Light-Heavyweight |
| 1. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua |
| 2. Rashad Evans |
| 3. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson |
| 4. Lyoto Machida |
| 5. Forrest Griffin |
| 6. Jon Jones |
| 7. Rich Franklin |
| 8. Ryan Bader |
| 9. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira |
| 10. Thiago Silva |
| 11. Matt Hamill |
| 12. Randy Couture |
| 13. Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante |
| 14. Gegard Mousasi |
| 15. King Mo Lawal |
| 16. Dan Henderson |
| 17. Vladimir Matyushenko |
| 18. Phil Davis |
| 19. Brandon Vera |
| 20. Renato “Babalu” Sobral |
| 21. Alexander Gustafsson |
| 22. Jason Brilz |
| 23. Tito Ortiz |
| 24. Stephan Bonnar |
| 25. Kryzystof Soszynski |
Before any word is said MMA Planet would like to make mention of the reitrement of the long time #1 Light Heavyweight in the world, Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell. Liddell dominated the division’s rankings for years.
The light heavyweight division’s most significant change came due to Brandon Vera’s loss to Thiago Silva and how poor he looked on the ground. Vera is currently ranked #19 in the world.
UFC 126 hosts a series of significant light heavyweight battles as #6 Jon Jones faces #7 Ryan Bader and #5 Forrest Griffin faces #7 Rich Franklin. Also, it appears that #1 “Shogun will face #2 Rashad Evan in March for the UFC belt. It also appears that #13 “Feijao” will face #16 Dan Henderson for the Strikeforce belt in March. It is possible that April will sea fight between #4 Lyoto Machida and #12 Randy Couture.
Just outside the top 25 in this division are Luis Cane, Cyrille Diabate and veteran Ricardo Arona.
The UFC has a large control on this division in the sport as 20 of the top 25 are in the UFC. The other 5 are in Strikeforce (Henderson, Sobral, Lawal, Feijao, and Mousasi).
MMA Sun 