Tag: Rankings/List

The UFC was very busy this weekend, hosting events in Australia and Brazil.

At UFC Fight Night 55, Luke Rockhold submitted Michael Bisping in the second round. It was the first time anybody forced the Englishman to tap.

Then, at UFC Fight Night 56, Ovince Saint Preux stunned Mauricio Rua with a quick knockout in front of Shogun’s fellow Brazilians. It was undoubtedly the biggest win Saint Preux has recorded in his 23 MMA appearances.

How much did Rockhold and Saint Preux improve their positions in their respective divisions? Here are the latest official UFC rankings, via UFC.com, which are voted on by various members of the MMA media.

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Any given combat sports organization is built upon its champions, and the UFC is no different.

A lengthy tenure as a division’s top dog can immortalize a fighter, as we have seen with Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva. A brief reign, however, can leave a fighter in a position no different than any other lifelong contender, as we have seen with Ricco Rodriguez and Evan Tanner.

The name of the title game is longevity and for the first time in a long while, the UFC’s belts are held by a blend of well-entrenched elites and young blood.

What fighters, though, are on pace to enter the greatest-of-all-time discussion? Which ones will become a footnote in UFC title history? 

Find out right here!

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At UFC 180, Dennis Bermudez will look to take another step closer to a title shot in the featherweight class.

With seven straight wins, Bermudez is among the best at 145 pounds. Since there is a plethora of hot contenders right now, he may still be more than one win away from earning a title shot. However, beating former title challenger Ricardo Lamas would be a big victory.

Bermudez brought five straight wins into 2014, but it wasn’t until July that he really proved he was a serious featherweight contender. A submission win over Clay Guida ultimately allowed Bermudez to break through.

Many UFC fighters became title contenders in 2014. Here are the individuals who took that leap to the next level.

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Top contenders fly by the few.

Given the chance to ascend their respective divisions in an effort to hoist UFC gold, these select competitors are often thrown to the wolves.

But as vicious and dominating as the UFC’s current champions can be, they aren’t untouchable.

That leaves a small window for these rising threats to overcome the odds, bolster their skills and challenge the best titleholders in the world.

However, they themselves are not perfect and must also iron out wrinkles in their game.

Here is one thing every current top contender must improve on before challenging for a championship and actually winning it.

 

*Fighters already scheduled for a title shot are excluded from this list

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On Saturday night, Ovince Saint Preux squared off against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in the main event of UFC Fight Night 56. In the fastest main event in the UFC since 2005, OSP knocked Shogun out just 34 seconds into the first round.

It was easily the biggest win of OSP‘s career, and he responded by calling out two fighters ranked below him in the division, Anthony Perosh and Fabio Maldonado.

Those fights aren’t too likely to happen, so let’s take a look at three solid options for OSP‘s next fight.

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In Sydney, Australia, on Friday evening America time, a cadre of UFC fighters banded together to show fans and one another what their sport can do when all of its cylinders are firing. Eleven fights featured 11 stoppages—seven knockouts and four submissions—with five native Australians and New Zealanders ending the night with their hands in the air.

And the crowd goes wild, as do the viewers watching at home on UFC Fight Pass, the company’s streaming service. For that level of a fight card, that’s as literally as good as it can get.

But that was merely the first leg of the marathon. On Saturday evening, 8,500 miles from the sands of Sydney, could another set of fighters replicate the experience? Well, if we’re being honest, it didn’t look so good, especially after an important and flashy co-main event in the flyweight division was a late scrap due to illness.

Without Ian McCall and John Lineker as the insurance policy, a ragtag collection of prospects, veterans and street food vendors slouched into Uberlandia, Brazil to hold down the reputation of the greatest combat-fighting nation on the planet.

In fact, a full 75 percent of those competing at Fight Night 56 were doing so for only the first or second time in the Octagon. That’s not a good number.

But fear not! We still had Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, the living legend whose career evolved right alongside the sport and reached untold glory in countries all around this Earth. Did a green ex-football player have what it takes to challenge Shogun? Did this card give us any chance of a repeat performance from Australia?

As always, the final stat lines only reveal so much. Here are the real top winners and losers from these two UFC weekend cards. Check it out.

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