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Jon Jones won’t like it, but Khabib Nurmagomedov got his wish in this week’s rankings coming out of UFC 254.
Following his huge win over Justin Gaethje at UFC 254, lightweight kingpin Khabib Nurmagomedov gave an emotional interview where he ended up retiring from MMA. He only asked for one thing – to be ranked as the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
At the time, Jon Jones was that man. And Jones immediately took to social media to defend his position. Then he did it again. But despite Jones’ insistence that he’s the GOAT, the rankers listened to Khabib. This week, he’s the top man in the sport.
Let’s take a look at the other changes coming out of a very entertaining PPV on Fight Island.
Men’s P4P – Khabib is number one. Jonny Bones drops to the two spot. Gaethje drops three spots to ten, allowing Dustin Poirier, Max Holloway, and Petr Yan to move up one spot each to seven through nine respectively.
Heavyweight – Alexander Volkov’s emphatic win over Walt Harris propels him up a spot to five, dropping Junior dos Santos to six. Shamil Abdurakhimov is up one spot into a tie for eight with Augusto Sakai. Aleksei Oleinik is back in the top ten, with Harris falling a spot to 11.
Light Heavyweight – No changes.
Middleweight – Paulo Costa is back up to the two spot, with Jared Cannonier falling to three after his loss to top contender and former champ Robert Whittaker.
Welterweight – No changes.
Lightweight – No changes.
Featherweight – No changes.
Bantamweight – Mareb Dvalishvili is up a spot to 12. Cody Stamann fell one to 13.
Flyweight – No changes.
Women’s P4P – No changes.
Women’s Bantamweight – No changes.
Women’s Flyweight – No changes.
Women’s Strawweight – For some reason the rankings are still reflecting Jessica Andrade’s move to flyweight, even though that happened in last week’s list. So everyone from three down is up one spot. Again. I guess.