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.
With back-to-back knockout victories, Kamaru Usman is proving himself to be even more dangerous than was previously known and is starting to carve his name into the UFC’s record books.
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.
It was a long way to the top for ‘Do Bronx,’ but Oliveira is truly firing on all cylinders now and will look to put together a run as UFC lightweight champion.
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.
Upcoming Fight: vs Glover Teixeira | Sep 04, 2021 – UFC 266
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, May 25: Rob Font enters elite territory
After picking up the biggest win of his career, UFC bantamweight Rob Font now finds himself listed among the absolute biggest names in the sport.
Font (19-4 MMA, 9-3 UFC) scored a convincing decision win over former UFC champion Cody Garbrandt (12-4 MMA, 7-4 UFC) in the main event of this past weekend’s UFC Fight Night 188, earning him a move up the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie bantamweight rankings into the No. 6 position at 135 pounds.
Font now owns a four-fight winning streak in the UFC that dates back to 2018 and says he’ll be patient in awaiting his next booking, hoping to face someone at the top of the division that can help earn him a title shot.
Of course, the UFC wasn’t the only game in town this past week, with Bellator 259 also featuring a number of ranked athletes in action, including top women’s featherweight and pound-for-pound force Cris Cyborg (24-2 MMA, 6-1 BMMA), who scored a fifth-round TKO of Leslie Smith (12-9-1 MMA, 2-3 BMMA) in their headlining rematch.
With both of those cards having impact on a number of divisions, take a look around through the latest edition of our 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.