Off the back of his undisputed UFC lightweight title victory at UFC 280 over the course of last weekend, surging champion, Islam Makhachev has leaped as high as #3 in the official men’s pound-for-pound rankings in the promotion – following a submission win over Charles Oliveira.
Headlining UFC 280 in Abu Dhabi, UAE against former undisputed titleholder, Oliveira in the pair’s long-awaited vacant title fight, Makhachev turned in another dominant performance, this time submitting the Sao Paulo native with a one-sided second round arm-triangle win.
Islam Makhachev mints himself as new undisputed lightweight titleholder
The victory came as Islam Makhachev’s eleventh consecutively at the lightweight limit since a 2015 knockout loss to Adriano Martins, with former undisputed champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov guiding his compatriot to his first title reign under the UFC banner.
With the win, Islam Makhachev has debuted in the official men’s pound-for-pound rankings as per Canadian outlet, TSN – with the American Kickboxing Academy product sat at #3, behind just middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya, and expected next foe, featherweight kingpin, Alexander Volkanovski.
In another massive leap in the pecking order, Montana native, Sean O’Malley managed to make a jump of a stunning 10 slots, landing at #1 in the official bantamweight rankings courtesy of his close, split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) win against former division champion, Petr Yan.
Narrowly defeating Dudinka native, Yan in a close, competitive back-and-forth on the UFC 280 main card, O’Malley, a product of Dana White’s Contender Series – had entered the Etihad Arena clash at the #11 ranked contender.
Still attempting to snap the record of former two-time UFC light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, and become the youngest champion in Octagon history, Muhammad Mokaev debuted in the top-15 at flyweight – taking the #15 rank with his late armbar win over Malcolm Gordon. Mokaev improved to 3-0 in the UFC with his preliminary card submission success to boot.