Sherdog Official Mixed Martial Arts Rankings

It's a good time to be Faber. After delivering the goods against Jens Pulver (Pictures) in the most significant featherweight fight in MMA history June 1, Faber took his top pupil, Joseph Benavidez (Pictures), across the ocean to Japan, where Benavidez beat up on Junya Kudo (Pictures) in their July 21 bout at Dream 5. Now, the "California Kid" takes his World Extreme Cagefighting belt to the opposite coast, where he will defend it against American Top Team product Mike Thomas Brown (Pictures) on Sept. 10 in Florida.

After flying under the radar for almost his entire career, Brown gets the biggest opportunity of his career on Sept. 10, when he faces Urijah Faber (Pictures) for the WEC featherweight title. As part of the Florida-based American Top Team, Brown will likely enjoy a partisan crowd at WEC 36 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla.

After the most important victory of his life -- overcoming federal drug trafficking charges -- Garcia appears to be back on track and ready to fight. He will look to follow up his major win over Hiroyuki Takaya (Pictures) in February with an even bigger victory, as he's expected to meet former UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver (Pictures) at WEC 36 in September.

After dropping three of his last four fights as a lightweight, the colorful veteran abandoned the 155-pound division, where he had spent his entire career, to compete as a featherweight. In his debut at 145 pounds, Mishima made out fantastically, as he took a majority decision and the Deep featherweight title from Masakazu Imanari (Pictures).

Enjoying a career where many decisions have gone his way, Curran was taken out on the scorecards by an underrated Mike Thomas Brown (Pictures) in a hard-fought bout at WEC 34. Although the next bout for Curran is unclear, there will always be a place for "The Big Frog" in the featherweight division.

Imanari dropped his Deep featherweight title to rival Dokonjonosuke Mishima (Pictures) in disappointing fashion in May. The leglock master will look to get back into the win column against a yet-to-be-determined opponent on Deep's Aug. 17 card in Tokyo.

Takaya made his stateside debut against Leonard Garcia (Pictures) in February and came out on the losing end in less than two minutes. The Japanese brawler will look for a better result in his second go-around. However, it will not be easy, as the "Streetfight Bancho" meets tough prospect Cub Swanson (Pictures) at the WEC's Aug. 3 offering.

A slated bout with the legendary Rumina Sato (Pictures) could not be made in May because of an injury, so Hioki will meet Hiroshi “Iron” Nakamura in his Aug. 3 return to his hometown of Nagoya, Japan. If all goes well for the lanky featherweight, Hioki is slated to return to Quebec to defend his TKO featherweight crown against Stephane Vigneault (Pictures) in Montreal.

The former Shooto world champ looked like he was taking control of his May 3 fight with Trenell "Savant" Young until he got caught in a deep guillotine that turned the tide. However, due to Young's July 19 loss to Mark Hominick (Pictures) at Affliction: Banned, Inoue rises from 10th to ninth on the Sherdog.com totem pole, but he needs a major win to put him back amongst the cream of the featherweight crop.

There were few bright spots in the dying days of the International Fight League. However, perhaps the brightest spot of all was Fabiano, who put the first blemish on the record of L.C. Davis and captured the IFL featherweight strap in December. He then turned in a “Knockout of the Year” candidate against Shad Lierley (Pictures) in April. Fans are already clamoring for Fabiano to head to WEC and with good reason. With Savant Young's loss to Mark Hominick (Pictures), the Brazilian slides in the back door to enter these rankings at number 10.

* With his July 19 submission loss to Mark Hominick (Pictures), the previously ninth-ranked Trenell "Savant" Young falls out of the top 10.