I thought it might be interesting to see how things have progressed in the last two years. Sherdog rankings, February 9th, 2008 Consensus rankings, February 8th, 2010 Heavyweight 2008... 01. Emelianenko, Fedor 02. Nogueira, Antonio Rodrigo 03. Couture, Randy 04. Sylvia, Tim 05. Arlovski, Andrei 06. Werdum, Fabricio 07. Gonzaga, Gabriel 08. Kongo, Cheick 09. Filipovic, Mirko 10. Rothwell, Ben Heavyweight 2010... 01. Emelianenko, Fedor 02. Lesnar, Brock 03. Mir, Frank 04. Nogueira, Antonio Rodrigo 05. Velasquez, Cain 06. Carwin, Shane 07. Dos Santos, Junior 08. Rogers, Brett 09. Barnett, Josh 10. Werdum, Fabricio Light Heavyweight, 2008... 01. Jackson, Quinton 02. Henderson, Dan 03. Jardine, Keith 04. Griffin, Forrest 05. Liddell, Chuck 06. Rua, Mauricio 07. Machida, Lyoto 08. Silva, Wanderlei 09. Evans, Rashad 10. Sokoudjou Light Heavyweight, 2010... 01. Machida, Lyoto 02. Rua, Mauricio 03. Evans, Rashad 04. Jackson, Quinton 05. Nogueira, Antonio Rogerio 06. Mousasi, Gegard 07. Silva, Thiago 08. Jones, Jon 09. Cane, Luis 10. Vera, Brandon Middleweight, 2008 01. Silva, Anderson 02. Filho, Paulo 03. Franklin, Rich 04. Marquardt, Nate 05. Lawler, Robbie 06. Okami, Yushin 07. Trigg, Frank 08. Akiyama, Yoshihiro 09. Misaki, Kazuo 10. Santiago, Jorge Middleweight, 2010 01. Silva, Anderson 02. Henderson, Dan 03. Belfort, Vitor 04. Sonnen, Chael 05. Marquardt, Nate 06. Shields, Jake 07. Okami, Yushin 08. Lawler, Robbie 09. Maia, Demian 10. Santiago, Jorge Welterweight, 2008 01. St. Pierre, Georges 02. Serra, Matt 03. Hughes, Matt 04. Fitch, Jon 05. Koscheck, Josh 06. Sanchez, Diego 07. Parisyan, Karo 08. Shields, Jake 09. Aoki, Shinya 10. Condit, Carlos Welterweight, 2010 01. St. Pierre, Georges 02. Hardy, Dan 03. Fitch, Jon 04. Diaz, Nick 05. Alves, Thiago 06. Thiago, Paulo 07. Koscheck, Josh 08. Johnson, Anthony 09. Daley, Paul 10. Serra, Matt Lightweight, 2008 01. Gomi, Takanori 02. Cavalcante, Gesias 03. Ishida, Mitsuhiro 04. Penn, B.J. 05. Melendez, Gilbert 06. Kawajiri, Tatsuya 07. Ribeiro, Vitor 08. Sherk, Sean 09. Stevenson, Joe 10. Edgar, Frank Lightweight, 2010 01. Penn, B.J. 02. Aoki, Shinya 03. Melendez, Gilbert 04. Florian, Kenny 05. Edgar, Frank 06. Maynard, Gray 07. Griffin, Tyson 08. Henderson, Ben 09. Alvarez, Eddie 10. Varner, Jamie Featherweight, 2008 01. Faber, Urijah 02. Tamura, Akitoshi 03. Inoue, Takeshi 04. Curran, Jeff 05. Takaya, Hiroyuki 06. Carvalho, Antonio 07. Iminari, Masakazu 08. Maeda, Yoshiro 09. Kim, Jong Man 10. Hioki, Hatsu Featherweight, 2010 01. Aldo, Jose 02. Brown, Mike 03. Faber, Urijah 04. Fernandes, Bibiano 05. Assuncao, Raphael 06. Gamburyan, Manvel 07. Fabiano, Wagnney 08. Omigawa, Michihiro 09. Kanehara, Masanori 10. Hioki, Hatsu
Interesting how Griffin fell completely out of the top 10 in 2010. I figure he'd still be good for a spot in the 7-10 slots. Featherweight saw the most change I think, and a lot of the guys fighting in Japan got replaced by WEC guys. I interpret it as the division getting more competitive.