Georges St. Pierre tops Times MMA rankings for November

Georges St. Pierre is atop the welterweight class as Todd Martin unveils his November MMA rankings for The Times. The complete list:

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. Stefan Struve

10. Travis Browne

The biggest UFC fight of next month takes place December 29, when Cain Velasquez rematches Junior Dos Santos for the UFC heavyweight title. Dos Santos handed Velasquez the first loss of his career with a first round knockout and Velasquez will be gunning for revenge. Dos Santos is more of a standup fighter while Velasquez likes to utilize his wrestling.

Light Heavyweight

1. Jon Jones

2. Rashad Evans

3. Dan Henderson

4. Lyoto Machida

5. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua

6. Phil Davis

7. Alexander Gustafsson

8. Glover Teixeira

9. Ryan Bader

10. Gegard Mousasi

The decision to have Chael Sonnen coach opposite Jon Jones on the next season of the Ultimate Fighter and then fight Jones for Jones’ title at the end was greeted with significant criticism. Sonnen has no wins at 205 pounds in the UFC and lost his last fight in the middleweight division. But UFC was desperate to draw ratings for its floundering Ultimate Fighter brand and the Jones/Sonnen dynamic is likely to produce an entertaining show and solid ratings.

Middleweight

1. Anderson Silva

2. Chris Weidman

3. Chael Sonnen

4. Michael Bisping

5. Luke Rockhold

6. Vitor Belfort

7. Yushin Okami

8. Mark Munoz

9. Alan Belcher

10. Jake Shields

Cung Le scored the most impressive win of the month in the middleweight division with a spectacular one punch knockout of Rich Franklin. The 40-year-old Le isn’t likely to ever compete again for a championship, but he’s a well-liked and respected figure among fans and fighters.

Welterweight

1. Georges St. Pierre

2. Johny Hendricks

3. Jon Fitch

4. Carlos Condit

5. Nick Diaz

6. Martin Kampmann

7. Jake Ellenberger

8. Nate Marquardt

9. Josh Koscheck

10. Rory MacDonald

Georges St. Pierre erased any doubts about the status of his surgically repaired knee in the main event of UFC 154. St. Pierre looked as great as ever, dominating a game Carlos Condit to retain the UFC welterweight title. On the same show, Johny Hendricks knocked out Martin Kampmann in quick order to solidify himself as the clear top challenger at 170 pounds for St. Pierre’s title.

Lightweight

1. Ben Henderson

2. Frank Edgar

3. Gilbert Melendez

4. Gray Maynard

5. Nate Diaz

6. Anthony Pettis

7. Jim Miller

8. Michael Chandler

9. Donald Cerrone

10. Clay Guida

A pair of newcomers is likely to enhance an already ridiculously deep UFC lightweight division in 2013. Gilbert Melendez will join the UFC after the folding of the Strikeforce promotion. Melendez possesses a crowd pleasing style, an impressive 21-2 record and no unavenged losses. He’ll likely challenge for the UFC lightweight title in his first or second UFC fight. Additionally, Bellator star Eddie Alvarez seems likely to join the UFC as well. Alvarez, known for exciting fights and a 24-3 record, still could re-sign with Bellator. However, Bellator showed no interest in matching an extremely lucrative offer that UFC made to the last high profile Bellator free agent Hector Lombard.

Featherweight

1. Jose Aldo

2. Pat Curran

3. Chad Mendes

4. “Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung

5. Erik Koch

6. Hatsu Hioki

7. Patricio “Pitbull” Freire

8. Dustin Poirier

9. Dennis Siver

10. Ricardo Lamas

At the UFC’s Super Bowl weekend show in 2013, former lightweight champion Frank Edgar will challenge Jose Aldo for Aldo’s featherweight title. It will likely be the stiffest recent challenge for Aldo, who has feasted on all opposition for years now.

Bantamweight

1. Dominick Cruz

2. Renan Barao

3. Michael McDonald

4. Urijah Faber

5. Brian Bowles

6. Brad Pickett

7. Bibiano Fernandes

8. Eddie Wineland

9. Eduardo Dantas

10. Mike Easton

Former 135 pound kingpin Miguel Torres’ career took another step in the wrong direction with a loss to the lightly regarded Marlon Moraes at the first World Series of Fighting event. Torres has dropped five of his last eight bouts and falls out of the top 10 entirely.