UFC Rankings Update: Khabib Nurmagomedov Retakes Top Spot At Lightweight
The official UFC rankings have received yet another shakeup in the fallout of this past weekend’s (Sat., April 16, 2016) UFC on FOX 19 from the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, and none of those shifts may be more significant than Khabib Nurmagomedov’s reclaiming of the top spot at lightweight following his dominant stoppage win over late replacement Darrell Horcher.
It’s not all that surprising of a shift given “The Eagle” dominated current champion Rafael dos Anjos in his last fight before missing almost two years due to knee injuries, but newly No. 2-ranked Eddie Alvarez will get the next shot at “RDA” this July nonetheless.
In other movement, the women’s bantamweight division saw a lot of movement because of Raquel Pennington’s hard-fought win over Bethe Correia at UFC on FOX 19. “Rocky” went up three spots to No. 9 as a result, where Correia dropped three spots to No. 12. Liz Carmouche moved up to No. 8 as a result, while Valentina Shevchenko and Lauren Murphy moved up one spot each to Nos. 10 and 13, respectively, and Marion Reneau inexplicably shot up three spots to No. 12.
At light heavyweight, Glover Teixeira moved up one spot for his massive first-round knockout of former champion Rashad Evans, overtaking the No. 4 spot from Alexander Gustafsson. Evans held steady at his previous No. 7 ranking. At middleweight, all-time great former champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva regained the No. 5 spot from Lyoto Machida after “The Dragon” admitted to taking a banned substance and was pulled from his scheduled rematch with Dan Henderson.
Lightweight saw another big move up aside from Nurmagomedov, as rising underdog contender Michael Chiesa improved an incredible five spots to No. 9 for his emphatic second-round submission of previous No. 7 contender Beneil Dariush. Dariush fell down to No. 10 as a result. Donald Cerrone also rose one spot to No. 5 at lightweight, trading spots with Nate Diaz, who fell down to No. 6 heading into his rematch with Conor McGregor. Edson Barboza also rose one spot to No. 8 heading into his fight with former champion Anthony Pettis at this Saturday’s UFC 197.
Bantamweight saw some shift thanks to the electrifying re-debut of former flyweight title contender John Dodson, who knocked out Manny Gamburyan in an impressive 47 seconds to storm his way into the No. 10 spot. Johnny Eduardo, Jimmie Rivera, and Eddie Wineland all dropped a spot as a result, and Frankie Saenz dropped two. John Lineker stayed at No. 12, yet his previously scheduled opponent Cody Garbrandt fell out of the rankings with Dodson debuting.
At flyweight, every contender below No. 2-ranked Henry Cejudo, who will meet dominant champ Demetrious Johnson in the UFC 197 co-main event, rose up one spot with Dodson now moved up to his old home of 135 pounds.
Check out the full rankings update via the UFC’s official website right here:
POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Jon Jones
2 Demetrious Johnson
3 Luke Rockhold
4 Fabricio Werdum
5 Dominick Cruz
6 Rafael Dos Anjos
7 Robbie Lawler
8 Conor McGregor
9 Daniel Cormier
10 Jose Aldo
11 Chris Weidman
12 Frankie Edgar
13 TJ Dillashaw
14 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
15 Miesha Tate
FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 Henry Cejudo
3 Jussier Formiga +1
4 Ian McCall +1
5 Kyoji Horiguchi +1
6 John Moraga +1
7 Zach Makovsky +1
8 Wilson Reis +1
9 Dustin Ortiz +1
10 Ali Bagautinov +1
11 Justin Scoggins +1
12 Louis Smolka +1
13 Ray Borg +1
14 Sergio Pettis +1
15 Ben Nguyen *NR
BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Dominick Cruz
1 TJ Dillashaw
2 Renan Barao
3 Urijah Faber
4 Raphael Assuncao
5 Aljamain Sterling
6 Michael McDonald
7 Thomas Almeida
8 Bryan Caraway
9 Takeya Mizugaki
10 John Dodson *NR
11 Johnny Eduardo -1
12 John Lineker
13 Frankie Saenz -2
14 Jimmie Rivera -1
15 Eddie Wineland -1
FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Conor McGregor
1 Jose Aldo
2 Frankie Edgar
3 Chad Mendes
4 Max Holloway
5 Ricardo Lamas
6 Cub Swanson
7 Charles Oliveira
8 Dennis Bermudez
9 Jeremy Stephens
10 Hacran Dias
11 Darren Elkins
12 Brian Ortega
13 Tatsuya Kawajiri
14 Mirsad Bektic +1
15 Clay Guida -1
LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Rafael Dos Anjos
1 Khabib Nurmagomedov +1
2 Eddie Alvarez -1
3 Anthony Pettis
4 Tony Ferguson
5 Donald Cerrone +1
6 Nate Diaz -1
7 Michael Johnson
8 Edson Barboza +1
9 Michael Chiesa +5
10 Beneil Dariush -3
11 Dustin Poirier -1
12 Al Iaquinta -1
13 Bobby Green -1
14 Evan Dunham -1
15 Rashid Magomedov
WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Robbie Lawler
1 Rory MacDonald
2 Stephen Thompson
3 Tyron Woodley
4 Carlos Condit
5 Johny Hendricks
6 Demian Maia
7 Neil Magny
8 Matt Brown
9 Dong Hyun Kim
10 Tarec Saffiedine
11 Rick Story
12 Kelvin Gastelum
13 Albert Tumenov
14 Hector Lombard
15 Thiago Alves
MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Luke Rockhold
1 Chris Weidman
2 Jacare Souza
3 Vitor Belfort
4 Michael Bisping
5 Anderson Silva +1
6 Lyoto Machida -1
7 Robert Whittaker
8 Gegard Mousasi
9 Tim Kennedy
10 Uriah Hall
11 Derek Brunson
12 Thales Leites
13 Rafael Natal
14 Dan Henderson
15 CB Dollaway
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Jon Jones
2 Anthony Johnson
3 Glover Teixeira +1
4 Alexander Gustafsson -1
5 Ryan Bader
6 Ovince Saint Preux
7 Rashad Evans
8 Mauricio Rua
9 Jimi Manuwa
10 Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
11 Patrick Cummins
12 Corey Anderson
13 Ilir Latifi
14 Nikita Krylov
15 Gian Villante
HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Fabricio Werdum
1 Cain Velasquez
2 Stipe Miocic
3 Alistair Overeem
4 Junior Dos Santos
5 Andrei Arlovski
6 Ben Rothwell
7 Travis Browne
8 Mark Hunt
9 Josh Barnett
10 Roy Nelson
11 Frank Mir
12 Antonio Silva
13 Derrick Lewis
14 Ruslan Magomedov
15 Alexey Oliynyk
WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: Joanna Jedrzejczyk
1 Claudia Gadelha
2 Carla Esparza
3 Rose Namajunas
4 Tecia Torres
5 Valerie Letourneau +1
6 Jessica Penne -1
7 Paige VanZant
8 Maryna Moroz
9 Michelle Waterson
10 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
11 Joanne Calderwood
12 Randa Markos
13 Jessica Aguilar
14 Juliana Lima
15 Justine Kish
WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Miesha Tate
1 Holly Holm
2 Ronda Rousey
3 Cat Zingano
4 Amanda Nunes
5 Julianna Pena
6 Sara McMann
7 Jessica Eye
8 Liz Carmouche +1
9 Raquel Pennington +3
10 Valentina Shevchenko +1
11 Bethe Correia -3
12 Marion Reneau +3
13 Lauren Murphy +1
14 Germaine de Randamie -1
15 Ashlee Evans-Smith *NR
