The official Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) rankings have been updated following UFC on FOX 22, which took place last Saturday night (Dec. 17, 2016) inside Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California (see full results and play-by-play here).
As expected, former Invicta FC Atomweight champion, Michelle Waterson, had the most significant upward movement after her shocking first round submission of then- No. 7-ranked Paige VanZant in the main event of the evening. “Karate Hottie” has moved up four spots from No. 11 to take her spot, while “12-Gauge” falls into a tie with Maryna Moroz in the No. 9 position.
Mickey Gall, of course, did not crack the Welterweight Top 15 after his submission of Sage Northcutt in the co-main event because, well — even though it was an impressive performance — the New Jersey native has just four professional mixed martial arts (MMA) bouts to his credit.
The good news is the 24-year-old has a lot of cage time in his future to change that.
Missing from this list, of course, is former World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) champion and perennial UFC Featherweight and Bantamweight title contender, Urijah Faber, who retired from the sport in front of a proud hometown crowd after this thrilling three-round domination of fellow veteran, Brad Pickett (watch highlights here).
Times, they are a changin’ …
Here’s 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 Conor McGregor
3 Dominick Cruz
4 Daniel Cormier
5 Jose Aldo
6 Stipe Miocic
7 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
8 Tyron Woodley
9 Michael Bisping
10 Max Holloway
11 Amanda Nunes
11 Cris Cyborg +2
13 Khabib Nurmagomedov -1
14 T.J. Dillashaw
15 Robbie Lawler
FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 Henry Cejudo
3 Kyoji Horiguchi
4 Jussier Formiga
5 Wilson Reis
6 Ian McCall
7 Ali Bagautinov
8 John Moraga
9 Dustin Ortiz
10 Brandon Moreno
11 Zach Makovsky
12 Louis Smolka
13 Ray Borg
14 Sergio Pettis
15 Tim Elliott
BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Dominick Cruz
1 T.J. Dillashaw
2 John Lineker
3 Raphael Assuncao
4 Jimmie Rivera
5 Cody Garbrandt
6 Bryan Caraway
7 Aljamain Sterling +1
8 Michael McDonald +1
9 John Dodson +1
10 Thomas Almeida +1
11 Johnny Eduardo +1
12 Eddie Wineland +1
13 Pedro Munhoz +2
14 Rani Yahya *NR
15 Takeya Mizugaki -1
FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Jose Aldo
1 Max Holloway (Interim Champion)
2 Frankie Edgar
3 Ricardo Lamas
4 Cub Swanson
5 Jeremy Stephens
6 Anthony Pettis
7 Charles Oliveira +1
7 Dennis Bermudez
9 Brian Ortega
10 Yair Rodriguez
11 Dooho Choi
12 Mirsad Bektic
13 Darren Elkins
14 Renan Barao
15 Andre Fili
LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Conor McGregor
1 Khabib Nurmagomedov
2 Tony Ferguson
3 Eddie Alvarez
4 Rafael Dos Anjos
5 Edson Barboza
6 Nate Diaz
7 Michael Johnson
8 Michael Chiesa
9 Beneil Dariush
10 Dustin Poirier
11 Donald Cerrone
12 Gilbert Melendez
13 Francisco Trinaldo
14 Evan Dunham
15 Al Iaquinta
WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Tyron Woodley
1 Stephen Thompson
2 Robbie Lawler
3 Demian Maia
4 Carlos Condit
5 Donald Cerrone
6 Johny Hendricks
7 Lorenz Larkin
8 Neil Magny
9 Dong Hyun Kim
10 Rick Story
11 Gunnar Nelson
12 Tarec Saffiedine
13 Jorge Masvidal
14 Jake Ellenberger
15 Matt Brown
MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Michael Bisping
1 Yoel Romero
2 Luke Rockhold
3 Jacare Souza
4 Chris Weidman
5 Gegard Mousasi
6 Robert Whittaker
7 Anderson Silva
8 Vitor Belfort
8 Derek Brunson
10 Kelvin Gastelum
11 Krzysztof Jotko
12 Tim Kennedy
13 Uriah Hall
14 Thales Leites
15 Tim Boetsch
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Anthony Johnson
2 Alexander Gustafsson
3 Glover Teixeira
4 Ryan Bader
5 Jimi Manuwa
6 Ovince Saint Preux
7 Mauricio Rua
8 Misha Cirkunov
9 Corey Anderson
10 Nikita Krylov
11 Ilir Latifi
12 Rogerio Nogueira
13 Patrick Cummins
14 Gian Villante
15 Jan Blachowicz
HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Stipe Miocic
1 Fabricio Werdum
2 Cain Velasquez
3 Alistair Overeem
4 Junior dos Santos
5 Ben Rothwell
6 Josh Barnett
7 Mark Hunt
8 Andrei Arlovski
9 Derrick Lewis
10 Travis Browne
11 Francis Ngannou
11 Stefan Struve
13 Alexander Volkov
14 Daniel Omielanczuk
15 Tim Johnson
WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: Joanna Jedrzejczyk
1 Claudia Gadelha
2 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
3 Carla Esparza
4 Rose Namajunas
5 Jessica Andrade
6 Tecia Torres
7 Michelle Waterson +4
8 Joanne Calderwood
9 Maryna Moroz
9 Paige VanZant -2
11 Jessica Aguilar -1
12 Jessica Penne
13 Valerie Letourneau
14 Alexa Grasso +1
15 Juliana Lima -1
WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Amanda Nunes
1 Ronda Rousey
2 Valentina Shevchenko
3 Julianna Pena
4 Holly Holm
5 Raquel Pennington
6 Cat Zingano
7 Sara McMann
8 Liz Carmouche
9 Bethe Correia
10 Germaine de Randamie +1
11 Ashlee Evans-Smith +1
12 Marion Reneau +2
13 Alexis Davis
14 Jessica Eye +1
15 Leslie Smith *NR
There you have it.
You can expect these standings to change in about two weeks — particularly in the women’s Bantamweight division — when UFC 207: “Nunes vs. Rousey” takes place on Dec. 30, 2016, inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada (details).
Until then, let us know what you think of the latest rankings movement in the comments section below.