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Jessica Andrade’s huge stoppage win at UFC Fight Island 6 made her the top contender in a new division.
The UFC is keeping up their weekly events on Fight Island, with some shows being light on relevance and some actually having an effect on the rankings. Last weekend’s Fight Island 6 card had a little bit of both. The main event win by Brian Ortega didn’t affect his position in the standings. But the co-main was another story.
Former strawweight champion Jessica Andrade decided to go up to 125 pounds (she’s fought at 135 too) to take a fight against top contender Katlyn Chookagian. Andrade made the most of it, brutally stopping Chookagian late in the first round via TKO. This led the rankers to put her in the number one spot at flyweight right away, setting up a future showdown with champ Valentina Shevchenko.
Here’s a look at all the changes this week (some of which had nothing to do with the card – maybe they added a new panelist or something?).
Men’s P4P – Tony Ferguson is up one spot to 13, dropping Deiveson Figueiredo to 14.
Heavyweight – Junior dos Santos is up one to six, dropping Alexander Volkov one spot to seven. Augusto Sakai is up one to eight. Walt Harris drops two spots to ten on fight week. That’s unusual.
Light Heavyweight – Volkan Oezdemir and Anthony Smith flip-flop the six and seven spots. Jimmy Crute re-enters the rankings at 13 after his quick win last weekend. Shogun Rua and Paul Craig fall one each to 14 and 15.
Middleweight – Jared Cannonier is up one spot to two, making his fight with Robert Whittaker a true top contender fight. Paulo Costa falls one more spot to three. Omari Akhmedov falls one spot into a tie for 12 with Brad Tavares.
Welterweight – Demian Maia and Tyron Woodley switched the six and seven spots. Neil Magny is up one spot to nine. Geoff Neal is up one slot to 11. Rafael dos Anjos drops three spots to 12 as he jumps back to 155 pounds.
Lightweight – Somehow Conor McGregor is up a spot to four, pushing Dan Hooker down to five.
Featherweight – Chan Sung Jung’s one-side loss dropped him a spot to five, allowing Yair Rodriguez to rise one to four. Sodiq Yusuff is up one to ten. Dan Ige drops two to 12.
Bantamweight – No changes.
Flyweight – New top contender again, as Joseph Benavidez reclaims it from Brandon Moreno. Moreno sits at two. Rogerio Bontorin drops one spot to nine. Tyson Nam and Jordan Espinosa flip-flop the 14 and 15 positions.
Women’s P4P – Andrade is up one to four, bumping Joanna Jedrzejczyk to five. Germaine de Randamie and Holly Holm trade the seven and eight slots. Cynthia Calvillo cracks the top ten despite having to pull out of her UFC 254 fight. Katlyn Chookagian is down one to 11 after getting stopped by Andrade. Inactive Nina Ansaroff took the 12 spot from Claudia Gadelha, who is at 13.
Women’s Bantamweight – No changes.
Women’s Flyweight – Andrade immediately enters the rankings as the number one contender. Everyone dropped one spot to two through 11. Gillian Robertson is up three spots to 12 following her Fight Island 6 win. Alexis Davis, Montana De La Rosa, and Antonina Shevchenko all fall two each to 13 through 15 respectively.
Women’s Strawweight – Andrade only fell one spot to three despite a division change. Joanna is up to two now. Mackenzie Dern is up one to 12, dropping Angela Hill to 13. That’ll make a few people mad.