Pound For Pound Rankings
Already considered one of the greatest fighters of all-time, Jones says he wants to turn his attention to heavyweight and has no intention of returning to 205 pounds.
With back-to-back knockout victories, 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.
While he failed in his bid to become a champ-champ, Adesanya looked quite dominant in his most recent title defense and said he wants to return in October.
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 but is now openly expressing his frustration with the promotion after an interim title fight was announced.
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.
Upcoming Fight: vs Brian “T-City” Ortega | Sep 25, 2021 – UFC 266
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.
Moreno claimed gold with a scintillating victory over Deiveson Figueiredo and now seems destined for stardom in his native Mexico.
Figueiredo handed over his UFC title with a submission loss to new champ Brandon Moreno and now must battle his way back to a trilogy fight.
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.
Poirier continues to be one of the most exciting fighters in the game, and his grit is immeasurable – qualities he hopes will net him the UFC lightweight title.
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.
Whittaker is on quite the run since losing the UFC middleweight title and seems to have earned a rematch with Israel Adesanya.
Honorable Mentions
USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, July 13: Conor McGregor takes tumble after UFC 264 loss
UFC 264 was the biggest event of the year so far, and although it didn’t feature any championship fights, the card had impact on the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings.
Dustin Poirier held his No. 2 spot at lightweight by beating Conor McGregor with an injury TKO in the trilogy fight headliner at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Now 1-3 in his past four fights, though, McGregor (22-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC), a former division UFC champion, was bounced from the top 5 at 155 pounds.
There were also fights on the card with highly ranked names at welterweight, women’s bantamweight and women’s flyweight.
After that massive card, check out the full rankings across every division using the drop-down menu above.
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.