Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) recently updated its official rankings in the wake of last Sat. night’s (March 2, 2019) UFC 235: “Jones vs. Smith” pay-per-view (PPV) event inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The biggest winner of the night was Kamaru Usman, who not only captured the welterweight title from Tyron Woodley (see it) and took over the 170-pound division, but also debuted on the promotion’s pound-for-pound list.
Joining him on the welterweight charts is Ben Askren. The “Funky” wrestler sneaks into the No. 6 spot with his controversial win over Robbie Lawler (video), while Zabit Magomedsharipov and Weili Zhang cracked their respective Top 10 lists with impressive performances in “Sin City.”
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 Jon Jones
3 Khabib Nurmagomedov
4 Max Holloway
5 Henry Cejudo
6 Amanda Nunes +1
7 TJ Dillashaw +1
8 Conor McGregor +1
9 Kamaru Usman *NR
10 Stipe Miocic
11 Robert Whittaker +1
12 Tony Ferguson +1
13 Tyron Woodley -7
14 Rose Namajunas
15 Cris Cyborg
FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Henry Cejudo
1 Jussier Formiga
2 Joseph Benavidez
3 Ray Borg
4 Deiveson Figueiredo
5 Wilson Reis
6 Alexandre Pantoja
7 Alex Perez
8 Tim Elliott
9 Rogerio Bontorin
10 Magomed Bibulatov
11 Eric Shelton
12 Ryan Benoit
13 TJ Dillashaw
14 Kai Kara-France
15 Matt Schnell
BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: TJ Dillashaw
1 Marlon Moraes
2 Raphael Assuncao +1
3 Aljamain Sterling +2
4 Pedro Munhoz +5
5 Dominick Cruz -1
6 Cody Garbrandt -4
7 Jimmie Rivera -1
8 John Lineker -1
9 Petr Yan -1
10 Cody Stamann +2
11 Rob Font -1
12 John Dodson -1
13 Alejandro Perez
14 Thomas Almeida
15 Ricky Simon
FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Max Holloway
1 Jose Aldo
2 Brian Ortega
3 Frankie Edgar
4 Alexander Volkanovski
5 Renato Moicano
6 Zabit Magomedsharipov +7
7 Jeremy Stephens -1
8 Cub Swanson -1
9 Mirsad Bektic -1
10 Josh Emmett -1
11 Ricardo Lamas -1
12 Yair Rodriguez -1
13 Chan Sung Jung -1
14 Darren Elkins
15 Calvin Kattar
LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Khabib Nurmagomedov
1 Tony Ferguson
2 Conor McGregor
3 Dustin Poirier
4 Al Iaquinta
5 Kevin Lee
6 Edson Barboza
7 Justin Gaethje
8 Anthony Pettis
9 Donald Cerrone
10 Paul Felder
11 Gregor Gillespie
12 Alexander Hernandez
13 Nate Diaz
14 James Vick
15 Charles Oliveira
WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Kamaru Usman
1 Tyron Woodley -1
2 Colby Covington -1
3 Darren Till
4 Stephen Thompson
5 Rafael Dos Anjos
6 Ben Askren *NR
7 Santiago Ponzinibbio
8 Robbie Lawler -2
9 Demian Maia -1
10 Leon Edwards -1
11 Jorge Masvidal -1
12 Neil Magny -1
13 Gunnar Nelson -1
14 Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos -1
15 Vicente Luque -1
MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Robert Whittaker
1 Yoel Romero
2 Luke Rockhold
3 Jacare Souza
4 Kelvin Gastelum
5 Israel Adesanya
6 Chris Weidman
7 Paulo Costa
8 Derek Brunson
9 Jared Cannonier
10 Brad Tavares
11 David Branch
12 Antonio Carlos Junior
13 Uriah Hall
14 Elias Theodorou
15 Anderson Silva
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Jon Jones
1 Daniel Cormier
2 Alexander Gustafsson
3 Thiago Santos +1
4 Anthony Smith -1
5 Jan Blachowicz
6 Volkan Oezdemir -1
7 Corey Anderson
8 Dominick Reyes
9 Ilir Latifi
10 Jimi Manuwa
11 Glover Teixeira
12 Ovince Saint Preux
13 Johnny Walker +2
14 Mauricio Rua -1
15 Misha Cirkunov -1
HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Stipe Miocic
2 Francis Ngannou
3 Derrick Lewis
4 Curtis Blaydes
5 Alexander Volkov
6 Alistair Overeem
7 Cain Velasquez
8 Junior Dos Santos
9 Aleksei Oleinik
10 Justin Willis +1
10 Marcin Tybura
12 Tai Tuivasa
13 Shamil Abdurakhimov
14 Andrei Arlovski +1
15 Blagoy Ivanov *NR
WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: Rose Namajunas
1 Jessica Andrade
2 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
3 Nina Ansaroff
3 Tatiana Suarez
5 Claudia Gadelha
6 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
7 Weili Zhang +8
8 Tecia Torres -1
9 Michelle Waterson -1
10 Carla Esparza -1
11 Cynthia Calvillo -1
12 Felice Herrig -1
13 Cortney Casey
14 Alexa Grasso -2
15 Randa Markos -1
WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Valentina Shevchenko
1 Jessica Eye
2 Sijara Eubanks
3 Katlyn Chookagian
4 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
5 Alexis Davis
6 Liz Carmouche
7 Joanne Calderwood
8 Roxanne Modafferi
9 Lauren Murphy
10 Andrea Lee
10 Jessica-Rose Clark
12 Montana De La Rosa
13 Mara Romero Borella
14 Paige VanZant
15 Antonina Shevchenko
WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Amanda Nunes
1 Germaine de Randamie
2 Holly Holm
3 Ketlen Vieira
4 Raquel Pennington
5 Cat Zingano
6 Marion Reneau
7 Aspen Ladd
8 Sara McMann
9 Yana Kunitskaya
10 Irene Aldana
11 Tonya Evinger +1
12 Bethe Correia -1
13 Lina Lansberg
14 Macy Chiasson *NR
15 Talita Bernardo -1
There you have it.
You can expect these standings to change around this time next week, particularly in the heavyweight division, as the promotion is set to uncork the UFC on ESPN+ 4: “Lewis vs. dos Santos” event on Sat., March 9, 2019 inside INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas (more on that fight card here).
For even more upcoming UFC events click here.