UFC Rankings for Each Weight Division Following UFC 177
Heading into UFC 177, bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw was still ranked below scheduled challenger Renan Barao in the official pound-for-pound rankings.
On Friday, Barao withdrew from the rematch with Dillashaw due to weight-cutting issues. Dillashaw, meanwhile, went on to pick up his first title defense against late replacement opponent Joe Soto.
Will the weekend's events be enough to catapult Dillashaw past Barao?
Pound-for-Pound
1 of 10
| No. | Fighter |
| 1 | Jon Jones |
| 2 | Jose Aldo |
| 3 | Cain Velasquez |
| 4 | Chris Weidman |
| 4 | Demetrious Johnson (+1) |
| 6 | Anthony Pettis |
| 7 | Anderson Silva |
| 8 | Ronda Rousey (+2) |
| 9 | Renan Barao (-1) |
| 10 | Johny Hendricks (-1) |
| 11 | T.J. Dillashaw |
| 12 | Vitor Belfort |
| 13 | Alexander Gustafsson |
| 14 | Daniel Cormier |
| 15 | Gilbert Melendez |
Rankings Analysis
Good Call
There has been much debate regarding Ronda Rousey's positioning in the pound-for-pound rankings. However, it appears clear that she's there to stay and should be ranked like any male champion would.
Currently, Jon Jones and Jose Aldo are the only standing UFC champions with longer title reigns than Rousey. The queen of the women's bantamweight division has been as dominant in her division as almost anybody in MMA.
For that reason, there is justification to rank Rousey above a non-champion, Barao, and a titleholder who has not defended his belt, Johny Hendricks.
Bad Call
Dillashaw stopped Barao in May. Then, Barao failed to make weight for a scheduled rematch between the two elite bantamweights this past weekend.
Nonetheless, Barao is still somehow ranked two spots higher than Dillashaw.
I'm not sure what else Dillashaw has to do to earn a spot among the Top 10 pound-for-pound UFC fighters. He deserves to be in the mix now, and hopefully he will be soon.
Heavyweight
2 of 10
| No. | Fighter |
| C | Cain Velasquez |
| 1 | Fabricio Werdum |
| 2 | Junior dos Santos |
| 3 | Travis Browne |
| 4 | Antonio Silva |
| 5 | Josh Barnett |
| 6 | Stipe Miocic |
| 7 | Alistair Overeem |
| 8 | Mark Hunt |
| 9 | Roy Nelson |
| 10 | Frank Mir |
| 11 | Gabriel Gonzaga |
| 12 | Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (+1) |
| 13 | Stefan Struve (-1) |
| 14 | Andrei Arlovski |
| 15 | Brendan Schaub |
Rankings Analysis
Good Call
While it could be argued that Stefan Struve has looked better over recent performances, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira has actually been competing. Until Struve gets back to action, he should probably be removed from the Top 15.
It has been 18 months since Struve last stepped into the Octagon, and he recently suffered another unfortunate setback that prevented him from fighting Matt Mitrione at UFC 175 in July. Hopefully, Struve finds a way to get his health and fighting career back on track, but it's hard to justify raising his position in the heavyweight rankings until that happens.
Bad Call
No bad calls were made in this edition of the heavyweight rankings.
Light Heavyweight
3 of 10
| No. | Fighter |
| C | Jon Jones |
| 1 | Alexander Gustafsson |
| 2 | Daniel Cormier |
| 3 | Rashad Evans |
| 3 | Glover Teixeira (+1) |
| 5 | Anthony Johnson (-1) |
| 6 | Phil Davis |
| 7 | Dan Henderson (+1) |
| 8 | Ryan Bader (-1) |
| 9 | Mauricio Rua |
| 10 | Ovince Saint Preux |
| 11 | Jimi Manuwa |
| 12 | Rafael Cavalcante |
| 13 | Vitor Belfort |
| 14 | Antonio Rogerio Nogueira |
| 15 | Fabio Maldonado |
Rankings Analysis
Good Call
At 44 years old, Dan Henderson isn't the fighter he once was, but he still has a stronger record than Ryan Bader by a slight margin.
Henderson has beaten No. 9 Mauricio Rua twice in his past six fights, while he also fought to split-decision losses against Rashad Evans and Lyoto Machida. Meanwhile, the most highly ranked opponent Bader has defeated was No. 10 Ovince Saint Preux in his latest outing. Notably, Bader was also knocked out by Machida in August 2012.
Based on their performances against a common opponent in Machida and the fact that Henderson owns a win over a more highly ranked light heavyweight than Bader does, the decision to move the former Pride FC champion above The Ultimate Fighter 8 winner was the right call.
Bad Call
With two straight Top 15 wins since returning to the UFC roster, Anthony Johnson is a legitimate contender in the light heavyweight division. His resume is equally as strong as Glover Teixeira's, and it could even be argued the former welterweight has a stronger track record recently.
As excellent as he's looked against everybody not named Jon Jones, Teixeira has only beaten one Top 15 light heavyweight (Bader) inside the Octagon. Having beaten Phil Davis, who is ranked slightly higher than Bader right now, Johnson was completely deserving of being tied with Teixeira on the 205-pound ladder.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Middleweight
4 of 10
| No. | Fighter |
| C | Chris Weidman |
| 1 | Anderson Silva |
| 2 | Lyoto Machida |
| 3 | Vitor Belfort |
| 4 | Ronaldo Souza |
| 5 | Luke Rockhold |
| 6 | Tim Kennedy |
| 7 | Gegard Mousasi |
| 8 | Michael Bisping |
| 9 | CB Dollaway |
| 10 | Yoel Romero |
| 11 | Costas Philippou |
| 12 | Thales Leites |
| 13 | Tim Boetsch (+1) |
| 14 | Mark Munoz (-1) |
| 15 | Francis Carmont |
Rankings Analysis
Good Call
No good calls were made in this edition of the middleweight rankings.
Bad Call
Tim Boetsch has had a much stronger 2014 than Mark Munoz, but that doesn't mean The Barbarian deserves to be ranked above The Filipino Wrecking Machine.
Munoz defeated Boetsch 14 months ago and has only lost to Top 10 middleweights since then. Boetsch has gone 2-1 since that contest, but his only Top 15 win came in a controversial decision opposite CB Dollaway, whom Munoz holds a knockout win over.
Despite Munoz's recent struggles, he should still be ranked higher than Boetsch.
Welterweight
5 of 10
| No. | Fighter |
| C | Johny Hendricks |
| 1 | Robbie Lawler |
| 2 | Rory MacDonald |
| 3 | Tyron Woodley |
| 4 | Carlos Condit |
| 5 | Matt Brown |
| 6 | Hector Lombard |
| 7 | Demian Maia |
| 8 | Jake Ellenberger |
| 9 | Tarec Saffiedine |
| 10 | Dong Hyun Kim |
| 11 | Kelvin Gastelum |
| 12 | Gunnar Nelson |
| 13 | Jordan Mein |
| 14 | Ryan LaFlare |
| 15 | Mike Pyle |
Rankings Analysis
Good Call
No changes were made in this edition of the welterweight rankings.
Bad Call
No changes were made in this edition of the welterweight rankings.
Lightweight
6 of 10
| No. | Fighter |
| C | Anthony Pettis |
| 1 | Gilbert Melendez |
| 2 | Khabib Nurmagomedov |
| 3 | Rafael dos Anjos |
| 4 | Benson Henderson |
| 5 | Donald Cerrone |
| 6 | Josh Thomson |
| 7 | Bobby Green |
| 8 | Jim Miller |
| 9 | Myles Jury |
| 10 | Michael Johnson |
| 11 | Edson Barboza |
| 12 | Rustam Khabilov |
| 13 | Jorge Masvidal |
| 14 | Ross Pearson |
| 15 | Gray Maynard |
Rankings Analysis
Good Call
No changes were made in this edition of the lightweight rankings.
Bad Call
No changes were made in this edition of the lightweight rankings.
Featherweight
7 of 10
| No. | Fighter |
| C | Jose Aldo |
| 1 | Chad Mendes |
| 2 | Cub Swanson |
| 3 | Frankie Edgar |
| 4 | Ricardo Lamas |
| 5 | Dustin Poirier |
| 6 | Chan Sung Jung |
| 7 | Dennis Bermudez |
| 8 | Nik Lentz |
| 9 | Conor McGregor |
| 10 | Dennis Siver |
| 11 | Jeremy Stephens |
| 12 | Clay Guida |
| 13 | Darren Elkins |
| 14 | Charles Oliveira |
| 15 | Tatsuya Kawajiri |
Good Call
No changes were made in this edition of the featherweight rankings.
Bad Call
No changes were made in this edition of the featherweight rankings.
Bantamweight
8 of 10
| No. | Fighter |
| C | TJ Dillashaw |
| 1 | Renan Barao |
| 2 | Urijah Faber |
| 3 | Raphael Assuncao |
| 4 | Michael McDonald |
| 5 | Eddie Wineland (+1) |
| 6 | Takeya Mizugaki (-1) |
| 7 | Iuri Alcantara |
| 8 | Johnny Eduardo (+1) |
| 9 | Bryan Caraway (-1) |
| 10 | Alex Caceres |
| 11 | Francisco Rivera |
| 12 | Dominick Cruz |
| 13 | Erik Perez |
| 14 | Mike Easton |
| 15 | Joe Soto (NR) |
Rankings Analysis
Good Call
With a win over Eddie Wineland, Johnny Eduardo could arguably be ranked among the Top Five bantamweights already. He has certainly earned a spot above Bryan Caraway.
Caraway has won two in a row, including a submission victory over No. 13 Erik Perez, but he hasn't beaten an opponent like Wineland. When Caraway meets Raphael Assuncao on October 4, he'll have a good chance to change this opinion, though.
Still, right now, Eduardo has the stronger record and deserves the No. 8 position.
Bad Call
While Wineland has the ability to compete with some of the very best in the 135-pound class, it's hard to call him a Top Five bantamweight following a loss to Eduardo.
Wineland does not own a win over a current Top 15 bantamweight. Takeya Mizugaki, meanwhile, has won five in a row, including a victory over No. 11 Francisco Rivera.
With Eduardo currently sitting at No. 8, Wineland was honestly still a bit lucky to be ranked as high as he was even before surpassing Mizugaki.
Flyweight
9 of 10
| No. | Fighter |
| C | Demetrious Johnson |
| 1 | John Dodson |
| 2 | Joseph Benavidez |
| 3 | Ian McCall |
| 4 | Jussier Formiga |
| 5 | John Moraga |
| 6 | John Lineker |
| 7 | Ali Bagautinov |
| 8 | Chris Cariaso |
| 9 | Tim Elliott (+1) |
| 10 | Zach Makovsky (-1) |
| 11 | Brad Pickett (-1) |
| 12 | Dustin Ortiz |
| 13 | Louis Gaudinot |
| 14 | Kyoji Horiguchi |
| 15 | Scott Jorgensen |
Rankings Analysis
Good Call
Zach Makovsky and Brad Pickett both have higher ceilings in the 125-pound class than Tim Elliott, but neither has accomplished as much in the flyweight division.
Compared to Elliott's two UFC flyweight victories, Pickett only has one win since moving down from 135 pounds. Meanwhile, Makovsky's biggest win at 125 pounds came against No. 15 Scott Jorgensen, while Elliott owns a win over No. 13 Louis Gaudinot.
It might not last long, but Elliott should be ranked above Makovsky and Pickett right now.
Bad Call
No bad calls were made in this edition of the flyweight rankings.
Women's Bantamweight
10 of 10
| No. | Fighter |
| C | Ronda Rousey |
| 1 | Cat Zingano |
| 2 | Miesha Tate |
| 3 | Sara McMann |
| 4 | Alexis Davis |
| 5 | Sarah Kaufman |
| 6 | Jessica Eye |
| 7 | Liz Carmouche |
| 8 | Amanda Nunes |
| 9 | Bethe Correia (+1) |
| 10 | Jessica Andrade (-1) |
| 11 | Julianna Pena |
| 12 | Germaine de Randamie |
| 13 | Leslie Smith |
| 14 | Raquel Pennington |
| 15 | Lauren Murphy |
Good Call
Even after improving to 3-0 inside the Octagon on Saturday, Bethe Correia does not own a win over a current Top 15 fighter in the women's bantamweight division. Still, she's better than Jessica Andrade.
While Andrade's biggest win came against No. 14 Raquel Pennington, Correia is undefeated and picked up a victory over Julie Kedzie, who would be ranked had she not retired. With that win over Kedzie, Correia should have already been ranked higher than Andrade before her most recent victory over Shayna Baszler.
Bad Call
No bad calls were made in this edition of the women's bantamweight rankings.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
