Major shake-up in MMA rankings after wild month

By ADAM HILL LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

8 years ago

Stipe Miocic celebrates after defeating Andrei Arlovski in a heavyweight mixed martial arts bout at UFC 195, Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

It has been one of the most eventful months in UFC history.

With three events in three nights leading up to UFC 200, to positive drug tests for some of the organization’s biggest stars and the sale of the organization for a reported sum of $4 billion, July will be a month to remember.

There are no signs of the UFC slowing down, either.

Starting with UFC 201 on Saturday in Atlanta, there will be a UFC event every week except for one through the beginning of October.

That’s a lot of fights and a lot of chances for big moves in the CoveringTheCage.com rankings.

All of that chaos will only add to the shake-up in the numbers in this update that includes all the action of the past few weeks.

Perhaps most notable is the big jumps made by the new champions.

Eddie Alvarez scored an upset of Rafael dos Anjos to win the lightweight belt and move to the top of the division. It’s not a firm grip, however, as one of the most loaded divisions in the world has several good contenders nipping at his heels for the belt and the top spot in the rankings.

Women’s bantamweight remains a crazy case. Amanda Nunes is the new champion, and Valentina Shevchenko rose through the ranks with a masterful win over Holly Holm. Ronda Rousey, however, remains the top-ranked fighter despite not competing since losing the belt in November.

It’s difficult to take her from that spot when she would be such a sizable favorite over any of her potential opponents.

The light heavyweight division might be even trickier. Daniel Cormier has solidified his grip on the belt with Jon Jones out as he awaits discipline for a failed drug test that forced his removal from their title bout at UFC 200. On the other hand, Chad Mendes is out of the featherweight rankings after he was handed a two-year suspension by the United States Anti-Doping Agency.

So, we don’t have a hard-and-fast rule on suspended fighters, and Jones remains the best in the world until further notice.

That is subject to change, however, in our subjective poll.

Feel free to share any disagreements and stay tuned for the latest updates, and keep in mind, while the ranked weight classes are those used by the UFC, fighters competing outside the organization are eligible.

MEN

Heavyweight

Stipe Miocic

Fabricio Werdum

Cain Velasquez

Alistair Overeem

Junior dos Santos

Ben Rothwell

Mark Hunt

Andrei Arlovski

Travis Browne

Josh Barnett

Light Heavyweight

Jon Jones

Daniel Cormier

Anthony Johnson

Alexander Gustafsson

Glover Teixeira

Ryan Bader

Liam McGeary

Phil Davis

Ovince St. Preux

Nikita Krylov

Middleweight

Michael Bisping

Luke Rockhold

Chris Weidman

Yoel Romero

Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza

Gegard Mousasi

Lyoto Machida

Vitor Belfort

Anderson Silva

Tim Kennedy

Welterweight

Robbie Lawler

Stephen Thompson

Rory MacDonald

Ben Askren

Carlos Condit

Tyron Woodley

Demian Maia

Neil Magny

Andrey Koreshkov

Kelvin Gastelum

Lightweight

Eddie Alvarez

Khabib Nurmagomedov

Rafael dos Anjos

Tony Ferguson

Edson Barboza

Nate Diaz

Anthony Pettis

Will Brooks

Justin Gaethje

Michael Chiesa

Featherweight

Conor McGregor

Jose Aldo

Frankie Edgar

Max Holloway

Daniel Straus

Cub Swanson

Charles Oliveira

Ricardo Lamas

Jeremy Stephens

Brian Ortega

Bantamweight

Dominick Cruz

TJ Dillashaw

Urijah Faber

John Dodson

Bryan Caraway

Cody Garbrandt

Raphael Assuncao

John Lineker

Bibiano Fernandes

Aljamain Sterling

Flyweight

Demetrious Johnson

Joseph Benavidez

Henry Cejudo

Ali Bagautinov

Jussier Formiga

Kyoji Horiguchi

Justin Scoggins

Zach Makovsky

Wilson Reis

Louis Smolka

WOMEN

Bantamweight

Ronda Rousey

Amanda Nunes

Valentina Shevchenko

Miesha Tate

Holly Holm

Julianna Pena

Alexis Davis

Cat Zingano

Sara McMann

Tonya Evinger

Strawweight

Joanna Jedrzejczyk

Claudia Gadelha

Rose Namajunas

Jessica Aguilar

Valerie Letourneau

Carla Esparza

Tecia Torres

Karolina Kowalkiewicz

Angela Hill

Jessica Andrade

OVERALL

Pound-for-Pound