Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) made a few modifications to its official rankings this week, and two of the biggest changes came from fighters who did not compete at UFC Chile last weekend on FOX Sports 1.
Kamaru Usman is up, Demian Maia is down, for those of you who care about what’s happening in the 170-pound weight class.
The bigger story is Mackenzie Dern getting booted from the strawweight list, following fan (and fighter) backlash over her inability to make the 115-pound limit for her fight against Amanda Bobby Cooper at UFC 224 earlier this month in Brazil, yet earning a spot among the division’s elite anyway.
I think the rankings board got the message.
Elsewhere on the charts, former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum lost his place in the heavyweight line up — and a possible main event in Moscow — after failing a drug test with United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
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 Georges St-Pierre
3 Stipe Miocic
3 Conor McGregor
5 Daniel Cormier
6 Max Holloway
7 TJ Dillashaw
8 Tyron Woodley
9 Khabib Nurmagomedov
10 Cris Cyborg
11 Tony Ferguson
12 Amanda Nunes
13 Robert Whittaker
14 Cody Garbrandt
15 Rose Namajunas
FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 Henry Cejudo
3 Ray Borg
4 Jussier Formiga
5 Sergio Pettis
6 John Moraga
7 Wilson Reis +1
8 Alexandre Pantoja +4
9 Brandon Moreno -2
10 Dustin Ortiz
11 Ben Nguyen -2
12 Matheus Nicolau -1
13 Tim Elliott
14 Deiveson Figueiredo
15 Magomed Bibulatov
BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: TJ Dillashaw
1 Cody Garbrandt
2 Dominick Cruz
3 Raphael Assuncao
4 Jimmie Rivera
5 Marlon Moraes
6 John Lineker
7 John Dodson
8 Aljamain Sterling
9 Bryan Caraway
10 Pedro Munhoz
11 Cody Stamann
12 Rob Font
13 Thomas Almeida
14 Brett Johns
15 Eddie Wineland
FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Max Holloway
1 Brian Ortega
2 Jose Aldo
3 Frankie Edgar
4 Jeremy Stephens
5 Cub Swanson
6 Josh Emmett
7 Ricardo Lamas
8 Chan Sung Jung
9 Renato Moicano
10 Darren Elkins
11 Mirsad Bektic
12 Zabit Magomedsharipov +1
13 Myles Jury +1
14 Dooho Choi +1
15 Calvin Kattar *NR
LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Khabib Nurmagomedov
1 Conor McGregor
2 Tony Ferguson
3 Eddie Alvarez
4 Dustin Poirier
5 Kevin Lee
6 Edson Barboza
7 Justin Gaethje
8 Nate Diaz
9 Michael Chiesa
10 Al Iaquinta
11 James Vick
12 Anthony Pettis
13 Alexander Hernandez
14 Paul Felder
15 Olivier Aubin-Mercier
WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Tyron Woodley
1 Stephen Thompson
2 Rafael Dos Anjos
3 Robbie Lawler +1
3 Colby Covington
5 Kamaru Usman +2
6 Demian Maia -1
7 Jorge Masvidal -1
8 Darren Till
9 Neil Magny
10 Santiago Ponzinibbio
11 Donald Cerrone
12 Gunnar Nelson
13 Alex Oliveira
14 Leon Edwards
15 Dong Hyun Kim
MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Robert Whittaker
1 Yoel Romero
2 Luke Rockhold
3 Chris Weidman
4 Kelvin Gastelum
5 Jacare Souza
6 Michael Bisping
7 Derek Brunson
8 David Branch
9 Lyoto Machida
9 Brad Tavares +1
11 Uriah Hall
12 Thiago Santos
12 Antonio Carlos Junior
14 Paulo Costa
15 Elias Theodorou *NR
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Alexander Gustafsson
2 Volkan Oezdemir
3 Glover Teixeira
4 Ilir Latifi
5 Jan Blachowicz
6 Jimi Manuwa
7 Ovince Saint Preux
7 Mauricio Rua
9 Corey Anderson
10 Misha Cirkunov
11 Patrick Cummins
12 Dominick Reyes *NR
13 Gadzhimurad Antigulov
14 Tyson Pedro -2
15 Gian Villante -1
HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Stipe Miocic
1 Francis Ngannou
2 Alistair Overeem
3 Alexander Volkov
4 Curtis Blaydes
5 Derrick Lewis +1
6 Mark Hunt +1
7 Marcin Tybura +1
8 Andrei Arlovski +1
9 Aleksei Oleinik +1
10 Stefan Struve +1
11 Tai Tuivasa +1
12 Shamil Abdurakhimov +1
13 Justin Willis +1
14 Junior Dos Santos +1
15 Junior Albini *NR
WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: Rose Namajunas
1 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
2 Jessica Andrade
3 Claudia Gadelha
4 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
5 Tecia Torres
6 Carla Esparza
7 Michelle Waterson
8 Felice Herrig
9 Tatiana Suarez +3
10 Cortney Casey
11 Alexa Grasso -2
12 Randa Markos -1
13 Nina Ansaroff +1
14 Joanne Calderwood -1
15 Angela Hill *NR
WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Nicco Montano
1 Valentina Shevchenko
2 Sijara Eubanks
3 Lauren Murphy
4 Alexis Davis
5 Katlyn Chookagian
6 Barb Honchak +1
7 Liz Carmouche +1
8 Roxanne Modafferi -2
9 Jessica-Rose Clark
10 Jessica Eye
11 Ashlee Evans-Smith
12 Andrea Lee *NR
13 Mara Romero Borella -1
14 Paige VanZant -1
15 Montana De La Rosa -1
WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Amanda Nunes
1 Holly Holm
2 Ketlen Vieira
3 Julianna Pena
4 Raquel Pennington
5 Germaine de Randamie
6 Cat Zingano
7 Marion Reneau
8 Sara McMann
9 Aspen Ladd
10 Bethe Correia
11 Irene Aldana
12 Lucie Pudilova
13 Sarah Moras
14 Lina Lansberg
15 Gina Mazany
There you have it.
You can expect these standings to change — particularly in the welterweight division — in roughly one week, as the promotion is set to uncork its UFC Fight Night 130: “Thompson vs. Till” mixed martial arts (MMA) event on Sun., May 27, 2018 inside Echo Arena in Liverpool, England (more on that fight card here).
For even more upcoming UFC events click here.