The Sports Brief's MMA Rankings 11/23/09

There has been 3 big MMA events since our last rankings, Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers; UFC 105: Couture vs. Vera; and UFC 106: Ortiz vs. Griffin II. Needless to say the rankings have changed since last month. Coming up in December we have The Ultimate Fighter Finale, UFC 107: Penn vs. Sanchez, Strikeforce: Thompson vs. Melendez, WEC 45, and another SENGOKU event. But before all that let's take a look at the rankings heading into the last month of 2009.

Heavyweight

1. Fedor Emelianko

2. Brock Lesnar

3. Josh Barnett

4. Frank Mir

5. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera

6. Randy Couture

7. Cain Velasquez

8. Shane Carwin

9. Alistair Overeem

10. Brett Rogers

Junior Dos Santos, Cheick Kongo, Gabe Gonzaga, Fabricio Werdum, Ben Rothwell

Light Heavyweight

1. Lyoto Machida

2. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua

3. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson

4. Anderson Silva

5. Rashad Evans

6. Forrest Griffin

7. Gegard Mousasi

8. Thiago Silva

9. Antonio Rogerio Noguirea

10. Randy Couture

Luiz Cane, Rich Franklin, Keith Jardine, Tito Ortiz, Babalu Sobral

Middleweight

1. Anderson Silva

2. Dan Henderson

3. Vitor Belfort

4. Nate Marquardt

5. Robbie Lawler

6. Yoshihiro Akiyama

7. Jake Shields

8. Michael Bisping

9. Chael Sonnen

10. Yushin Okami

Demian Maia, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Ronaldo Souza, Nick Diaz, Wanderlei Silva

Welterweight

1. Georges St. Pierre

2. Jake Shields

3. Jon Fitch

4. Thiago Alves

5. Josh Koscheck

6. Paul Daley

7. Martin Kampmann

8. Matt Hughes

9. Dan Hardy

10. Mike Swick

Paulo Thiago, Marius Zaromskis, Jay Hieron, Nick Thompson, Carlos Condit

Lightweight

1. B.J. Penn

2. Shinya Aoki

3. Eddie Alverez

4. Joachim Hansen

5. Tatsuya Kawajiri

6. Kenny Florian

7. Diego Sanchez

8. Frankie Edgar

9. Gilbert Melendez

10. JZ Cavalcante

Gray Maynard, Mizuto Hirota, Satoru Kitoaka, Sean Sherk, Josh Thomson