UFC Rankings Update: Stipe Miocic Soars Following Title-Sealing KO

There was a huge amount of heavy-hitting action at last weekend’s (Sat., May 14, 2016) UFC 198 from the Arena da Baixada in Curitiba, Brazil, and not surpisingly, the official UFC rankings have echoed that.

Obviously the biggest shift was made by newly-crowned heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic, who knocked out former champ Fabricio Werdum with a massive counter right hand that changed the UFC’s heaviest division in a big way by injecting some new (and perhaps unexpected) blood at the top. For the victory, Miocic debuted on the pound-for-pound rankings list, coming in at No. 11. Werdum dropped a lofty 11 spots as a result of the loss.

At heavyweight, Werdum dropped to the No. 1 spot, sending Cain Velasquez and Alistair Overeem down to No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.

Several other top-flight fighters also benefitted from “Vai Cavalo’s” drop, as the previous Nos. 5-12 fighters each rose up a spot, including Conor McGregor to No. 7, while previous No. 14-ranked pound-for-pound fighter Joanna Jedrzejczyk rose up two spots to No. 12.

In other movement, No. 3-ranked middleweight Vitor Belfort stayed put at that spot even though he was largely dominated by No. 2-ranked Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza in UFC 198’s co-main event. Also at 185, Thiago Santos made his debut at No. 14 after finishing longtime vet Nate Marquardt in Curitiba, pushing another longtime vet in Dan Henderson to the No. 15 spot.

At welterweight, Demian Maia continued his climb back up the rankings after his submission victory over Matt Brown, his fifth straight. The talented Brazilian rose two spots to No. 4, pushing Carlos Condit and Johny Hendricks each down a spot to Nos. 5 and 6, respectively. Gunnar Nelson also traded spots with Kelvin Gastelum, rising to No. 12 and forcing Gastelum down to No. 13.

Here are the fully updated rankings courtesy of UFC.com:

POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Jon Jones
2 Demetrious Johnson
3 Luke Rockhold
4 Dominick Cruz +1
5 Rafael Dos Anjos +1
6 Robbie Lawler +1
7 Conor McGregor +1
8 Daniel Cormier +1
9 Jose Aldo +1
10 Chris Weidman +1
11 Frankie Edgar +1
12 Joanna Jedrzejczyk +2
13 Stipe Miocic *NR
14 TJ Dillashaw -1
15 Fabricio Werdum -11

FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 Henry Cejudo
3 Jussier Formiga
4 Kyoji Horiguchi
5 Ian McCall
6 John Moraga
7 Zach Makovsky
8 Wilson Reis
9 Dustin Ortiz
10 Ali Bagautinov
11 Justin Scoggins
12 Louis Smolka
13 Ray Borg
14 Sergio Pettis
15 Ben Nguyen

BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Dominick Cruz
1 TJ Dillashaw
2 Renan Barao
3 Urijah Faber
4 Aljamain Sterling
5 Raphael Assuncao
6 Michael McDonald
7 Thomas Almeida
8 Bryan Caraway
9 Takeya Mizugaki
10 John Dodson
11 John Lineker +1
12 Johnny Eduardo -1
13 Frankie Saenz
14 Jimmie Rivera
15 Eddie Wineland

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 Yair Rodriguez
15 Mirsad Bektic

LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Rafael Dos Anjos
1 Khabib Nurmagomedov
2 Eddie Alvarez
3 Tony Ferguson
4 Donald Cerrone
5 Nate Diaz
6 Edson Barboza
7 Anthony Pettis
8 Michael Johnson
9 Michael Chiesa
10 Beneil Dariush
11 Dustin Poirier
12 Al Iaquinta +1
13 Bobby Green -1
14 Rashid Magomedov +1
15 Evan Dunham -1

WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Robbie Lawler
1 Rory MacDonald
2 Stephen Thompson
3 Tyron Woodley
4 Demian Maia +2
5 Carlos Condit -1
6 Johny Hendricks -1
7 Neil Magny
8 Matt Brown
9 Dong Hyun Kim
10 Tarec Saffiedine
11 Rick Story
12 Gunnar Nelson +1
13 Kelvin Gastelum -1
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
6 Robert Whittaker
7 Lyoto Machida
8 Gegard Mousasi
9 Tim Kennedy
10 Uriah Hall
11 Derek Brunson
12 Thales Leites
13 Rafael Natal
14 Thiago Santos *NR
15 Dan Henderson -1

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Jon Jones (Interim Champion)
2 Anthony Johnson
3 Glover Teixeira
4 Alexander Gustafsson
5 Ryan Bader
6 Ovince Saint Preux
7 Mauricio Rua +1
8 Rashad Evans -1
9 Jimi Manuwa
10 Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
11 Nikita Krylov +2
12 Corey Anderson
13 Ilir Latifi +1
14 Patrick Cummins -3
15 Gian Villante

HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Stipe Miocic
1 Fabricio Werdum -1
2 Cain Velasquez -1
3 Alistair Overeem -1
4 Junior Dos Santos
5 Ben Rothwell
6 Andrei Arlovski
7 Travis Browne
8 Mark Hunt
9 Josh Barnett
10 Roy Nelson
11 Derrick Lewis +1
12 Frank Mir -1
13 Stefan Struve
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
6 Jessica Penne
7 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
8 Paige VanZant
9 Maryna Moroz
10 Michelle Waterson
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
9 Valentina Shevchenko
10 Raquel Pennington
11 Bethe Correia
12 Germaine de Randamie
13 Lauren Murphy
14 Ashlee Evans-Smith +1
15 Marion Reneau -1