North American Light Heavyweight Rankings 1/9/2012
In addition to pound for pound rankings, Muay Thai Authority will now begin to rank fighters by weight class. The top five fighters in each weight class will be ranked in order from one to five. For a weight class to receive rankings there has to be at least five fighters that qualify to be ranked. If a weight class has two outstanding fighters, but there are not three other pro fighters that merit being in the rankings then there will be no rankings for that weight class. Below are the Light Heavyweight North American rankings, the fourth individual weight class to be ranked by Muay Thai Authority. The remainder of the weight classes will be released in the upcoming weeks.


1. Joe Schilling (12-1)
Schilling has caught the North American Muay Thai scene by storm with his aggressive and brutal fighting style. He goes into fights to finish his opponents and his fighting style makes him a fan favorite. His biggest win to date came against Kaoklai Kaennorsing in October, when he KO’d the Thai fighter in the opening round. Schilling how now signed a multi-fight deal with Lion Fight Promotions and his next bout will be February 25th against Canada’s Simon Marcus. All eyes’ are on Schilling now so his fight against Marcus is expected to be huge as two of the best in North America take on one another.

2. Simon Marcus (23-0)
Marcus is young, powerful and deadly. The Canadian recently scored a (T)KO victory in China and his next bout will be against American powerhouse Joe Schilling. Fans were in full support of Marcus when he fought in Long Beach as part of the MPL in September. People are excited about his upcoming fight with Schilling and are expecting him to give Schilling the toughest test of his career. It will be interested to see how Marcus reacts to Schillings early onslaught in what is expected to be a huge fight for North America as well as Schilling and Marcus.


3. Travis Lerchen (9-1)
Lerchen has spent recent years focusing on MMA while taking the occasional Muay Thai fight. He is currently set to face Alex Berrios at Friday Night Fights season opener on January 20th in New York. Lerchen defeated Dave Finz by split decision in his pervious fight at Friday Night Fights “Fall Brawl” on November 4th. The only loss of his career came via disqualification against Francisco Marin.





4. Alex Berrios (6-2)
Berrios will be looking to rebound from his loss to Joseph Valtellini on January 20th when he takes on Travis Lerchen for Friday Night Fights in New York. Berrios had taken some time off from fighting to finish school and returned in 2010 with a (T)KO win over Rigel Balsamico in July. Lerchen is a solid test for Berrios and it will be interested to see how he comes back after the only stoppage loss of his career (Joseph Valtellini).





5. Dorian Price (21-8)
Price has spent the past nine months training in Thailand training and fighting. He has gone 8-2 in that span. Price has stated he is looking to come back to the states and compete here. His next bout, however, will be in MMA. Price has stated that his main focus will be Muay Thai from now one after spending a few years dabbling in MMA.





Rankings qualification - Fighters are not to be inactive for any period longer than 12 months or they will be dropped from the rankings unless a fight is schedule within a month from the date they become ineligible. Fighter's that compete in two weight classes will be assigned a weight class that they compete in regularly or hold a major title in.