With the explosion of MMA in the mainstream media in the last year or so, it's no surprise that there are now an abundance of MMA ranking polls out there trying to get a grasp of who the best fighters in the sport are.

I'm fortunate enough to have been invited to be on the panel of three such rankings.  Each one has its own take on which fighters to rank and how to rank them.  Each ranking also comes out at various intervals.  In the future, I will alert you when a new ranking comes out and if there is demand, I may even reveal my own ballot.

Check them out:

1) Over at Yahoo! Sports, Dave Doyle has brought in some of the true heavyweight MMA writers from throughout the country for a a top 10 pound-for-pound ranking.  I didn't have time to submit my ballot for the debut rankings last month, but here is what the panel came up with.  This is a monthly poll.

2) I'm also a voter at the popular UFC blog, UFCMania.com.  This poll ranks the top five fighters in each of the five UFC weight classes.  These rankings come out approximately every month.  Here are the latest rankings.

3) Another comprehensive ranking system can be found at TopFighterStandings.com.  I've admittedly fallen off in activity level with this poll in recent months, but it's nicely done.  These polls rank the top 10 fighters in each of the weight classes in each of the major MMA leagues.  These rankings come out after every major MMA event.