UFC Rankings Update: McGregor Somehow Rises On P4P List
Two of the UFC’s top pound-for-pound fighters picked up pivotal wins at last weekend’s (Sat., December 30, 2017) UFC 219 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg securing a decision win over Holly Holm and dominant lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov brutally pounding Edson Barboza in an at-times hard-to-watch co-main event.
For those efforts, Cyborg and Khabib deservedly earned a rise up the official pound-for-pound rankings, with Cyborg moving up one spot to No. 9 and Khabib finally debuting at No. 14. That’s to be expected; however, perhaps the most shocking rise up the pound-for-pound list was made by Conor McGregor, who somehow surpassed Georges St-Pierre to overtake the No. 2 spot despite not fighting for almost 14 months at this point.
St-Pierre’s drop was most likely precipitated by his recent vacating of the middleweight title hardly one month after he won at UFC 217 on November 4, yet he has fought for a UFC title much more recently than McGregor. By comparison, No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter Demetrious Johnson recently topped Anderson Silva for the record for most consecutive title defenses in UFC history with 11; McGregor has none.
There’s no doubting “The Notorious'” electric drawing power and scintillating knockout ability, but his UFC return is currently unknown – and perhaps even unlikely – after he reportedly earned 0 million to box Floyd Mayweather last August. He’s been rumored to finally defend the lightweight belt against interim champion Tony Ferguson, but those are only rumors.
His status as by far the biggest star in MMA is obviously keeping him near the top of the media-generated rankings, however, and that’s unlikely to stop until he finally returns and loses a fight – if he ever does.
Check out the full rankings courtesy of UFC.com right here:
POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Demetrious Johnson
2 Conor McGregor +1
3 Georges St-Pierre -1
4 Max Holloway
5 Daniel Cormier
6 TJ Dillashaw
7 Stipe Miocic
8 Tyron Woodley
9 Cris Cyborg +1
10 Tony Ferguson -1
11 Cody Garbrandt
12 Robert Whittaker
13 Amanda Nunes
14 Khabib Nurmagomedov *NR
15 Joanna Jedrzejczyk -1
FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 Henry Cejudo
3 Ray Borg
4 Jussier Formiga
5 Sergio Pettis
6 Wilson Reis
7 Brandon Moreno
8 Ben Nguyen
9 John Moraga
10 Dustin Ortiz
11 Alexandre Pantoja +1
12 Matheus Nicolau *NR
13 Magomed Bibulatov +2
14 Deiveson Figueiredo
15 Louis Smolka -2
BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: TJ Dillashaw
1 Cody Garbrandt
2 Dominick Cruz
3 Raphael Assuncao
4 Jimmie Rivera
5 Marlon Moraes
6 John Lineker
7 Bryan Caraway
8 John Dodson
9 Aljamain Sterling
10 Thomas Almeida
11 Pedro Munhoz
12 Eddie Wineland
13 Brett Johns
14 Rob Font
15 Tim Elliott *NR
FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Max Holloway
1 Jose Aldo
2 Frankie Edgar
3 Brian Ortega
4 Josh Emmett +1
5 Cub Swanson -1
6 Ricardo Lamas
7 Chan Sung Jung
8 Yair Rodriguez
9 Jeremy Stephens
10 Darren Elkins
11 Dennis Bermudez +1
12 Renato Moicano -1
13 Dooho Choi
14 Myles Jury +1
15 Mirsad Bektic -1
LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Conor McGregor
1 Tony Ferguson (Interim Champion)
2 Khabib Nurmagomedov
3 Eddie Alvarez
4 Edson Barboza
5 Justin Gaethje
6 Dustin Poirier
7 Kevin Lee
8 Nate Diaz
9 Michael Chiesa
10 Michael Johnson
11 Al Iaquinta
12 Beneil Dariush
13 Anthony Pettis
14 Francisco Trinaldo
14 James Vick
WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Tyron Woodley
1 Stephen Thompson
2 Rafael Dos Anjos
3 Colby Covington
4 Robbie Lawler
5 Demian Maia
6 Jorge Masvidal
7 Darren Till
8 Neil Magny +4
9 Santiago Ponzinibbio
10 Kamaru Usman +1
11 Donald Cerrone -1
12 Carlos Condit -4
13 Gunnar Nelson
14 Dong Hyun Kim
15 Yancy Medeiros
MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Robert Whittaker
1 Yoel Romero
2 Luke Rockhold
3 Jacare Souza +1
4 Georges St-Pierre -1
5 Chris Weidman
6 Kelvin Gastelum
7 Michael Bisping
8 Derek Brunson
9 Anderson Silva
10 David Branch
11 Uriah Hall
12 Vitor Belfort
13 Krzysztof Jotko
14 Lyoto Machida
15 Paulo Costa
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Alexander Gustafsson
2 Volkan Oezdemir
3 Glover Teixeira
4 Jimi Manuwa
5 Ovince Saint Preux
6 Mauricio Rua
7 Misha Cirkunov
8 Corey Anderson
9 Ilir Latifi -1
10 Patrick Cummins
11 Rogerio Nogueira
12 Jan Blachowicz
13 Tyson Pedro +1
14 Gadzhimurad Antigulov -1
15 Jared Cannonier
HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Stipe Miocic
1 Francis Ngannou
2 Alistair Overeem
3 Fabricio Werdum
4 Cain Velasquez
5 Mark Hunt
6 Derrick Lewis
7 Alexander Volkov
8 Marcin Tybura
9 Curtis Blaydes
10 Stefan Struve
11 Aleksei Oleinik
12 Andrei Arlovski
13 Junior Albini
14 Travis Browne
15 Tim Johnson
WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: Rose Namajunas
1 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
2 Jessica Andrade
3 Claudia Gadelha
4 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
5 Tecia Torres
6 Carla Esparza +3
7 Michelle Waterson
8 Cynthia Calvillo -2
9 Felice Herrig -1
10 Alexa Grasso
11 Cortney Casey
11 Paige VanZant +1
13 Randa Markos +1
14 Joanne Calderwood -1
15 Maryna Moroz
WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Nicco Montano
1 Sijara Eubanks
2 Lauren Murphy
3 Alexis Davis
4 Roxanne Modafferi
5 Barb Honchak
6 Liz Carmouche
7 Montana De La Rosa
8 Rachael Ostovich
9 Mara Romero Borella
10 Shana Dobson +1
11 Gillian Robertson +1
12 Kalindra Faria +1
13 Bec Rawlings +1
14 Melinda Fabian +1
15 Emily Whitmire *NR
WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Amanda Nunes
1 Valentina Shevchenko
2 Holly Holm
3 Julianna Pena
4 Raquel Pennington
5 Germaine de Randamie
6 Cat Zingano
6 Ketlen Vieira +1
8 Sara McMann
9 Ronda Rousey
10 Marion Reneau
11 Katlyn Chookagian
12 Bethe Correia
13 Leslie Smith
14 Aspen Ladd
15 Sarah Moras -1
