The bigger they are … well, you know the rest.
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight champion, Conor McGregor, tumbled six spots in the official UFC pound-for-pound rankings following last Saturday night’s (Oct. 6, 2018) submission loss to current division kingpin, Khabib Nurmagomedov, in the UFC 229 pay-per-view (PPV) main event (watch it).
In the 155-pound weight class, “Notorious” fell to No. 2 behind the red-hot Tony Ferguson, who cemented himself atop the lightweight leaderboard by stopping Anthony Pettis in UFC 229’s bloody co-main event (see it again here).
That’s not all.
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 Daniel Cormier
2 Khabib Nurmagomedov +6
3 TJ Dillashaw
4 Max Holloway
5 Georges St-Pierre
6 Tyron Woodley
7 Demetrious Johnson
8 Conor McGregor -6
9 Stipe Miocic
9 Henry Cejudo +2
11 Cris Cyborg -1
12 Robert Whittaker
13 Tony Ferguson
14 Amanda Nunes
15 Rose Namajunas
FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Henry Cejudo
1 Demetrious Johnson
2 Jussier Formiga +3
3 Sergio Pettis -1
4 Joseph Benavidez -1
5 Ray Borg -1
6 Deiveson Figueiredo
7 John Moraga
8 Wilson Reis
9 Dustin Ortiz
10 Alexandre Pantoja
11 Brandon Moreno
12 Ben Nguyen
13 Tim Elliott
14 Matheus Nicolau
15 Ulka Sasaki
BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: TJ Dillashaw
1 Cody Garbrandt
2 Dominick Cruz
3 Raphael Assuncao
4 Marlon Moraes
5 Jimmie Rivera
6 John Lineker
7 Aljamain Sterling
8 John Dodson
9 Pedro Munhoz
10 Cody Stamann
11 Rob Font
12 Alejandro Perez
13 Thomas Almeida
14 Douglas Silva de Andrade
15 Rani Yahya
FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Max Holloway
1 Brian Ortega
2 Jose Aldo
3 Frankie Edgar
4 Renato Moicano
5 Chad Mendes
6 Jeremy Stephens
7 Cub Swanson
8 Josh Emmett
8 Mirsad Bektic
10 Chan Sung Jung
11 Alexander Volkanovski
12 Ricardo Lamas
13 Darren Elkins
14 Zabit Magomedsharipov
15 Yair Rodriguez
LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Khabib Nurmagomedov
1 Tony Ferguson +1
2 Conor McGregor -1
3 Dustin Poirier
4 Eddie Alvarez
5 Kevin Lee
6 Edson Barboza
7 Justin Gaethje
8 Anthony Pettis
9 Al Iaquinta
10 Nate Diaz
11 Michael Chiesa
12 James Vick
13 Alexander Hernandez
14 Dan Hooker
15 Francisco Trinaldo
WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Tyron Woodley
1 Colby Covington (Interim Champion)
2 Darren Till
3 Rafael Dos Anjos
4 Stephen Thompson
5 Robbie Lawler
6 Kamaru Usman
7 Demian Maia
8 Neil Magny
9 Jorge Masvidal
10 Santiago Ponzinibbio
11 Leon Edwards
12 Donald Cerrone
13 Alex Oliveira
14 Gunnar Nelson
15 Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos
MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Robert Whittaker
1 Yoel Romero
2 Luke Rockhold
3 Chris Weidman
4 Kelvin Gastelum
5 Jacare Souza
6 Derek Brunson
7 David Branch
8 Paulo Costa
9 Israel Adesanya
10 Brad Tavares
11 Antonio Carlos Junior
12 Uriah Hall
13 Elias Theodorou
14 Krzysztof Jotko
15 Thiago Santos *NR
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Alexander Gustafsson
2 Volkan Oezdemir
3 Jan Blachowicz
4 Ilir Latifi
5 Jimi Manuwa
6 Dominick Reyes +6
7 Corey Anderson -1
8 Glover Teixeira
9 Ovince Saint Preux -2
10 Anthony Smith -1
11 Misha Cirkunov -1
12 Mauricio Rua -1
13 Nikita Krylov +1
14 Patrick Cummins -1
15 Tyson Pedro
HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Stipe Miocic
2 Derrick Lewis
3 Curtis Blaydes
4 Francis Ngannou
5 Alexander Volkov
6 Alistair Overeem
7 Junior Dos Santos
8 Aleksei Oleinik
9 Marcin Tybura
10 Mark Hunt
11 Tai Tuivasa
12 Shamil Abdurakhimov
13 Andrei Arlovski
14 Stefan Struve
15 Justin Willis
WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: Rose Namajunas
1 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
2 Jessica Andrade
3 Claudia Gadelha
4 Tatiana Suarez
5 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
6 Tecia Torres
7 Michelle Waterson +1
8 Carla Esparza -1
9 Felice Herrig
10 Cortney Casey
11 Nina Ansaroff
12 Alexa Grasso
13 Randa Markos
14 Angela Hill
15 Mackenzie Dern
WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT
1 Valentina Shevchenko
2 Nicco Montano
3 Katlyn Chookagian
4 Sijara Eubanks
5 Alexis Davis
6 Liz Carmouche
7 Roxanne Modafferi
8 Lauren Murphy
9 Jessica Eye
10 Jessica-Rose Clark
11 Ashlee Evans-Smith
12 Joanne Calderwood
13 Mara Romero Borella
14 Jennifer Maia
15 Andrea Lee
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 Aspen Ladd +2
7 Marion Reneau
9 Sara McMann -1
10 Yana Kunitskaya *NR
11 Bethe Correia -1
12 Irene Aldana -1
13 Lucie Pudilova
14 Lina Lansberg -2
15 Tonya Evinger *NR
There you have it.
You can expect these standings to change — particularly in the light heavyweight division — in roughly two weeks, as the promotion is set to uncork the UFC Fight Night 138: “Oezdemir vs. Smith” event on Sat., Oct. 27, 2018 inside Moncton Events Centre in New Brunswick, Canada, (more on that fight card here).
For even more upcoming UFC events click here.