MMA Fighter Rankings for May 2012

The MMA Fighter Rankings for the month of May look much different from what they did just one month ago, despite many of the ranked fighters not even fighting. Fighter suspensions coupled with losses and big wins by ranked fighters played a bit of havoc on the rankings.

The biggest news this month was Alistair Overeem being suspended for elevated Testosterone levels and being removed from his title fight against Junior Dos Santos. Overeem stays in the top 5 for now as he hangs onto the fifth spot until someone knocks him out of that spot. The man he replaced him at UFC 146 against Dos Santos, Frank Mir also takes he’s #3 spot on the ranks this month.

Coming off his unanimous decision loss to the UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones at UFC 145, Rashad Evans dropped two spots and now sits at the #4 position. Next up for Jones is Dan Henderson, who moved up to the #2 spot following the loss from Evans.

Welterweight Josh Koshcheck lost a close split decision last weekend to Johny Hendricks at UFC on FOX 3 which knocked him out of the #5 spot and into the “knocking on the door” list. That allowed the Bellator welterweight champion Ben Askren a spot in the top five.

The month of May features many of the top ranked fighters in action, including Gilbert Melendez and most of the heavyweights in the top 5 and those looking to crack the ranks.

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. Frank Mir [↑]
4. Fabricio Werdum
5. Alistair Overeem [↓]

Knocking on the door: Josh Barnett, Shane Carwin, Daniel Cormier, Antonio Silva

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, Demian Maia, Tim Boetsch, Alan Belcher

Welterweight (170lbs.)

1. Georges St. Pierre
2. Carlos Condit
3. Jake Ellenberger [↑]
4. Nick Diaz
5. Ben Askren [•]

Knocking on the door: Rory MacDonald, Johny Hendricks, Martin Kampmann, Josh Koscheck, John Hathaway

Lightweight (155lbs.)

1. Gilbert Melendez
2. Ben Henderson
3. Frankie Edgar
4. Gray Maynard
5. Michael Chandler

Knocking on the door: Nate Diaz, Jim Miller, Donald Cerrone, Eddie Alvarez, Anthony Pettis

Featherweight (145lbs.)

1. Jose Aldo
2. Hatsu Hioki
3.  Pat Curran
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. Zach Makovsky
4. Renan Barao
5. Scott Jorgenson

Knocking on the door: Ivan Menjivar, Brian Bowles

Flyweight (125lbs.)

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

Knocking on the door: John Dodson, Louis Gaudinot

Ranks as of 5/7/2012

Tags: Alistair Overeem, Anderson Silva, Bellator, Frank Mir, Gilbert Melendez, Johny Hendricks, Jon Jones, Josh Koscheck, junior Dos Santos, Miked Martial Arts, MMA, mma fighter rankings, Rankings, Rashad Evans, Strikeforce, UFC, UFC 145, UFC 146, UFC on FOX 3

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