Last Sunday’s (May 29, 2016) UFC Fight Night 88 from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, provided a massive shakeup in the bantamweight division that was largely spurred by previously unranked Cody Garbrandt’s thunderous first-round knockout over the previously undefeated (and heavily hyped) Thomas Almeida.
The end result was a switch-up of a lofty 12 of the 15 spots on the official bantamweight rankings list. Garbrandt came bull-rushing into the Top 10 at No. 7, sending Almeida from that exact spot down to No. 9. The second-most noteworthy move up the rankings was Bryan Caraway’s debut at the No. 4 spot that he stole by coming from behind to beat another highly hyped prospect in Aljamain Sterling, who went down to No. 6 as a result.
Aside from the 135-pounders that fought at UFC Fight Night 88, the top of the division saw its own shakeup as well. Raphael Assuncao, who will return from a significant ankle injury to take on former champion TJ Dillashaw at July 9’s UFC 200, moved up two spots from No. 5 to No. 3 without fighting.
Urijah Faber, who will take on champion Dominick Cruz in the co-main event of this weekend’s (sat., June 4, 2016) UFC 199 from Inglewood, California, rose one spot up to No. 2, while Michael McDonald did the same to land at the No. 5. Rounding out the bantamweight division’s near overhaul, returnee John Dodson moved up two spots to No. 8, while John Lineker rose two spots to sit tied with Almeida at No. 9.
In other significant movement, welterweight champion Robbie Lawler overtook lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos for the No. 5 spot on the pound-for-pound ranks.
The only division that saw any significant changes was welterweight, where Rick Story rose up one spot to No. 10 after a decision win over Tarec Saffiedine, who fell three spots to No. 13 and allowed Gunnar Nelson and Kelvin Gastelum to move up one spot apiece to Nos. 12 and 13, respectively.
At women’s bantamweight, Jessica Eye dropped three spots to No. 10 after her one-sided decision loss to Sara McMann, which allowed Raqual Pennington to move up a spot to No. 9, and Valentina Shevchenko moved up two spots to No. 7 heading into her huge main event against Holly Holm on July 23.
Here are the fully updated rankings courtesy of UFC.com:
POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Jon Jones
2 Demetrious Johnson
3 Luke Rockhold
4 Dominick Cruz
5 Robbie Lawler
6 Rafael Dos Anjos
7 Conor McGregor
8 Daniel Cormier
9 Jose Aldo
10 Chris Weidman
11 Frankie Edgar
12 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
13 Stipe Miocic
14 TJ Dillashaw
15 Fabricio Werdum
FLYWEIGHT
Champion : Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 Henry Cejudo
3 Jussier Formiga
4 Kyoji Horiguchi
5 Ian McCall
6 John Moraga
7 Zach Makovsky
8 Wilson Reis
9 Dustin Ortiz
10 Ali Bagautinov
11 Justin Scoggins
12 Louis Smolka
13 Ray Borg
14 Sergio Pettis
15 Ben Nguyen
BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion : Dominick Cruz
1 TJ Dillashaw
2 Urijah Faber
3 Raphael Assuncao
4 Bryan Caraway
5 Michael McDonald
6 Aljamain Sterling
7 Cody Garbrandt *NR
8 John Dodson
9 Thomas Almeida
9 John Lineker
11 Takeya Mizugaki
12 Frankie Saenz
13 Johnny Eduardo
14 Jimmie Rivera
15 Eddie Wineland
FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion : Conor McGregor
1 Jose Aldo
2 Frankie Edgar
3 Chad Mendes
4 Max Holloway
5 Ricardo Lamas
6 Cub Swanson
7 Charles Oliveira
8 Jeremy Stephens
9 Dennis Bermudez
10 Hacran Dias
11 Darren Elkins
12 Brian Ortega
13 Tatsuya Kawajiri
14 Yair Rodriguez
15 Mirsad Bektic
LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion : Rafael Dos Anjos
1 Khabib Nurmagomedov
2 Eddie Alvarez
3 Tony Ferguson
4 Donald Cerrone
5 Nate Diaz
6 Edson Barboza
7 Anthony Pettis
8 Michael Johnson
9 Michael Chiesa
10 Beneil Dariush
11 Dustin Poirier
12 Al Iaquinta
13 Bobby Green
14 Rashid Magomedov
15 Evan Dunham
WELTERWEIGHT
Champion : Robbie Lawler
1 Rory MacDonald
2 Stephen Thompson
3 Tyron Woodley
4 Demian Maia
5 Carlos Condit
6 Johny Hendricks
7 Neil Magny
8 Matt Brown
9 Dong Hyun Kim
10 Rick Story
11 Gunnar Nelson
12 Kelvin Gastelum
13 Tarec Saffiedine
14 Hector Lombard
15 Thiago Alves
MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion : Luke Rockhold
1 Chris Weidman
2 Jacare Souza
3 Vitor Belfort
4 Michael Bisping
5 Anderson Silva
6 Robert Whittaker
7 Lyoto Machida
8 Gegard Mousasi
9 Tim Kennedy
10 Uriah Hall
11 Derek Brunson
12 Thales Leites
13 Rafael Natal
14 Thiago Santos
15 Dan Henderson
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion : Daniel Cormier
1 Jon Jones (Interim Champion)
2 Anthony Johnson
3 Glover Teixeira
4 Alexander Gustafsson
5 Ryan Bader
6 Ovince Saint Preux
7 Mauricio Rua
8 Rashad Evans
9 Jimi Manuwa
10 Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
11 Nikita Krylov
12 Corey Anderson
13 Ilir Latifi
14 Patrick Cummins
15 Gian Villante
HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion : Stipe Miocic
1 Fabricio Werdum
2 Cain Velasquez
3 Alistair Overeem
4 Junior Dos Santos
5 Ben Rothwell
6 Andrei Arlovski
7 Travis Browne
8 Mark Hunt
9 Josh Barnett
10 Roy Nelson
11 Derrick Lewis
12 Frank Mir
13 Stefan Struve
14 Ruslan Magomedov
15 Alexey Oliynyk
WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion : Joanna Jedrzejczyk
1 Claudia Gadelha
2 Carla Esparza
3 Rose Namajunas
4 Tecia Torres
5 Valerie Letourneau
6 Jessica Penne
7 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
8 Paige VanZant
9 Maryna Moroz
10 Michelle Waterson
11 Joanne Calderwood
12 Randa Markos
13 Jessica Aguilar
14 Juliana Lima
15 Justine Kish
WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion : Miesha Tate
1 Holly Holm
2 Ronda Rousey
3 Cat Zingano
4 Amanda Nunes
5 Julianna Pena
6 Sara McMann
7 Valentina Shevchenko
8 Liz Carmouche
9 Raquel Pennington
10 Jessica Eye
11 Bethe Correia
12 Germaine de Randamie
13 Lauren Murphy
14 Ashlee Evans-Smith
15 Marion Reneau
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