Just about every division saw some rankings changes coming out of UFC 257, but lightweight saw the biggest moves.
What a night UFC 257 turned out to be. Conor McGregor’s big return was spoiled by Dustin Poirier’s great gameplan. Michael Chandler’s UFC debut went better than pretty much anyone expected. And the rest of the main card saw some nice action and finishes. How is this affecting the rankings? Well, a lot has changed.
There are only two divisions without any movement this week and while no one rose sharply except for Chandler, things are definitely different.
Take a look at all the changes below, which includes some movement from the results of UFC Fight Island 8 on Wednesday.
Men’s P4P – Conor’s loss sees him barely hanging on the P4P list now, dropping two spots to 15. This allows Francis Ngannou and Jan Blachowicz to move up one spot each to 13 and 14 respectively.
Heavyweight – Marcin Tybura drops from a tie for 14 to take over 15 on his own.
Light Heavyweight – No changes.
Middleweight – Uriah Hall is up one to eight, dropping former TUF foe Kelvin Gastelum to nine. Brad Tavares’ win got him trending in the right direction again, moving up one to 13. Omari Akhmedov drops to 14.
Welterweight – Michael Chiesa’s Wednesday win over Neil Magny sees him inching closer to title contention, moving up two spots to six. Tyron Woodley and Demian Maia fell one spot each to seven and eight. Vicente Luque moves up into a tie for nine with the guy Chiesa beat, Neil Magny.
Lightweight – Here we go. Poirier is the new number one contender. Justin Gaethje drops to two. Chandler enters the list at four, below Charles Oliveira. Conor falls two spots to six. Dan Hooker falls two to eight after getting stopped by Chandler. Seven more fighters – Paul Felder, Diego Ferreira, Al Iaquinta, Kevin Lee, Beneil Dariush, Islam Makhachev, and Gregor Gillespie – all fell one spot to nine through 15 to make room for Chandler.
Featherweight – Bryce Mitchell and Ryan Hall flip-flopped the 13 and 14 spots.
Bantamweight – No changes.
Flyweight – Kai Kara France and Matt Schnell are up a spot each to seven and eight. Rogerio Bontorin falls one into a tie with Schnell. Tim Elliott is up one to 11. David Dvorak is down one to 12. Amir Albazi is up two spots to 13 following his UFC 257 win. Su Mudaerji enters at 14. Tyson Nam drops two to 15.
Women’s P4P – Carla Esparza is up two to 13, bumping Cynthia Calvillo to 14 and Claudia Gadelha to 15.
Women’s Bantamweight – Julianna Pena’s big win over Sara McMann reestablishes her at 135, moving up one spot to six. That bumped Ketlen Vieira down one to seven.
Women’s Flyweight – Jojo Calderwood’s main card victory over Jessica Eye moves her up one spot to six. Viviane Araujo is up two spots to seven. Eye drops two to eight. Roxy Modafferi falls one to nine.
Women’s Strawweight – Marina Rodriguez earned a performance bonus for stopping Amanda Ribas with strikes, and she rises two slots to six. Gadelha and Michelle Waterson drop one spot each to seven and eight.