MMA Tribune's Official Rankings + Analysis

 By Ivan Huang

Since that we have complained about the UFC's rankings, MMA Tribune has decided to do its own rankings, which is based on three catergories: Wins within their division, Recent Success and Overall performance.

Pound for Pound:

1. Jon Jones

2. Jose Aldo

3. Renan Barao

4. Cain Velasquez

5. Chris Weidman

6. Demetrious Johnson

7. Anderson Silva

8. Anthony Pettis

9. Johny Hendricks

10. Ronda Rousey

The case for Jones

Pound for pound Jon Jones has been the most dominant fighter defeating many fighters in who many people believe is the toughest division in all of MMA, with most of its major stars historically coming from this division.

Heavyweight:

1. Cain Velasquez

2. Junior Dos Santos

3. Fabricio Werdum 

4. Travis Browne

5. Antonio Silva

6. Josh Barnett

7. Alistar Overeem

8. Stipe Miocic

9. Mark Hunt

10. Roy Nelson

Werdum division's last hope?

Cain Velasquez has ran through almost everyone who is relevant in the division. With Fabricio Werdum as the only top 5 competitor who has looked good enough to be worthy of a title shot against Velasquez, and if Werdum loses the Heavyweight division, will look very slim as even the number 2 ranked Heavyweight Junior Dos Santos has gone 2-1 against Velasquez scoring a fluke of a knockout in their first meeting on UFC's first event with Fox.

Historically as UFC heavyweight Brendan Schuab said on Joe Rogan's podcast, "(Everyone in the Division) has knocked each other out, or you just haven't been fighting top competition."

Light Heavyweight:

1. Jon Jones

2. Alexander Gustafsson

3. Rashad Evans

4. Glover Texiera

5. Daniel Cormier

6. Anthony Johnson

7. Dan Henderson

8. Phil Davis

9. Chael Sonnen

10. Ryan Bader

Young guns on the Rise

The light heavyweight division has always been the most exciting division in the UFC, with Hall of Famers Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture as their top draws all time historically.

This is a complete different era than your days when Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz were duking it out in the biggest grudge match in the UFC's history. Now that the champion Jon Jones has defeated many of the sport's veterans and former champions like Rashad Evans, Vitor Belfort, Lyoto Machida, and Shogun Rua, now younger fighters are starting to catch up and finally starting to give the pound for pound king a challenge for its title.

It is not just Alexander Gustafsson that presents a challenge to Jones anymore after their 5 round war in Canada just last year. Fighters like Daniel Cormier, Anthony Johnson and dare I say Phil Davis all are young and hungry in the sport that presents interesting match-ups with the champion.

Middleweight:

1. Chris Weidman

2. Anderson Silva

3. Vitor Belfort

4. Luke Rockhold

5. Lyoto Machida

6. Jacare Souza

7. Tim Kennedy

8. Michael Bisping

9. Mark Munoz

10. Francis Carmont

Strikeforce Alum on the Rise

The middleweight division is loaded with Strikeforce crossovers that are seeing major success in their transition to the UFC. Fighters like Luke Rockhold, Jacare Souza and Tim Kennedy were all former Strikeforce middleweight challengers that didn't get much attention at their old promotion before getting bought by Zuffa (company which owns the UFC) because of Anderson Silva's dominance at the time.

These Strikeforce Alumni came to the division at the right time, just as "Greatest of All-Time" is potentially at the downward spiral of his career, the former Strikeforce Champions are rising to the occasion.

Welterweight:

1. Johny Hendricks

2. Robbie Lawler

3. Carlos Condit

4. Rory MacDonald

5. Matt Brown

6. Jake Ellenberger

7. Hector Lombard

8. Jake Shields

9. Tyron Woodley

10. Demian Maia

Its the Wild West in the Welterweight Division 

The UFC's Welterweight in my opinion is the most exciting division at the moment. Ever since the ever so dominant Georges St. Pierre taken his "leave of absence" from the sport, all of a sudden everybody thinks they can compete for the title.

With so many exciting finishes and fantastic fights, many fighters in this division can be looked at as a contender to the newly crowned champion Johny Hendricks.

Lightweight:

1. Anthony Pettis

2. Benson Henderson

3. Gilbert Melendez

4. Josh Thomson

5. T.J. Grant

6. Nate Diaz

7. Khabib Nurmagomedov

8. Eddie Alvarez

9. Rafael Dos Anjos

10. Donald Cerrone

Division that has never been lacking in competition

Although the light heavyweight division has had the most stars and the welterweight division has finally opened up into a free for all, the lightweight division in the UFC has always been the most competitive divisions in the sport.That is not even accounting for all the great lightweights in other promotions like Bellator, which features great fighters like: Eddie Alvarez, Michael Chandler and now Will Brooks. 

Featherweight:

1. Jose Aldo

2. Chad Mendes

3. Frankie Edgar

4. Ricardo Lamas

5. Cub Swanson

6. Chan Sung Jung

7. Pat Curran

8. Clay Guida

9. Dustin Poirier

10. Jeremy Stephens

Aldo wants seconds

Since the division's debut int he UFC, Jose Aldo has literally cleaned out the entire division and is going for seconds in his rematch against Chad Mendes at UFC 176 in Los Angeles.

Bantamweight:

1. Renan Barao

2. Urijah Faber

3. Michael McDonald

4. Raphael Assuncao

5. T.J. Dillashaw

6. Johnny Eduardo

7. Takeya Mizugaki

8. Eddie Wineland

9. Eduardo Dantas

10. Iuri Alcantara

Jose Aldo has a Clone

Jose Aldo's clone.... almost, Renan Barao is the 135 pound version of his training partner at Nova Uniao, except Barao is way more exciting, compiling more finishes than Aldo since entering the UFC and owning the longest undefeated streak in all of MMA with 31 fights without a loss.

Flyweight:

1. Demetrious Johnson

2. Joseph Benavidez

3. John Dodson

4. Ali Bagautinov

5. Ian McCall

6. John Moraga

7. Jussier Formiga

8. Chris Cariaso

9. Zach Makovsky

10. Tim Elliott

Johnson let's em' know who's boss

A fairly new division, Demetrious Johnson took no time to make his mark by defeating the scarce amount of challengers in this young division, after losing shot for the title at the 135 division.

Women's Bantamweight:

1. Ronda Rousey

2. Cat Zingano

3. Alexis Davis

4. Sara McMann

5. Miesha Tate

6. Sarah Kaufman

7. Liz Carmouche

8. Jessica Andrade

9. Bethe Corrieia

10. Holly Holm

New Division creating most buzz

The newest division in the UFC at the moment was created by the UFC to showcase Ronda Rousey, who has become a major star in this sport. Rousey has been dominant ever since her career started in Strikeforce eight straight fights in a row by Armbar, and seven of them in the first round.

The division has many credible challengers like Cat Zingano and Alexis Davis, and the potential of bringing over former Strikeforce 145 women's division champions: Gina Carano and Cyborg Santos. shall the UFC sign Rousey to fight either of the two, it will become a super fight.