Category: MMA Rankings

USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Dec. 17: Joaquin Buckley, Manel Kape soar

Check out the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings following UFC on ESPN 63 including movement from Joaquin Buckley and Manel Kape.

UFC on ESPN 63 took place Saturday in Tampa, Fla. and resulted in all sorts of movement in the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings.

Most notably, main event victor [autotag]Joaquin Buckley[/autotag] (21-6 MMA, 11-4 UFC) traded places in the welterweight rankings with the man he stopped on a cut, multitime UFC title challenger Colby Covington (17-5 MMA, 12-5 UFC). Buckley slides to Nov. 5 while Covington falls to No. 10.

Additionally, a big win for [autotag]Manel Kape[/autotag] (20-7 MMA, 6-3 UFC) results in him bumping up into the No. 6 position in the flyweight rankings. That’s for a TKO win over Bruno Silva (14-6-2 MMA, 4-3 UFC).

Wins from [autotag]Daniel Marcos[/autotag], [autotag]Miranda Maverick[/autotag], and Invicta FC’s [autotag]Jennifer Maia[/autotag] also had impact in the rankings.

Check out all the latest pound-for-pound and divisional USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings.

USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Dec. 10: Alexandre Pantoja surges in pound-for-pound

Check out the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings following UFC 310.

UFC 310 took place Saturday in Las Vegas and the promotion’s flyweight champion made a statement in the marquee.

Titleholder [autotag]Alexandre Pantoja[/autotag] made it look relatively easy against debuting Japanese star [autotag]Kai Asakura[/autotag], as he notched another title defense. Pantoja submitted Asakura by second-round rear-naked choke. As a result, Pantoja jumped a massive five spots in the USA Today/MMA Junkie rankings.

Additionally, contenders [autotag]Shavkat Rakhmonov[/autotag] and [autotag]Movsar Evloev[/autotag] inched upward as a result of their impressive wins over Ian Machado Garry and Aljamain Sterling.

Check out all the latest pound-for-pound and divisional USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings.

USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Dec. 3: Dakota Ditcheva rockets toward top 5

Check out the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings following 2024 PFL Championship in Riyadh.

2024 PFL Championship took place this past Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and it produced a massive update in the women’s rankings.

[autotag]Dakota Ditcheva[/autotag] stopped Taila Santos in the women’s flyweight championship bout in a stellar performance to claim the title and $1 million.

Entering the week at No. 14, Ditcheva’s performance vaulted her to No. 5, replacing Santos.

Check out all the latest pound-for-pound and divisional USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings.

USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Nov. 26: Petr Yan back on the rise

Check out the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings following UFC Fight Night 248 in Macau.

UFC Fight Night 248 took place last weekend in Macau, and it produced a key shift in the men’s bantamweight division.

Former UFC bantamweight champion [autotag]Petr Yan[/autotag] returned to action in the main event at Galaxy Arena, where he outperformed former flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo in an exciting headliner.

Entering the week at No. 5, the former champ climbs to No. 4 after back-to-back wins.

Check out all the latest pound-for-pound and divisional USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings.

USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Nov. 19: Jon Jones back on top

Check out the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings following UFC 309 in New York.

UFC 309 took place last weekend in New York, and it produced a massive update in the men’s pound-for-pound rankings.

UFC heavyweight champion [autotag]Jon Jones[/autotag] returned to action in the main event at Madison Square Garden, where he stopped former champion Stipe Miocic with a brutal spinning back kick to the body.

Entering the week at No. 5 in the men’s pound-for-pound rankings, Jones vaults back up to the No. 1 spot.

Check out all the latest pound-for-pound and divisional USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings.

USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Nov. 5: Former champ Brandon Moreno on the rise again at flyweight

Check out the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings following UFC Fight Night 246 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

UFC Fight Night 246 took place last weekend in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and it produced a key update in the men’s flyweight rankings.

Former UFC flyweight champion [autotag]Brandon Moreno[/autotag] turned in a dominant performance against Amir Albazi in the main event. Moreno controlled the fight from beginning to end, only losing one round on one judge’s scorecard.

Entering the week at No. 5, Moreno replaces Albazi at No. 3, who falls down one spot in this week’s rankings update.

The co-main event featured a top 10 women’s flyweight bout between No. 4 Erin Blanchfield and No. 9 Rose Namajunas. Blanchfield had to dig deep to overcome the early advantage of the former strawweight champion, but she pulled out a big win to keep her name in title contention.

Check out all the latest pound-for-pound and divisional USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings.

USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Oct. 29: Ilia Topuria’s UFC 308 KO leads to P4P shuffle

Check out the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings following UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi.

[autotag]Ilia Topuria[/autotag]’s seismic knockout of Max Holloway in the UFC 308 main event this past Saturday will have plenty of aftershock ripples. One of them comes in the form of the pound-for-pound rankings.

Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC), the UFC’s first champion from Spain, defended his featherweight title with a third-round finish of ex-champ Holloway (26-8 MMA, 22-8 UFC) at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Holloway never had been knocked out in his lengthy career and was coming off the monumental “BMF” title moment against Justin Gaethje.

It makes sense that Topuria takes a short climb up the ladder of the pound-for-pound rankings, and in this case, he will jump from No. 6 past Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou into third. Take a look at the fallout from that, as well as movement in other divisions after key UFC 308 results, as well, in the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings.

USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Oct. 22: Francis Ngannou claims heavyweight throne

Check out the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings following PFL: Battle of the Giants and UFC Fight Night 245.

PFL: Battle of the Giants and UFC Fight Night 245 each had their impacts on divisional rankings.

In PFL’s main event, former UFC heavyweight champion [autotag]Francis Ngannou[/autotag], who never lost his title, returned to MMA and took out [autotag]Renan Ferreira[/autotag] in short order with a brutal knockout.

As a result Ngannou shifts into the No. 1 heavyweight slot. He was previously at No. 2. He also moves into No. 3 in the pound-for-pound rankings.

Also, [autotag]Anthony Hernandez[/autotag] took once step closer to middleweight title contention as he dominated [autotag]Michel Pereira[/autotag] before a late-fight TKO finish.

Hernandez enters the rankings at No. 13.

Across the two cards, [autotag]Paul Hughes[/autotag], Raufeon Stots, Asu Almabayev, and Charles Johnson also picked up impactful victories. Each resulted in a bump-up in the rankings.

Check out all the latest pound-for-pound and divisional USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings.

USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Oct. 15: Brandon Royval climbs at flyweight

Check out the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings following UFC Fight Night 244 in Las Vegas.

UFC Fight Night 244 took place last weekend in Las Vegas, producing an update in the men’s flyweight rankings.

In the main event at the UFC Apex, [autotag]Brandon Royval[/autotag] handed [autotag]Tatsuro Taira[/autotag] his first career loss in a thrilling 25-minute bout.

Royval entered the contest at No. 3 in the men’s flyweight division. After winning, he gets one spot closer to the top, swapping positions with No. 2 Amir Albazi.

Check out all the latest pound-for-pound and divisional USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings.

USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Oct. 8: Julianna Peña back on top

Check out the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings following UFC 307, where Julianna Peña reclaimed the women’s bantamweight title.

The latest pay-per-view event for the UFC hosted a pair of title fights, producing a new two-time champion.

In the main event of UFC 307, [autotag]Alex Pereira[/autotag] successfully defended his light heavyweight title by stopping [autotag]Khalil Rountree[/autotag] in a Fight of the Night battle. Pereira is already No. 1 in his division and in the P4P rankings, so he has nowhere to move. However, Rountree, even in a loss, moves up a few spots due to his stellar performance, moving from No. 12 to No. 10.

In the co-feature, [autotag]Julianna Peña[/autotag] emerged victorious in a controversial split decision win over [autotag]Raquel Pennington[/autotag] to win back the women’s bantamweight title. Peña entered the week at No. 2 and Pennington at No. 1, swapping places after Saturday’s result.

In another women’s bantamweight swap, No. 3 [autotag]Ketlen Viera[/autotag] lost to No. 4 [autotag]Kayla Harrison[/autotag]. They swap rankings in this week’s update.

Check out all the latest pound-for-pound and divisional USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings.