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This week’s UFC rankings list features a couple of new top contenders, and doesn’t feature one of the world’s best women’s strawweight fighters any more.
Last weekend’s Fight Island event was pretty entertaining, and had a fair bit of relevance for a “smaller” event. The headliner saw Marlon Moraes take his second loss in three fights, courtesy of a Cory Sandhagen spinning wheel kick. The undercard featured one of the all-time best knockouts, with Joaquin Buckley pulling off some video game stuff. And the fallout from the event has led to two new top contenders.
At flyweight, Brandon Moreno finds himself at the top of the heap for the first time. And at 135, Aljamain Sterling has (rightfully) ascended to the top spot in advance of his shot at champion Petr Yan.
Also, sort of out of nowhere, top strawweight fighter Tatiana Suarez was removed from the 115 and P4P rankings – likely due to inactivity. The undefeated Suarez has been dealing with a neck injury and hasn’t competed since June of 2019.
Here’s a look at all of the changes this week.
Men’s P4P – Former middleweight champ Robert Whittaker is up two spots to 12. Deiveson Figueiredo and Tony Ferguson fell one spot each to 13 and 14.
Heavyweight – Augusto Sakia moves up from ten to a tie for nine with Shamil Abdurakhimov. Ciryl Gane drops from a tie for 12 to 13 on his own. Marcin Tybura’s win over Ben Rothwell got him back into the rankings at 15.
Light Heavyweight – Anthony Smith and Volkan Oezdemir flip-flopped the six and seven spots.
Middleweight – No changes.
Welterweight – Former 170-pound kingpin Tyron Woodley moves back up one spot to six, dropping Demian Maia to seven.
Lightweight – No changes.
Featherweight – Last week, Arnold Allen passed his next opponent Jeremy Stephens for the eight spot. This week, Stephens got it back and Allen fell to nine. In addition, Shane Burgos fell one spot into a tie for 11 with Sodiq Yusuff.
Bantamweight – The title fight was booked yesterday, so it’s fitting that Sterling is the new number one contender following Cory Sandhagen’s thrilling KO of former top man Moraes last weekend. Sandhagen is up two spots to two. Moraes drops two spots to sit at three. Cody Garbrandt is down one spot to four.
Flyweight – Fresh off a booking against rising star Brandon Royval, another Brandon became the top contender. Moreno is now number one, and Joseph Benavidez drops one to two. Raulian Pavia is up one to 11, dropping David Dvorak to 12.
Women’s P4P – Suarez is out, which means that everyone from nine and below moved up a spot. Raquel Pennington entered the list at 15.
Women’s Bantamweight – Lina Lansberg and Macy Chiasson switched up the 11 and 12 spots.
Women’s Flyweight – The next title contender, Jennifer Maia, moves up one spot to two. Cynthia Calvillo drops one spot to three.
Women’s Strawweight – Suarez was at three on this list. Joanna Jedrzejczyk is now in that spot. Carla Esparza and Claudia Gadelha are up two spots each to four and five. Inactive Nina Ansaroff drops one to six. Michelle Waterson, Marina Rodriguez, and Yan Xiaonan are up one each to seven through nine respectively. Amanda Ribas is up two spots to crack the top ten. Angela Hill, Mackenzie Dern, and Virna Jandiroba are up one each to 12 through 14. Felice Herrig re-enters the chart at 15.