Stock Up, Stock Down: Making Sense of the UFC's Updated Rankings

UFC 242 was the Khabib Nurmagomedov show. The Arena on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi played host to the UFC lightweight title unification bout between Nurmagomedov and Dustin Poirier, and it was all Nurmagomedov.

Saturday's event was mostly a one-fight card in terms of significance, but a few more ranked fighters helped fill out the card, including Edson Barboza, Paul Felder and Curtis Blaydes.

There was not a lot of movement around the official rankings, but some of the results proved helpful to fighters who are making a push for title bids as the new year looms. Who are on the move? Let's take a gander at the new UFC rankings after UFC 242 to see how the divisions look.

Here is your look at the latest UFC rankings and how UFC 242 impacted them.

Men's Flyweight

No. 1	Joseph Benavidez
No. 2	Jussier Formiga
No. 3	Deiveson Figueiredo
No. 4	Alexandre Pantoja
No. 5	Sergio Pettis
No. 6	Tim Elliott
No. 7	Rogerio Bontorin
No. 8	Kai Kara France	-1
No. 9	Brandon Moreno
No. 10	Matt Schnell
No. 11	Jordan Espinosa
No. 12	Ryan Benoit
No. 13	Alex Perez
No. 14	Mark De La Rosa
No. 15	Raulian Paiva

Although there were no 125-pounders in action at UFC 242, there was one small shift in the flyweight rankings. Kai Kara France slipped to No. 8. No one else moved, indicating a tie was broken with No. 7-ranked Rogerio Bontorin.

What accounts for the change? It's possible a voter had a change of heart or another voter simply forgot to submit his ballot on time. Either way, France now sits at No. 8 in the flyweight division.

Women's Flyweight

No. 1	Katlyn Chookagian	+1
No. 2	Jessica Eye
No. 3	Joanne Calderwood	+2
No. 4	Liz Carmouche	-1
No. 5	Jennifer Maia	-1
No. 6	Viviane Araujo	+1
No. 7	Andrea Lee	-1
No. 8	Roxanne Modafferi
No. 9	Lauren Murphy
No. 10	Alexis Davis
No. 11	Montana De La Rosa
No. 12	Maycee Barber
No. 13	Antonina Shevchenko
No. 14	Mara Romero Borella
No. 15	Gillian Robertson

There has been a little shake-up at 125 after Joanne Calderwood bested Andrea Lee. Calderwood makes a move to No. 3, and Lee dropped to No. 7.

Viviane Araujo moved to No. 6 due to Lee's loss.

The victory puts Calderwood in contention for a title shot once more. She will likely need another win later this year or in early 2020 to earn that shot, but moving to No. 3 makes the Scot one of the next in line.

Due to the shift, Katlyn Chookagian moved into a tie with Jessica Eye as the division's top contender following UFC 242. She battles No. 5 Jennifer Maia on November 2 in Madison Square Garden. It would seem that fight would serve as a title eliminator.

Lightweight

No. 1	Tony Ferguson	+1
No. 2	Dustin Poirier	-1
No. 3	Conor McGregor
No. 4	Donald Cerrone
No. 5	Justin Gaethje
No. 6	Al Iaquinta
No. 7	Paul Felder	+3
No. 8	Kevin Lee
No. 9	Edson Barboza	-2
No. 10	Anthony Pettis	-1
No. 11	Gregor Gillespie
No. 12	Charles Oliveira
No. 13	Alexander Hernandez
No. 14	Islam Makhachev	+1
No. 15	Dan Hooker	-1

Unsurprisingly, the lightweight division had the most movement. It was a card built around the lightweight title and had a lightweight co-main event along with several other 155-pound bouts.

Starting at the top, Poirier lost the interim title tag and dropped to No. 2 behind Tony Ferguson. A Ferguson-Nurmagomedov clash seems inevitable at this point, and it will be a long-awaited clash between the division's top two talents.

Islam Makhachev's main card victory puts him a spot higher on the board, but surprisingly Carlos Diego Ferreira's impressive showing did not earn him a place in the top 15.

The biggest beneficiary of the evening was Paul Felder. The Philadelphia native evened the score with Edson Barboza and jumped three spots to No. 7. He has earned a shot at someone in the top five after the performance in Abu Dhabi. Due to the competitive fight, Barboza only fell two slots to No. 9 and is still very much in the mix at lightweight.

This is still Nurmagomedov's division, but there is a lot of talent behind him shifting around in the rankings trying to be the next man up to challenge him for UFC glory. 

Middleweight

No. 1	Israel Adesanya (interim champion)
No. 2	Paulo Costa
No. 3	Yoel Romero
No. 4	Kelvin Gastelum
No. 5	Jack Hermansson
No. 6	Ronaldo Souza
No. 7	Chris Weidman
No. 8	Derek Brunson
No. 9	Jared Cannonier
No. 10	Ian Heinisch
No. 11	Brad Tavares
No. 12	Uriah Hall
No. 13	Antonio Carlos Junior
No. 14	Omari Akhmedov	NR
No. 15	Krzysztof Jotko

Omari Akhmedov picked up a victory during the UFC Fight Pass prelims at UFC 242, and while it was a nondescript win, it still pushed him into the rankings. He leapfrogged over Krzysztof Jotko to No. 14. Who fell? Former pound-for-pound king Anderson Silva. The former champion at 185 slipped off the board.

Heavyweight

No. 1	Daniel Cormier
No. 2	Francis Ngannou
No. 3	Curtis Blaydes	+1
No. 4	Junior Dos Santos	-1
No. 5	Derrick Lewis
No. 6	Alexander Volkov
No. 7	Alistair Overeem
No. 8	Cain Velasquez
No. 9	Blagoy Ivanov	+1
No. 10	Shamil Aburakhimov	-1
No. 11	Walt Harris
No. 12	Aleksei Oleinik
No. 13	Tai Tuivasa
No. 14	Marcin Tybura
No. 15	Augusto Sakai

Curtis Blaydes had no issue with Shamil Abdurakhimov in their fight on the main card, and the rankings were only minimally impacted afterward. Blaydes moved up one spot, past Junior Dos Santos, to become the No. 3 contender. Having only lost to Francis Ngannou, this opens up potential pathways to the title in 2020.

Abdurakhimov fell from No. 9 to No. 10, with Blagoy Ivanov moving into his spot.

Pound-for-Pound

No. 2	Khabib Nurmagomedov
No. 3	Henry Cejudo
No. 4	Stipe Miocic
No. 5	Amanda Nunes
No. 6	Daniel Cormier	+1
No. 7	Max Holloway	-1
No. 8	Kamaru Usman	+1
No. 9	Tony Ferguson	+1
No. 10	Robert Whittaker	+1
No. 11	Conor McGregor	+2
No. 12	Valentina Shevchenko
No. 13	Dustin Poirier	-5
No. 14	Israel Adesanya	+1
No. 15	Tyron Woodley	-1

The P4P rankings got a little shake-up as voters dropped Poirier five spots to No. 13. Conor McGregor leap-frogged Valentina Shevchenko to the No. 11 spot, although she has been the far more active and dominant fighter in recent months.

Daniel Cormier moved past Max Holloway to No. 6 on the list in spite of neither having fought. Cormier is coming off the TKO loss to Stipe Miocic at UFC 241 three weeks ago, and with a little more breathing room from that event, the former two-division champ seems to be getting a little respect back from some voters.