Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) recently updated its official rankings, which are a little lighter with the absences of Ben Askren and Liz Carmouche, after the UFC on ESPN 7 mixed martial arts (MMA) event last weekend in Washington, D.C., featuring a main event between Alistair Overeem and Jairzinho Rozenstruik.
“Bigi” Boy won by lip-busting knockout and jumped a staggering nine places in the heavyweight rankings. Also seeing forward progress is bantamweight upstart Aspen Ladd, who improved to No. 3 by finishing Yana Kunitskaya.
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, T = tie, *NR = Not previously ranked).
POUND-FOR-POUND
1. Jon Jones
2. Khabib Nurmagomedov
3. Henry Cejudo
4. Stipe Miocic
5. Amanda Nunes
6. Daniel Cormier
7. Max Holloway
8. Israel Adesanya
9. Tony Ferguson
10. Kamaru Usman
11. Valentina Shevchenko
12. Dustin Poirier
13. Robert Whittaker
14. Conor McGregor
15. Tyron Woodley
FLYWEIGHT
Champion: HENRY CEJUDO
1. Joseph Benavidez
2. Jussier Formiga
3. Deiveson Figueiredo
4. Alexandre Pantoja
5. Brandon Moreno
6. Kai Kara France
7. Rogerio Bontorin
8. Tim Elliott
9. Matt Schnell
10. Jordan Espinosa
11. Alex Perez
12. Askar Askarov
13. Ryan Benoit
14. Mark De La Rosa
15. Raulian Paiva
BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: HENRY CEJUDO
1. Marlon Moraes
2. Aljamain Sterling
3. Cory Sandhagen
4. Petr Yan
5. Raphael Assuncao
6. Pedro Munhoz
7. Jimmie Rivera
8. Cody Garbrandt
9. Rob Font +1
10. Cody Stamann -1
11. John Dodson
12. (T) Urijah Faber
12. (T) Song Yadong +1
14. Marlon Vera
15. Casey Kenney
FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: MAX HOLLOWAY
1. Alexander Volkanovski
2. Brian Ortega
3. Jose Aldo
4. Zabit Magomedsharipov
5. Frankie Edgar
6. Yair Rodriguez
7. Chan Sung Jung
8. Renato Moicano
9. Jeremy Stephens
10. Josh Emmett
11. Calvin Kattar
12. Shane Burgos
13. Mirsad Bektic
14. Arnold Allen
15. Ryan Hall
LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: KHABIB NURMAGOMEDOV
1. Tony Ferguson
2. Dustin Poirier
3. Conor McGregor
4. Justin Gaethje
5. Donald Cerrone
6. Paul Felder
7. Dan Hooker
8. Kevin Lee
9. Al Iaquinta
10. Edson Barboza
11. Anthony Pettis
12. Gregor Gillespie
13. Charles Oliveira
14. Alexander Hernandez
15. Islam Makhachev
WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: KAMARU USMAN
1. Tyron Woodley
2. Colby Covington
3. Jorge Masvidal
4. Leon Edwards
5. Rafael dos Anjos
6. Demian Maia
7. Santiago Ponzinibbio
8. Stephen Thompson
9. Nate Diaz
10. Anthony Pettis
11. Robbie Lawler
12. Gilbert Burns +2
13. Vicente Luque
14. Geoff Neal +1
15. Neil Magny *NR
MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: ISRAEL ADESANYA
1. Robert Whittaker
2. Paulo Costa
3. Yoel Romero
4. Jared Cannonier
5. Darren Till
6. Jack Hermansson
7. Kelvin Gastelum
8. Derek Brunson
9. Edmen Shahbazyan
10. Ian Heinisch
11. Uriah Hall
12. Brad Tavares
13. Antonio Carlos Junior
14. Omari Akhmedov
15. Anderson Silva
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: JON JONES
1. Thiago Santos
2. Daniel Cormier
3. Anthony Smith
4. Dominick Reyes
5. Corey Anderson
6. Jan Blachowicz
7. Alexander Gustafsson
8. Volkan Oezdemir
9. Glover Teixeira
10. Aleksandar Rakic
11. Johnny Walker
12. Ilir Latifi
13. Misha Cirkunov
14. Nikita Krylov
15. Ronaldo Souza
HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: STIPE MIOCIC
1. Daniel Cormier
2. Francis Ngannou
3. Curtis Blaydes
4. Junior dos Santos
5. (T) Derrick Lewis
5. (T) Jairzinho Rozenstruik +9
7. Alexander Volkov -1
8. Alistair Overeem -2
9. Walt Harris -1
10. Shamil Abdurakhimov -1
11. Blagoy Ivanov -1
12. Aleksei Oleinik -1
13. Augusto Sakai -1
14. Sergei Pavlovich -1
15. Marcin Tybura *NR
WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: WEILI ZHANG
1. Jessica Andrade
2. Rose Namajunas
3. Tatiana Suarez
4. Joanna Jedrzejczyk
5. Nina Ansaroff
6. Claudia Gadelha
7. Carla Esparza
8. Michelle Waterson
9. Marina Rodriguez
10. Cynthia Calvillo
11. Alexa Grasso
12. Felice Herrig
13. Tecia Torres
14. Karolina Kowalkiewicz
15. Amanda Ribas
WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT
Champion: VALENTINA SHEVCHENKO
1. Katlyn Chookagian
2. Jessica Eye
3. Joanne Calderwood
4. Jennifer Maia +1
5. Viviane Araujo +1
6. Lauren Murphy +1
7. Roxanne Modafferi +1
8. Andrea Lee +1
9. Maycee Barber +1
10. Alexis Davis +1
11. Montana De La Rosa +1
12. Antonina Shevchenko +1
13. Mara Romero Borella +1
14. Paige VanZant +1
15. Ji Yeon Kim +1
WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: AMANDA NUNES
1. Germaine de Randamie
2. Ketlen Vieira
3. (T) Holly Holm
3. (T) Aspen Ladd +2
5. Julianna Pena -1
6. Raquel Pennington
7. Yana Kunitskaya
8. Marion Reneau
9. Sara McMann
10. Irene Aldana
11. Lina Lansberg
12. Macy Chiasson
15. Bethe Correia
14. Nicco Montano
15. Sijara Eubanks
There you have it.
You can expect these standings to change around this time next week, particularly in the welterweight division, after the UFC 245: “Usman vs. Covington” pay-per-view (PPV) event this Sat. (Dec. 14, 2019) from inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada (see that fight card here).
For even more upcoming UFC events click here.