Infinitemma.com Australia and New Zealand MMA Fighter Rankings for December 2009
Infinitemma.com is proud to release its second Australian and New Zealand MMA Fighter Rankings, The ranking will be released in the first week of every month and be decided by the staff of infinitemma.com. To start we will be doing the top 5 Australian MMA Fighters and the top 3 New Zealand MMA Fighters, but over time this will ideally expand to a top 10 in each country for each weight division
There were a number of shows in both Australia and New Zealand through the month of December and these have seen a few changes to the November Rankings, Click Full Story Below to view the updated Infinitemma.com MMA Fighter rankings for Australia and New Zealand
With rankings there will always debate over who is better than who and this is our opinion on who are the best MMA Fighters in Australia and New Zealand. This is the second ranking and we believe it will improve with time. We do ask promoters to help out by emailing us fight results that includes what weight division the fights are participated at. Public discussion is encouraged in our forums. A couple stipuations that we have on the rankings is that a fighter must have fought in their selected weight division in the past 15 months and that fighters must be of Australian/New Zealand residency or have Australian and New Zealand citizenship.
Australian MMA Fighter Rankings Top 5
Heavyweight: (Under 120kgs)
1) Jim Yorke (11-4)
2) Brad Morris (10-4)
3) Soa Palelei (9-2)
4) Lucas Browne (5-0)
5) Felise Leniu (3-2)
No changes in the top five, however Browne moves closer to a top three position as he remained undefeated following a victory over Leamy Tato at Xtreme MMA 1. Felise on the same show moved his record to 3-2. Brad Morris will drop out of the rankings should he not fight in January due to inactivity of over 15 months.
Light-Heavyweight (Under 93kgs)
1) Jamie Te Huna (12-4)
2) Anthony Perosh (10-5)
3) Priscus Fogagnolo (5-1)
4) Gordon Graff (5-3)
5) Api Hemara (8-6, 1 draw)
No changes in top 5. Anthony Perosh was only fighter in top 5 to fight in the last month, defeating Kym Robinson convincingly at Rize 3.
Middleweight (Under 84kgs)
1) Hector Lombard (22-2, 1 draw)
2) Kyle Noke (16-4, 1 draw)
3) Dylan Andrews (10-2)
4) Chris Haseman (20-16)
5) Steve Micallef (4-0)
No changes in top 5. Steve Micallef continues to impress as he defeated Pat Crawley from New Zealand in a closely fought fight at Rize 3.
Welterweight (Under 77kgs)
1) Brian Ebersole (41-15)
2) Xavier Lucas (7-1, 1 draw)
3) Justin Murray (4-1, 1 draw)
4) Jai Bradney (6-2, 1 draw)
5) Shane Nix (5-1)
We were really hoping to see Ebersole fight Murray, however Murray had to pull out due to injury. Ebersole went on to defeat Schaffa at Xtreme MMA 1 who was stepping up a weight division to fight Ebersole. No changes in top 5, however Bradney moves closer to a top 3 position with a win over little known Sean O’Brien at Cage Wars 3.
Lightweight (Under 70kgs)
1) George Sotiropoulos (11-2)
2) Adrian Pang (15-6, 1 draw)
3) Bernardo Magalhaes (9-1)
4) Rob Hill (7-3, 1 draw)
5) Ian Schaffa (8-7, 1 draw)
No changes in top 5 fight. Schaffa stepped up a weight division to fight Ebersoel and was defeated at Xtreme MMA 1. Rob Hill defeated Pat Conroy at Rize 3 however remains fourth place, with the both Magalhaes and Pang recently defeating him. Sotiropoulos remains the king of the division.
Feathweight (Under 66kgs)
1) Gustavo Falciroli (8-2, 2 draws)
2) Richard Vaculik (4-0)
3) Michael Mortimer (9-2)
4) Alex Shevtsov (7-6)
5) Renato Vieira (1-1)
Kian Pham drops out of the top 5 and is replaced by Renato Vieira who infinitemma missed in our first edition of our rankings.
New Zealand MMA Fighter Rankings Top 3
Heavyweight (Under 120kgs)
1) Sam Brown (Current Supremacy Title Holder)
2) Benji Kney
3) Matt Toa
Heavyweight remains the same only person to fight was Sam Brown who lost a tough decision to Michael Van Der List on Rize 3 in Brisbane
Light-Heavyweight (Under 93kgs)
1) Andrew Dearsley
2) Antz Nansen
2) Aaron Boyes
Kaota Puna drops out of the Rankings as he has not fought in 15 months. Aaron Boyes comes into the rankings after his Pro Debut on the Xtreme MMA show in Sydney December 20th where he beat Rick Matthews via verbal submission
Middleweight (Under 84kgs)
1) Gareth Ealey (Current ICNZ Title Holder)
2) Gareth Burke
3) Pat Crawley
Gareth Burke moves up to number 2 after had a draw with Australian Sean Potter on ICNZ 8 and Pat Crawley drops to number 2 after he lost to the Number 5 ranked Australian fighter Steve Micallef via decision on Rize 3
Welterweight (Under 77kgs)
1) Rod MacSwain (Current Supremacy Title Holder)
2) Daniel Digby (Current ICNZ Title holder)
3) Dave Nicholls
Dave Nicholls moves up to #3 after another win against Tony Rossini on Rize 3 in Brisbane. Dave has 2 wins in Australia this year and 1 win in New Zealand and 1 loss to Daniel Digby this year. Eugene Baremen Drops out of the top 3 as he only had two fights 1 win over Steven Kennedy and loss to Rod MacSwain after he broke his leg in the first round.
Lightweight (Under 70kgs)
1) Korey Gibson
2) Daniel Hooker (Current Supremacy title Holder)
3) Scott Benson
Scott Benson moves up to #3 in 70kg after beating BJ Bland
Featherweight (Under 66kgs)
1) Jerry Norris (Current ICNZ Title Holder)
2) Doug Higgins
3) Richie Barnett
No Change
Bantamweight (Under 60kgs)
Inactive