A Look At the Weight Classes

When I talk about the weight classes in MMA people get really confused, because there are alot of them and it's very easy for people to confuse fighters across the weight classes, as well as confuse alot of rankings in the weightclass. As the UFC has, for the most part, a monopoly on the sport, I'll just outline the UFC weight classes really fast.

Heavyweight: 206-265
Lightheavyweight: 186-206
Middleweight: 171-185
Welterweight: 156-170
Lightweight: 140-155

There is also a superheavyweight weightclass in other organizations for fighters +265 and the superlightweight, bantamweight and flyweight classes for the guys -140.

There is also alot of confusion about who fights in what weight class. So let me just outline my personal look at the world's top ten ranked fighters in each weight class.

Heavyweight

1) Fedor Emelianenko
2) Mirko "CroCop" Filipovic
3) Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira
4) Josh "The Baby-Faced Assassin" Barnett



5) Randy "The Natural" Couture
6) Gabriel "Napau" Gonzaga
7) Mark Hunt
8) Andrei "The Pitbull" Arlovski
9) Fabricio Werdum
10) Tim "The Maine-iac" Sylvia

Lightheavyweight

1) Mauricio "Shogun" Rua
2) Quinton "Rampage" Jackson
3) Dan "Hollywood" Henderson
4) Wanderlei "The Axe-Murderer" Silva
5) Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell



6) Rameau Thierry "The African Assassin" Sokoudjou
7) Ricardo Arona
8) Antonio Rogerio "Minotoro" Nogueira
9) Alistair "The Demolition Man" Overeem
10) Tito "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy" Ortiz

Middleweight

1) Matt "The Law" Lindland
2) Dan "Hollywood" Henderson
3) Paulo Filho
4) Denis Kang
5) Anderson "The Spider" Silva



6) Rich "Ace" Franklin
7) Nate "The Great" Marquardt
8) Robbie Lawler
9) Yushin Okami
10) Kazuo Misaki

Welterweight

1) Shinya Aoki
2) Matt "The Terra" Serra
3) Matt Hughes



4) Georges "Rush" St. Pierre
5) John Fitch
6) Josh Koscheck
7) Hayato Sakurai
8) Karo Parysian
9) Diego Sanchez
10) Josh "The People's Warrior" Burkman

Lightweight

1) Takanori "The Fireball Kid" Gomi
2) Joachim "Hellboy" Hansen
3) B.J. "The Prodigy" Penn
4) Gilbert Melendez
5) Tatsuya Kawajiri
6) Norifumi "KID" Yamamoto
7) Genki "Neo-Samurai" Sudo
8) Sean "The Muscle Shark" Sherk
9) Hermes Franca
10) Frank "The Truth" Edgar

There is alot of dispute over rankings, these are just my opinions about the ladder right now and the guys that are at the top of it.