WAMMA'S MARCH RANKINGS

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -

WAMMA'S MARCH RANKINGS DEBUT ON ESPN.COM'S MMA LIVE FEATURES SHANE CARWIN'S OWN DEBUT AS A TOP TEN HEAVYWEIGHT

Orlando, Florida - UFC heavyweight up-and-comer Shane Carwin's impressive victory over former top-ten rated heavyweight Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 96 resonated with the vast majority of the World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts (WAMMA/www.GoWAMMA.com) rankings committee pollsters.

Appearing on 63% of submitted ballots, it was revealed during Thursday's airing of MMA Live on ESPN.com that Carwin's first round TKO over Gonzaga last weekend helped him debut in WAMMA's top ten heavyweight rankings as the ninth-best rated heavyweight in the world.

Carwin, a former Division II All-American in both wrestling and football, is currently 11-0 with all victories occurring via first round stoppages.

"Gonzaga had been ranked as a top ten heavyweight by WAMMA for quite some time and Carwin answered a lot of questions by TKO'ing him in just one minute and nine seconds," said WAMMA Chief Operating Officer Mike Lynch. "With a few more wins over top ten rated fighters, it might not be long until the public starts asking for a showdown between Carwin and current WAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko."

March also saw Diego Sanchez earn the distinction of being just one of a handful of fighters to ever be ranked as a top-ten rated WAMMA fighter in two separate weight classes. After being rated as the seventh-best welterweight in the world by WAMMA's pollsters during the month of February, Sanchez debuted this month tied as the tenth best rated lightweight.

The middleweight winner of the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, Sanchez formally left the 170 pound weight class during February's UFC 95 event in London, England. Accepting an ambitious challenge in his lightweight debut against season two welterweight winner of The Ultimate Fighter Joe Stevenson, Sanchez recorded a strong unanimous decision victory that convinced WAMMA pollsters to vote him into the lightweight top ten at the expense of the fading Takanori Gomi.

"Sanchez's move to lightweight was a mild surprise considering WAMMA's rankings committee has viewed him as a top ten welterweight since the inception of the poll," said Lynch. "However, Sanchez has the potential at 155 to surpass the highest ranking he was able to achieve at welterweight."

As alluded to earlier, Carwin's debut as well as Sanchez's debut were both revealed exclusively during ESPN.com's MMA Live with WAMMA Vice President Pat Miletich joining hosts Jon Anik, Stephan Bonnar, and Franklin McNeil for the unveiling of the March rankings.

"WAMMA has spent the past two years flying all over the world to educate various members of the MMA industry about what our organization stands for," Lynch began. "To have WAMMA's rankings featured on a show as great as ESPN.com's MMA Live is a tremendous step forward in our ongoing goal of establishing WAMMA's rankings poll as the gold standard of the mixed martial arts industry."

Outside of Carwin and Sanchez, March showed little movement in the WAMMA rankings. Many fighters are holding strong in their ranking, most notably Lyoto Machida. Despite Quinton "Rampage" Jackson's unanimous decision victory over Keith Jardine at UFC 96, WAMMA's rankings committee still recognizes Machida as the second-best light heavyweight in the world. The undefeated Machida is second only to UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans.

In an interesting turn of events, UFC 98 will feature a showdown between WAMMA's number one and two ranked light heavyweights with the UFC announcing last week that Evans will be defending his UFC light heavyweight title against Machida on May 23.
WAMMA's March top ten rankings are currently available at http://www.GoWAMMA.com. WAMMA's rankings committee, comprised of noted MMA experts such as ESPN.com's MMA Live's Franklin McNeil, FoxNews.com's Mike Straka, and Dann Stupp of the Dayton Daily News, are scheduled to convene again on Monday, April 20.