St-Pierre in the UFC. Photo by Josh Hedges

You can push them, you can punch them, but they won’t leave the top. With the exception of a chubby Russian who looks bored and a Canadian with a French name, Americans and Brazilians fight are neck and neck in leading the worldwide MMA rankings.

The proof is in the rankings published at the end of November on the websites of USA Today newspaper and SB Nation, which scoured the lists published on 20 American MMA websites, to come up with a thorough MMA ranking.

GRACIEMAG.com compiled the top ten in each weight group. What sticks out right off the bat is the presence of Anderson Silva in two different categories, and Will Ribeiro in the top-ten bantamweight list, despite the motorcycle accident he suffered, which he is overcoming valiantly. There’s also the fact that WEC champion Jose Aldo is under his victim Mike Brown – proof that the ranking needs to be updated, and quick!

Other than that, does the list look fair to you, reader? If not, who should be there? Leave your comment below and participate.

Heavyweight
1    Fedor Emelianenko    M-1 Global/Strikeforce
2    Brock Lesnar                UFC
3    Rodrigo Minotauro   UFC
4    Frank Mir                      UFC
5    Junior Cigano              UFC
6    Josh Barnett                 WVR
7    Cain Velasquez            UFC
8    Brett Rogers                 Strikeforce
9    Shane Carwin               UFC
10   Fabricio Werdum     Strikeforce

Light heavyweight
1    Lyoto Machida            UFC
2    Mauricio Shogun        UFC
3    Rashad Evans              UFC
4    Quinton Jackson        UFC
5    Forrest Griffin             UFC
6    Gegard Mousasi          Strikeforce
7    Thiago Silva                 UFC
8    Anderson Silva           UFC
9    Rogerio Minotouro   UFC
10   Luiz Arthur Banha    UFC

Middleweight
1    Anderson Silva            UFC
2    Nate Marquardt          UFC
3    Dan Henderson           Free Agent
4    Demian Maia                UFC
5    Vitor Belfort                 UFC
6    Chael Sonnen               UFC
7    Jake Shields                 Strikeforce
8    Jorge Santiago           WVR
9    Yushin Okami             UFC
10  Yoshihiro Akiyama  UFC

Welterweight
1    Georges Saint-Pierre  UFC
2    Jon Fitch                        UFC
3    Thiago Pitbull               UFC
4    Josh Koscheck             UFC
5    Mike Swick                    UFC
6    Matt Hughes                 UFC
7    Paulo Thiago                 UFC
8    Carlos Condit                UFC
9    Jake Shields                   Strikeforce
10  Paul Daley                     UFC

Lightweight
1    BJ Penn                        UFC
2    Shinya Aoki               Dream
3    Eddie Alvarez           Bellator/Dream
4    Kenny Florian          UFC
5    Frank Edgar              UFC
6    Gray Maynard          UFC
7    Diego Sanchez          UFC
8    Sean Sherk                 UFC
9    Tatsuya Kawajiri      Dream
10   Joachim Hansen     Dream

Featherweight
1    Mike Brown                 WEC
2    Urijah Faber               WEC
3    Jose Aldo                     WEC
4    Bibiano Fernandes   Dream
5    Hatsu Hioki                 WVR
6    Leonard Garcia          WEC
7    Rafael Assuncao        WEC
8    Marlon Sandro           WVR
9    Michihiro Omigawa   WVR
10   Mackens Semerzier  WEC

Bantamweight
1    Brian Bowles             WEC
2    Miguel Torres           WEC
3    Dominick Cruz         WEC
4    Masakatsu Ueda       Shooto
5    Takeya Mizugaki      WEC
6    Joseph Benavidez    WEC
7    Rani Yahya                WEC
8    Akitoshi Tamura      WEC
9    Damacio Page           WEC
10   Will Ribeiro             WEC

For the complete rankings, with the top 20 in each category, according to USA Today and SB Nation, click here: http://www.bloodyelbow.com/rankings .

“No, I don’t want to face him because I felt I won. I want to fight Lyoto because it’s for the title, and that is my dream. What I want most is that belt and, therefore, I want to fight Lyoto again.”

On the delay in setting a date for the bout – which only just happened now -, Shogun has no complaints. His greater concern is keeping in shape.

“I’m never going to worry about that. I leave the details of my fight and opponent in the hands of my manager. My only concern is training. But of course I want to fight Lyoto as soon as possible,” he said in finishing.