Bleacher Report MMA Rankings: First Edition

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the highly anticipated and first-ever official Bleacher Report MMA power rankings. This is a collaboration with 10 of the top 20 MMA writers here on the site. Hope you enjoy.

Pound-for-Pound Ranks

1. Fedor Emelianenko

2. Anderson Silva

3. Georges St. Pierre

4. BJ Penn

5. Antonio Nogueria

6. Miguel Torres

7. Thiago Alves

8. Forrest Griffin

8. Randy Couture

10. Urijah Faber

Just missing the cut: Eddie Alvarez, Rich Franklin, Lyoto Machida

The P4P rankings were by far the closest. All week I've been tallying the votes, and most of you agreed with each other. The No. 1 position, however, was a different story. Anderson Silva and Fedor Emelianenko switched places after almost every day. It took until the final day for a No. 1 to be crowned.

Heavyweight

1. Emilianenko

2. Nog

3. Couture

4. Arlovski

5. Barnett

Not much to say here. All but one of the lists had the same top four. The only other fighters that got any kind of recognition were Brock Lesnar (one fifth-place vote), Alistair Overeem (one fourth-place vote), and Fabricio Werdum (one fifth-place vote).

Light Heavyweight

1. Forrest

2. Machida

3. Rampage

4. Evans

5. W.Silva

Just missing the cut: Shogun Rua, Rich Franklin

When I started tallying the votes for this weight-class, Lyoto Machida looked like he was going to run away with the No. 1 spot. Then, like always, Forrest Griffin rose to the top. Forrest actually took the top spot pretty convincingly, while Machida, Rampage, and Rashad Evans were all very close. Surprisingly, Shogun still got a lot of love, despite not being in action for over a year.

Middleweight

1. Silva

2. Marquardt

3. Okami

4. Henderson

5. Mousasi

5. Franklin

An easy win for Anderson Silva here, as expected. The rest of the top spots, however, were very close. Nate Marquardt had very little separation from Yushin Okami, who had to wait until the end to squeeze into the top five. Mousasi and Franklin each tied for fifth. Nobody else was too close to any of the top spots.

Welterweight

1. GSP

2. Alves

3. Fitch

4. Shields

5. Koscheck

Georges St. Pierre dominated here, while Thiago Alves steadily took every second-place vote. Jon Fitch also had plenty of separation from the rest, as if his last fight never even happened. Surprisingly, Jake Shields snatched the No. 4 spot from Josh Koscheck at pretty much the last second. Only Carlos Condit and Mike Swick got consideration beyond these five for the top spots, but neither came close to grabbing one.

Lightweight

1. Penn

2. Alvarez

3. Aoki

4. Sherk

5. Florian

Just missed the cut: Joachim Hansen, Takanori Gomi

The lightweight war, much like in the UFC, was the toughest of any other weight class. BJ Penn took every first-place vote, but the rest of the spots ridiculously close. Eddie Alvarez just beat out Shinya Aoki for number two, and Aoki just barely held onto the three spot, holding off Sean Sherk. Kenny Florian wasn't too much of a threat to the top spots, but guys like Joachim Hansen and Takanori Gomi were major threats to KenFlo.

There we have it, ladies and gentlemen. The first official Bleacher Report MMA rankings. This was definitely a fun experience for me and I can't wait to do it again. Hopefully more of you will be involved next time. To all of the top 20 writers that didn't get their lists in, I hope to see them next time around.