Stephen Thompson’s huge win over Johny Hendricks puts him the top 3 of the UFC’s welterweight division, although it wasn’t enough for him to be ranked above Tyron Woodley.
There was a major shake-up in the UFC’s newest welterweight rankings, as Stephen Thompson’s stunning knockout win over Johny Hendricks put him into the top 3 of the division. Wonderboy takes Hendricks’ old spot at 3rd, while Hendricks moves down to 5th. Only Rory MacDonald and Tyron Woodley are above Thompson in the contender’s list, and I contend that Thompson should be above Woodley, but that argument can be saved for another day.
You can read the full UFC rankings here.
Pound-for-Pound: Rafael dos Anjos goes to 4th on the P4P list, while Robbie Lawler drops two spots to 6th. Dominick Cruz edges ahead of Luke Rockhold at 7th. Frankie Edgar replaces Ronda Rousey at 15th, leaving Rousey off the list again.
Women’s Strawweight: No changes
Flyweight: Justin Scoggins‘ dominant win over Ray Borg netted him a spot in the top 15, as he’s placed at 12th. Borg drops two notches to 14th, while Ali Bagautinov overtakes Dustin Oritz for 10th.
Women’s Bantamweight: No changes
Bantamweight: Jimmie Rivera climbs one spot to 13th, dropping Eddie Wineland to 14th.
Featherweight: Nik Lentz moved up to 14th while Clay Guida fell to 15th.
Lightweight: Tony Ferguson went ahead of Donald Cerrone at 4th, and I assume Cerrone will drop again once he fights Alex Oliveira at welterweight. Edson Barboza swaps spots with Beneil Dariush, with Barboza at 8th and Dariush at 9th. Likewise for Dustin Poirier, who is 11th and one spot above Bobby Green. Rashid Magomedov is 15th with Ben Henderson off to Bellator.
Welterweight: As noted earlier, Wonderboy rose 5 spots to 3rd with the Hendricks win. Tyron Woodley was bumped up to 2nd behind only Rory MacDonald and champion Robbie Lawler. Johny Hendricks fell three spots to 5th, and with Wonderboy’s big jump, 6th-9th now consists of Demian Maia, Matt Brown, Dong Hyun Kim, and Neil Magny. Finally, Thiago Alves‘ tie with Albert Tumenov at 14th is now broken, as the Brazilian stands alone at 13th.
Middleweight: With seemingly every media panelist aware that Anderson Silva can be ranked again, he’s soared from 10th to 7th before his fight with Michael Bisping. Robert Whittaker, Gegard Mousasi, and Thales Leites all lose one spot and comprise 8th-10th positions. Lastly, Rafael Natal went up to 12th at the expense of 13th-placed Derek Brunson.
Light Heavyweight: Rafael Feijao’s vs. Ovince Saint Preux dismal performance sent him from 13th to unranked. Gian VIllante and Ilir Latifi go to 13th and 14th, respectively. Jan Blachowicz has re-entered the rankings at 15th despite a 1-2 UFC record.
Heavyweight: Jared Rosholt fell three spots to 15th after his anti-thriller with Roy Nelson, who remains 11th. Antonio Silva, Matt Mitrione, and Oleksiy Oliynyk take up the 12th-14th places. Ben Rothwell and Junior dos Santos both moved up one notch on the day of their recent fight announcement, with Big Ben at 4th and JDS in a tie for 5th with Andrei Arlovski. Josh Barnett went above Mark Hunt for 8th even though Barnett lost to Rothwell.