Fighters.com's July Heavyweight Rankings

Did you miss me? The much-anticipated, most thorough rankings in mixed martial arts returns with Fighters.com’s July Heavyweight Rankings. Let’s get right to it, shall we?

“Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko (29-1) retains the Fighters.com heavyweight championship, which he’s set to defend from ninth-ranked “Babyface Assassin” Josh Barnett (20-5) at Affliction M-1 Global’s Trilogy in Anaheim 1 August.

But, with Affliction’s run thought to be at its end, Fighters.com worries that whomever wins will return to Japan to fight freaks and middleweights.

Up I-15 in Las Vegas 11 July, UFC 100 features a fight for the soul of MMA’s top promotion when second-ranked Frank Mir (12-3) and third-ranked Brock Lesnar (3-1) rematch for the UFC title.

Mir represents the martial artists of MMA’s origins, while uber-athlete Lesnar proudly proclaims he fights for a paycheck and is likely the future of the sport whether he wins Saturday or not.

Fourth-ranked “Minotauro” Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (31-5-1) is set for a showdown with fellow legend and eighth-ranked “The Natural” Randy Couture (16-9) at UFC 102 in Portland 29 August, but only after the fight has lost the significance it would’ve had just a year ago.

On the undercard, seventh-ranked “Cigano” Junior dos Santos (8-1) will fight overmatched “Insane 1″ Justin McCully (9-4-2).

Fifth-ranked “Grim” Brett Rogers (8-0) is gunning for Strikeforce champ “Demolition Man” Alistair Overeem (27-10) after knocking out tenth-ranked “Pitbull” Andrei Arlovski (14-7) in 22 seconds 6 June in St. Louis.

Finally, sixth-ranked Shane Carwin (10-0) is rumoured to be mulling a match-up versus fellow UFC up-and-comer Cain Velasquez (6-0).