Will Ronda Rousey regain the top of the women’s rankings after Friday’s fight?

The Times’ MMA rankings for December, as compiled by Todd Martin:

Heavyweight

1. Stipe Miocic

2. Fabricio Werdum

3. Cain Velasquez

4. Alistair Overeem

5. Junior Dos Santos

6. Ben Rothwell

7. Vitaly Minakov

8. Josh Barnett

9. Derrick Lewis

10. Andrei Arlovski

Derrick Lewis breaks into the top 10 with his fifth straight victory, this time over Shamil Abdurakhimov. While it wasn’t the most impressive performance, it was a promising sign how discouraged Lewis was by a knockout victory. It reflects how important it is to Lewis that he performs at his best.

Light Heavyweight

1. Daniel Cormier

2. Anthony Johnson

3. Phil Davis

4. Alexander Gustafsson

5. Glover Teixeira

6. Ryan Bader

7. Jimi Manuwa

8. Liam McGeary

9. Misha Cirkunov

10. Ovince St. Preux

The newcomer in the light heavyweight rankings is Misha Cirkunov. Cirkunov ended the momentum of Nikita Krylov and secured his eighth straight finish. He offers up some fresh blood in a division that can use it. Ryan Bader also picked up another victory, a sad TKO of the badly faded Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.

Middleweight

1. Michael Bisping

2. Yoel Romero

3. Luke Rockhold

4. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza

5. Chris Weidman

6. Gegard Mousasi

7. Robert Whittaker

8. Kelvin Gastelum

9. Derek Brunson

10. Krzysztof Jotko

It was a busy month for the middleweight division with plenty of significant fights in a deep and talented mix. Gegard Mousasi and Robert Whittaker were impressive again in victory, picking up first round TKO victories. They’re knocking on the door of the elite of the division. Kelvin Gastelum and Krzysztof Jotko cracked the top 10 with wins over respected veterans Thales Leites and Tim Kennedy. Meanwhile, big names like Anderson Silva, Vitor Belfort, Lyoto Machida and Tim Kennedy are on the outside looking in, as is surging WSOF champ David Branch.

Welterweight

1. Tyron Woodley

2. Demian Maia

3. Stephen Thompson

4. Robbie Lawler

5. Rory MacDonald

6. Ben Askren

7. Carlos Condit

8. Donald Cerrone

9. Dong Hyun Kim

10. Johny Hendricks

Donald Cerrone continues to impress at welterweight. He got a win and a finish for the fourth straight time at 170 pounds and should have won his fourth performance of the night bonus as well for his head kick knockout of Matt Brown. Cerrone will return in January against Jorge Masvidal, who has looked great since moving up from lightweight like Cerrone.

Lightweight

1. Conor McGregor

2. Khabib Nurmagomedov

3. Tony Ferguson

4. Eddie Alvarez

5. Rafael Dos Anjos

6. Edson Barboza

7. Nate Diaz

8. Justin Gaethje

9. Michael Chiesa

10. Beneil Dariush

The biggest lightweight bout of the month took place in Bellator, where Michael Chandler successfully defended the Bellator lightweight title against Benson Henderson. Chandler and Henderson are two of the best in the division and they engaged in an exciting bout that Chandler richly deserved to win.

Featherweight

1. Jose Aldo

2. Max Holloway

3. Frankie Edgar

4. Cub Swanson

5. Ricardo Lamas

6. Daniel Straus

7. Patricio “Pitbull” Freire

8. Jeremy Stephens

9. Anthony Pettis

10. Doo Ho Choi

Conor McGregor vacated the UFC featherweight title, leaving Jose Aldo as the new full UFC featherweight champion. Max Holloway defeated Anthony Pettis in what was billed as an interim UFC featherweight title bout and will take on Aldo next. It’s a very interesting fight with the rolling Holloway taking on the longtime king of the division. The loss to Holloway was a devastating setback for Pettis. Once viewed as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the sport, Pettis has lost four of five in what should be the middle of his prime.

Bantamweight

1. Dominick Cruz

2. T.J. Dillashaw

3. Bibiano Fernandes

4. John Lineker

5. Marlon Moraes

6. Cody Garbrandt

7. Eduardo Dantas

8. Raphael Assuncao

9. Jimmie Rivera

10. Thomas Almeida

Urijah Faber finally leaves the top 10 after announcing his retirement. Faber was one of the best fighters in the featherweight/bantamweight divisions for a decade and arguably the most important figure in popularizing the lighter weight classes. Faber went out on a great note, picking up a dominant decision win over Brad Pickett and getting a warm reception from his hometown crowd in Sacramento. He is replaced by Thomas Almeida, who returned to his winning ways with a TKO win over Albert Morales. Also this month, Eduardo Dantas successfully defended his Bellator bantamweight title against Joe Warren. It was officially a majority decision but Dantas clearly got the better of the action.

Women’s Bantamweight

1. Amanda Nunes

2. Ronda Rousey

3. Valentina Shevchenko

4. Holly Holm

5. Julianna Pena

6. Cat Zingano

7. Sara McMann

8. Raquel Pennington

9. Alexis Davis

10. Sarah Kaufman

Ronda Rousey returns after a year hiatus on December 30 and will fight Amanda Nunes for the UFC women’s bantamweight crown. The big question surrounding Rousey has been her state of mind and how she will rebound psychologically from her first loss, a shocking upset via brutal knockout to Holly Holm. Sara McMann picked up an impressive win, submitted Alexis Davis in the second round to pick up her second straight UFC win.

Flyweight

1. Demetrious Johnson

2. Joseph Benavidez

3. Henry Cejudo

4. Kyoji Horiguchi

5. Jussier Formiga

Women’s Strawweight

1. Joanna Jedrzejczyk

2. Claudia Gadelha

3. Karolina Kowalkiewicz

4. Jessica Aguilar

5. Jessica Andrade