For a moment, it seemed uncertain whether veteran Manny Gamburyan or surging upstart Josh Grispi would be next to challenge Aldo for his WEC featherweight title. Promotional brass decided “The Anvil” would be first on deck for Aldo’s second title defense at WEC 51 on Sept. 30.
2. Manny Gamburyan (11-4)
His April 24 smashing of former champion Mike Thomas Brown earned him top contender status, but Gamburyan’s place was momentarily threatened by upstart Josh Grispi. However, the daunting task of trying to take Jose Aldo’s title went to Gamburyan, who will meet the Brazilian dynamo at WEC 51 on Sept. 30.
3. Mike Thomas Brown (23-6)
Brown was a healthy favorite heading into his April 24 bout with Manny Gamburyan. However, Gamburyan caught him with a thudding right hand, pounced for the finish and knocked the former champion further down the pecking order at 145 pounds.
4. Urijah Faber (23-4)
Faber was bound for 135 pounds at WEC 50 on Aug. 18, when he was slated to take on Takeya Mizugaki in his first bantamweight bout. However, a knee injury forced Faber out of the match and to the sidelines, postponing his divisional debut.
5. Bibiano Fernandes (8-2)
In the first defense of the Dream featherweight title he captured in October, Fernandes did enough to earn a split decision victory over former Dream lightweight champion Joachim Hansen. He kept his title and notched easily the most important win of his blossoming career.
6. Michihiro Omigawa (11-8-1)
In what amounted to a pointless and perfunctory affair, Omigawa had no trouble grounding and submitting overmatched Korean Young Sam Jung at Dream 14 on July 10. Thankfully, Dream has better competition to offer Omigawa moving forward.
7. Marlon Sandro (17-1)
Few men in MMA can hit like Sandro. Despite being labeled as another Nova Uniao grappler, Sandro showed his scary power once again on June 20, when he needed just 38 seconds to crush Masanori Kanehara and take the Sengoku featherweight title. It was Sandro’s third sub-40-second knockout in his last four wins.
8. Hatsu Hioki (21-4-2)
In one of the year’s most entertaining bouts so far, Hioki picked up another piece of hardware -- the Shooto world title -- by besting “Lion” Takeshi Inoue on May 30 in one of the most one-sided split decisions you will ever see.
9. Josh Grispi (14-1)
It was another quick comeback win for Grispi. Returning from an ankle injury, “The Fluke” looked like he was in trouble for two minutes in his June 20 bout with L.C. Davis. Some 30 seconds later, Davis was out cold from a Grispi guillotine, and the Massachusetts native vaulted closer to a WEC title shot.
10. Diego Nunes (14-1)
After a one-sided decision loss to L.C. Davis in November, Nunes became just another face in a deep WEC featherweight crowd. However, “The Gun” put together all his tools on June 20 and took a split decision win over Raphael Assuncao in a highly entertaining undercard affair that seems certain to raise his stock.
Other contenders: Raphael Assuncao, L.C. Davis, Masanori Kanehara, Joe Soto, Deividas Taurosevicius.