Category: MMA 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.

USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Oct. 1: Renato Moicano got no movement in UFC’s rankings – but he did in ours

Check out the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings following UFC Paris, where Renato Moicano made a big statement at lightweight.

The cornerstone event of the past weekend in MMA went down in France with UFC Fight Night 243 in Paris, which featured a significant lightweight fight in the main event.

Brazil’s [autotag]Renato Moicano[/autotag] continued his run of success with a sixth consecutive victory at 155 pounds when he battered Benoit Saint Denis into a second-round doctor’s stoppage TKO at Accor Arena.

Moicano demanded a sizeable jump in the lightweight hierarchy after the fight, but he was met with zero movement in the official UFC rankings, which got him angry. He won’t get a leap quite as high as he wants in our latest update, but he did make upward progress nonetheless.

There was some other noteworthy results in Paris, including Nassourdine Imavov beating Brendan Allen in a key middleweight co-main event fight.

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

USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Sept. 17: New No. 1 in two divisions after UFC 306 title changes

Check out the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings following UFC 306, which featured two titles changes at Sphere.

It’s not often two major championships change hands on the same night, but that’s what went down this past Saturday at UFC 306.

The historic event at Sphere in Las Vegas saw [autotag]Merab Dvalishvili[/autotag] claim the UFC bantamweight title from Sean O’Malley by unanimous decision in the main event, while [autotag]Valentina Shevchenko[/autotag] recaptured the women’s flyweight title with a unanimous decision over Alexa Grasso in their historic trilogy fight.

Dvalishvili and Shevchenko were both entered fight week as No. 2 in their respective divisions against the No. 1. That changed with the result, and now the new UFC titleholders have their rightful No. 1 spots.

There were also other results that impacted the rankings, such as Diego Lopes’ dominant win over Brian Ortega in the featherweight division.

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

USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Sept. 10: Usman Nurmagomedov climbs at lightweight

Check out the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings following UFC Fight Night 242 and Bellator Champions Series: San Diego.

Following Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 242 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and Bellator Champions Series: San Diego at Pechanga Arena, the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings required updating.

Headlining UFC Fight Night 242 was a welterweight showdown between [autotag]Sean Brady[/autotag] and former title challenger Gilbert Burns. Over five rounds, Brady dominated Burns in all aspects of the game to pick up one of the biggest wins of his career.

Entering the week at No. 9, Brady takes Burns’ former spot at No. 7.

At Bellator Champions Series: San Diego, [autotag]Usman Nurmagomedov[/autotag] defended his lightweight title against Alexander Shabliy. Coming into the week at No. 7 in the 155-pound rankings, the victory moves Nurmagomedov up to the No. 6 spot, bumping Beneil Dariush down.

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