Pound For Pound Rankings
Adesanya notched his fifth title defense by defeating Jared Cannonier, via unanimous decision.
Volkanovski defeated Max Holloway for the third time, this was his fourth defense of his UFC featherweight title.
Despite a multitude of distractions and some serious injuries, Ngannou was able to unify the UFC’s heavyweight titles and will now look to work through a contentious contract dispute.
Oliveira, despite missing the official championship weight limit, put on a championship to defeat Justin Gaethje at UFC 274.
Miocic apologized for deviating from the gameplan against the dangerous Francis Ngannou, a mistake that cost him the UFC heavyweight title.
Freire recaptures the Bellator featherweight title for the third time, as he defeats the previously undefeated McKee, now evening their rivalry to 1-1.
Figueiredo is once again the UFC flyweight champion after a narrow win over Brandon Moreno, and the two may very well be heading towards a fourth consecutive matchup.
Bader dominated his opponent from start to finish utilizing his main strengths, wrestling and ground and pound.
Poirier was incredibly disappointed after failing to win the UFC lightweight title but would still seem to have big fights ahead, should he choose.
Sterling unified his undisputed bantamweight title when he defeated interim champion, Petr Yan.
Prochazka wins a thriller in the fifth round at UFC 275 to claim the first UFC title for the Czech Republic.
Honorable Mentions
The former champion met with his third loss vs. Alexander Volkanovski.
Teixeira loses his light heavyweight title in the last 30 seconds of his first title defense at UFC 275.
Covington soundly defeats his former friend and roommate to stay a title contender in the welterweight division.
USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, July 5: Big moves at middleweight
International Fight Week in Las Vegas was capped off by UFC 276 at T-Mobile Arena, an event that produced a number of moves in this week’s rankings update.
The division which saw the most moves was the middleweight division, which saw its champion Israel Adesanya and other contenders in action.
In the main event of the pay-per-view event, Adesanya racked up another title defense by outpointing Jared Cannonier over the course of 25 minutes. Entering the week, Cannonier held the No. 3 spot, and after his title-challenge loss, he falls to No. 4 this week.
This biggest move of the week came from Adesanya’s next potential opponent, Alex Pereira, who knocked out No. 7 Sean Strickland on the main card. Pereira was not ranked entering the event, but shoots up the ladder to the No. 6 spot.
The co-main event saw the end of a rivalry, as featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski picked up his third win over Max Holloway in a dominant unanimous decision win. While Volkanovski can get no higher than No. 1 in the featherweight ranks, he does climb a spot in the pound-for-pound list from No. 4 to No. 3.
Check out all of the other moves in this week’s rankings update following UFC 276 in Las Vegas.
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.