Pound For Pound Rankings
Already considered one of the greatest fighters of all-time, Jones said he wants to turn his attention to heavyweight and says he has no intention of returning to 205 pounds.
Adesanya rolled the dice in a move to light heavyweight but came up short against Jan Blachowicz and says he’ll now return to 185 pounds and prove his dominance as UFC champion.
After suffering the first knockout loss of his career, Johnson openly contemplated the idea of potentially competing in kickboxing next, which he could also do under the ONE Championship banner.
Ngannou claimed the UFC heavyweight title with a brilliant win over Stipe Miocic and is looking for a quick turnaround, targeting a summer date for his first title defense.
Miocic apologized for deviating from the gameplan against the dangerous Francis Ngannou, a mistake that cost him the UFC heavyweight title.
Bader was certainly disappointed to lose his Bellator champ-champ status, but he’s advancing in Bellator’s light heavyweight grand prix and may be able to win his 205-pound title back.
It wasn’t as convincing as the first time around, but Volkanovski picked up a second win over Max Holloway and says he wants to continue taking out top contenders.
Holloway delivered a record-breaking destruction of Calvin Kattar and now looks like he’ll get a chance to regain the UFC featherweight title later this year.
Already a two-division Bellator champion, Freire will look to add a grand prix title to his belt collection when he faces the undefeated A.J. McKee.
Whittaker is on quite the run since losing the UFC middleweight title and seems to have earned a rematch with Israel Adesanya.
Khabib Nurmagomedov proved to be too much for Gaethje at UFC 254, but ‘The Highlight’ could very well get another title shot in the very near future.
Blachowicz realizes there are some that doubt his legitimacy as UFC champion, but his win over a previously undefeated Israel Adesanya went a long way toward silencing those critics.
Honorable Mentions
USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, April 20: A move for Robert Whittaker on P4P list
With the UFC, Bellator and ONE Championship all in action this past week, there were moves to be made in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings.
In the UFC on ESPN 22 main event, Robert Whittaker (23-5 MMA, 14-3 UFC) outworked Kelvin Gastelum (17-7 MMA, 11-7 UFC) for five rounds. Whittaker, a former middleweight champion, doesn’t have leeway to make a leap at 185 absent reclaiming the title. But on the pound-for-pound list, there was indeed a move he could make.
At Bellator 257, Vadim Nemkov (14-2 MMA, 6-0 BMMA) defended his light heavyweight title for the first time and advanced in the tournament with a hard-fought win over Phil Davis (22-6 MMA, 9-3 BMMA). So how far did Nemkov move at light heavyweight?
Check out the drop-down menus above to see all the latest moves in this week’s rankings.
Ranking Criteria
The rankings take into account a fighter’s wins/losses, quality of competition, finishing rate/dominance and frequency of fights.
Fighters are no longer eligible to be ranked after they’ve been inactive for 24 months, either due to injuries, drug/conduct suspensions, contract disputes or self-imposed hiatuses.
Fighters serving drug/conduct suspensions are eligible to be ranked, so long as they’re not inactive for more than 24 months.
To the best of our ability, fighters will be ranked in their primary weight class. Catchweight fights and bouts outside the fighter’s primary weight class can have a positive or negative impact on the ranking. However, non-titleholders can be ranked in only one weight class at a given time, and in most cases, they won’t be ranked in a new weight class until they’ve had their first fight at that weight.