Top 15 Welterweight

1. Georges St. Pierre

2. Jon Fitch

3. Matt Hughes
Between spending time as a coach on The Ultimate Fighter, rematches and rubber matches with BJ Penn and St. Pierre, the bad blood with Serra, and a grotesque fight against Royce Gracie, Hughes seems to have become less a contender and more like a mascot or symbol of the division, a character stuck in time--rightfully revered but perhaps working his way into irrelevance. Essentially,Hughes hasn't had a fight of consequence that didn't involve Penn or St. Pierre since his 2005 contest with Joe Riggs (and even that fight had its title implications taken away after Riggs couldn't make weight).
That's not to say he isn't a great fighter at this very moment, but his fights and their attendant drama seem to have so emphatically revolved around events that took place year(s) ago, that it was a shock to hear he'd be fighting an actual contender outside of his weird karmic circle in Thiago Alves. For once, I'm excited to see Hughes fight, and not just because of some grudge.

4. Josh Koscheck

5. Diego Sanchez

6. Jake Shields

7. Matt Serra
It's hard to tell how far down the line Serra drops with this loss to St. Pierre. Normally, splitting a pair of matches with the number one ranked welterweight wouldn't be cause for too much alarm, but Serra didn't exactly tear up a murderer's row of contenders to reach his first successful title shot, either. With his only real accomplishment being a shocking TKO of St. Pierre over a year ago, I think a lot of Serra's clout disappeared in their rematch under a hail of knee strikes to the ribs.
Despite all the 'bad blood' with St. Pierre, I'm still alright with Matt Serra. Serra's camp, on the other hand, is another thing. For Pete Sell to call anyone a "mental midget" (this coming from a guy who despite his jiu-jitsu skills insists on boxing his way to a loss against just about everyone in the UFC--PS, he doesn't have any TKO victories) is too ridiculous.
It was tough seeing Serra lose like that, because in spite of all the fight hype I think he's an alright guy who just got a little caught up in the moment (I don't think St. Pierre admitting he under trained was a sign of disrespect or a fluke, I think he was just admitting a mistake) and I hoped he would put up a bit more of a fight. As it stands, his game plan seems to have been not very well thought out--did his camp really think St. Pierre was just going to box with him, even after seeing St. Pierre grapple and ground-and-pound his way through Koscheck and Hughes?--and I'm afraid that we may be witnessing the end of Matt Serra's tour of the upper echelon.
Unless he puts some wrestling together with his knockout power, I don't see him getting by Hughes.

8. Thiago Alves

9. Karo Parisyan
Irony's a real bitch. Parisyan preemptively declared that he would not accept a fight with Jon Fitch because he wanted a more certain victory leading up to a perceived title shot. Following fan and fighter criticism, Parisyan then insisted that he was not dodging Fitch (nor would he ever) and that it was impossible for a person to dodge Fitch when there was never a fight offered anyway. Impossible it may be, but somehow Parisyan did it.
Abiding by his wishes, the UFC matched him up with Thiago Alves, and Parisyan, who looked in just about the worst shape of his UFC career, was promptly knocked out.

10. Carlos Condit

11. Drew Fickett
What can you say about Drew Fickett that hasn't already been said by the ADCC? Fickett was banned from the Abu Dhabi after a long day of harassing other competitors at the hotel while in a drunken rage and ending up (as the rumor goes) blitzed out of his mind, almost naked, and sobbing outside his hotel room.
It was disappointing to see Fickett leave the UFC. I can't say whether or not he would have been a true contender, but his fights were always exciting. But why should Dana White get to host all of the life-or-death fights? On his title fight with Jake Shields in EliteXC, we now take you to Drew Fickett:
"Round one, rear-naked choke, one of us will die!"

12. Nick Thompson

13. Marcus Davis

14. Yoshiyuki Yoshida

15. David Baron
Thanks to his submission victory over a lackadaisical Hayato Sakurai David Baron makes the list. It's hard to tell exactly how good Baron really is given that any previous attempts against the upper levels of competition have been met with defeat, and that Sakurai himself has looked uninspired in his last several fights. A title shot in DREAM would have been a helpful test, but the newfound Japanese promotion decided to play favorites and offered the fight to Sakurai anyway.