Sherdog Official Mixed Martial Arts Rankings

Featherweight

1. Jose Aldo (16-1)
A fitting headliner for the first WEC pay-per-view, Aldo will risk his featherweight title and 145-pound alpha status against former champ Urijah Faber at WEC 48 on April 24. Aldo’s first title defense will come on hostile grounds in front of a pro-Faber crowd in Sacramento, Calif.

2. Mike Thomas Brown (23-5)
Brown's quick return to the cage on Jan. 10 was successful, as he easily tapped Anthony Morrison in the first round. Brown's next assignment will be considerably tougher: He meets Manny Gamburyan at WEC 48 on April 24.

3. Urijah Faber (23-3)
Faber will have another chance to regain featherweight supremacy April 24 in front of a partisan Sacramento crowd at Arco Arena, as he headlines the WEC’s first pay-per-view. However, not all favors Faber: He'll have to deal with the division's dynamic champion, Jose Aldo.

4. Bibiano Fernandes (7-2)
The first defense of Fernandes' Dream featherweight title will be a tall task: The BJJ world champion will take on perennial top lightweight and former Dream champion Joachim Hansen, who will be making his divisional debut, at Dream 13 on March 22.

5. Raphael Assuncao (14-2)
In his first elite-level test, Assuncao was game but outmatched against former WEC featherweight champ Urijah Faber at WEC 46, eventually succumbing to "The California Kid" late in the third frame. It was just the second loss of Assuncao's career, following his highly controversial majority decision loss to Jeff Curran in November 2006.

6. Michihiro Omigawa (9-8-1)
Few fighters had a better 2009 campaign than Omigawa, who rocketed from also-ran to elite featherweight status. Omigawa will open up 2010 come April 25, competing on "Astra," the card dedicated to the retirement of his sensei, Hidehiko Yoshida.

7. Hatsu Hioki (20-4-2)
Though most seem to think Hioki deserved the nod in his Nov. 7 split decision loss to Michihiro Omigawa, the bout was another exhibition of Hioki's staggering lack of strategy and consistency that have undermined him in the past.

8. Manny Gamburyan (10-4)
When he cut from 155 pounds to 145, it was anticipated that Gamburyan would be a shoo-in title challenger. In order to get that opportunity, he will have to deal with former divisional champion Mike Thomas Brown when the pair square off at WEC 48 on April 24.

9. Masanori Kanehara (16-7-5)
A nagging knee injury kept Kanehara off of Sengoku's March 7 card. However, with Marlon Sandro's brutal starching of his training partner Tomonari Kanomata, Kanehara's first defense of his Sengoku featherweight crown may come at the promotion's next event on June 20.

10. Marlon Sandro (16-1)
Sandro's latest trip to the Sengoku ring was ephemeral to say the least. It took the Nova Uniao product just nine seconds to clobber Tomonari Kanomata, putting the Japanese veteran on a stretcher. Despite his BJJ pedigree, it was Sandro's third brutal knockout in his last four bouts.

Other contenders: L.C. Davis, Josh Grispi, Takeshi Inoue, Mackens Semerzier, Deividas Taurosevicius.

*Formerly 10th-ranked Josh Grispi falls to the contenders list with the entry of Marlon Sandro.