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Heavyweight
1. Junior Dos Santos – The new champ will be making his first title defense in against Alistair Overeem in the late Spring/Summer.
2. Cain Velasquez – The rumored fight between the former champ and Antonio Silva will apparently not happen in the Spring.
3. Alistair Overeem – See #1. “The Reem” hit Brock Lesnar with a liver kick from hell.
4. Frank Mir – Mir broke Big Nog’s arm in December with a kimura. He compared it to twisting a bag of chips. Thanks for that analysis.
5. Fabricio Werdum – Werdum gets to fight Big Country next weekend at UFC 143.
6. Shane Carwin – No new news here. “The Engineer” is still recovering from back surgery.
7. Josh Barnett – Barnett is still waiting on Cormier to get healthy so they can finish the Strikeforce tournament. In the meantime, he’s been spending his time doing pro wrestling in Japan.
8. Daniel Cormier – See #7. Cormier appears to be taking a little longer than expected to recover from his broken hand.
9. Roy Nelson – See #5. Big Country tries to land his patented big right hand on Werdum next weekend in Las Vegas.
10. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira – He had Mir on the ropes, but stupidly switched from punches to an attempted submission. His arm will never forgive him for that.
Others Receiving Votes: Chieck Kongo
Light Heavyweight
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2. Rashad Evans – See #1. “Suga” made it through his fight with Phil Davis without getting hurt. He finally gets his crack at the LHW title and Jon Jones in Atlanta in April.
3. Dan Henderson – Looks like Hendo is going to have either wait a while to get a title shot or take another fight in the meantime.
4. Maurico Rua – Shogun doesn’t have a fight booked. I want to see him fight Rampage or Lil Nog. Neither of those fights is going to happen.
5. Quinton Jackson – “Rampage” returns to Japan at UFC 144. Ryan Bader is in trouble.
6. Lyoto Machida – Machida is the first man to win a round against Jones in God knows how long. Then he got choked unconscious. A move to middleweight may be in his future.
7. Phil Davis – “Mr. Wonderful” did not look good against Rashad Evans. Hopefully he will learn a lot from this loss and comes back better.
8. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira – Lil Nog absolutely demolished Tito Ortiz last month. He gets to welcome Alexander Gustaffson to Top 10 competition in April.
9. Alexander Gustaffson – See #8. Gustaffson smashed Vladimir Matyushenko at UFC 141. He gets to fight in the main event in his home country in April.
10. Forrest Griffin – It sounds like Tito wants to fight him in his final fight. Sure, why not?
Others Receiving Votes: Rafael Cavalcante, Thiago Silva
Middleweight
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2. Chael Sonnen – See #1. Chael successfully defended his fake championship against Bisping last weekend. He will get another shot at the real one soon.
3. Mark Munoz – The Filipino Wrecking Machine got hurt 11 days before his matchup with Sonnen. He will be back by June and will likely immediately be in a #1 contender matchup.
4. Yushin Okami – Okami gets to fight in Japan next month. He will be taking on Tim Boetsch.
5. Vitor Belfort – “The Phenom” smashed a bloated “Rumble” Johnson in Brazil. Next, he coaches the first international edition of The Ultimate Fighter against Wanderlei Silva.
6. Michael Bisping – Bisping lost to Sonnen , but left everyone talking about how he was clearly a contender for the middleweight crown.
7. Rousimar Palhares – “Paul Harris” shocked absolutely nobody by defeating Mike Massenzio by heel hook at UFC 142 in Brazil.
8. Luke Rockhold – The Strikeforce MW champ knocked out Keith Jardine last month. Good for him. UP next…I dunno, let’s say Tim Kennedy.
9. Hector Lombard – The man makes can crushing an art form will be defending his belt against Alexander Shlemenko again at some point in early 2012.
10. Brian Stann – Stann takes on Alessio Sakara in a few months. I don’t even care enough about this fight to look up the exact date.
Others Receiving Votes: Damian Maia, Ronaldo Souza
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1. Georges St-Pierre – GSP tore his ACL preparing to fight Nick Diaz. He will probably be taking on the winner of Diaz/Condit late in the summer.
2. Nick Diaz – Diaz is a slight betting favorite in his matchup against Carlos Condit at UFC 143. I’m just really really excited about this fight.
3. Josh Koscheck – I personally think Koscheck is going to beat the absolute crap out of Mike Pierce at UFC 143 next weekend.
4. Carlos Condit – See #2. Condit takes on Nick Diaz next weekend for the Interim Welterweight Title. Hopefully he’s prepared to be called b*tch
5. Jake Ellenberger – Ellenberger talks a mountain of sh*t. He takes on Diego Sanchez at UFC on Fuel TV 1. I don’t get Fuel TV. It’s like this fight doesn’t exist to me.
6. Jon Fitch – Jon Fitch got KO’d for the first time ever and it was pretty embarrassing. Hopefully Skyrim will make him feel better.
7. Johnny Hendricks – Henricks surprised the hell out of everyone by knocking out Jon Fitch in less than 20 seconds.
8. Jake Shields – Shields looks to rebound from back to back losses against Sexyama next month in Japan at UFC 144.
9. Martin Kampmann – In what will likely be a bout filled with very technical striking, “The Hitman” takes on Thiago Alves at UFC on FX 2 in March.
10. Rory MacDonald – MacDonald hasn’t fought since smashing Mike Pyle in August. He takes on Che Mills at UFC 145 in April.
Others Receiving Votes: Ben Askren
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1. Frankie Edgar – “The Answer” takes on Ben Henderson next month in Japan. No one in the crowd is going to know who he is.
2. Gilbert Melendez – “El Nino” had little difficulty beating Masvidal in December. He is pretty much out of challengers in Strikeforce.
3. Ben Henderson – See #1. Bendo looks to be the first man to beat Frankie Edgar in 4 years. Oh, he also probably wants to be champion
4. Gray Maynard – Maynard hasn’t been up to much since he lost to Edgar in October. His only sighting was in Brazil earlier this month where he was helping Aldo train for Mendes.
5. Jim Miller – Miller choked out Melvin Guillard in the first round in the main event of UFC on FX 1. He takes on Nate Diaz in May at UFC on Fox 3.
6. Nate Diaz – See #5. Is the UFC sure about this? They really want to put one of the Diaz brothers on FOX? Sure the fight will be exciting, but the censors better get ready with the bleeps.
7. Clay Guida – Guida not having a fight scheduled seems very weird to me. He’s either hurt or on vacation.
8. Shinya Aoki – Aoki beat his training partner last month. Bellator is apparently trying to set up a rematch between him and Eddie Alvarez for the Spring.
9. Anthony Pettis – “Showtime” takes on Joe Lauzon next month in Japan in what will likely be a very entertaining bout.
10. Donald Cerrone – Cerrone’s impressive win streak came to an end last month via a three round ass whooping at the hands of Nate Diaz.
Others Receiving Votes: Michael Chandler
Featherweight
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2. Hatsu Hioki – Hioki impressed absolutely no one in his victory over George Roop in October. He takes on Palaszewski next month in his home country at UFC 144.
3. Chad Mendes – Mendes spent the entire first round of his title bout with Aldo failing to
4. Pat Curran – Curran takes on Bellator FW champ Joe Warren in March. You’ll notice Warren isn’t in our top 10. That’s because he isn’t very good.
5. Diego Nunes – “The Gun” handled business against Manny Gamburyan last month. He will need a couple more wins together to get a shot at his teammate for the title.
6. Chan Sung Jung – “The Korean Zombie” scored a 7 second knockout of Mark Hominick at UFC 140. Hopefully a #1 contender bout is in his future.
7. Dustin Poirier – Poirier was supposed to take on Erik Koch next week, but Koch got hurt. Ricardo Lamas stepped in for Koch, but now he’s hurt as well. He now takes on UFC newcomer Max Holloway.
8. Bart Palaszewski – See #2. Bartimus takes on Hioki next month in Japan. He thought Hioki lost to Roop in October. I don’t know about that. I will agree that Hioki is a one-trick pony.
9. Marlon Sandro – Sandro has entered the season 6 Bellator Featherweight tournament. He takes on Roberto Vargas in March.
10. Mark Hominick – Hominick got murked in less than 10 seconds by “The Korean Zombie.” I just want to note that the fighters of the late Shawn Tompkins are doing really poorly since the great trainer passed.
Others Receiving Votes: Erik Koch, Tatsuya Kawajiri
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1. Dominick Cruz – Cruz is still recovering from his broken hand. He will coach the next season of TUF against Urijah Faber.
2. Urijah Faber – See #1. Faber will coach opposite Cruz on The Ultimate Fighter, setting up the rubber match between the two that will take place in the summer.
3. Joseph Benavidez – “Joe-kozuna” makes his flyweight debut against Yasuhiro Urushitani in March. The winner takes on the winner of Demetrius Johnson and Ian McCall for the newly-created flyweight title.
4. Brian Bowles – Bowles doesn’t have a fight scheduled, but his new movie, “Contraband,” opened to mediocre reviews earlier this month.
5. Demetrius Johnson – “Mighty Mouse” takes on Ian McCall in March in a flyweight bout as a part of the UFC’s mini-tournament to crown the division’s first champion.
6. Scott Jorgensen – Jorgensen looks to make it 3 in a row this weekend against Renan Barao at UFC 143.
7. Renan Barao – See #6. Barao looks to improve on his ridiculous record against Jorgensen. Seriously…he’s 27-1(1).
8. Miguel Torres – Torres got fired for making a rape joke and then got rehired. He should stop using Twitter. He takes on Michael McDonald in April.
9. Brad Pickett – Pickett looks to rebound from his loss to Barao by taking on Damacio Page in April at UFC on Fuel TV 2.
10. Michael McDonald – See #10. McDonald takes a big step up in competition at UFC 145 in Atlanta. He takes on former champ Miguel Torres.
Others Receiving Votes: Bibiano Fernandes
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