Junior Dos Santos remains on top of MMA heavyweight rankings

Heavyweight

1. Junior Dos Santos
2. Cain Velasquez
3. Alistair Overeem
4. Daniel Cormier
5. Fabricio Werdum
6. Josh Barnett
7. Frank Mir
8. Antonio Silva
9. Fedor Emelianenko
10. Travis Browne

Junior Dos Santos did exactly what he was expected to do at UFC 146, dispatching Frank Mir with ease to retain his UFC heavyweight title. Mir was too slow to deal with Dos Santos’ boxing and succumbed to the Brazilian via second round TKO. Dos Santos will have a much tougher fight next time around, a rematch with former champion Cain Velasquez. Velasquez was impressive in his destruction of Antonio Silva on the same event and will now look to avenge the only loss of his MMA career against Dos Santos.

Light Heavyweight

1. Jon Jones
2. Rashad Evans
3. Dan Henderson
4. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua
5. Lyoto Machida
6. Gegard Mousasi
7. Ryan Bader
8. Phil Davis
9. Alexander Gustafsson
10. Quinton Jackson

The 205 pound division was mostly inactive in the past month. The biggest fight in the division was likely the long awaited UFC debut of Glover Teixeira. Teixeira showed why UFC has wanted to sign him for so long in a fast, one-sided win over Kyle Kingsbury. Teixeira is dangerous enough that Mauricio Rua flatly refused a fight with the up and comer.

Middleweight

1. Anderson Silva
2. Chael Sonnen
3. Mark Munoz
4. Vitor Belfort
5. Michael Bisping
6. Yushin Okami
7. Hector Lombard
8. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza
9. Alan Belcher
10. Rousimar Palhares

On July 7, the biggest fight of the year will take place. Anderson Silva defends his UFC middleweight title in a grudge rematch against Chael Sonnen. Sonnen gave Silva the toughest fight of his UFC career by far, but Silva pulled out a shocking comeback win with a triangle choke in the final round. That didn’t stop the stream of trash talk directed by Sonnen at Silva, leading up to the hotly anticipated rematch in Las Vegas.

Welterweight

1. Georges St. Pierre
2. Carlos Condit
3. Johny Hendricks
4. Nick Diaz
5. Martin Kampmann
6. Jon Fitch
7. Jake Ellenberger
8. Jake Shields
9. Josh Koscheck
10. Rory MacDonald

Martin Kampmann derailed Jake Ellenberger’s plans for a UFC welterweight title shot with a come from behind TKO win June 1. Kampmann now finds himself in the mix for a title shot at the winner of the Georges St. Pierre-Carlos Condit title unification bout November in Montreal. If he beats Johny Hendricks on the same event, he will likely get the next crack.

Lightweight

1. Ben Henderson
2. Gilbert Melendez
3. Frank Edgar
4. Gray Maynard
5. Nate Diaz
6. Clay Guida
7. Anthony Pettis
8. Jim Miller
9. Michael Chandler
10. Eddie Alvarez

It was a rough month for a pair of UFC lightweight fighters looking to break their way into the contender mix. At UFC 146, Jacob Volkmann’s five fight winning streak came to an end when he unwisely elected to take Paul Sass to the ground and was submitted by the jiu jitsu expert. Then, Jamie Varner made a triumphant return to the UFC by handing Edson Barboza the first loss of his MMA career.

Featherweight

1. Jose Aldo
2. Hatsu Hioki
3. Pat Curran
4. “Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung
5. Chad Mendes
6. Erik Koch
7. Patricio “Pitbull” Freire
8. Dustin Poirier
9. Tatsuya Kawajiri
10. Dennis Siver

Charles Oliveira won his second fight at featherweight since dropping down from l55 pounds, submitting Jonathan Brookins. Oliveira could find himself in the top 10 shortly with his natural talent standing and on the ground. Diego Brandao, on the other hand, is unlikely to any time soon following an upset loss to Darren Elkins. Brandao was dangerous early but disappointingly faded as the fight went on once again.

Bantamweight

1. Dominick Cruz
2. Urijah Faber
3. Renan Barao
4. Michael McDonald
5. Brian Bowles
6. Miguel Torres
7. Eduardo Dantas
8. Bibiano Fernandes
9. Brad Pickett
10. Eddie Wineland

Following an injury to Dominick Cruz, Urijah Faber and Renan Barao will battle to crown an interim UFC bantamweight champion in the main event of UFC 149. It will be a tough task for the veteran Faber to defeat the 25-year-old Barao who has compiled a 28-1 (1 NC) record since losing his first MMA contest.
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