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Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) had a busy week, thanks to the UFC Jacksonville and UFC on ESPN 8 events that took place in “The Sunshine State.” Not surprisingly, the promotion’s official rankings panel had an equally busy week with a pair of fight cards to shake things up.
While Alistair Overeem is holding steady at No. 8 after stopping the No. 9-ranked Walt Harris, former lightweight Edson Barboza will say goodbye to the rankings altogether. The Brazilian abandon his post at 155 pounds for UFC on ESPN 8, but came up short against Dan Ige, who moves up to No. 11 on the featherweight ladder.
Elsewhere on the charts, revitalized light heavyweight bruiser Glover Teixeira made his return to the Top 5 after thrashing Anthony Smith in Jacksonville. “Lionheart” tumbled two spots to No. 6. In addition, Cortney Casey announced her debut in the Top 15 by submitting Mara Romero Borella.
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).
MEN’S POUND-FOR-POUND
1. Jon Jones
2. Khabib Nurmagomedov
3. Henry Cejudo
4. Stipe Miocic
5. Israel Adesanya
6. Daniel Cormier
7. Kamaru Usman
8. Alexander Volkanovski
9. Conor McGregor
10. Max Holloway
11. Justin Gaethje
12. Dustin Poirier
13. Tony Ferguson
14. Robert Whittaker
15. Tyron Woodley
FLYWEIGHT
Champion: VACANT
1. Deiveson Figueiredo
2. Joseph Benavidez
3. Brandon Moreno +1
4. Jussier Formiga -1
5. Alexandre Pantoja
6. Askar Askarov
7. Kai Kara France
8. Rogerio Bontorin
9. Alex Perez
10. Matt Schnell
11. Tim Elliott
12. Jordan Espinosa
13. Raulian Paiva
14. David Dvorak
15. Mark De La Rosa
BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: HENRY CEJUDO
1. Marlon Moraes
2. Aljamain Sterling
3. Petr Yan
4. Cory Sandhagen
5. Raphael Assuncao
6. Jose Aldo
7. Pedro Munhoz
8. Jimmie Rivera
9. Cody Garbrandt
10. Rob Font
11. Dominick Cruz +1
12. Cody Stamann -1
13. John Dodson
14. Song Yadong
15. Marlon Vera
FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: ALEXANDER VOLKANOVSKI
1. Max Holloway
2. Brian Ortega
3. Zabit Magomedsharipov
4. Chan Sung Jung
5. Yair Rodriguez
6. Calvin Kattar +1
7. Frankie Edgar -1
8. Josh Emmett +1
9. Jeremy Stephens -1
10. Shane Burgos
11. (T) Dan Ige +4
11. (T) Arnold Allen +1
13. Jose Aldo -2
14. Ryan Hall -1
15. Sodiq Yosef -1
LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: KHABIB NURMAGOMEDOV
1. Justin Gaethje
2. Tony Ferguson
3. Dustin Poirier
4. Conor McGregor
5. Dan Hooker
6. Paul Felder
7. Charles Oliveira
8. Kevin Lee +1
9. Al Iaquinta -1
10. Diego Ferreira
11. Gregor Gillespie +3
12. Islam Makhachev +1
13. Donald Cerrone -1
14. Drew Dober *NR
15. Beneil Dariush *NR
WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: KAMARU USMAN
1. Tyron Woodley
2. Colby Covington
3. Jorge Masvidal
4. Leon Edwards
5. Stephen Thompson
6. Gilbert Burns
7. Demian Maia
8. Michael Chiesa
9. Rafael dos Anjos
10. Nate Diaz
11. Geoff Neal
12. Robbie Lawler
13. Vicente Luque
14. Conor McGregor
15. Anthony Pettis
MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: ISRAEL ADESANYA
1. Robert Whittaker
2. Paulo Costa
3. Jared Cannonier
4. (T) Yoel Romero
4. (T) Darren Till +1
6. Jack Hermansson
7. Kelvin Gastelum
8. Derek Brunson
9. Edmen Shahbazyan
10. Uriah Hall
11. Brad Tavares
12. Omari Akhmedov
13. Ian Heinisch
14. Antonio Carlos Junior
15. Krzysztof Jotko *NR
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: JON JONES
1. Dominick Reyes
2. Thiago Santos
3. Jan Blachowicz
4. Corey Anderson +1
5. Glover Teixeira +3
6. Anthony Smith -2
7. Volkan Oezdemir -1
8. Alexander Gustafsson -1
9. Aleksandar Rakic
10. Nikita Krylov
11. Johnny Walker
12. Misha Cirkunov
13. Ryan Spann +1
14. Magomed Ankalaev -1
15. Mauricio Rua
HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: STIPE MIOCIC
1. Daniel Cormier
2. Francis Ngannou
3. Curtis Blaydes
4. (T) Junior dos Santos
4. (T) Derrick Lewis +1
6. Jairzinho Rozenstruik
7. Alexander Volkov
8. Alistair Overeem
9. Walt Harris
10. Aleksei Oleinik
11. Shamil Abdurakhimov
12. Blagoy Ivanov
13. Augusto Sakai
14. Sergei Pavlovich
15. Fabricio Werdum
WOMEN’S POUND-FOR-POUND
1. Amanda Nunes
2. Weili Zhang
3. Valentina Shevchenko
4. Jessica Andrade
5. Joanna Jedrzejczyk
6. Rose Namajunas
7. Tatiana Suarez
8. Holly Holm
9. Germaine De Randamie
10. Aspen Ladd
11. Katlyn Chookagian
12. Jessica Eye
13. Claudia Gadelha +1
14. (T) Julianna Pena -1
14. (T) Nina Ansaroff +1
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. Yan Xiaonan
12. Tecia Torres
13. Alexa Grasso +1
14. Felice Herrig -1
15. Amanda Ribas
WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT
Champion: VALENTINA SHEVCHENKO
1. Jessica Eye
2. Katlyn Chookagian
3. Joanne Calderwood
4. Jennifer Maia
5. Roxanne Modafferi
6. Lauren Murphy
7. Viviane Araujo
8. Andrea Lee
9. Maycee Barber
10. Alexis Davis
11. Montana De La Rosa
12. Antonina Shevchenko
13. Ji Yeon Kim
14. Molly McCann
15. Cortney Casey *NR
WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: AMANDA NUNES
1. Germaine de Randamie
2. Holly Holm
3. Aspen Ladd
4. Julianna Pena
5. Irene Aldana
6. Raquel Pennington
7. Ketlen Vieira
8. Yana Kunitskaya
9. Sara McMann
10. Marion Reneau
11. Lina Lansberg
12. Macy Chiasson
13. Bethe Correia
14. Sijara Eubanks +1
15. Nicco Montano -1
There you have it.
The UFC rankings will likely stay this way for the next couple of weeks as the promotion cobbles together a May 30 fight card, which as of this writing is expected to be headlined by the welterweight showdown between Tyron Woodley and Gilbert Burns, location TBD.
For much more on that upcoming fight click here.