MMA Rankings for July 2012

The month of June was a mixed bag for the MMA Rankings, while it had many fights throughout the month; the bulk of the top-tier talent wasn’t in action. Just six fighters from the June MMA Rankings stepped into the cage over the last 30 days and with a 3-3 record amongst them, they didn’t fair to well.

Walking away with wins in June were Fabricio Werdum, Gray Maynard and Demetrious Johnson. Those that were on the losing end of things were Hatsu Hioki, Scott Jorgenson and Ian McCall.

Werdum defeated Mike Russow at UFC 147 and remains as the #3 heavyweight on this month’s MMA Rankings. Werdum looked impressive yet again but with #1 Junior Dos Santos likely taking on #2 Cain Velasquez next, he’ll need to fight at least one more time before he gets the title shot he requested.

Maynard earned a decision victory over Clay Guida in the not so barn burner of a UFC on FX 4 main event. His #4 spot on the MMA Rankings remains intact with the victory but Nate Diaz is nipping at his heels.

Johnson took on McCall in a rematch to determine who’d face Joseph Benavidez in the first ever UFC flyweight championship bout. The decision win moved Johnson up into the #2 spot while dropping McCall down a spot to #3.

The biggest upset of the month was Hioki losing UFC on FX 4 to Ricardo Llama. The one time #2 featherweight turned down a chance to fight Jose Aldo and paid the price dearly. Jorgenson also fought on the same card and suffered a brutal defeat at the hands of Eddie Wineland.

Despite the numerous injuries to the upcoming fight cards, July will still see seven ranked fighters and five fighter “knocking on the day” step into the cage this month. The majority of the action will come from the middleweight division as UFC champion Anderson Silva takes on his arch rival, Chael Sonnen at UFC 148.

As always the goal here is to give you the best rankings that we can provide you with and of course a spot below for you to disagree and complain. So without further ado here is the latest MMAValor.com fighter Rankings:

Key – [↑] = Moved up, [↓] = Moved Down, [•] = New to the list

Heavyweight (205lbs. – 265lbs.)

1. Junior Dos Santos
2. Cain Velasquez
3. Fabricio Werdum
4.  Frank Mir
5. Alistair Overeem

Knocking on the door: Daniel Cormier, Josh Barnett, Shane Carwin, Travis Browne, Stipe Miocic

Light Heavyweight (205lbs.)

1. Jon Jones
2. Dan Henderson
3. Rashad Evans
4. Mauricio Rua
5. Lyoto Machida

Knocking on the door: Phil Davis, Ryan Jimmo, Alexander Gustafsson

Middleweight (185lbs.)

1. Anderson Silva
2. Chael Sonnen
3. Hector Lombard
4. Mark Munoz
5. Michael Bisping

Knocking on the door: Brian Stann, Vitor Belfort, Luke Rockhold, Ronaldo Souza, Tim Boetsch, Alan Belcher

Welterweight (170lbs.)

1. Georges St. Pierre
2. Carlos Condit
3. Nick Diaz
4. Ben Askren
5. Johny Hendricks

Knocking on the door: Rory MacDonald, Martin Kampmann, Josh Koscheck, John Hathaway, Jake Ellenberger, Erick Silva

Lightweight (155lbs.)

1. Ben Henderson
2. Gilbert Melendez
3. Frankie Edgar
4. Gray Maynard
5. Nate Diaz

Knocking on the door: Michael Chandler, Jim Miller, Donald Cerrone, Eddie Alvarez, Anthony Pettis

Featherweight (145lbs.)

1. Jose Aldo
2. Pat Curran [↑]
3.  Hatsu Hioki [↓]
4. Chad Mendes
5. Patricio Freire

Knocking on the door:  Joe Warren, Chan Sung Jung, Dustin Poirier, Erik Koch

Bantamweight (135lbs.)

1. Dominik Cruz
2. Urijah Faber
3. Renan Barao
4. Michael McDonald
5. Brian Bowles [↑]

Knocking on the door: Ivan Menjivar, Brad Pickett, Eduardo Dantas, Zach Makovsky, Scott Jorgenson

Flyweight (125lbs.)

1. Joseph Benavides
2. Demetrious Johnson [↑]
3. Ian McCall [↓]
4. Jussier Da Silva
5. Yasuhiro Urushitani

Knocking on the door: John Dodson, Louis Gaudinot

MMA Rankings as of 7/2/2012

Tags: Anderson Silva, Bellator, Ben Henderson, Cain Velasquez, Carlos Condit, Chael Sonnen, Dan Henderson, Demetrious Johnson, Dominick Cruz, Fabricio Werdum, Georges St. Pierre, Gilbert Melendez, Gray Maynard, Hatsu Hioki, Ian McCall, Jon Jones, Jose Aldo, joseph Benavidez, junior Dos Santos, Mixed Martial Arts, MMA, MMA Rankings, Pat Cuuran, Scott Jorgenson, Strikeforce, UFC, UFC 148

Category: Bellator, Exclusive, Featured, MMA, Strikeforce, UFC