Whelp.. I guess I'll do the rankings thing too.
Note: Not ranking anyone in a weight class below where they're expected to be fighting for the foreseeable future.
Heavyweight.
1. Fedor Emelianenko. I don't think this needs any further explanation.
2. Josh Barnett. In my view, the best grappler at Heavyweight (who actually knows how to throw hands), has some solid ground and pound and unlike certain submission guys (Mir mostly) he actually controls position from his back.
3. Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira. As easy as it would be to rank Lesnar here, I'm just going to say "Staph Infection + who the fuck has Brock fought?". When he's 100% Big Nog is quite possibly the most durable fighter on the planet, he's also well rounded with good hands and a good ground game.
4. Brock Lesnar. Brock is like this giant untested guy who seems to be crushing everything in his path, I guess some people don't remember how fucking scary Bob Sapp was early in his career -- smashed Hoost twice, damn near killed Big Nog with a piledriver, looked amazing.. then Mirko broke his orbital bone with a left straight and made him cry like a little kid with a stubbed toe and suddenly he wasn't scary anymore. That said, he's a legitimate top 5 fighter until proven otherwise. Plus god knows how he'll be when he gets healthy again.
5. Brett Rogers. Not too many guys can claim to have got into the mount on Fedor. This spot was pretty close for me, I think Junior Dos Santos, Cain or even Andrei Arlovski could have held down this spot, but the reality is of those 4 guys Rogers has: the best win and his performance against Fedor was a damn sight above what everyone expected, imo better than anyone since Mark Hunt -- even if the last time a Russian hit a brother that hard Ivan Drago killed Apollo Creed.
Favourites: Barnett, Big Nog and Werdum.
Light Heavyweight.
1. Mauricio Rua. He suffered a highway robbery loss to Lyoto, but he'll be back on track when he beats him this time.. again (I hope someone gets that reference).
2. Lyoto Machida. While he looked unimpressive in his fight with Rua, he is still a top tier fighter, losing a close fight to an in shape Mauricio Rua isn't exactly a shameful thing, it's happened to guys like Arona (who was top 3 at the time, for sure), Rogerio, Rampage, and Overeem. Lyoto has still looked dominant against everyone else in the division and I don't see anyone else besides Rogerio, Anderson or one of the big LHW wrestlers (essentially, Bader given half of them have forgotten how to wrestle) giving him trouble.
3. Antônio Rogério Nogueira. Essentially he's Rodrigo with better hands and a slightly weaker chin (apparently the Safari Punch can hurt him). He has run through a couple of solid top 10 fighters recently (VMAT and Cane) and looked insanely impressive doing it.
4. Rashad Evans. Holy shit I'm agreeing with Sherdog. Seriously though Rashad has looked very solid in most of his fights, it's unfortunate however that he seems to be falling into the Koscheck / Gurgel trap of throwing hands when his strength lies in his wrestling -- I think unfortunately that this might be what prevents him getting that LHW belt back.
5. Gegard Mousasi. Despite only 2 fights at LHW Gegard has looked incredible against 2 guys who sit around the 10-15 mark, add in his absolute demolition of Musashi under K-1 rules (something several guys who made the final 8 this year couldn't do) and I'd say Gegard is a man to watch.
Favourites: King Mo, Little Nog and Arona.
Middleweight.
1. Anderson Silva. Not even up for debate at this stage, eh?
2. Nate Marquardt. Besides a bogus loss to Thales Leites and the standard activity during an Anderson Silva fight, Nate has looked dominant at MW. Amusingly the reason for my ranking him ahead of Henderson dates back to his 2004 win over Kazuo Misaki.
3. Dan Henderson. His only loss at MW is Anderson, and he holds solid wins over Franklin, Palahares, Belfort and Bisping all in recent memory. His signing with Strikeforce will no doubt see him inexplicably drop on some peoples rankings, but Hendo isn't going anywhere.
4. Jake Shields. Has recently handled Mayhem, Lawler and going back a bit further, Yushin Okami. Sheilds has some pretty impressive wrestling and JiuJitsu, though his natural weight class is definitely Welterweight.
5. Vitor Belfort. Vitor has looked strong in his last few fights since dropping to MW, however Vitor may still have the same issue that has always held him back: when his opponent doesn't get overwhelmed, Vitor gets frustrated and either gives up or does something stupid. Incidentally, as a random fact: during the Chuck Liddell fight, Chuck grabbed the fence at least twice to stop Vitor taking him down in the third.
Favourites: Nate, Misaki and Khalidov.
Welterweight.
1. Georges St-Pierre. Seriously, I'm not even going to bother explaining this.
2. Jon Fitch. Since Georges St-Pierre came back from the Serra loss, he's looked untouchable except for a brief period in Round 2 with Fitch. Fitch looks to be pretty much the only guy even remotely close to Georges in the entire division and his record matches that theory.
3. Thiago Alves. Alves holds down #3 and seems to be stuck there having lost to both Fitch and Georges, he's a dangerous striker for sure and his wrestling isn't as bad as Georges made it look.
4. Paulo Thiago. Paulo comes into the UFC, unbeaten, runs through Koscheck (ehh stoppage aside), loses a competitive (but decisive none the less) decision to Fitch and just spent 15 minutes rearranging the face of Volkmann.
5. Josh Koscheck. Finally rebounded a little and remembering to Wrestle again, Kos has only 3 losses in the past 3 (almost 4!) years to Alves, Thiago and Georges.. Solid contender and comfortably holding down a top 5 spot.
Favourites: Fitch, Marius Zaromskis, and Dan Hornbuckle.
Lightweight.
1. Shinya Aoki. Holding wins over Shaolin, Uno, Cavalcante, Hansen, and Alvarez in the past few years with only 2 losses (1 at Welterweight to Hayato Sakurai and 1 in the final of the Dream LW Tournament to Hansen), Aoki holds down the #1 slot by virtue of fighting everyone and their dog and winning.
2. BJ Penn. The fact that the UFC can't locate worthwhile fights for BJ says it all really, with only 2 guys even remotely near the top 5 (Florian and Sherk, I would argue Kenny wasn't top 5 personally) on his resume since his win over Ludwig in 2004, BJs ranking is mostly kept at #2 by the fact we have no idea how good he really is.
3. Eddie Alvarez. Besides a loss to Aoki, Alvarez has been strong at Lightweight holding a 6-1 record in the division with solid wins over Hansen and Kawajiri.
4. Gil Melendez. While Gil has lost 2 of his last 5 but he also avenged one of them, holding down solid wins over Kawajiri, Ishida and Guida. Gil's wrestling looks vastly improved of late and he looks solid in the striking department.
5. Tatsuya Kawajiri. Holding wins over Hansen, Cavalcante, Krazy Horse and Azeredo (who beat Anderson Silva way back in 2000!), Kawajiri has looked solid since his return at Yarennoka despite a loss to Alvarez (a competitive fight, mind).
Favourites: Hirota, Alvarez and Kawajiri.
And now for some brief rankings of FW/BW seeing as I know about them but can't be arsed explaining:
Featherweight.
1. Jose Aldo.
2. Mike Thomas Brown
3. Marlon Sandro (who was fucking robbed at Sengoku 9...)
4. Hatsu Hioki
5. Jung Chan Sung or Faber, they're of a muchness.
Favourites: Jung Chan Sung, Mike Brown.
Bantamweight.
1. Masakatsu Ueda
2. Brian Bowles
3. Miguel Torres
4. Takeya Mizugaki
5. Tough to say due to it being damn hard to watch Shooto outside of Japan.