Sherdog’s Official Mixed Martial Arts Rankings

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With just one second left in round one, Jose Aldo proved once again who is No. 1 at 145.

At UFC 142 in Rio de Janeiro, Jose Aldo electrified the partisan crowd with a thrilling knockout of Chad Mendes to win his 14th straight bout. The win showed once again that in spite of the 145-pound division’s great up-and-coming talent, it will take a different animal to deal with Aldo, whose prodigious offensive abilities were on display once again against Mendes.

The top of the welterweight division received some more shakeup in the last few weeks, however.

Not long removed from Jake Ellenberger steamrolling Jake Shields and Nick Diaz crushing B.J. Penn, two-time NCAA Division I wrestling champion Johny Hendricks needed only 12 seconds at UFC 141 to do away with Jon Fitch. With one left hand, Hendricks unseated the consensus number-two welterweight in the world, and drastically reshaped the 170-pound picture to start 2012.

UFC 141 also featured a goodbye of another kind, as former heavyweight alpha dog Brock Lesnar called it a career on Dec. 30 following his first-round knockout to Alistair Overeem. The former UFC heavyweight champion spent just over three years in these rankings, marking one of the most lucrative and unique careers in MMA history.

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