UFC Rankings: Good Calls and Bad Calls Following UFC 182
With his win over Daniel Cormier at UFC 182, Jon Jones further solidified his position as the top pound-for-pound fighter in MMA today.
Jones now has more consecutive title defenses than any other active UFC champion. More notably, he's only two wins away from matching Anderson Silva's legendary record for the most consecutive title defenses in UFC history.
Obviously, Jones will stay put in both the pound-for-pound and light heavyweight rankings with his win over Cormier. However, what changes to the UFC rankings resulted from Saturday's UFC 182?
Here are the latest official UFC rankings, via UFC.com, which are voted on by members of the MMA media.
Pound-for-Pound
1 of 11
Rankings
| No. | Fighter |
| 1 | Jon Jones |
| 2 | Jose Aldo |
| 3 | Demetrious Johnson |
| 4 | Chris Weidman |
| 5 | Anthony Pettis |
| 6 | Cain Velasquez |
| 7 | Ronda Rousey |
| 8 | Anderson Silva |
| 9 | TJ Dillashaw |
| 10 | Renan Barao |
| 11 | Robbie Lawler |
| 12 | Johny Hendricks |
| 13 | Dominick Cruz |
| 14 | Vitor Belfort (+1) |
| 15 | Alexander Gustafsson (NR) |
Removed: Daniel Cormier
Analysis
Good Calls
Daniel Cormier Falls Behind Vitor Belfort and Alexander Gustafsson
Even with his loss to Jones, Cormier remains one of the better pound-for-pound fighters in MMA because he was so good in the heavyweight division as well. However, DC did not deserve to be in the Top 15 rankings over Vitor Belfort or Alexander Gustafsson.
Now competing a middleweight, Belfort owns a recent opening-round knockout win over Dan Henderson. Cormier submitted Henderson in the third round, but his size makes that victory less meaningful than Belfort's when considering pound-for-pound rankings.
Gustafsson also performed slightly better than Cormier against a common opponent. While Cormier was competitive against Jones, Gustafsson came closer to beating the 205-pound king than any other title challenger.
Bad Calls
No bad calls were made in this edition of the pound-for-pound rankings.
Heavyweight
2 of 11
Rankings
| No. | Fighter |
| C | Cain Velasquez |
| 1 | Fabricio Werdum (IC) |
| 2 | Junior dos Santos |
| 3 | Travis Browne |
| 4 | Stipe Miocic |
| 5 | Mark Hunt |
| 6 | Josh Barnett |
| 7 | Andrei Arlovski |
| 8 | Antonio Silva |
| 9 | Roy Nelson |
| 10 | Ben Rothwell |
| 11 | Alistair Overeem |
| 12 | Matt Mitrione |
| 13 | Frank Mir |
| 14 | Gabriel Gonzaga |
| 15 | Stefan Struve |
Removed: None
Analysis
Good Calls
No changes were made to the heavyweight rankings.
Bad Calls
No changes were made to the heavyweight rankings.
Light Heavyweight
3 of 11
Rankings
| No. | Fighter |
| C | Jon Jones |
| 1 | Alexander Gustafsson |
| 2 | Daniel Cormier |
| 3 | Anthony Johnson |
| 4 | Rashad Evans |
| 5 | Phil Davis |
| 6 | Glover Teixeira |
| 7 | Ryan Bader |
| 8 | Ovince Saint Preux |
| 9 | Dan Henderson |
| 10 | Jimi Manuwa |
| 11 | Mauricio Rua |
| 12 | Rafael Cavalcante |
| 13 | Fabio Maldonado |
| 14 | Antonio Rogerio Nogueira |
| 15 | Patrick Cummins |
Removed: None
Analysis
Good Calls
No changes were made to the light heavyweight rankings.
Bad Calls
No changes were made to the light heavyweight rankings.
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Middleweight
4 of 11
Rankings
| No. | Fighter |
| C | Chris Weidman |
| 1 | Anderson Silva |
| 2 | Ronaldo Souza |
| 3 | Lyoto Machida |
| 4 | Vitor Belfort |
| 5 | Luke Rockhold |
| 6 | Yoel Romero |
| 7 | Tim Kennedy |
| 8 | Gegard Mousasi |
| 9 | Michael Bisping |
| 10 | C.B. Dollaway |
| 11 | Thales Leites |
| 12 | Costas Philippou |
| 13 | Tim Boetsch |
| 14 | Mark Munoz |
| 15 | Brad Tavares |
Analysis
Good Calls
No changes were made to the middleweight rankings.
Bad Calls
No changes were made to the middleweight rankings.
Welterweight
5 of 11
Rankings
| No. | Fighter |
| C | Robbie Lawler |
| 1 | Johny Hendricks |
| 2 | Rory MacDonald |
| 3 | Tyron Woodley |
| 4 | Carlos Condit |
| 5 | Hector Lombard (+1) |
| 6 | Matt Brown (-1) |
| 7 | Kelvin Gastelum |
| 8 | Demian Maia |
| 9 | Tarec Saffiedine |
| 10 | Dong Hyun Kim |
| 11 | Jake Ellenberger |
| 12 | Rick Story |
| 13 | Jordan Mein |
| 14 | Gunnar Nelson |
| 15 | Ryan LaFlare |
Removed: None
Analysis
Good Calls
Hector Lombard Surpasses Matt Brown
He hasn't been a welterweight very long, but Hector Lombard has made an immediate impact at 170 pounds. Even before his win over Josh Burkman at UFC 182, Lombard should have been ranked above Matt Brown.
Brown was a huge surprise. He extended a winning streak to seven appearances in 2014, but he's still looking for wins over Top 10 welterweights. The most highly ranked opponent Brown has beaten is Jordan Mein, who currently sits at No. 13 in the UFC rankings.
Lombard doesn't own a win over a currently ranked welterweight. However, he recently defeated Jake Shields, who would comfortably sit among the Top 10 fighters in the 170-pound class.
Bad Calls
No changes were made to the welterweight rankings.
Lightweight
6 of 11
Rankings
| No. | Fighter |
| C | Anthony Pettis |
| 1 | Rafael dos Anjos |
| 2 | Khabib Nurmagomedov |
| 3 | Donald Cerrone (+1) |
| 4 | Gilbert Melendez (-1) |
| 5 | Benson Henderson |
| 6 | Edson Barboza |
| 7 | Josh Thomson |
| 8 | Myles Jury |
| 9 | Bobby Green |
| 10 | Eddie Alvarez |
| 11 | Jim Miller |
| 12 | Michael Johnson |
| 13 | Jorge Masvidal |
| 14 | Nate Diaz |
| 15 | Rustam Khabilov |
Removed: None
Analysis
Good Calls
With UFC 182 Win, Donald Cerrone Moves Above Gilbert Melendez
Following his win Saturday over Myles Jury, Donald Cerrone has won six in a row.
Although Cerrone is still in search of his first shot at a UFC championship, he deserves his spot above former Strikeforce titleholder and UFC title challenger Gilbert Melendez. With his most recent loss coming against Rafael dos Anjos in August 2013, Cowboy sits only behind the Brazilian and Khabib Nurmagomedov in the line for a spot in a 155-pound championship bout.
Melendez was the latest fighter to challenge lightweight champion Anthony Pettis, but he came well short of dethroning the 155-pound king. Before that, Melendez survived a rough third round against Diego Sanchez to capture a decision win over the TUF winner.
Considering Cerrone just took care of business against Jury, who cruised to a win over Sanchez not long ago, it appears that Cowboy has surpassed Melendez by at least a small margin.
Bad Calls
No bad calls were made in this edition of the lightweight rankings.
Featherweight
7 of 11
Rankings
| No. | Fighter |
| C | Jose Aldo |
| 1 | Chad Mendes |
| 2 | Frankie Edgar |
| 3 | Ricardo Lamas |
| 4 | Cub Swanson |
| 5 | Conor McGregor |
| 6 | Dustin Poirier |
| 7 | Dennis Bermudez |
| 8 | Nik Lentz |
| 9 | Charles Oliveira (+1) |
| 10 | Dennis Siver (-1) |
| 11 | Jeremy Stephens |
| 12 | Clay Guida |
| 13 | Max Holloway |
| 14 | Darren Elkins |
| 15 | Hacran Dias |
Removed: None
Analysis
Good Calls
Charles Oliveira Claims No. 9 Spot from Dennis Siver
While he's had some strong outings in the featherweight division, Dennis Siver is still looking for his first win over a currently ranked UFC featherweight. Pair that with the fact that he failed a drug test in 2014, and Siver doesn't deserve to be ranked above Charles Oliveira.
Do Bronx is coming off of a win over No. 11 contender Jeremy Stephens and has also beaten fringe contender Hatsu Hioki. With three straight wins on top of that, Oliveira has a stronger featherweight resume than Siver does.
Siver will have a chance to prove me wrong when he meets Conor McGregor on January 18, but he belongs in the No. 10 spot for now.
Bad Calls
No bad calls were made in this edition of the featherweight rankings.
Bantamweight
8 of 11
Rankings
| No. | Fighter |
| C | TJ Dillashaw |
| 1 | Renan Barao |
| 2 | Dominick Cruz |
| 3 | Urijah Faber |
| 4 | Raphael Assuncao |
| 5 | Michael McDonald |
| 6 | Takeya Mizugaki |
| 7 | Eddie Wineland |
| 8 | Iuri Alcantara |
| 9 | Johnny Eduardo |
| 10 | Bryan Caraway |
| 11 | Francisco Rivera |
| 12 | Erik Perez |
| 13 | Alex Caceres |
| 14 | Mitch Gagnon |
| 15 | Joe Soto |
Removed: None
Analysis
Good Calls
No changes were made to the bantamweight rankings.
Bad Calls
No changes were made to the bantamweight rankings.
Flyweight
9 of 11
Rankings
| No. | Fighter |
| C | Demetrious Johnson |
| 1 | John Dodson |
| 2 | Joseph Benavidez |
| 3 | Ian McCall |
| 4 | John Moraga |
| 5 | Jussier Formiga |
| 6 | John Lineker |
| 7 | Ali Bagautinov |
| 8 | Kyoji Horiguchi (+3) |
| 9 | Chris Cariaso (-1) |
| 10 | Zach Makovsky (-1) |
| 11 | Tim Elliott (-1) |
| 12 | Dustin Ortiz |
| 13 | Brad Pickett |
| 14 | Wilson Reis (+1) |
| 15 | Chico Camus (-1) |
Removed: None
Analysis
Good Calls
Kyoji Horiguchi Rises Three Spots with Win Over Louis Gaudinot
He's still looking for his first win over a fighter currently ranked in the Top 15, but Kyoji Horiguchi is proving he's as legitimate a contender as any 125-pounder outside the Top Seven right now.
Chris Cariaso, Zach Makovsky and Tim Elliott have all had impressive showings inside the Octagon. However, they all lack a win over a Top 15 flyweight as well.
With four straight wins, Horiguchi has more momentum than any of those fighters (albeit a result of him not being tested by an elite flyweight). He will be soon, though, and is ranked appropriately for now.
Bad Calls
Chico Camus Falls Behind Wilson Reis, Loses Ground on Brad Pickett
Wilson Reis has looked very good in back-to-back wins, but he lacks a win over a Top 15 flyweight. That said, this is less about the Brazilian and more about Chico Camus' position in relation to Brad Pickett's ranking.
In his most recent outing, Camus defeated Pickett via split decision. As most split decisions are, it was a close contest, but Camus had his hand raised nonetheless.
The ruling was by no means a robbery, so Camus should be ranked above Pickett right now. He certainly should not be multiple spots below the British fighter, who is planning a return to 135 pounds.
Women's Bantamweight
10 of 11
Rankings
| 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 | Bethe Correia |
| 9 | Amanda Nunes |
| 10 | Jessica Andrade |
| 11 | Julianna Pena |
| 12 | Raquel Pennington |
| 13 | Germaine de Randamie |
| 14 | Holly Holm |
| 15 | Leslie Smith |
Removed: None
Analysis
Good Calls
No changes were made to the women's bantamweight rankings.
Bad Calls
No changes were made to the women's bantamweight rankings.
Women's Strawweight
11 of 11
Rankings
| No. | Fighter |
| C | Carla Esparza |
| 1 | Joanna Jedrzejczyk |
| 2 | Claudia Gadelha |
| 3 | Jessica Penne |
| 4 | Rose Namajunas |
| 5 | Tecia Torres |
| 6 | Joanne Calderwood |
| 7 | Randa Markos |
| 8 | Felice Herrig |
| 9 | Aisling Daly |
| 10 | Heather Clark (+1) |
| 11 | Paige VanZant (-1) |
| 12 | Juliana Lima |
| 13 | Angela Hill |
| 14 | Seo Hee Ham (+1) |
| 15 | Bec Rawlings (-1) |
Removed: None
Analysis
Good Calls
Seohee Ham Bumps Bec Rawlings to No. 15
Because neither Seohee Ham nor Bec Rawlings has a UFC win, it's hard to argue one fighter clearly deserves to be ranked above the other.
However, if it must be determined, I do believe the rankings panel got it right by place Ham above Rawlings for the time being.
Ham looked to have a bit more potential than Rawlings after her UFC debut. The Korean also has a much stronger record at 15-6 than the 5-4 Rawlings has posted.
Bad Calls
Paige VanZant Loses No. 10 Spot to Heather Clark
She's very early in her career, but Paige VanZant has as many UFC wins as Heather Clark and has only lost to Top Five strawweight Tecia Torres.
Clark gave herself some job security with a win over Bec Rawlings in her UFC debut, but that was undoubtedly the biggest win in her MMA career. Unlike VanZant, Clark has also been beaten by lesser competition than Torres.
It's a close call, but I like ranking VanZant above Clark at the moment.
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