UFC Rankings for Each Weight Division Following UFC on Fuel TV 8

Wanderlei Silva stole the show at UFC on Fuel TV 8 with his stunning knockout of Brian Stann.

However, Saturday's main event had no impact on the UFC rankings, as the media had considered neither Silva nor Stann to be a top-10 fighter in the middleweight or light heavyweight divisions. That being said, the weekend's fights in Japan did cause some shifting among the elite UFC competitors.

The co-main event featured Stefan Struve, who was attempting to maintain his spot among the top heavyweights in a bout with the surprisingly surging Mark Hunt. Also, perennial middleweight notables Yushin Okami and Hector Lombard squared off on the UFC on Fuel TV 8 main card.

Let's take a look at how Saturday's bouts changed the official UFC rankings. 

Pound-for-Pound

Georges St-Pierre will soon return to the Octagon for his highly anticipated grudge match with Nick Diaz.

Along with that UFC 158 appearance will come an opportunity for St-Pierre to reclaim the No. 2 spot in the UFC pound-for-pound rankings from light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.

St-Pierre had long been considered one of the top-two pound-for-pound fighters in the world alongside Anderson Silva before an injury kept him out of action for a lengthy period of time, allowing the younger stars in the sport to close the gap.  

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1. Anderson Silva
2. Jon Jones
3. Georges St-Pierre
4. Jose Aldo
5. Benson Henderson
6. Cain Velasquez
7. Demetrious Johnson
8. Renan Barao
9. Dominick Cruz
10. Frankie Edgar

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Though no top-10 pound-for-pound fighters competed at UFC on Fuel TV 8, a change was made in the rankings. 

Due to his continued hiatus, Dominick Cruz has dropped another spot and now sits behind the interim champion in his division, Renan Barao. Barao, previously ranked at No. 9, now sits at No. 8 in the pound-for-pound rankings.

Heavyweight

Mark Hunt continued his roll on Saturday with a brutal knockout of Stefan Struve in the UFC on Fuel TV 8 co-main event. 

"The Super Samoan" has now won four straight fights, winning three of those bouts with knockouts. Hunt's unexpected run of success followed a long losing streak that dated back to his Pride FC days.

Meanwhile, the impressive stoppage brought a four-fight winning streak for Struve to an end. "The Skyscraper" had appeared to finally figure out how to use his long reach effectively, but that was disproved when he was picked apart by the much shorter Hunt.

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Champion: Cain Velasquez

1. Junior dos Santos
2. Fabricio Werdum
3. Daniel Cormier
4. Antonio Silva
5. Frank Mir
6. Alistair Overeem
7. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
8. Roy Nelson
9. Mark Hunt
10. Stefan Struve

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Despite the loss to Hunt, Struve was able to hang on to his top-10 position, as the oft-injured Shane Carwin was bumped off of the list by voters.

Previously unranked, Hunt jumped to No. 9 and could now be looking at a shot against an elite heavyweight contender.

One change unrelated to UFC on Fuel TV 8 was also made to the rankings, as the panel decided to move Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira into the No. 7 position, dropping Roy Nelson down to No. 8.

Light Heavyweight

Wanderlei Silva shocked the MMA world in his return to light heavyweight, knocking out Brian Stann in a wild brawl. 

Leading up to the fight, many questioned whether the weathered chin of Silva could withstand the knockout power of Stann. However, Silva took some of Stann's best shots and fired right back until he eventually put his opponent away with punches in the second round.

The loss was Stann's third in his past four fights. It seems likely that Stann will return to middleweight now, but he does not sit very high on the 185-pound ladder after being finished by the aging Silva.

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Champion: Jon Jones

1. Lyoto Machida
2. Alexander Gustafsson
3. Dan Henderson
4. Glover Teixeira
5. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
6. Mauricio Rua
7. Rashad Evans
8. Phil Davis
9. Ryan Bader
10. Gegard Mousasi

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Although the UFC on Fuel TV 8 main event was a 205-pound fight, it did not result in any changes to the light heavyweight rankings.

An approaching bout between Alexander Gustafsson and Gegard Mousasi will certainly shake things up a bit, though.

Middleweight

Hector Lombard suffered another setback at UFC on Fuel TV 8, losing by decision to long-time middleweight contender Yushin Okami.

With only one win in his first three UFC appearances, the former Bellator champion doesn't appear to be the threat to middleweight champion Anderson Silva that some believed he could have been.

Conversely, Okami is now riding a three-fight winning streak and could be on the verge of getting another shot at the UFC's 185-pound belt.

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Champion: Anderson Silva

1. Chris Weidman
2. Vitor Belfort
3. Yushin Okami
4. Michael Bisping
5. Luke Rockhold
6. Costa Philippou
7. Mark Munoz
8. Ronaldo Souza
9. Chael Sonnen
10. Hector Lombard

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Okami's win on Saturday moved him ahead of Michael Bisping and into the No. 3 position. For Lombard, the loss to Okami meant a drop from No. 8 to No. 10 in the middleweight rankings.

Those were not the only changes on this 185-pound list, though.

Luke Rockhold swapped positions with Costa Philippou, so the former Strikeforce champion now sits at No. 5. Additionally, Ronaldo Souza not only surpassed Lombard, but he also hopped over Chael Sonnen into the No. 8 spot in the rankings.

Welterweight

Dong Hyun Kim picked up an important win over Siyar Bahadurzada at UFC on Fuel TV 8, but it wasn't quite enough for the Korean welterweight to break into the top 10.

One of the better grapplers in the 170-pound division, Kim was able to avoid Bahadurzada's knockout power by repeatedly taking the fight to the ground.

Bahadurzada tasted defeat for the first time inside the Octagon as a result and will now have to prove the knockout win he scored against Paulo Thiago in his UFC debut was no fluke.

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Champion: Georges St-Pierre

1. Johny Hendricks
2. Carlos Condit
3. Nick Diaz
4. Rory MacDonald
5. Demian Maia
6. Jake Ellenberger
7. Martin Kampmann
8. Tarec Saffiedine
9. Robbie Lawler
10. Josh Koscheck

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Though UFC on Fuel TV 8 didn't cause any changes in the welterweight rankings, one alteration was made from the previous version.

Likely to the approval of many critics of this ranking system, Robbie Lawler moved ahead of Josh Koscheck into the No. 9 spot after he was surprisingly ranked below the opponent he had knocked out at UFC 157.

Lightweight

Diego Sanchez picked up a win in his return to the lightweight division on Saturday, but the controversial decision victory over Takanori Gomi did not impress voters enough for the former top contender in the 155-pound division to be ranked in the top 10.

UFC president Dana White was among the many who felt Gomi had done enough to win the contest. However, two of the three judges disagreed, and Gomi's two-fight winning streak came to an end in his home country of Japan.

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Champion: Benson Henderson

1. Gilbert Melendez
2. Anthony Pettis
3. Gray Maynard
4. Nate Diaz
5. Jim Miller
6. Donald Cerrone
7. T.J. Grant
8. Rafael dos Anjos
9. Joe Lauzon
10. Khabib Nurmagomedov

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With no top-10 lightweights competing at UFC on Fuel TV 8, there were no changes made to these rankings from the previous release.

Featherweight

Rani Yahya picked up a win over Mizuto Hirota in UFC on Fuel TV 8's only featherweight bout.

Though he's won three of his past four fights, Yahya is still on the outside of the 145-pound division's top-10 fighters.

While Yahya couldn't break through, a change was still made to the featherweight rankings.

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Champion: Jose Aldo

1. Chad Mendes
2. Ricardo Lamas
3. Frankie Edgar
4. Chan Sung Jung
5. Cub Swanson
6. Dennis Siver
7. Dustin Poirier
8. Clay Guida
9. Nik Lentz
10. Erik Koch

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Despite winning in controversial fashion over Hatsu Hioki in his UFC featherweight debut, Clay Guida moved up one spot in these rankings, surpassing Nik Lentz for the No. 9 position in a small adjustment by the voting panel.

Bantamweight

Takeya Mizugaki and Alex Caceres picked up split-decision wins at UFC on Fuel TV 8 in their respective fights against Bryan Caraway and Kyung Ho Kang.

While neither fighter broke into the top-10 of the bantamweight rankings, Mizugaki and Caceres have both won multiple fights in a row and could be knocking on the door soon.

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Champion: Dominick Cruz

1. Renan Barao (interim champion)
2. Urijah Faber
3. Michael McDonald
4. Eddie Wineland
5. Brad Pickett
6. Raphael Assuncao 
7. Scott Jorgensen
8. Brian Bowles
9. Mike Easton
10. Ivan Menjivar

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With no top-10 bantamweight competing at UFC on Fuel TV 8, there were no changes made to these rankings from the previous release.

Flyweight

No 125-pound fighters fought on Saturday, and it's unlikely these rankings will undergo a change anytime soon with no flyweights set to fight at UFC 158 either.

With time, the flyweight division will expand and become more active. However, right now, 125-pound UFC bouts will be sparse.

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Champion: Demetrious Johnson

1. Joseph Benavidez
2. John Dodson
3. Ian McCall
4. John Moraga
5. Jussier da Silva
6. Louis Gaudinot
7. Chris Cariaso
8. Darren Uyenoyama
9. John Lineker
10. Tim Elliott

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With no 125-pound fighters competing on the UFC on Fuel TV 8 fight card, there were no changes to the flyweight rankings from the previous release.

Women's Bantamweight

There was a one-week delay from the division's debut at UFC 157. The women's bantamweight fighters are now ranked alongside all men's divisions in the UFC rankings.

Rousey is the division's current champion after submitting Liz Carmouche with her signature armbar, but a rematch with Miesha Tate looms should the former Strikeforce champion beat Cat Zingano in her UFC debut at The Ultimate Fighter 17 Finale in April.

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Champion: Ronda Rousey

1. Miesha Tate
2. Liz Carmouche
3. Sarah Kaufman
4. Alexis Davis
5. Cat Zingano
6. Sarah McMann
7. Julie Kedzie
8. Amanda Nunes
9. Germaine de Randamie

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Fights will likely come in slowly in the women's 135-pound division, but the UFC is sure to ramp up the competition as quickly as possible following a successful pay-per-view draw from Rousey and Carmouche.