Ben Rothwell’s stunning submission win over Josh Barnett puts him above former heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos in the latest UFC rankings.
In 2011, Ben Rothwell was nearly submitted by Mark Hunt. He is now the #5 ranked heavyweight contender in 2016. That’s the biggest rankings change out of last weekend’s UFC on FOX 18 card, as “Big” Ben made a strong case for a title shot by submitting Josh Barnett with a gogo choke. We were otherwise relatively light on changes, although Anderson Silva is back in the rankings and Benson Henderson is no longer with the UFC, so he’s been removed.
The complete UFC rankings can be found here.
Pound-for-Pound: Dominick Cruz (8th) is now ahead of Jose Aldo (9th) on the P4P list. Ronda Rousey returns to the list at 15th, sending Cain Velasquez out of the top 15.
Women’s Strawweight: No changes
Women’s Bantamweight: No changes
Flyweight: Wilson Reis rises to 9th after his upset win over Dustin Ortiz, who falls to 10th. Ali Bagautinov and Ray Borg drop to 11th and 12th, respectively.
Bantamweight: Bryan Caraway dips to 8th after previously being in a tie with Thomas Almeida for 7th. Jimmie Rivera replaces Iuri Alcantara at 14th after defeating him at UFC on FOX 18, and John Lineker moves above Frankie Saenz at 11th.
Featherweight: No changes
Lightweight: Rashid Magomedov replaces the Bellator-bound Benson Henderson at 15.
Welterweight: Tarec Saffiedine goes above Rick Story for 10th after his win over Jake Ellenberger. Thiago Alves occupies Bendo’s old spot at 13th, and Albert Tumenov rounds out the top 15 with Henderson pulled from the rankings.
Middleweight: Anderson Silva, eligible to be ranked again after his suspension ended over the weekend, returns at #10, below Thales Leites and ahead of Uriah Hall. Rafael Natal improves to 13th after beating Kevin Casey, sending Dan Henderson and Roan Carneiro to 14th and 15th, respectively. I’m pretty sure this leaves C.B. Dollaway off the list.
Light Heavyweight: Glover Teixeira moves up to 4th, while Ryan Bader’s loss puts him down to 5th.
Heavyweight: Ben Rothwell climbed two spots to 5th, dropping Junior dos Santos to 6th. This is real life. Travis Browne fell to 7th, Josh Barnett to 9th, and Mark Hunt rose one spot to 8th.