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Y! Sports rankings: Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans is a top-10 match to savor

The bitter personal feud between UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and his protégé and former training partner, ex-champion Rashad Evans, likely will dominate the talk prior to their title fight on April 21 at UFC 145 in Atlanta.

What will be overlooked is the fact that it might be the only bout in 2012 between fighters who are each ranked in the Yahoo! Sports Top 10.

UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva tops the pound-for-pound list yet again, garnering 21 of the 22 first-place votes from the panel of mixed martial arts journalists. All seven UFC champions made the list, and all but heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos appeared on all 22 ballots. The new heavyweight king, who defends his belt against former Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem on May 26 at UFC 146, appeared on 21 of the 22 ballots.

Jones, who got the only first-place vote that didn't go to Silva, came in second place. He'll defend his crown against Evans, who moved into the top 10 in a tie for eighth place after a one-sided decision victory over Phil Davis on Jan. 28 in the main event of UFC on Fox 2 in Chicago.

There are two other potential bouts that could be between top-10 fighters that may happen later in the year. Light heavyweight Dan Henderson is ranked 10th, and he likely will challenge the Jones-Evans winner later in 2012. If Henderson remains in the top 10, it's likely that fight would pit top-10 fighters against each other.

Further down the line could be a welterweight title match between champion Georges St. Pierre, who is No. 3, and interim champion Carlos Condit. Condit missed out on the top 10, but came in at 11th and the possibility exists that he could squeeze into the bottom half of the top 10 by the time he fights St. Pierre late this year.

Beyond that, though, there doesn't seem to be a lot of hope for matches involving top-10 fighters against each other unless Zuffa, the company that owns both the UFC and Strikeforce, moves Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez into the UFC, or one of the ranked fighters moves to a different weight class.

[Video: Watch Jon Jones get attacked by a police dog]

The most likely fighter to change classes would be No. 4 Jose Aldo Jr., the UFC featherweight champion who is clearly big enough to move to lightweight. If Aldo chooses to move up, he'd instantly get a lightweight title shot against the winner of the UFC 145 match between champion Frankie Edgar, who is No. 5, and challenger Benson Henderson.

However, it is far from certain that Aldo will move up.

Thus, when Jones and Evans finally do meet in the cage, enjoy it, because it might be the last match involving two of the top-10 fighters in the world for quite a while.

With that, let's move on to take a look at how the latest voting shaped up:



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Henderson

10. Dan Henderson
Points: 36
Affiliation: UFC
Weight class: Light heavyweight
Record: 29-8
Last outing: W5 Mauricio Rua, Nov. 19
Previous ranking: 10
Up next:Nothing scheduled

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Evans

T8. Rashad Evans
Points: 41
Affiliation: UFC
Weight class: Light heavyweight
Record: 22-1-1
Last outing: W5 Phil Davis, Jan. 28
Previous ranking: NR
Up next:Title challenge vs. No. 2 Jon Jones at UFC 145, April 21

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Melendez

T8. Gilbert Melendez
Points: 41
Affiliation: Strikeforce (lightweight champion)
Weight class: Lightweight
Record: 20-2
Last outing: W5 Jorge Masvidal, Dec. 17
Previous ranking: 8
Up next:Nothing scheduled

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dos Santos

7. Junior dos Santos
Points: 75
Affiliation: UFC (heavyweight champion)
Weight class: Heavyweight
Record: 14-1
Last outing:TKO1 Cain Velasquez, Nov. 12
Previous ranking: 7
Up next:Title defense vs. Alistair Overeem at UFC 146, May 26

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Cruz

6. Dominick Cruz
Points: 110
Affiliation: UFC (bantamweight champion)
Weight class: Bantamweight
Record: 18-1
Last outing: W5 Demetrious Johnson, Oct. 1
Previous ranking: 6
Up next:Title defense vs. Urijah Faber at UFC 148, July 7

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Edgar

5. Frankie Edgar
Points: 140
Affiliation: UFC (lightweight champion)
Weight class: Lightweight
Record: 14-1-1
Last outing: TKO4 Gray Maynard, Oct. 8
Previous ranking: 5
Up next:Title defense vs. Benson Henderson at UFC 144, Feb. 25

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Aldo

4. Jose Aldo
Points: 144
Affiliation: UFC (featherweight champion)
Weight class: Featherweight
Record: 21-1
Last outing: TKO1 Chad Mendes, Jan. 14
Previous ranking: 4
Up next:Nothing scheduled

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St. Pierre

3. Georges St. Pierre
Points: 175
Affiliation: UFC (welterweight champion)
Weight class: Welterweight
Record: 22-2
Last outing: W5 Jake Shields, April 30
Previous ranking: 3
Up next:Out with injury; nothing scheduled

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Jones

2. Jon Jones
Points: 191 (1 of 22 first-place votes)
Affiliation: UFC (light heavyweight champion)
Weight class: Light heavyweight
Record: 15-1
Last outing: Submission 2 Lyoto Machida, Dec. 10
Previous ranking: 2
Up next:Title defense vs. No. 8 Rashad Evans at UFC 145, April 21

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Silva

1. Anderson Silva
Points: 219 (21 of 22 first-place votes)
Affiliation: UFC (middleweight champion)
Weight class: Middleweight
Record: 31-4
Last outing: TKO2 Yushin Okami, Aug. 27
Previous ranking: 1
Up next:Title defense vs. Chael Sonnen at UFC 147, June 16

Others receiving votes: Carlos Condit, 18; Gray Maynard, 7; Nick Diaz, 6; Benson Henderson, 2; Joseph Benavidez, 1; Urijah Faber, 1; Cain Velasquez, 1.

Voting panel:Denny Burkholder, CBSSports.com; Elias Cepeda, Fight! Magazine; Mike Chiappetta, MMA Fighting and Fight! Magazine; Steve Cofield, Cagewriter; Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press; Dave Doyle, freelance; Joe Ferraro, Rogers Sportsnet; Ben Fowlkes, MMA Fighting; Josh Gross, ESPN.com; Ariel Helwani, MMA Fighting; Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports; Damon Martin, MMA Weekly; Todd Martin, freelance; Steven Marrocco, MMA Junkie; Franklin McNeil, ESPN.com; Dave Meltzer, The Wrestling Observer; John Morgan, MMA Junkie; Ken Pishna, MMA Weekly; Michael David Smith, MMA Fighting; Mike Straka, Spike TV and Sirius/XM; Dann Stupp, MMA Junkie; Jeff Wagenheim, SI.com.

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