There weren’t many arguments against a lightweight showdown pitting former champion, Conor McGregor, opposite longtime “Cowboy,” Donald Cerrone. And thanks to the latter’s standout performance against Al Iaquinta at UFC Ottawa (highlights), it’s now a fight that makes sense from a rankings perspective.
Cerrone is currently ranked No. 4 at 155 pounds, just one spot below “Notorious” after the UFC Ottawa event last weekend on ESPN+ (full results here).
Other notable changes in the wake of this week’s update include the removal of Cub Swanson, who was supplanted by up-and-coming featherweight Shane Burgos. In addition, Macy Chiasson put the women’s bantamweight division on notice by pounding out Sarah Moras.
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 Daniel Cormier
2 Jon Jones
3 Khabib Nurmagomedov
4 Henry Cejudo
5 Max Holloway
6 Amanda Nunes
7 Kamaru Usman
8 Dustin Poirier
9 Conor McGregor
10 Robert Whittaker
11 Stipe Miocic
12 Tony Ferguson
13 Tyron Woodley
14 Rose Namajunas
15 Cris Cyborg
FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Henry Cejudo
1 Jussier Formiga
2 Joseph Benavidez
3 Alexandre Pantoja
4 Deiveson Figueiredo
5 Wilson Reis
6 Tim Elliott
7 Rogerio Bontorin
8 Magomed Bibulatov
9 Ryan Benoit
10 Jordan Espinosa
11 Kai Kara France
12 Eric Shelton
13 Alex Perez
14 Raulian Paiva
15 Matt Schnell
BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: VACANT
1 Marlon Moraes
2 Raphael Assuncao
3 Aljamain Sterling
4 Pedro Munhoz
5 Dominick Cruz
6 Cody Garbrandt
7 Jimmie Rivera
8 Corey Sandhagen
9 Petr Yan
10 John Lineker
11 Cody Stamann
12 Rob Font
13 John Dodson
14 Alejandro Perez
15 Thomas Almeida
FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Max Holloway
1 Jose Aldo
2 Brian Ortega
3 Frankie Edgar
4 Alexander Volkanovski
5 Renato Moicano
6 Zabit Magomedsharipov
7 Jeremy Stephens
8 Josh Emmett
9 Mirsad Bektic
10 Ricardo Lamas +1
11 Yair Rodriguez +1
12 Chan Sung Jung +1
13 Shane Burgos *NR
14 Darren Elkins
15 Calvin Kattar
LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Khabib Nurmagomedov
1 Dustin Poirier (Interim Champion)
2 Tony Ferguson
3 Conor McGregor
4 Donald Cerrone +4
5 Justin Gaethje
6 Al Iaquinta -2
7 Kevin Lee -1
8 Edson Barboza -1
9 Anthony Pettis
10 Paul Felder
11 Gregor Gillespie
12 Alexander Hernandez
13 James Vick
14 Charles Oliveira
15 Islam Makhachev
WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Kamaru Usman
1 Tyron Woodley
2 Colby Covington
3 Rafael Dos Anjos
4 Jorge Masvidal
5 Ben Askren
6 Darren Till
7 Stephen Thompson
8 Anthony Pettis
9 Santiago Ponzinibbio
10 Robbie Lawler
11 Leon Edwards
12 Demian Maia
13 Neil Magny
14 Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos
15 Vincente Luque
MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Robert Whittaker
1 Israel Adesanya (Interim Champion)
2 Yoel Romero
3 Luke Rockhold
4 Kelvin Gastelum
5 Jack Hermansson
6 Ronaldo Souza
7 Chris Weidman
8 Paulo Costa
9 Derek Brunson
10 Jared Cannonier
11 Brad Tavares
12 Antonio Carlos Junior
13 Uriah Hall +1
14 Anderson Silva +1
15 Elias Theodorou -2
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Jon Jones
1 Daniel Cormier
2 Alexander Gustafsson
3 Thiago Santos
4 Anthony Smith
5 Dominick Reyes
6 Jan Blachowicz
7 Volkan Oezdemir
8 Corey Anderson
9 Ilir Latifi
10 Glover Teixeira
11 Jimi Manuwa
12 Johnny Walker
13 Mauricio Rua
14 Misha Cirkunov
15 Nikita Krylov
HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Stipe Miocic
2 Francis Ngannou
3 Junior Dos Santos
4 Curtis Blaydes
5 Derrick Lewis
6 (T) Alexander Volkov
6 (T) Alistair Overeem
8 Cain Velasquez
9 Aleksei Oleinik
10 Shamil Abdurakhimov
11 Tai Tuivasa
12 Justin Willis
13 Marcin Tybura
14 Blagoy Ivanov
15 Augusto Sakai
WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: Rose Namajunas
1 Jessica Andrade
2 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
3 Tatiana Suarez
4 Nina Ansaroff
5 Claudia Gadelha
6 Weili Zhang
7 Michelle Waterson
8 Tecia Torres
9 Carla Esparza
10 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
11 Cynthia Calvillo
12 Felice Herrig
13 Alexa Grasso
14 Randa Markos
15 Cortney Casey
WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Valentina Shevchenko
1 Jessica Eye
2 Katlyn Chookagian
3 Liz Carmouche
4 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
5 Roxanne Modafferi
6 Joanne Calderwood
7 Alexis Davis
8 (T) Lauren Murphy
8 (T) Jennifer Maia
10 Andrea Lee
11 Montana De La Rosa
12 Mara Romero Borella
13 Maycee Barber
14 Paige VanZant
15 Poliana Botelho
WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Amanda Nunes
1 Germaine de Randamie
2 Holly Holm
3 Ketlen Vieira
4 Raquel Pennington
5 Cat Zingano
6 Aspen Ladd
7 Yana Kunitskaya
8 Marion Reneau
9 Sara McMann
10 Macy Chiasson +4
11 Irene Aldana -1
12 Tonya Evinger -1
13 Bethe Correia -1
14 Lina Lansberg -1
15 Talita Bernardo
There you have it.
You can expect these standings to change next week after the UFC 237: “Namajunas vs. Andrade” pay-per-view (PPV) event taking place this Sat. night (May 11, 2019) inside Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (more on that fight card here).
For even more upcoming UFC events click here.