UFC Vegas 35 headliner Giga Chikadze was this week’s biggest rankings mover.
It was a good night for Giga Chikadze at UFC Vegas 35 last Saturday. The Georgian fighter moved his UFC record to 7-0 with the biggest win of his career, stopping Edson Barboza via TKO in the third round of their main event fight. That allowed him to move further up in the 145-pound rankings, on the brink of title contention.
Other than that, the only news is some movement due to the removal of two fighters whose contracts came up – Demian Maia and Jimmie Rivera.
Here’s a look at the changes this week.
Men’s P4P – No changes.
Heavyweight – No changes.
Light Heavyweight – No changes.
Middleweight – No changes.
Welterweight – Free agent Maia is out, so everyone else below him – Li Jingliang, Santiago Ponzinibbio, Sean Brady, and Muslim Salikhov all move up a spot each to 11 through 14 respectively. Daniel Rodriguez, who turned away Kevin Lee last weekend, enters at 15.
Lightweight – Kevin Lee moving to welterweight (and losing) made the same sort of difference to 155 as happened to 170 because of Maia’s removal. Diego Ferreira, Brad Riddell, Rafael Fiziev, and Arman Tsarukyan all moved up a spot to 11 through 14. Thiago Moises re-enters at 15.
Featherweight – Giga is up two spots to eight, bumping Dan Ige to nine and Barboza to ten.
Bantamweight – Rivera is out. Marlon Vera is up one to 13, Cody Stamann one to 14, and Song Yadong re-enters at 15.
Flyweight – No changes.
Women’s P4P – No changes.
Women’s Bantamweight – No changes.
Women’s Flyweight – No changes.
Women’s Strawweight – No changes.