Category: MMA Rankings

USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Dec. 10: Where does big win place Jairzinho Rozenstruik?

A fantastic finish of a knockout has Suriname’s favorite son rocketing up the rankings.

A big swing for the UFC kicked into gear last weekend with UFC on ESPN 7. And speaking of swings, [autotag]Jairzinho Rozenstruik[/autotag] sure did swing and connect in the main event at UFC DC.

The Suriname native capped a tremendous 2019 campaign with his knockout of Alistair Overeem with just four seconds remaining in their main-event fight. That result capped off a breathtaking UFC rookie year for the heavyweight in which he won all four of his fights, three of them via finish.

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So where does that place him in the division with the heaviest hitters? The undefeated kickboxer lands No. 10 at heavyweight for now. But we’re pretty sure that if his 2020 is anything like his 2019, this time next year he’s going to be a whole lot higher in the rankings.

There were other consequential bouts at UFC on ESPN 7, with repercussions for competitors like Aspen Ladd, Cody Stamann, and Song Yadong. To see where they place in this week’s rankings — or where your favorite or least-favorite fighter lands — check out the rankings above.

USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Dec. 3: The month ahead is big

With all the big fights coming up, the end of the year will impact our rankings immensely.

Coming off the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in the U.S., there was no major MMA action that took place. And so, that means no changes in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings.

That being said, the end of the year is packed with fights that undoubtedly will impact the rankings in the coming month. It starts with UFC on ESPN 7 this weekend before the massive UFC 245 card that features three title fights on Dec. 14. Then Bellator takes over the following week with a doubleheader in Hawaii on Dec. 20 (Bellator Salute) and Dec. 21 (Bellator 238), but you’ve also got UFC on ESPN+ 23 on Dec. 21. Then there’s a big Bellator card in Japan on Dec. 28 to close out the year.

Among the ranked fights that should be on your radar:

  • Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington
  • Max Holloway vs. Alexander Volkanovski
  • Amanda Nunes vs. Germaine de Randamie
  • Jose Aldo vs. Marlon Moraes
  • Ilima-Lei MacFarlane vs. Kate Jackson
  • Derek Campos vs. A.J. McKee
  • Brian Ortega vs. Chan Sung Jung
  • Michael Chandler vs. Benson Henderson

Be sure to check above for where these fighters and more stand in the current rankings before the inevitable shakeup this month.

USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Nov. 26: Is Michael Page ready?

Michael Page picked up another win this past Saturday – but was it enough to get him into our welterweight rankings?

[autotag]Michael Page[/autotag] picked up another win this past Saturday – but it came with some controversy.

There wasn’t controversy over how Page (16-1 MMA, 12-1 BMMA) beat Giovanni Melillo (13-5 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) – by first-round knockout. But instead, the Bellator welterweight continued to take criticism for the level of opponents he’s been in the cage with so far in his career.

Page has been in the cage with some standouts like Paul Daley and David Rickels, and has wins over them. But his resume also includes names like Melillo, Richard Kiely and Jeremie Holloway who are unheralded, to put it mildly.

Page’s lone loss came by knockout against Douglas Lima in Bellator’s welterweight tournament. Lima went on to win the tournament and the title. And before that, his win over Daley was a unanimous decision, and some had Daley winning.

So with his latest win at Bellator Europe 6 at The SSE Arena, Wembley in London, has Page done enough to break into our USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie welterweight rankings?

Check out the latest rankings in the drop-down menu above.

USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Nov. 19: Conor McGregor keeps on slipping

Conor McGregor hasn’t won a fight in three years, and our latest rankings are about what’s hot now, not then.

If [autotag]Conor McGregor[/autotag] fought a fraction as often as he tweeted about potential fights, and then went out and won those fights, he’d be atop the pound-for-pound rankings list.

And make no mistake, when when MMA’s prodigal son does make his return to the octagon, it will still be a very big deal.

But in the meantime, the rankings move on. You wouldn’t put USC football No. 1 in the polls this year based on what they did in the Reggie Bush Era. Likewise, McGregor’s accomplishments in winning the UFC featherweight and lightweight championships in 2015 and 2016 are increasingly irrelevant when putting together rankings lists as we head into the 2019 holiday season.

McGregor has not won a fight since he beat Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight belt in November 2016. His only MMA fight since was a loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov in October 2018.

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UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, who is No. 9 in this week’s USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie pound-for-pound rankings, had not even made his UFC debut the last time McGregor won a fight.

McGregor is no longer on the pound-for-pound list. He’s no longer in the featherweight rankings. Lightweight? Well, he’s still listed there, but he’s no longer on the short list of title contenders.

We’ve got “The Notorious” in at No. 12 at 155 pounds this week. Maybe he’ll announce a fight soon and have the opportunity to prove he should still be listed with the likes of Nurmagomedov, Tony Ferguson, and Justin Gaethje. But for now, he’s right on the edge of becoming yesterday’s news.

To find out where last week’s winners and losers — like UFC on ESPN+ 22 main eventers [autotag]Jan Blachowicz[/autotag] and [autotag]Ronaldo Souza[/autotag] — shake out in the week’s rankings, click on the drop-down menu above.

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USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Nov. 12: How high can Zabit Magomedsharipov fly?

After another impressive victory, how close is Zabit Magomedsharipov to the top of the 145-pound rankings?

With an impressive victory over the ultra-tough Calvin Kattar on Saturday in the main event of UFC on ESPN+ 22, the only real question left for [autotag]Zabit Magomedsharipov[/autotag] is how close he might be to a featherweight title shot.

The Dagestani standout remained unbeaten in the UFC with his victory in Moscow, and there isn’t a whole lot of daylight left between him, champion Max Holloway, and top contender Alexander Volkanovski, who square off for the title next month at UFC 245.

So where to rank Magomedsharipov after another impressive outing? We’ve settled on No. 4, for now. Maybe he gets the UFC 245 winner, maybe he’s one more fight away, but a title shot sometime in 2020 certainly seems plausible the way things are going.

That wasn’t the only matchup of note with divisional implications over the weekend. We also had former Bellator heavyweight champion [autotag]Alexander Volkov[/autotag]’s win over Greg Hardy. And over at Bellator 233, former featherweight title challenger [autotag]Arlene Blencowe[/autotag] made her case for another championship match with a nice win over the well-respected Leslie Smith.

To find out where they landed in their respective divisions — or to learn where your favorite or least favorite fighters currently rank — scroll up above to check out the current USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings.

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