I usually start these rankings posts with a recap of the most recent event, like UFC Rochester, and how the winners (and losers) impacted the Top 15 standings in each division. But then I went into this week’s update and saw that flyweight doesn’t even have enough fighters to fill the required slots.
Which will undoubtedly resurrect this talking point.
Elsewhere on the list, UFC Rochester headliner, Kevin Lee, dropped two places in the lightweight division, despite suffering his Rafael dos Anjos loss at 170 pounds, while Charles Oliveira gained four spots for nabbing his fifth straight win at 155 pounds — and fifth straight finish.
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, T = tie, *NR = Not previously ranked).
POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Daniel Cormier
2 Jon Jones
3 Khabib Nurmagomedov
4 Henry Cejudo
5 Max Holloway
6 Amanda Nunes
7 Kamaru Usman
8 Dustin Poirier
9 Conor McGregor
10 Robert Whittaker
11 Stipe Miocic
12 Tony Ferguson
13 Tyron Woodley
14 Valentina Shevchenko
15 Jessica Andrade
FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Henry Cejudo
1 Jussier Formiga
2 Joseph Benavidez
3 Alexandre Pantoja
4 Deiveson Figueiredo
5 Tim Elliott +1
6 Rogerio Bontorin +1
7 Ryan Benoit +2
8 Jordan Espinosa +2
9 Kai Kara France +2
10 Eric Shelton +2
11 Alex Perez +2
12 Raulian Paiva +2
13 Matt Schnell +2
14 VACANT
15 VACANT
BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: VACANT
1 Marlon Moraes
2 Raphael Assuncao
3 Aljamain Sterling
4 Pedro Munhoz
5 Dominick Cruz
6 Cody Garbrandt
7 Jimmie Rivera
8 Corey Sandhagen
9 Petr Yan
10 John Lineker
11 Cody Stamann
12 Rob Font
13 John Dodson
14 Alejandro Perez
15 Thomas Almeida
FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Max Holloway
1 Alexander Volkanovski
2 Brian Ortega
3 Jose Aldo
4 Frankie Edgar
5 Renato Moicano
6 Zabit Magomedsharipov
7 Jeremy Stephens
8 Josh Emmett
9 Mirsad Bektic
10 Ricardo Lamas
11 Yair Rodriguez
12 Chan Sung Jung
13 Shane Burgos
14 Darren Elkins
15 Calvin Kattar
LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Khabib Nurmagomedov
1 Dustin Poirier (Interim Champion)
2 Tony Ferguson
3 Conor McGregor
4 Donald Cerrone
5 Justin Gaethje
6 Al Iaquinta
7 Edson Barboza +1
8 Anthony Pettis +1
9 Kevin Lee -2
10 Paul Felder
11 Charles Oliveira +4
12 Gregor Gillespie -1
13 Alexander Hernandez -1
14 Islam Makhachev -1
15 James Vick -1
WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Kamaru Usman
1 Tyron Woodley
2 Colby Covington
3 Rafael Dos Anjos
4 Jorge Masvidal
5 Ben Askren
6 Darren Till
7 Stephen Thompson
8 Anthony Pettis
9 Santiago Ponzinibbio
10 Robbie Lawler
11 Leon Edwards
12 Demian Maia
13 Neil Magny
14 Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos
15 Vincente Luque
MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Robert Whittaker
1 Israel Adesanya (Interim Champion)
2 Yoel Romero
3 Luke Rockhold
4 Kelvin Gastelum
5 Jack Hermansson
6 Ronaldo Souza
7 Chris Weidman
8 Paulo Costa
9 Derek Brunson
10 Jared Cannonier
11 Ian Heinisch *NR
12 Brad Tavares -1
13 Antonio Carlos Junior -1
14 Uriah Hall -1
15 Elias Theodorou -1
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Jon Jones
1 Daniel Cormier
2 Alexander Gustafsson
3 Thiago Santos
4 Anthony Smith
5 Dominick Reyes
6 Jan Blachowicz
7 Volkan Oezdemir
8 Corey Anderson
9 Ilir Latifi
10 Glover Teixeira
11 Jimi Manuwa
12 Johnny Walker
13 Mauricio Rua
14 Misha Cirkunov
15 Nikita Krylov
HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Stipe Miocic
2 Francis Ngannou
3 Junior Dos Santos
4 Curtis Blaydes
5 Derrick Lewis
6 (T) Alexander Volkov
6 (T) Alistair Overeem
8 Cain Velasquez
9 Aleksei Oleinik
10 Shamil Abdurakhimov
11 Tai Tuivasa
12 Marcin Tybura +1
13 Blagoy Ivanov +1
14 Walt Harris *NR
15 Augusto Sakai
WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: Jessica Andrade
1 Rose Namajunas
2 Tatiana Suarez
3 Nina Ansaroff
4 Joanna Jedrzejczyk -1
5 Claudia Gadelha
6 Weili Zhang
7 Michelle Waterson
8 Tecia Torres
9 Carla Esparza
10 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
11 Cynthia Calvillo
12 Felice Herrig
13 Alexa Grasso
14 Randa Markos
15 Cortney Casey
WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Valentina Shevchenko
1 Jessica Eye
2 Katlyn Chookagian
3 Liz Carmouche
4 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
5 Roxanne Modafferi
6 Joanne Calderwood
7 Alexis Davis
8 (T) Lauren Murphy
8 (T) Jennifer Maia
10 Andrea Lee
11 Montana De La Rosa
12 Mara Romero Borella
13 Maycee Barber
14 Paige VanZant
15 Poliana Botelho
WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Amanda Nunes
1 Germaine de Randamie
2 Holly Holm
3 Ketlen Vieira
4 Aspen Ladd +2
5 Raquel Pennington -1
6 Cat Zingano -1
7 Yana Kunitskaya
8 Marion Reneau
9 Irene Aldana
10 Sara McMann
11 Macy Chiasson
12 Tonya Evinger
13 Lina Lansberg
14 Bethe Correia
15 Sijara Eubanks *NR
There you have it.
You can expect these standings to change in roughly two weeks after the UFC on ESPN+ 11: “Gustafsson vs. Smith” event, taking place Sat., June 1, 2019 inside Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden (more on that fight card here).
For even more upcoming UFC events click here.