); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (Freelance); Todd Martin (CBS Sportsline); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Leland Roling (Bloody Elbow); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); Jonathan Snowden (Heavy.com); Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion), Ivan Trembow (Freelance); and Dave Walsh (Total MMA).

Josh Thomson is not currently eligible to be ranked due to the fact that he has been inactive for over 12 months.

October 2009 Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on October 13, 2009

Heavyweight Rankings (206 to 265 lbs.)

1. Fedor Emelianenko (30-1, 1 No Contest)
2. Brock Lesnar (4-1)
3. Frank Mir (12-4)
4. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (32-5-1, 1 No Contest)
5. Shane Carwin (11-0)
6. Brett Rogers (10-0)
7. Randy Couture (16-10)
8. Alistair Overeem (29-11, 1 No Contest)
9. Junior dos Santos (9-1)
10. Fabricio Werdum (12-4-1)

Light Heavyweight Rankings (186 to 205 lbs.)

1. Lyoto Machida (15-0)
2. Quinton Jackson (30-7)
3. Rashad Evans (13-1-1)
4. Anderson Silva (25-4)
5. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (18-3)
6. Forrest Griffin (16-6)
7. Gegard Mousasi (26-2-1)
8. Dan Henderson (25-7)
9. Thiago Silva (14-1)
10. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (17-3)

Middleweight Rankings (171 to 185 lbs.)

1. Anderson Silva (25-4)
2. Nathan Marquardt (29-8-2)
3. Dan Henderson (25-7)
4. Yushin Okami (23-4)
5. Jorge Santiago (21-7)
6. Vitor Belfort (19-8)
7. Demian Maia (10-1)
8. Robbie Lawler (16-5, 1 No Contest)
9. Chael Sonnen (23-10-1)
10. Yoshihiro Akiyama (13-1, 2 No Contests)

Welterweight Rankings (156 to 170 lbs.)

1. Georges St. Pierre (19-2)
2. Jon Fitch (19-3, 1 No Contest)
3. Thiago Alves (16-4)
4. Jake Shields (23-4-1)
5. Josh Koscheck (13-4)
6. Matt Hughes (43-7)
7. Mike Swick (14-2)
8. Paulo Thiago (11-1)
9. Carlos Condit (23-5)
10. Marius Zaromskis (12-3)

Lightweight Rankings (146 to 155 lbs.)

1. B.J. Penn (14-5-1)
2. Shinya Aoki (22-4, 1 No Contest)
3. Eddie Alvarez (17-2)
4. Kenny Florian (11-4)
5. Tatsuya Kawajiri (25-5-2)
6. Diego Sanchez (21-2)
7. Gray Maynard (8-0, 1 No Contest)
8. Frankie Edgar (10-1)
9. Joachim Hansen (19-8-1)
10. Mizuto Hirota (12-3-1)

Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)

1. Mike Brown (22-4)
2. Urijah Faber (22-3)
3. Jose Aldo (15-1)
4. Hatsu Hioki (20-3-2)
5. Leonard Garcia (13-4)
6. Bibiano Fernandes (7-2)
7. “Lion” Takeshi Inoue (16-3)
8. Wagnney Fabiano (12-2)
9. Raphael Assuncao (14-1)
10. Mackens Semerzier (4-0)

Bantamweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)

1. Brian Bowles (8-0)
2. Miguel Torres (37-2)
3. Takeya Mizugaki (12-3-2)
4. Masakatsu Ueda (9-0-2)
5. Dominick Cruz (14-1)
6. Akitoshi Tamura (14-7-2)
7. Joseph Benavidez (10-1)
8. Damacio Page (12-4)
9. Rani Yahya (14-4)
10. Will Ribeiro (10-2)

The Independent World MMA Rankings are tabulated on a monthly basis in each of the top seven weight classes of MMA, from heavyweight to bantamweight, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.

The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody’s vote counting more than anybody else’s vote, and no computerized voting.

The voters are instructed to vote primarily based on fighters’ actual accomplishments in the cage/ring (the quality of opposition that they’ve actually beaten), not based on a broad, subjective perception of which fighters would theoretically win fantasy match-ups.

Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.

Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.

Changing Weight Classes: When a fighter announces that he is leaving one weight class in order to fight in another weight class, the fighter is not eligible to be ranked in the new weight class until he has his first fight in the new weight class.

Catch Weight Fights: When fights are contested at weights that are in between the limits of the various weight classes, they are considered to be in the higher weight class. The weight limits for each weight class are listed at the top of the rankings for each weight class.

Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Zach Arnold, and Joshua Stein for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.

Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 19 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

19 Responses to “Independent World MMA Rankings – October 16, 2009”

  1. 45 Huddle says:

    HEAVYWEIGHT – It looks like the Fedor Effect has now turned into the Fedor & Brock effect. Any fighter who fights them automatically moves up the rankings regardless of logic. Shane Carwin at #5 is laughable. Alistair Overeem in the Top 10 is a disgrace.

    LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT – Overall a good ranking. Mousasi should not be as high as #7. He hasn’t beaten anybody that high at Light Heavyweight to deserve it.

    MIDDLEWEIGHT – Jake Shields should be in there instead of Robbie Lawler. The rest is hard to rank but looks decent. Having Santiago so high doesn’t seem right. And I know Sonner has a win over Filho, but is the guy really a Top 10 fighter?

    WELTERWEIGHT – Jake Shields shouldn’t really be ranked in this weight class anymore. His last fight at Welterweight was October 4th, which is over 1 year ago. He is officially an inactive Welterweight.

    LIGHTWEIGHT – I’m not going to even begin to try with any list. No combined list makes any sense.

    FEATHERWEIGHT – How is Fabiano above Semerzier? How is Bibiano ranked so high? His highest ranking win in that tournament was against Takaya who was 0-2 in the WEC and even lost to Cub Swanson. And I know technically the DREAM Tournament falls under the Featherweight Division, but it is much closer to the Bantamweight Limit and it almost feels like it should be treated as such.

  2. Zheroen says:

    RE: Heavyweight – who deserves to be ranked in the top 10 above Overeem? I’m really curious to see who you think should go there.

  3. Wolverine says:

    Dos Santos wins – Werdum, Struve, CroCop
    Overeem wins – Goodrige, Hunt, Lee

    If someone puts Alistair over Cigano, he obviously doesn’t understand the rules of these rankings and ranks Overeem because of his K-1 wins.

    “The voters are instructed to vote primarily based on fighters’ actual accomplishments in the cage/ring (the quality of opposition that they’ve actually beaten), not based on a broad, subjective perception of which fighters would theoretically win fantasy match-ups.”

    This is a farce

  4. Dave says:

    What I find funny is the average FO commenter takes these more seriously than most of the panel probably does.

  5. Zack says:

    How is Couture top 10 with no wins in over 2 years? How is Kenny Florian top 5 with no top 10 wins?

  6. Fluyid says:

    Dan Henderson signed with Strikeforce?

  7. Alan Conceicao says:

    If it turns out to be true, its a great pickup for Strikeforce. He’s the second best middleweight in the world and a top 6-7 205lb fighter. He’s also a pretty recognizable name. Generally makes for good fights. For Hendo, it’s probably the right move. He’s nearly 40. He needs to make money now; asking him to fight 4 more times and then maybe cash in isn’t gonna work.

    As for the UFC, well, the 185 lb division loses a big name, but he’s also an aged guy capable of getting old at any second. From that perspective its not a massive loss, and it cleans the division up slightly in terms of them spotting guys to put into title contention for whatever the middleweight division turns into.

  8. Isaiah says:

    So funny how people still buy the myth that Fedor’s opponents get a bump in the rankings. How on Earth can anyone justify ranking Carwin over Rogers? Mousasi behind Griffin is also a joke. Apparently losses don’t count against anyone. And if Mousasi’s MW accomplishments don’t carry to LHW, then consistency would demand that Anderson be treated as an unranked LHW when he wiped the floor with Griffin.

  9. 45 Huddle says:

    The UFC has the right to match an offer. And according to Josh Gross, Henderson & Coker had coffee. No offer has been made. Either Henderson is trying to play the negotiation game or he is serious. He made $250,000 for his last fight according to BE. Can Strikeforce match that?

    I really have no clue what will happen…. But could the UFC be using Henderson to see what Strikeforce is willing to offer? Basically use it as a tool into what type of money they can throw around? And then match the offer and use the valuable information moving forward. Kind of like playing poker. Sometimes you make the payoff for information that will be useful later.

    And as Alan said…. Henderson is older. And he is a moderate but not huge name. It is a gamble worth taking for the UFC.

    Not to mention…. If it gets around that they offered Henderson $500,000 a fight. Then the UFC can match that…. And it will also get guys like Nick Diaz asking for that much too.

    Every organization suffers from this. The UFC does to. As soon as you up the pay, other fighters want in on the new upper limits. Rampage is playing that game right now. Sounds like he wants the contracts Couture, Ortiz, Hughes, and Lesnar got.

  10. Alan Conceicao says:

    Look, if he can get an offer from Strikeforce and it forces the UFC to drastically increase their offer…great! Hendo has better opponents in the UFC and I’d be happy if he got to stay there and benefitted financially. We all know that competition is most likely to force the money to increase, and that’s good for the fighters.

    But look, Hendo’s not going to Strikeforce if they offer him less money. He can’t go looking at the “long term” – his career is nearly over. He’s gotta take money when its available now, and if Strikeforce offers more, then he can make more money fighting less threatening guys.

  11. 45 Huddle says:

    Oh, I agree…. If Henderson can get more money out of this, then more power to him!! There was a picture of Urijah Faber posing with Scott Coker at a Strikeforce event during his neogitations with Zuffa. It seems like this could become a constant….

    I admit I am just looking at all possible angles here. What effects it could have for Strikeforce short term? Long term? It’s easy for Coker to give Fedor big money due to who he is in the sport. Everybody else available right now he has to be careful. He could easily put things out of wack. And it’s much easier for the UFC to dangle some money to unhappy Strikeforce fighters then it is vise versa. Heck, look at Buentello…. He was mad about Strikeforce not being able to give him what he thought was the market value for fighting Fedor, and went to the UFC because of it. It’s a slippery slope. And it makes me happy I’m a fan and not running a MMA organization. Talk about headaches!!

    I really am interested in seeing how this thing turns out. It could set the tone for an interesting 2010.

  12. Detective Roadblock says:

    Dave Says:

    What I find funny is the average FO commenter takes these more seriously than most of the panel probably does.

    That’s the problem with the rankings, Dave.

    Gonzaga who Carwin beat is better than anyone Rogers beat. Mousassi has a solid resume at 185 but he is benefitting from being away from top cmpetition. He’d be the fourth or fifth best MW in UFC.

  13. Michaelthebox says:

    Overeem over Dos Santos is hilarious.

  14. Wolverine says:

    If these rankings are not serious I don’t understand this intro:

    “Some of the best and most knowledgeable MMA writers from across the MMA media landscape have come together to form one independent voting panel.”

  15. Razorstorm says:

    Nice, But I think Paul Sass should be in the Light weight rankings

  16. isaiah says:

    Not sure if you forgot or what, but Rogers has a win over Arlovski. And Mousasi is not a MW but he’d beat any MW in the world other than probably Silva, not that that is relevant to the issue of him being ranked below Griffin.

  17. Oops! says:

    Wouldn’t Paul Daley be more deserving of being ranked over Marius Zaromskis by beating Martin Kampmann who was ranked top 10 at the time?

  18. Razorstorm says:

    “oops!”
    Valid point, I second that

  19. Jeremy says:

    Cane and Dos Santos are the two exclusions I can see.

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