Anderson Silva tumbles from the top spot in MMA rankings

Anderson Silva’s historic run of success as UFC middleweight champion finally came to an end in the main event of UFC 162, and he pays the price by dropping out of the top spot in The Times’ rankings.

Heavyweight

1. Cain Velasquez

2. Junior Dos Santos

3. Fabricio Werdum

4. Daniel Cormier

5. Antonio Silva

6. Alistair Overeem

7. Josh Barnett

8. Frank Mir

9. Travis Browne

10. Stipe Miocic

The biggest heavyweight fight of August takes place on its final day when Josh Barnett makes his return to the UFC after 11 years against fellow high level veteran Frank Mir. Barnett has fought in most of the sport’s top organizations while Mir has fought his career almost exclusively in the UFC. Another big fight takes place August 17 in Boston, when Alistair Overeem looks to rebound from a TKO loss to Antonio Silva against 14-1-1 Travis Browne.

Light Heavyweight

1. Jon Jones

2. Alexander Gustafsson

3. Lyoto Machida

4. Rashad Evans

5. Phil Davis

6. Dan Henderson

7. Glover Teixeira

8. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

9. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua

10. Ryan Bader

Lyoto Machida has always done very well with wrestlers. His karate stance is well suited to landing devastating counterblows when a fighter attempts to take him down. That makes his battle with Phil Davis at UFC 163 an intriguing challenge. Davis’ wrestling is top notch, as good as anyone who has fought Machida. What’s more, he is careful and adept at timing his takedowns. He could prove more difficult for Machida than past wrestlers.

Middleweight

1. Chris Weidman

2. Anderson Silva

3. Vitor Belfort

4. Chael Sonnen

5. Yushin Okami

6. Luke Rockhold

7. Mark Munoz

8. Michael Bisping

9. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza

10. Hector Lombard

Anderson Silva’s historic run of success as UFC middleweight champion finally came to an end in the main event of UFC 162. Silva was clowning around, head bobbing and pretending to be hurt when caught with a hook to the jaw by Chris Weidman that he didn’t see coming. Weidman knocked Silva out cold and captured his championship. Now, Weidman will have to do it again. The fighters are scheduled to rematch at the end of the year. On the same card, Mark Munoz made an impressive return to action with a dominant win over Tim Boetsch. Munoz after the fight lobbied for a title shot to no avail. It was worth a try.

Welterweight

1. Georges St. Pierre

2. Johny Hendricks

3. Demian Maia

4. Carlos Condit

5. Rory MacDonald

6. Jake Ellenberger

7. Nick Diaz

8. Martin Kampmann

9. Ben Askren

10. Tarec Saffiedine

Rory MacDonald won a decision over Jake Ellenberger on Fox, but it wasn’t the sort of performance that will benefit his career much. Both fighters exercised an extremely cautious style, leading to 15 lackluster minutes. Pressure will be on each man to engage more next time around.

Lightweight

1. Ben Henderson

2. Anthony Pettis

3. Gilbert Melendez

4. T.J. Grant

5. Michael Chandler

6. Donald Cerrone

7. Gray Maynard

8. Josh Thomson

9. Nate Diaz

10. Khabib Nurmagomedov

When T.J. Grant had to pull out of his title fight with Ben Henderson due to a concussion in training, it led to an even better replacement. Anthony Pettis will challenge Henderson in a rematch of their classic 2010 fight where Pettis pulled off his famous “Showtime” kick in the final round. Henderson is the champion but Pettis won the first fight and will be fighting in his hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Featherweight

1. Jose Aldo

2. Chad Mendes

3. Ricardo Lamas

4. Pat Curran

5. “Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung

6. Cub Swanson

7. Frank Edgar

8. Dustin Poirier

9. Erik Koch

10. Dennis Siver

Saturday’s UFC 163 event is headlined by a featherweight title contest between champion Jose Aldo and challenger Chan Sung Jung. It’s a stiff challenge for Jung, but he has earned the opportunity with three straight impressive stoppage wins. The next title challenger will be interesting, as the division is loaded with worthy challengers. Cub Swanson has won five in a row including four via TKO and wins over Dustin Poirier and Dennis Siver. Chad Mendes has won three straight fights all in under two minutes, adding dangerous striking to go with his high level wrestling. Ricardo Lamas has four consecutive wins himself, perhaps over the most impressive competition: Swanson, Erik Koch and Hatsu Hioki.

Bantamweight

1. Dominick Cruz

2. Renan Barao

3. Michael McDonald

4. Urijah Faber

5. Eddie Wineland

6. Bibiano Fernandes

7. Brad Pickett

8. Raphael Assuncao

9. Eduardo Dantas

10. Iuri Alcantara

Renan Barao and Eddie Wineland will fight in Toronto September 21 for the UFC interim bantamweight crown. Hopefully, that will set up a long awaited fight between the winner and Dominick Cruz, who has been out of action with an injury since 2011. If Cruz is unable to return, there aren’t a lot of exciting options in what has become a thin division.

Flyweight

1. Demetrious Johnson

2. Joseph Benavidez

3. John Dodson

4. Ian McCall

5. Jussier Da Silva

Women’s Bantamweight

1. Ronda Rousey

2. Cat Zingano

3. Sarah Kaufman

4. Miesha Tate

5. Sara McMann