Tag: UFC 217

All of the media members who immediately voted embattled UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones back into the top pound-for-pound following his win over Daniel Cormier in July have apparently rethought that position in the weeks after his shocking USADA drug test failure for anabolic steroid Turinabol during the bout.

That’s the case in this week’s official UFC rankings update, where “Bones” fell two spots down the pound-for-pound list to No. 3, moving decorated flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson, who will face Ray Borg in an attempt to set the UFC’s all-time record for title defenses in the main event of this weekend’s (Sat., September 9, 2017) UFC 215 from Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, into the top spot and UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor, who needs no such introduction even though he’s 2-2 in his last four combat sports bouts.

The only division that saw significant movement this week was heavyweight, where Nos. 4-7 fighters Francis Ngannou, Mark Hunt, Derrick Lewis, and Alexander Volkov all moved up one spot. Volkov stopped longtime UFC mainstay Stefan Struve in the main event of last Saturday’s UFC Rotterdam, sending “the Skyscraper” down a spot to No. 10.

Check out the full updated rankings courtesy of UFC.com here:

POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Demetrious Johnson +1
2 Conor McGregor +1
3 Jon Jones -2
4 Stipe Miocic
5 Max Holloway
6 Cody Garbrandt
7 Daniel Cormier
8 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
9 Tyron Woodley
10 Dominick Cruz
11 Michael Bisping
12 Jose Aldo
13 Cris Cyborg
14 Robert Whittaker +1
15 Amanda Nunes -1

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

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

FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Max Holloway
1 Jose Aldo
2 Frankie Edgar
3 Ricardo Lamas
4 Cub Swanson
5 Chan Sung Jung
6 Brian Ortega
7 Yair Rodriguez
8 Jeremy Stephens
9 Darren Elkins
10 Renato Moicano
11 Dennis Bermudez
12 Dooho Choi
13 Mirsad Bektic
14 Myles Jury
15 Jason Knight

LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Conor McGregor
1 Khabib Nurmagomedov
2 Tony Ferguson
3 Eddie Alvarez
4 Edson Barboza
5 Justin Gaethje
6 Nate Diaz
7 Kevin Lee
8 Dustin Poirier
9 Michael Johnson
10 Michael Chiesa
11 Al Iaquinta
12 Beneil Dariush
13 Anthony Pettis
14 Gilbert Melendez +1
15 Evan Dunham -1

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

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Michael Bisping
1 Robert Whittaker (Interim Champion)
2 Yoel Romero
3 Luke Rockhold
4 Jacare Souza
5 Chris Weidman
6 Anderson Silva
7 Derek Brunson
8 Kelvin Gastelum
9 David Branch
10 Krzysztof Jotko
11 Vitor Belfort
12 Thales Leites
13 Tim Boetsch
14 Uriah Hall
15 Thiago Santos

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

HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Stipe Miocic
1 Alistair Overeem
2 Fabricio Werdum
3 Cain Velasquez
4 Francis Ngannou +1
5 Mark Hunt +1
6 Derrick Lewis +1
7 Alexander Volkov +1
8 Marcin Tybura +2
9 Aleksei Oleinik +2
10 Stefan Struve -1
11 Andrei Arlovski +1
12 Junior Albini +1
13 Curtis Blaydes +2
14 Travis Browne
15 Tim Johnson *NR

WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: Joanna Jedrzejczyk
1 Claudia Gadelha
2 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
3 Rose Namajunas
4 Jessica Andrade
5 Tecia Torres
6 Michelle Waterson
7 Carla Esparza
8 Cynthia Calvillo
9 Felice Herrig
10 Paige VanZant
11 Joanne Calderwood
12 Cortney Casey
13 Alexa Grasso
14 Randa Markos
15 Maryna Moroz

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Amanda Nunes
1 Valentina Shevchenko
2 Holly Holm
3 Julianna Pena
4 Ronda Rousey
5 Raquel Pennington
6 Sara McMann
7 Cat Zingano
8 Germaine de Randamie
9 Liz Carmouche
10 Alexis Davis
11 Marion Reneau
12 Katlyn Chookagian
13 Ketlen Vieira
14 Bethe Correia
15 Ashlee Evans-Smith *NR

 

The post UFC Rankings Update: Jones’ Latest Mishap Forces Drop appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Those predicting Jon Jones’ demise in MMA may have to wait a little.

According to Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting, the embattled UFC light heavyweight champion, who tested positive for anabolic steroid Turinabol the day before his UFC 214 knockout win over Daniel Cormier, reportedly passed a blood test from USADA in the hours after the event from Anaheim, California.

That means Jones tested negative one day after he failed the steroid on July 28, the day of weigh-ins for his bout versus Cormier. However, it has to be noted blood screenings do not test for Turinabol, begging the question as to exactly what USADA would be looking for if it was not anabolic steroids.

Jones also passed out-of-competition drug screens on July 6 and July 7, with negative results in a blood and urine screen on July 6 and the same for a urine screen on July 7. He reportedly passed seven drug tests leading up to his comeback as well.

Jones is awaiting full due process for his latest drug-related mishap, which occurred only weeks after a previous one-year suspension for testing positive for Clomiphene and Letrozol three days before his scheduled UFC 200 rematch with Cormier. He blamed a male sexual enhancement pill for the failed test but was suspended nonetheless.

Of course, it was only the most recent head-scratching instance of outside-the-cage trouble for Jones, whose laundry list of drug-related troubles have taken on a life of their own and need not be listed here in full yet again. Still, Jones’ team has encouraged his fans to let the full process play out, claiming that a tainted supplement was again the cause of Jones’ positive test.

It’s tough to give him any credit at the current moment based on his extreme propensity for screwing up unnecessarily while simultaneously being the most talented fighter the UFC has ever seen, but if we’ve learned anything about Jones’ seemingly endless mess-ups in the past, he can rebound from them like few mortals could.

The whole scene is strange, and the state athletic director where UFC 214 took place even admitted as much. Perhaps there’s something to Jones’ manager’s insistence.

We’ll keep you posted as always.

The post Jon Jones Passed Blood Test Hours After UFC 214 appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.