The times, they are a-changin’
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) overhauled its official rankings in the wake of last weekend’s UFC Fight Night 138 mixed martial arts (MMA) event (results here), the first major update since Conor McGregor headlined UFC 229 last month in New York.
During that span, light heavyweight bruiser, Anthony Smith, punched his way into the No. 2 spot by turning away Volkan Oezdemir in Moncton. In addition, former flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson, along with ex-lightweight kingpin Eddie Alvarez, set sail for their new home in Asia, courtesy of ONE Championship.
Here’s how the rankings work, courtesy of UFC.com:
Rankings were generated by a voting panel made up of media members. The media members were asked to vote for who they feel are the top fighters in the UFC by weight-class and pound-for-pound. A fighter is only eligible to be voted on if they are in active status in the UFC. A fighter can appear in more than one weight division at a time. The champion and interim champion are considered to be in the top positions of their respective divisions and therefore are not eligible for voting by weight-class. However, the champions can be voted on for the pound-for-pound rankings.
Take a look at what the latest rankings field looks like courtesy of UFC.com. Note: (+/- = movement in rankings, *NR = Not previously ranked).
POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Daniel Cormier
2 Khabib Nurmagomedov
3 TJ Dillashaw
4 Max Holloway
5 Georges St-Pierre
6 Tyron Woodley
7 Conor McGregor +1
8 Henry Cejudo +1
9 Stipe Miocic
10 Cris Cyborg +1
11 Robert Whittaker +1
12 Tony Ferguson +1
13 Amanda Nunes +1
14 Rose Namajunas +1
15 Dominick Cruz *NR
FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Henry Cejudo
1 Jussier Formiga +1
2 Sergio Pettis +1
3 Joseph Benavidez +1
4 Ray Borg +1
5 Deiveson Figueiredo +1
6 John Moraga +1
7 Wilson Reis +1
8 Dustin Ortiz +1
9 Alexandre Pantoja +1
10 Brandon Moreno +1
11 Ben Nguyen +1
12 Tim Elliott +1
13 Matheus Nicolau +1
14 Ulka Sasaki +1
15 Alex Perez *NR
BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: TJ Dillashaw
1 Cody Garbrandt
2 Dominick Cruz
3 Raphael Assuncao
4 Marlon Moraes
5 Jimmie Rivera
6 John Lineker
7 Aljamain Sterling
8 John Dodson
9 Pedro Munhoz
10 Cody Stamann
11 Rob Font
12 Alejandro Perez
13 Thomas Almeida
14 Douglas Silva de Andrade
15 Rani Yahya
FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Max Holloway
1 Brian Ortega
2 Jose Aldo
3 Frankie Edgar
4 Renato Moicano
5 Chad Mendes
6 Jeremy Stephens
7 Cub Swanson
8 Mirsad Bektic
8 Josh Emmett
10 Chan Sung Jung
11 Alexander Volkanovski
12 Ricardo Lamas
13 Darren Elkins
14 Zabit Magomedsharipov
15 Yair Rodriguez
LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Khabib Nurmagomedov
1 Tony Ferguson
2 Conor McGregor
3 Dustin Poirier
4 Kevin Lee +1
5 Edson Barboza +1
6 Justin Gaethje +1
7 Anthony Pettis +1
8 Al Iaquinta +1
9 Nate Diaz +1
10 Michael Chiesa +1
11 James Vick +1
12 Alexander Hernandez +1
13 Francisco Trinaldo +2
14 Dan Hooker
15 Paul Felder *NR
WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Tyron Woodley
1 Colby Covington (Interim Champion)
2 Darren Till
3 Rafael Dos Anjos
4 Stephen Thompson
5 Robbie Lawler
6 Kamaru Usman
7 Demian Maia
8 Neil Magny
9 Jorge Masvidal
10 Santiago Ponzinibbio
11 Leon Edwards
12 Donald Cerrone
13 Alex Oliveira
14 Gunnar Nelson
15 Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos
MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Robert Whittaker
1 Yoel Romero
2 Luke Rockhold
3 Chris Weidman
4 Kelvin Gastelum
5 Jacare Souza
6 Derek Brunson
7 David Branch
8 Paulo Costa
9 Israel Adesanya
10 Brad Tavares
11 Antonio Carlos Junior
12 Uriah Hall
13 Elias Theodorou
14 Thiago Santos +1
15 Krzysztof Jotko -1
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Alexander Gustafsson
2 Anthony Smith +8
3 Jan Blachowicz
4 Ilir Latifi
5 Volkan Oezdemir -3
6 Jimi Manuwa -1
7 Dominick Reyes -1
8 Corey Anderson -1
9 Glover Teixeira -1
9 Ovince Saint Preux
11 Misha Cirkunov
12 Mauricio Rua
13 Nikita Krylov
14 Tyson Pedro +1
15 Patrick Cummins -1
HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Stipe Miocic
2 Derrick Lewis
3 Curtis Blaydes
4 Francis Ngannou
5 Alexander Volkov
6 Alistair Overeem
7 Junior Dos Santos
8 Aleksei Oleinik
9 Marcin Tybura
10 Mark Hunt
11 Tai Tuivasa
12 Shamil Abdurakhimov
13 Andrei Arlovski
14 Stefan Struve
15 Justin Willis
WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: Rose Namajunas
1 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
2 Jessica Andrade
3 Claudia Gadelha
4 Tatiana Suarez
5 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
6 Tecia Torres
7 Michelle Waterson
8 Carla Esparza
9 Felice Herrig
10 Cortney Casey
11 Nina Ansaroff
12 Alexa Grasso
13 Randa Markos
14 Angela Hill
15 Mackenzie Dern
WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT
1 Valentina Shevchenko
2 Nicco Montano
3 Katlyn Chookagian
4 Sijara Eubanks
5 Alexis Davis
6 Liz Carmouche
7 Roxanne Modafferi
8 Lauren Murphy
9 Jessica Eye
10 Jessica-Rose Clark
11 Ashlee Evans-Smith
12 Joanne Calderwood
13 Mara Romero Borella
14 Jennifer Maia
15 Andrea Lee
WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Amanda Nunes
1 Holly Holm
2 Ketlen Vieira
3 Julianna Pena
4 Raquel Pennington
5 Germaine de Randamie
6 Cat Zingano
7 Marion Reneau
8 Aspen Ladd -1
9 Sara McMann
10 Yana Kunitskaya
11 Irene Aldana +1
12 Bethe Correia -1
13 Tonya Evinger +2
14 Lucie Pudilova -1
15 Lina Lansberg -1
I’m just going to leave this here for your consideration:
— Jan Blachowicz (@JanBlachowicz) November 1, 2018
You can expect these standings to change — particularly in the heavyweight division — in roughly one week, as the promotion is set to uncork the UFC 230: “Cormier vs. Lewis” pay-per-view (PPV) event on Sat., Nov. 3, 2018 inside Madison Square Garden in New York City, (more on that fight card here).
For even more upcoming UFC events click here.