Michael Bisping’s controversial win over Anderson Silva bumped him way up in the middleweight rankings.
The UFC’s return to London featured one of the stranger main events in recent history, with Michael Bisping nearly getting knocked out looking for his mouthpiece but going on to win a unanimous decision over Anderson Silva. That was really all there was relevance-wise on the show from a rankings standpoint, but that result did cause a big shift in the middleweight ladder.
In addition, an injury apparently has led to a champion sliding down the pound-for-pound rankings a bit.
Without further ado, here’s a look at all the changes this week.
P4P – Rafael dos Anjos has not had a good last few weeks. First he broke his foot and was forced out of his UFC 196 title defense with Conor McGregor. Now he he fallen three spots on the P4P list. RDA had been in a tie for the four spot with Dominick Cruz, but is down to seven now. Luke Rockhold moved up two spots from seven to five, while Fabricio Werdum moved up one to six.
Heavyweight – Just one minor change. Ruslan Magomedov moved into a tie with Oleksiy Oliynik for the 14 spot.
Light Heavyweight – Jan Blachowicz moved up one spot to 14. And Nikita Krylov entered the list at 15. Oh, LHW.
Middleweight – Bisping’s big win moved him back into the top five, settling in at four. That’s up three spots. That dropped Lyoto Machida, Silva, and Tim Kennedy down one to five, six, and seven respectively. Also, Thales Leites‘ loss to Gegard Mousasi dropped him two spots from 10 to 12. Uriah Hall and Derek Brunson moved up to 10 and 11. Mousasi didn’t move at all and remains in the nine spot. C.B. Dollaway is also back onto the list at 15.
Welterweight – Hector Lombard quietly inches back up the list, in at 13 this week. Thiago Alves dropped to 14, with Albert Tumenov dropping to 15.
Lightweight – Dustin Poirier moved into a tie for the ten spot with Al Iaquinta. Evan Dunham and Michael Chiesa flip-flopped the 13 and 14 spots.
Featherweight – No changes.
Bantamweight – Jimmie Rivera moved up two spots to 11, dropping John Lineker to 12 and Frankie Saenz to 13. Cody Garbrandt makes his rankings debut at 15.
Flyweight – Jussier Formiga passed Ian McCall for the four spot out of nowhere. Also, Dustin Ortiz inched into the top ten, dropping Ali Bagautinov to 11.
Women’s Bantamweight – Valentina Shevchenko moved back ahead of the woman she just beat, Sarah Kaufman for the ten spot.
Women’s Strawweight – Karolina Kowalkiewicz took the ten spot from Joanne Calderwood, who continues to drop quickly.