Sherdog Official Mixed Martial Arts Rankings

It's a good time to be a champion.

Punctuated by Georges St. Pierre (Pictures)’s landslide licking of Jon Fitch (Pictures) on Aug. 9, the past few weeks have seen promotional champions deliver the goods with their titles at stake.

St. Pierre proved himself as a pound-for-pound stalwart with a brutal 25-minute handling of Jon Fitch (Pictures), the consensus No. 2 at 170 pounds, in one of his best performances. Robbie Lawler (Pictures) picked up where he left off in his July 26 rematch with Scott Smith (Pictures), successfully defending his EliteXC middleweight crown with a stirring second-round stoppage.

However, it was long-uncrowned EliteXC welterweight king Jake Shields (Pictures) who finally got his chance to vie for the promotion's vacant title. Shields put his submission prowess on display with a picture-perfect 63-second submission of the solid Nick Thompson (Pictures), entrenching himself as the best welterweight without a Zuffa contract.

Carlos Condit (Pictures), another non-UFC welterweight standout, needed to dig much deeper in his four-round war with Hiromitsu Miura (Pictures). He fought tooth-and-nail until he stopped Miura in a bout that showed the young fighter's moxie but also his mortality.

Also, amidst top-notch title affairs, bantamweight Brian Bowles (Pictures) quietly put together his third straight impressive win in the WEC with a first-round submission of Damacio Page (Pictures). Certainly no fluke, where does Bowles' recent win put him in an intensifying bantamweight division, which is about to welcome two top-10 featherweights into its mix?