The Sports Brief's MMA Rankings (7-20-09)

Not going to hit you with a lot of fluff on this addition of the MMA Rankings. August is going to be a big month with many of our top fighters in action against each other, starting Aug. 1st with Affliction's latest card. Sengoku, Strikeforce, WEC, and two count em 2 UFC events all take place next month. Since our last rankings we've had a few cards highlighted by UFC 100 and last night's Dream 10. Let's get to the rankings.

Heavyweight

1. Fedor Emelianeko
2. Brock Lesnar
3. Josh Barnett
4. Frank Mir
5. Antonia Rodrigo Nogueira
6. Randy Couture
7. Alistair Overeem
8. Shane Carwin
9. Cain Velasquez
10. Brett Rogers

Honorable Mention: Andrei Arlovski, Gabriel Gonzaga, Cheick Kongo, Ben Rothwell, Fabricio Werdum, Heath Herring, Aleksander Emelianenko, Mirko Cro Cop, Junior Dos Santos, Roy Nelson

Light Heavyweight

1. Lyoto Machida
2. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson
3. Rashad Evans
4. Forrest Griffin
5. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua
6. Renato “Babalu” Sobral
7. Luis Arthur Cane
8. Rich Franklin
9. Keith Jardine
10. Thiago Silva

Honorable Mentions: Gegard Mousasi, Chuck Liddell, Brandon Vera, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Tito Ortiz, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Vladimir Matyushenko, Jon Jones

Middleweight

1. Anderson Silva
2. Dan Henderson
3. Gegard Mousasi
4. Yushin Okami
5. Vitor Belfort
6. Robbie Lawler
7. Nate Marquardt
8. Demian Maia

9. Jorge Santiago
10. Yoshihiro Akiyama

Honorable Mention: Michael Bisping, Cung Le, Nick Diaz, Wanderlei Silva, Matt Lindland, Denis Kang, Chael Sonnen, Paulo Filho, Frank Trigg, Patrick Cote, Frank Shamrock, Kazuo Misaki, Chris Leben, Ricardo Almeida, Ronaldo Souza

Welterweight

1. Georges St. Pierre
2. Jake Shields
3. Jon Fitch
4. Thiago Alves
5. Martin Kampmann
6. Josh Koscheck
7. Mike Swick

8. Matt Hughes

9. Paulo Thiago
10. Marius Zaromskis*

Honorable Mention: Carlos Condit, Nick Diaz, Dan Hardy, Marcus Davis, Matt Serra, Nick Thompson, Jay Hieron, Karo Parysian, Frank Trigg

*Winner of the Dream Welterweight Grand Prix

Lightweight

1. BJ Penn
2. Shinya Aoki
3. Eddie Alvarez
4. Kenny Florian
5. Joachim Hansen
6. Satoru Kitaoka
7. Tatsuya Kawijiri
8. Gray Maynard
9. Frankie Edgar
10. Diego Sanchez

Honorable Mention: JZ Cavalcante, Gilbert Melendez, Sean Sherk, Josh Thomson, Clay Guida, Nick Diaz, Joe Stevenson, Roger Huerta, KJ Noons

-The Sports Brief