UFC Rankings Update: ‘Wonderboy’ Tops Welterweight List
Following what was a crazy night at UFC Fight Night 89 in Ottawa this past Saturday (June 18, 2016), some big moves have been made to the 170-pound rankings following a pair of electrifying welterweight contests.
Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson bested former title challenger Rory MacDonald in their main event contest, after five rounds of what turned out to be a beautiful technical war between the two mixed martial artists, by taking home a unanimous decision win over ‘The Red King’ in his home country of Canada. The one-sided victory boosted Thompson past MacDonald into the top spot on the 170-pound rankings. Heading into his murky contract negotiations, MacDonald sits at the No. 2 spot following two losses to the champion and top-ranked combatant.
Also at 170 pounds, Demian Maia moved up to the No. 3 spot without fighting, tying title contender Tyron Woodley.
In the co-main event of the evening, Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone made some noise of his own in the welterweight division even though he typically competes in the deeply talented pool that is the UFC 155-pound weight class, by appearing on the 170-pound rankings after knocking out Patrick Cote in the third round of their bout in Ottawa. The dominant win saw Cerrone debut at No. 14, pushing Thiago Alves down to No. 15.
The next biggest move of significance was Joanne Calderwood’s rise up the women’s strawweight rankings following her brutal third-round TKO of former title contender Valerie Letourneau. Calderwood skyrocketed five spots up the 115-pound ranks to No.7 for the win, after which she declared she was ‘broke as hell’ and would have to get a job in order to continue fighting.
You can check out the full updated rankings in their entirety courtesy of UFC.com right here:
POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Jon Jones
2 Demetrious Johnson
3 Dominick Cruz
4 Robbie Lawler
5 Rafael Dos Anjos
6 Conor McGregor
7 Daniel Cormier
8 Jose Aldo
9 Michael Bisping
10 Frankie Edgar
11 Stipe Miocic
12 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
13 Luke Rockhold
14 Chris Weidman
15 Fabricio Werdum
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 Ali Bagautinov +1
10 Dustin Ortiz -1
11 Justin Scoggins
12 Louis Smolka
13 Ray Borg
14 Sergio Pettis
15 Ben Nguyen
BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Dominick Cruz
1 TJ Dillashaw
2 Urijah Faber
3 Raphael Assuncao
4 Bryan Caraway
5 Michael McDonald
6 Aljamain Sterling
7 Cody Garbrandt
8 John Lineker
9 John Dodson -1
10 Thomas Almeida
11 Takeya Mizugaki
12 Frankie Saenz
13 Johnny Eduardo
14 Jimmie Rivera
15 Eddie Wineland
FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Conor McGregor
1 Jose Aldo
2 Frankie Edgar
3 Max Holloway
4 Chad Mendes
5 Ricardo Lamas
6 Cub Swanson
7 Charles Oliveira
8 Jeremy Stephens
9 Dennis Bermudez
10 Brian Ortega
11 Hacran Dias
12 Darren Elkins
13 Yair Rodriguez
14 Tatsuya Kawajiri
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 Dustin Poirier
10 Michael Chiesa
11 Beneil Dariush
12 Al Iaquinta
13 Evan Dunham +1
14 Rashid Magomedov -1
15 Francisco Trinaldo
WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Robbie Lawler
1 Stephen Thompson +1
2 Rory MacDonald -1
3 Tyron Woodley
3 Demian Maia +1
5 Carlos Condit
6 Johny Hendricks
7 Neil Magny
8 Matt Brown
9 Rick Story +1
9 Dong Hyun Kim
11 Gunnar Nelson
12 Kelvin Gastelum
13 Tarec Saffiedine
14 Donald Cerrone *NR
15 Thiago Alves -1
MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Michael Bisping
1 Luke Rockhold
2 Chris Weidman
3 Jacare Souza
4 Vitor Belfort
5 Anderson Silva
6 Robert Whittaker
7 Lyoto Machida
8 Gegard Mousasi
9 Uriah Hall
10 Derek Brunson +1
11 Tim Kennedy -1
12 Thales Leites
13 Dan Henderson
14 Rafael Natal
15 Thiago Santos -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
8 Rashad Evans
9 Jimi Manuwa
10 Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
11 Nikita Krylov
12 Corey Anderson
13 Ilir Latifi
14 Patrick Cummins
15 Gian Villante
HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Stipe Miocic
1 Fabricio Werdum
2 Cain Velasquez
3 Alistair Overeem
4 Junior Dos Santos
5 Ben Rothwell
6 Andrei Arlovski
7 Travis Browne
8 Mark Hunt
9 Josh Barnett
10 Roy Nelson
11 Frank Mir +1
12 Derrick Lewis -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 Karolina Kowalkiewicz +1
6 Jessica Andrade +1
7 Joanne Calderwood +5
8 Maryna Moroz
9 Valerie Letourneau -4
10 Paige VanZant -1
11 Michelle Waterson
12 Jessica Penne -2
13 Randa Markos +1
14 Jessica Aguilar -1
15 Juliana Lima
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 Valentina Shevchenko
8 Liz Carmouche
9 Raquel Pennington
10 Jessica Eye
11 Bethe Correia
12 Germaine de Randamie
13 Lauren Murphy
14 Ashlee Evans-Smith
15 Marion Reneau
