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Lots of changes in the UFC rankings coming out of UFC 251.
UFC 251 has come and gone, and wooboy did a lot happen in just a few hours. We have one new champion in Petr Yan, another who just barely retained in Alex Volkanovski, and a dominant title defense from Kamaru Usman. Rose Namajunas reasserted her claim to a title shot at 115, and Jiri Prochazka became an immediate challenger at 205.
Here’s a look at all the changes this week.
Men’s P4P – Kamaru Usman cracks the top five, dropping Daniel Cormier one to six. Conor McGregor falls two to ten, allowing Dustin Poirier and Holloway to move up one each to eight and nine. Yan enters the P4P list at 13. Robert Whittaker and Darren Till drop one each to 14 and 15.
Heavyweight – No changes.
Light Heavyweight – Prochazka enters at eight after his KO win. Alexander Gustafsson is up one to seven despite taking his next fight at heavyweight. Oezdemir is down two to nine. Six fighters – Aleksandar Rakic, Nikita Krylov, Misha Cirkunov, Johnny Walker, Ryan Spann, and Magomed Ankalaev – all drop a spot each to ten through 15.
Middleweight – No changes.
Welterweight – Jorge Masvidal’s loss to Usman dropped him a spot to four, bumping Leon Edwards up to three. Anthony Pettis falls from a tie for 14 to taking over 15 on his own.
Lightweight – Beneil Dariush is up one spot to 14, bumping Drew Dober down to 15.
Featherweight – Arnold Allen is up one to 11. Shane Burgos rebounds, back up two to 12. Sodiq Yusuff is up one to 14. Aldo drops four spots to 15 as he is going to continue on fighting at 135.
Bantamweight – Lots of movement, as expected. Yan’s the new champ. Cody Garbrandt and Cory Sandhagen are up a spot each to three and four. Pedro Munhoz is up two to five. Aldo stays at six. Raphael Assuncao, Jimmie Rivera, Cody Stamann, Rob Font, Dominick Cruz, and John Dodson all rise a spot to seven through 12. Song Yadong is up two to 13. Merab Dvalishvili is in at 15.
Flyweight – Raulian Paiva is up two places to 12, dumping Tim Elliott to 13 and Jordan Espinosa to 14.
Women’s P4P – Namajunas and Jessica Andrade flip-flopped the four and six spots after Namajunas’ split decision win.
Women’s Bantamweight – No changes.
Women’s Flyweight – No changes.
Women’s Strawweight – Thug Rose is back in the top contender spot, dropping Andrade to two. Joanna Jedrzejczyk is up into a tie for three with Tatiana Suarez. Amanda Ribas’ quick win over Page VanZant allows her to rise two spots to 12. Alexa Grasso and Angela Hill fall one each to 13 and 14.