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UFC 244 saw the emergence of new contenders in multiple divisions.
The middleweight division looks a whole lot different this week than it did last week. Darren Till’s tepid win over Kelvin Gastelum in his middleweight debut at UFC 244 was enough to put him into the top five already in at 185, which caused some rankings shuffling. In addition to that, a few other divisions saw some relevant changes coming out of the MSG show as well, including Corey Anderson’s ascension into the top five at 205.
Here’s a look at all the changes this week:
P4P – No changes.
Heavyweight – Blagoy Ivanov’s loss drops him two spots to ten, allowing Shami Abdurakhimov and Wat Harris to move up one spot each to eight and nine. Augusto Sakai dropped one spot from a tie for 11 to take over 12 on his own. Jairzinho Rozenstruick enters the rankings at 14 after his quick KO of Andrei Arlovski. Maurice Green dropped one to 15.
Light Heavyweight – Anderson is up two to five after his quick win over Walker, dropping Jan Blachowicz and Alexander Gustafsson one each to six and seven.
Middleweight – Jared Cannonier is up one to four. Till is in at five. Gastelum fell three spots to seven. Jacare Souza and Derek Brunson fell one each to eight and nine. Edmen Shahbazyan’s sensational head kick KO of Brad Tavares moved him up three spots to ten. Ian Heinisch, Uriah Hall, Tavares, and Antonio Carlos Junior all fell two spots each to take over 11 through 14 respectively. Omari Akhmedov dropped one to 15.
Welterweight – Santiago Ponzinibbio and Stephen Thompson moved up one each to seven and eight. Nate Diaz fell two to nine after getting thrashed by Jorge Masvidal. Anthony Pettis, Robbie Lawler, Ben Askren, Vicente Luque (who lost to Wonderboy), and Gilbert Burns all moved up one spot each to 10 through 14 with Till out of the division. Geoff Neal enters the rankings at 15.
Lightweight – Kevin Lee is up two spots to eight with his decimation of Gregor Gillespie. Al Iaquinta, Edson Barboza, Anthony Pettis, and Gillespie all drop a spot each to nine through 12.
Featherweight – Arnold Allen is up one to 14, dropping Ryan Hall to 15.
Bantamweight – No changes.
Flyweight – No changes.
Women’s Bantamweight – No changes.
Women’s Flyweight – Lauren Murphy and Roxy Modafferi flip-flopped the eight and nine spots.
Women’s Strawweight – No changes.