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NEW YORK (August 31ST, 2009) –- The World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts (WAMMA) today released the August rankings for its Men’s Division, the first set of rankings released under newly appointed Rankings Committee Chairman Andrew Falzon.
“We are very fortunate to have such an extensive panel of rankers,” said Falzon. “This broad contingent of contributors has established the WAMMA rankings as the most comprehensive rankings in the sport of MMA.”
WAMMA’s combined panel of rankers represent a wide spectrum of the MMA media, CBSSportsline.com, ESPN’s MMA Live!, Fox News Fight Game with Mike Straka, FoxSports.com, MMA Fanhouse, Sirius Fight Club Radio, Sports Illustrated, The Calgary Sun Newspaper and The Fight Network.
The rankings are available online at: www.GoWAMMA.com/rankings
Ranking Highlights:
Heavyweights – The past month has seen an entire reorganization of the top five heavyweights since Brock Lesnar defeated Frank Mir at UFC 100, Josh Barnett was not licensed for Affliction Trilogy and Antonio Rodrigo “Minitauro” Noguiera defeated Randy Couture this past weekend at UFC 102.
Light Heavyweights – Newly crowned StrikeForce light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi debuts at #4 on this month’s rankings, replacing Forrest Griffin, who fell to #8 after losing his UFC 101 fight with UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva, after Silva jumped up a weight class for the fight.
Middleweights – The departure of Gegard Mousasi to light heavyweight sees the addition of Yoshihiro Akiyama to the middleweight division, debuting at #9. The division also sees the addition of the UFC’s Dan Henderson, as he prepares to fight UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva. Henderson is coming off a brutal knockout of Michael Bisbing, who finds himself at #10.
Welterweights – After a loss to UFC welterweight champion George St. Pierre at UFC 100, Thiago Alves finds himself tied for the number #3 spot with Strikeforce’s Jake Shields. However, Shields’ impending fight with Jason “Mayhem” Miller for the interim StrikeForce Middleweight championship should see Shields appear up one weight class in the October or November WAMMA rankings.
Lightweights – Kenny Florian drops from #3 to #7 after his loss to UFC Lightweight Champion BJ Penn at UFC 101.
Featherweights – Despite his split-decision win at WEC 42, Leonard Garcia drops to two spots down to #8, after being pushed to the limit by relatively unknown, but talented WEC rookie, Jameel Massouh.
Bantamweights – Newly crowned WEC Bantamweight Champion Brian Bowles finds himself in the #1 spot after his impressive KO of former WEC titleholder Miguel Torres at WEC 42. After defeating Urijah Faber protégé Joseph Benevidez at the same event, Dominic Cruz debuts in the #5 spot and Benevidez falls to #6.
About WAMMA
WAMMA is dedicated to leading the sport of Mixed Martial Arts to unprecedented levels of integrity, legitimacy and prosperity. With the help of forward-looking MMA promotions, WAMMA has created an environment where fighters from all organizations have the opportunity to openly compete to be the one true, undisputed champion in their respective weight classes based on WAMMA’s objective MMA Rankings.
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CONTACT:
WAMMA
Andrew Falzon, Rankings Chair
Andrew@GOWamma.com
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