FIGHT! Rankings: Hector Lombard Is the #8 Middleweight In the World

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(Lombard celebrates a season-one win.)

At FIGHT! Magazine, we believe there is a need for a completely objective and unbiased ranking system for fighters to replace the myriad subjective rankings that have become skewed, in many instances, by fighter popularity. In an effort to address this issue FIGHT! Magazine brings you its computerized rankings system which takes into account a fighters strength of opponent, strength of performance, and frequency of activity.

Bellator wrapped up its third season last night with two title fights – Middleweight Champion Hector Lombard’s first title defense and Megumi Fujii and Zoila Frausto’s scrap for the vacant women’s 115-pound belt. Full results can be found here; analysis of how the bouts affected our rankings can be found below.

In the middleweight championship fight, Lombard fought five full rounds for the first time in his career, defending his belt by unanimous decision over dangerous finisher Alexander Shlemenko. The win vaults Lombard from #25 to #8 in FIGHT!’s Middleweight Rankings, while Shlemenko falls from #10 to #25 with the loss. In other middleweight action, The Ultimate Fighter alumnus Dan Cramer notched his second win under the Bellator banner. Cramer moves up one spot, from #71 to #70 in the polls with his win over unranked Igor Almeida, and likely secured himself a spot in the next Bellator middleweight tournament.

At 205 pounds, Raphael Davis logged his third qualifying fight, and his second for Bellator, entering our Light Heavyweight Rankings at #41. His opponent, former King of the Cage champion Tony Lopez, falls from #55 to #72 with the loss. At 170, Moyses Gabin falls from #84 to #114 in our Welterweight Rankings with his loss to unranked Frank Castillo. No other ranked fighters appeared on the card. FIGHT! will unveil its Women’s MMA rankings in 2011, and Bellator’s season-three tournament participants figure to feature prominently in the 115-pound poll.

M-1 Global wrapped up its 2010 Selection Tournament in St. Petersburg, Russia yesterday, crowning champions at lightweight and heavyweight. Click here for full results. The heavyweight title bout pitted Kenny Garner against Guram Gugenishvili – Gugenishvili finished Garner with a choke in the second round, jumping from #59 to #34 in FIGHT!’s Heavyweight Rankings, while Garner falls from #36 to #64.

In the lightweight title tilt, Artiom Damkovsky took the belt and moved from #111 to #62 in our Lightweight poll while Mairbek Taisumov fell from #85 to #136 in the stacked division. Also at lightweight, Alexander Sarnavskiy enters the polls at #63 with a win over Victor Kuku, who falls from #67 to #115. Yuri Ivlev enters the Lightweight Rankings at #148 following his loss to unranked Daniel Weichel.

At 170 pounds, Che Mils jumps from #125 to #96 in our Welterweight poll with a win over unranked Magomed Shikshabekov, and Rashid Magomedov enters at #110 after his win over unranked Igor Araujo.

In a light heavyweight bout, Dmitry Samoilov moved from #81 to #71 with a win over unranked Gadzhimurad Omarov, and at middleweight, Alexei Belyaev jumped from #106 to #87 with a win over unranked Alexei Nazarov. No other ranked fighters appeared on the card.

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