Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) recently updated its official rankings in the wake of UFC Fight Night 117, which took place last Friday night (Sept. 22, 2017) inside Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. The big winners that night were Ovince Saint Preux, who submitted Yushin Okami in the main event (video), along with Jessica Andrade, who beat the brakes off Claudia Gadelha in the co-headliner (replay).
Since Okami was a late replacement and fighting out of his division, “OSP” will not gain any traction in the light heavyweight top 10. Andrade, however, takes over the top spot at 115 pounds, as “Claudinha” was ranked No. 1 heading into “The :Land of the Rising Sun.”
Here’s how the rankings work, courtesy of UFC.com:
Rankings were generated by a voting panel made up of media members. The media members were asked to vote for who they feel are the top fighters in the UFC by weight-class and pound-for-pound. A fighter is only eligible to be voted on if they are in active status in the UFC. A fighter can appear in more than one weight division at a time. The champion and interim champion are considered to be in the top positions of their respective divisions and therefore are not eligible for voting by weight-class. However, the champions can be voted on for the pound-for-pound rankings.
Take a look at what the latest rankings field looks like courtesy of UFC.com. Note: (+/- = movement in rankings, *NR = Not previously ranked).
POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Demetrious Johnson
2 Conor McGregor
3 Stipe Miocic
4 Max Holloway
5 Daniel Cormier
6 Cody Garbrandt
7 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
8 Tyron Woodley
9 Jose Aldo +1
9 Dominick Cruz
11 Cris Cyborg
12 Michael Bisping
13 Amanda Nunes
14 Robert Whittaker
15 TJ Dillashaw
FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 Henry Cejudo
3 Ray Borg
4 Sergio Pettis
5 Jussier Formiga
6 Wilson Reis
7 Brandon Moreno
8 Ben Nguyen
9 Dustin Ortiz +2
10 Tim Elliott -1
11 John Moraga -1
12 Ian McCall
13 Alexandre Pantoja
14 Louis Smolka
15 Magomed Bibulatov
BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Cody Garbrandt
1 Dominick Cruz
2 TJ Dillashaw
3 Jimmie Rivera
4 Raphael Assuncao
5 John Lineker
6 Bryan Caraway
7 Aljamain Sterling
8 John Dodson
9 Thomas Almeida
10 Marlon Moraes
11 Eddie Wineland
12 Pedro Munhoz
13 Rob Font
14 Matthew Lopez
15 Johnny Eduardo
FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Max Holloway
1 Jose Aldo
2 Frankie Edgar
3 Ricardo Lamas
4 Cub Swanson
5 Chan Sung Jung
6 Brian Ortega
7 Yair Rodriguez
8 Jeremy Stephens
9 Darren Elkins
10 Renato Moicano
11 Dennis Bermudez
12 Dooho Choi
13 Mirsad Bektic
14 Myles Jury
15 Jason Knight
LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Conor McGregor
1 Khabib Nurmagomedov
2 Tony Ferguson
3 Eddie Alvarez
4 Edson Barboza
5 Justin Gaethje
6 Nate Diaz
7 Kevin Lee
8 Dustin Poirier
9 Michael Johnson
10 Michael Chiesa
11 Al Iaquinta
12 Beneil Dariush
13 Anthony Pettis
14 Evan Dunham
15 Mairbek Taisumov
WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Tyron Woodley
1 Robbie Lawler
2 Stephen Thompson
3 Demian Maia
4 Jorge Masvidal
5 Rafael Dos Anjos
6 Donald Cerrone
7 Carlos Condit
8 Colby Covington
9 Santiago Ponzinibbio
10 Neil Magny
11 Kamaru Usman +1
12 Gunnar Nelson -1
13 Dong Hyun Kim
14 Alex Oliveira
15 Mike Perry
MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Michael Bisping
1 Robert Whittaker (Interim Champion)
2 Luke Rockhold
3 Yoel Romero
4 Jacare Souza
5 Chris Weidman
6 Anderson Silva
7 Derek Brunson
8 Kelvin Gastelum
9 David Branch
10 Uriah Hall
11 Vitor Belfort
12 Krzysztof Jotko
13 Thales Leites
14 Tim Boetsch
15 Thiago Santos
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Alexander Gustafsson
2 Volkan Oezdemir
3 Glover Teixeira
4 Jimi Manuwa
5 Mauricio Rua
6 Ovince Saint Preux
7 Corey Anderson
8 Misha Cirkunov
9 Ilir Latifi
10 Patrick Cummins
11 Rogerio Nogueira
12 Gadzhimurad Antigulov
13 Tyson Pedro
14 Gian Villante
15 Jared Cannonier *NR
HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Stipe Miocic
1 Alistair Overeem
2 Fabricio Werdum
3 Cain Velasquez
4 Francis Ngannou
5 Mark Hunt
6 Derrick Lewis
7 Alexander Volkov
8 Marcin Tybura
9 Aleksei Oleinik
10 Stefan Struve
11 Junior Albini
12 Andrei Arlovski
13 Curtis Blaydes
14 Travis Browne
15 Tim Johnson
WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: Joanna Jedrzejczyk
1 Jessica Andrade +3
2 Claudia Gadelha -1
3 Karolina Kowalkiewicz -1
4 Rose Namajunas -1
5 Tecia Torres
6 Michelle Waterson
7 Cynthia Calvillo
8 Carla Esparza
9 Felice Herrig
10 Paige VanZant
11 Alexa Grasso
12 Cortney Casey
13 Joanne Calderwood
14 Randa Markos
15 Maryna Moroz
WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Amanda Nunes
1 Valentina Shevchenko
2 Holly Holm
3 Julianna Pena
4 Raquel Pennington
5 Ronda Rousey
6 Cat Zingano
7 Sara McMann
8 Germaine de Randamie
9 Ketlen Vieira
10 Alexis Davis
11 Liz Carmouche
12 Marion Reneau
13 Katlyn Chookagian
14 Bethe Correia
15 Leslie Smith
There you have it.
You can expect these standings to change in roughly two weeks — especially in the lightweight division — when the UFC 216 pay-per-view (PPV) event, headlined by the 155-pound showdown between Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee, takes place inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada (more on that fight card here).
Until then, let us know what you think of the latest rankings movement in the comments section below.