Tag: Rankings/List

The UFC serves as a perennial umbrella for the very best fighters on the planet.

With transcendent champions and hungry contenders at its disposal, the promotion is continuously gifted elite bout options in each one of its 10 divisions.

Needless to say, the organization is not short on talent.

But throughout the natural process of mixed martial arts’ strenuous lifestyle, fighters fall and rise like clockwork.

With that sort of divisional fluctuation, other Octagon prowlers are presented with the opportunity to string some wins together and fashionably break into the UFC rankings.

Here are 10 of those aforementioned fighters who are on the cusp of undeniable ascension.

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At UFC Fight Night 60 on Saturday, Benson Henderson picked up a submission win over Brandon Thatch in his UFC welterweight debut.

The former lightweight champion made the move up in weight despite competing at 155 pounds less than one month earlier. While Henderson did seem to have trouble with Thatch’s size early on, he was able to wear his larger opponent down thanks to conditioning and lock up a submission in the fourth round.

With losses in his last two lightweight contests, Henderson now must make a tough decision. Will he return to lightweight and take a long, hard road back to another title shot, or will he try to expedite his path to UFC gold in a new division?

Additional questions also arise from Henderson’s win over Thatch. Was the victory enough to earn Henderson a spot in the welterweight rankings? Did it help his standing on the lightweight ladder in any way?

Here are the latest official UFC rankings, via UFC.com, which are voted on by members of the MMA media.

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Over the course of the past month, UFC leaders have cut ties with a raft of fighters. And there’s no indication that won’t continue unabated.

Although there were no big shockers among the casualties, middleweight Nick Ring, bantamweight Johnny Bedford and featherweight Tom Niinimaki are some of those now left to fight for their keep in another promotion (or line of work).

All in, the UFC released more than a dozen fighters, but that doesn’t mean the bloodletting is over. It never is. With so many events and competitors involved, there’s a constant churn of winning and losing, meaning the roster is always in flux. 

You know what that means: time to speculate. Here are seven fighters currently under UFC contract who might not be so for much longer. Rankings are first based on recent performance in the cage (three consecutive losses is a common threshold for release). Performance and pay also are factors, as is the depth of a given division.

Let’s get it on.

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