UFC Rankings Update: Khabib Nurmagomedov Soars Up P4P List

The UFC rankings have been updated after last weekend’s (Sat., April 7, 2018) UFC 223 from Brooklyn, and not surprisingly, newly-crowned lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has made a sharp rise up the pound-for-pound rankings. Following a hectic week involving Conor McGregor’s now-infamous bus attack that saw “The Eagle” face seemingly countless re-schedulings, the undefeated champion […]

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The UFC rankings have been updated after last weekend’s (Sat., April 7, 2018) UFC 223 from Brooklyn, and not surprisingly, newly-crowned lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has made a sharp rise up the pound-for-pound rankings.

Following a hectic week involving Conor McGregor’s now-infamous bus attack that saw “The Eagle” face seemingly countless re-schedulings, the undefeated champion dominated short-notice replacement Al Iaquinta, his fifth potential opponent for the UFC 223 main event, by scores of 500-44, 50-43, 50-43.

Many critiqued Khabib’s striking as a huge weakness after octagon commentator Joe Rogan focused on doing it during the broadcast, but in reality, “The Eagle” was never in any true danger and showed why he is arguably the best lightweight in the UFC in winning the title many had gifted him since his UFC debut.

For the win, Khabib rose up a sizable six spots to No. 8 on the pound-for-pound list, continuing his rise towards cementing himself among the sport’s greats. In other movement there, Conor McGregor was leapfrogged by Georges St-Pierre, who overtook the No. 2 spot, while Daniel Cormier fell one spot to 5.

After being stripped of the lightweight title, McGregor also fell down to No. 1 at lightweight, while Tony Ferguson relinquished his interim title and fell to No. 2.

Check out the full updated official rankings right here:

POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Demetrious Johnson
2 Georges St-Pierre +1
3 Conor McGregor -1
4 Stipe Miocic
5 Daniel Cormier -1
6 Max Holloway
7 TJ Dillashaw
8 Khabib Nurmagomedov +6
9 Tyron Woodley -1
10 Cris Cyborg -1
11 Tony Ferguson -1
12 Amanda Nunes -1
13 Robert Whittaker -1
14 Cody Garbrandt -1
15 Rose Namajunas *NR

FLYWEIGHT
Champion : Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 Henry Cejudo
3 Ray Borg
4 Jussier Formiga
5 Sergio Pettis
6 Wilson Reis
7 Brandon Moreno
8 Ben Nguyen
9 Dustin Ortiz
10 John Moraga
11 Alexandre Pantoja
12 Matheus Nicolau
13 Tim Elliott
14 Deiveson Figueiredo
15 Magomed Bibulatov

BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion : TJ Dillashaw
1 Cody Garbrandt
2 Dominick Cruz
3 Raphael Assuncao
4 Jimmie Rivera
5 Marlon Moraes
6 John Lineker
7 John Dodson
8 Bryan Caraway
8 Aljamain Sterling
10 Pedro Munhoz
11 Cody Stamann
12 Rob Font
13 Thomas Almeida
14 Brett Johns
15 Eddie Wineland

FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion : Max Holloway
1 Brian Ortega
2 Jose Aldo
3 Frankie Edgar
4 Cub Swanson
5 Jeremy Stephens
6 Josh Emmett
7 Ricardo Lamas
8 Chan Sung Jung
9 Renato Moicano +2
10 Darren Elkins -1
11 Yair Rodriguez -1
12 Mirsad Bektic
13 Dooho Choi +2
14 Zabit Magomedsharipov *NR
15 Myles Jury -1

LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion : Khabib Nurmagomedov
1 Conor McGregor -1
2 Tony Ferguson -1
3 Eddie Alvarez
4 Edson Barboza
5 Dustin Poirier
6 Justin Gaethje
7 Kevin Lee
8 Nate Diaz
9 Michael Chiesa
10 Al Iaquinta +1
11 James Vick -1
12 Anthony Pettis
13 Alexander Hernandez
14 Paul Felder *NR
15 Olivier Aubin-Mercier *NR

WELTERWEIGHT
Champion : Tyron Woodley
1 Stephen Thompson
2 Rafael Dos Anjos
3 Colby Covington
4 Robbie Lawler
5 Demian Maia
6 Jorge Masvidal
7 Darren Till
7 Kamaru Usman
9 Neil Magny
10 Santiago Ponzinibbio
11 Donald Cerrone
12 Carlos Condit
13 Gunnar Nelson
14 Leon Edwards
15 Dong Hyun Kim

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion : Robert Whittaker
1 Yoel Romero
2 Jacare Souza
3 Luke Rockhold
4 Chris Weidman
5 Kelvin Gastelum
6 Michael Bisping
7 Derek Brunson
8 David Branch
9 Vitor Belfort
10 Uriah Hall
11 Thiago Santos
12 Lyoto Machida
13 Krzysztof Jotko
14 Paulo Costa
15 Brad Tavares

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion : Daniel Cormier
1 Alexander Gustafsson
2 Volkan Oezdemir
3 Glover Teixeira
4 Ilir Latifi
5 Jan Blachowicz
6 Jimi Manuwa
7 Mauricio Rua
8 Ovince Saint Preux
9 Misha Cirkunov
10 Corey Anderson
11 Patrick Cummins
12 Tyson Pedro
13 Gadzhimurad Antigulov
14 Gian Villante
15 Jordan Johnson

HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion : Stipe Miocic
1 Francis Ngannou
2 Alistair Overeem
3 Alexander Volkov
4 Curtis Blaydes
5 Fabricio Werdum
6 Derrick Lewis
6 Mark Hunt
8 Marcin Tybura
9 Andrei Arlovski
10 Aleksei Oleinik
11 Stefan Struve
12 Tai Tuivasa +1
13 Shamil Abdurakhimov -1
14 Junior Albini
15 Justin Ledet

WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion : Rose Namajunas
1 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
2 Jessica Andrade
3 Claudia Gadelha
4 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
5 Tecia Torres
6 Carla Esparza
7 Michelle Waterson
8 Felice Herrig
9 Alexa Grasso
10 Cortney Casey
11 Randa Markos
12 Tatiana Suarez
13 Joanne Calderwood
14 Nina Ansaroff
15 Angela Hill

WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT
Champion : Nicco Montano
1 Valentina Shevchenko
2 Sijara Eubanks
3 Lauren Murphy
4 Alexis Davis
5 Roxanne Modafferi
6 Barb Honchak
7 Liz Carmouche
8 Katlyn Chookagian
9 Jessica-Rose Clark
10 Jessica Eye
11 Ashlee Evans-Smith *NR
12 Mara Romero Borella
13 Paige VanZant +1
14 Montana De La Rosa -3
15 Rachael Ostovich -2

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion : Amanda Nunes
1 Holly Holm
2 Raquel Pennington
3 Julianna Pena
4 Ketlen Vieira
5 Germaine de Randamie
6 Cat Zingano
7 Marion Reneau
8 Sara McMann
9 Leslie Smith
10 Aspen Ladd +1
11 Bethe Correia -1
12 Irene Aldana +1
13 Lucie Pudilova -1
14 Sarah Moras
15 Lina Lansberg

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Michael Bisping Claims Huge Conor McGregor Announcement Was Coming Before Arrest

Former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion Conor McGregor sent the MMA universe into all-out upheaval exactly one week ago when he stormed the Barclays Center and threw a metal dolly at a bus containing now-UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. “The Notorious’ then turned himself in and was booked on assault charges, after which he presumably […]

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Former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion Conor McGregor sent the MMA universe into all-out upheaval exactly one week ago when he stormed the Barclays Center and threw a metal dolly at a bus containing now-UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.

“The Notorious’ then turned himself in and was booked on assault charges, after which he presumably flew back to his native Ireland. The incident caused two fighters to suffer injury, three fights to be stricken from UFC 223 last weekend, and also reportedly put a halt in rumored contract talks with the UFC for McGregor.

While those circumstances were obviously bad enough in and of themselves, the Irish star supposedly missed out on something much bigger than just a potential contract discussion with his employers. According to former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping on his “Believe You Me” podcast (via MMA Mania), the UFC was set to announce a massive title fight involving McGregor but had to cut those plans at the last minute:

“By all accounts, Conor was going to be at the Barclays Center on Saturday night to make an announcement. It was going to be a title fight or whatever the fight was going to be, I’m sworn to secrecy so I can’t say, but he was going to be there.”

McGregor is due back in court in New York on June 14 to face the next stage in his first arrest on American soil, but it’s extremely unlikely he serves any jail time despite being booked on a felony charge and multiple misdemeanors.

That means a big announcement could still be coming soon about his up-in-the-air fighting future, and that could mean an awaited grudge match with Nurmagomedov.

What Bisping referred to will remain a secret, it appears, so let’s just hope it wasn’t a match with Floyd Mayweather in the octagon.

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Justin Gaethje Reveals Conor McGregor’s Real Punishment For Brooklyn Bus Melee

Following the most chaotic week in UFC history heading into UFC 223 last week, the lightweight division was finally given a bit of clarity (a bit) when Khabib Nurmagomedov won the title over late replacement Al Iaquinta – his fifth possible opponent in a month. That’s assuming that the oft-injured Nurmagomedov will defend the title […]

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Following the most chaotic week in UFC history heading into UFC 223 last week, the lightweight division was finally given a bit of clarity (a bit) when Khabib Nurmagomedov won the title over late replacement Al Iaquinta – his fifth possible opponent in a month.

That’s assuming that the oft-injured Nurmagomedov will defend the title somewhat regularly. Currently, he has strung together two dominant wins in relatively short order, with his victory over Iaquinta coming not even four months after his destruction of Edson Barboza at December 30’s UFC 219.

However, following Conor McGregor’s Brooklyn chaotic, violent outburst where he attacked ‘The Eagle’s’ bus with a metal dolly and was subsequently arrested on assault charges, it would seem a foregone conclusion that Khabib and McGregor square off in a grudge match sure to gain massive numbers in the pay-per-view arena. That would leave the lightweight division’s future once again on the shoulders of McGregor, who faces a court date and has seemed more interested in going off the rails than actually fighting as of late.

Yet that doesn’t seem to concern fan favorite lightweight Justin Gaethje, who squares off with Dustin Poirier in the main event of this weekend’s (Sat., April 14, 2018) UFC on FOX 29 from the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona. During a recent pre-fight interview following the UFC on FOX 29 open workouts via MMA Fighting, ‘The Highlight’ said he thinks there’s is now a ‘more clear path’ to the top at 155 pounds:

“There is a more clear path, even though Khabib says he wants to go fight GSP, which is counterproductive to everything he talked sh*t to Conor about, or talked sh*t on Conor about. But other than that, yeah, it doesn’t matter. Tony (Ferguson), the winner of [Kevin Lee] and (Edson) Barboza [could be next in line for me], but it doesn’t matter — I’ve got to get past Poirier, who’s a very dangerous opponent, and I’d be a fool to look past him.”

As for McGregor, Gaethje said he hoped a scene such as the bus attack would never happen again, but wasn’t surprised considering he believes fighters may fight each other if put in close proximity to one another:

“There’s nothing really you can make of that. It’s crazy circumstances that we hope will never happen again, but you put a bunch of fighters in an arena and someone might fight each other.

“Conor’s going to get punished by paying millions of dollars to people, so that’s plenty of punishment. And I don’t want him to go anywhere, because like I said, I’m going to fight and claw my way to the championship. So either he’s there or Khabib’s there, it doesn’t matter.”

So while Dana White may have said McGregor’s attack was ‘the most disgusting thing he’s ever seen in the UFC,’ it seems his stance has predictably softened on his biggest star (huge surprise), and that became somewhat clear when the UFC essentially used the situation as promotion.

That suggests McGregor won’t be punished by the UFC even if he should be, but Gaethje is right in assuming that the most costly portion of the fallout will result from the lawsuits levied as the infamous Irishman by the injured parties.

How much last Thursday’s attack cost McGregor, and does he even care at this point?

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Max Holloway Gives Timeframe For UFC Return

UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway has his sights set on his UFC return. He was scheduled to make his next title defense against former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar at UFC 222 but had to put out due to injury. If you recall, this bout was originally scheduled for the UFC 218 pay-per-view event. However, […]

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UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway has his sights set on his UFC return.

He was scheduled to make his next title defense against former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar at UFC 222 but had to put out due to injury.

If you recall, this bout was originally scheduled for the UFC 218 pay-per-view event. However, Edgar was forced to withdraw from the fight after suffering a broken orbital bone in training.

This led to Holloway fighting Jose Aldo in a rematch, which saw Holloway successfully retain his title with a grisly third-round TKO.

Then Max Holloway was supposed to be the savior of the upcoming UFC 223 pay-per-view event once Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov, which was the original main event for the lightweight title, was scrapped after Ferguson pulled out with an injury.

Holloway told Ariel Helwani of The MMA Hour that he hopes the promotion goes through with booking him against Brian Ortega next.

“Dana called me on fight day and told me, ‘It’s alright, kid, we tried’ and ‘thank you for trying everything’ and ‘onto the next one’. So Brian Ortega is up, hopefully we can get on that July card,” Holloway told Ariel Helwani on the latest episode of The MMA Hour.

“I’ve been asking. I see everyone talking about that July card. I’ve got to get back business at 145, but if UFC call again for 155 for that thing with Khabib, that would be fun.”

“Dana said it was the best shot, he said that I have business to handle with Ortega. He didn’t say a date, but hopefully it’s July. I want to fight in July so I can go back to New York and try this one more time,” Holloway said.

“Madison Square Garden, we’ve got to try this one more time, that’s what I want to do. Fans are talking about it, I hear you guys want this fight a lot and they were tweeting me right after I got pulled. A lot of guys were saying, ‘Let’s see that fight [Holloway vs. Ortega] back on UFC 226.”

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Bruce Buffer Says Conor McGregor ‘S*it On All Of Us’ With Brooklyn Outburst

By now, Conor McGregor’s actions that took place last Thursday following UFC 223 media day at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York have been highly publicized and many have been highly critical of the Irish star, who ended up spending a night in jail late last week. One of those people happens to be […]

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By now, Conor McGregor’s actions that took place last Thursday following UFC 223 media day at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York have been highly publicized and many have been highly critical of the Irish star, who ended up spending a night in jail late last week.

One of those people happens to be longtime UFC announcer Bruce Buffer, who recently spoke with TMZ on McGregor’s bizarre rampage:

“Never think anything like this could ever happen,” Buffer said. “In my 22-plus years of being in the UFC and doing everything I can in my life to build this great brand and to support this fantastic sport … it’s like you sh*t on all of us – with that one move. That’s not what we’re about. Perception is reality out there. I don’t understand how anybody could condone that kind of behavior, and if they do, then obviously they will be willing to do that kind of behavior.”

Essentially, it’s assumed that McGregor arrived in New York to confront Khabib Nurmagomedov, who had gotten into a bit of an altercation with Artem Lobov, a close friend and training partner of McGregor’s, earlier in the week.

And while some have praised McGregor for defending Lobov, Buffer sees no justification for the “Notorious” one’s actions:

“As a whole, everyone has their own personal reaction, but I think it’s total disgust,” Buffer said.

“I don’t care who they are. Anybody that justifies that has a problem,” he added. “I could say something else right now, and I want to say it, but I’m telling you right now: They have a problem. I’m being very polite.

“We’ll see how it all pans out,” Buffer said. “There’s no excuse for it. It’s an insult. It’s disgusting. I mean, that’s not what we’re about. … This is something that occurred with one individual. It’s separate from who we are.”

As far as what happens next, McGregor will have to appear in court in June with his fighting future currently unclear.

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Khabib Nurmagomedov Is The Lightweight King Now, So What’s Next?

The UFC lightweight division has been in constant flux ever since Conor McGregor defeated Eddie Alvarez to win the belt at UFC 205. Instead of defending his belt, McGregor went on to box Floyd Mayweather which necessitated the UFC creating an interim l…

The UFC lightweight division has been in constant flux ever since Conor McGregor defeated Eddie Alvarez to win the belt at UFC 205. Instead of defending his belt, McGregor went on to box Floyd Mayweather which necessitated the UFC creating an interim lightweight belt, which Tony Ferguson won by submitting Kevin Lee at UFC 216. […]

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