As always the Octagon has offered up a few surprises and our mid-May report offers up a few unpleasant surprises for the likes of Sean O’Malley and Stipe Miocic. Based directly on the official rankings after the UFC Results from the 221 fights which took place over the past weekend (11th and 12th of March), there have been a number of rankings change as detailed below.
UFC Ranking Changes
Pound-For-Pound: No UFC rankings changes.
Women’s Pound for Pound: No UFC rankings changes.
Women’s Strawweight: No UFC rankings changes.
Women’s Flyweight: No UFC rankings changes.
Women’s Featherweight: No UFC rankings changes.
Flyweight: There has been a single change in this weight category at 125 pounds thanks to the incredible performance delivered by Bruno “Bulldog” Silva in his bout against Tyson Nam, who was floored by a devastating front kick that resulted in a rear-naked choke that rendered him unconscious. Silva now finds himself ranked at #15.
Bantamweight: The biggest movement came at 135 pounds, thanks to Merab Dvalishvili‘s headline victory over the former champion Petr Yan (which sees Yan drop to #4). Shockingly Nurmagomedov has fallen from #14 to an unranked position after he was narrowly defeated by Jonathan Martinez. This means that Nurmagomedov’s place in the penultimate spot has now been taken by “The Dragon”. Yan’s drop to #4 is not the only change in the top rankings, as Marlon Vera has benefited from Yan’s loss and moved to #3. The top spot has now been taken by Sean O’Malley on the back of his decisive win over Dvalishvili.
Featherweight: No UFC rankings changes.
Lightweight: No UFC rankings changes.
Welterweight: No UFC rankings changes.
Middleweight: No UFC rankings changes.
Light Heavyweight: Nikita Krylov still remains just outside the top five rankings despite his first-round submission victory over Ryan “Superman” Spann. This has seen “Superman” fall two positions into #10. Krylov’s win also has resulted in Paul Craig and Volkan Oezdemir rising one place each. Dustin Jacoby has fallen one place to #14
Heavyweight: Despite the crowning of a new champion just over a week ago at UFC 285, there have been ongoing changes to the UFC Heavyweight Rankings and Stipe Miocic has returned to the #2 spot. Tom Aspinall, despite not fighting since July 2022, now finds himself in 5th position because of Sergei Pavlovich’s win over Tai Tuivasa. Alexander Volkov’s victory over Alexander Romanov has seen Volkov move to #7 and the defeated Romanov has dropped a spot to #15. The Bulgarian Blagoy Ivanov has moved up to #14 as a result.
March UFC Rankings Talking Point
A prominent point of discussion in the UFC March Rankings has resulted directly from last month’s UFC 284 event held in Perth and surrounds the pound-for-pound (P4P) list. It saw the Russian Islam Makhachev fail to win the featherweight titleholder in the P4P rankings, this was despite his win over Alexander Volkanovski across five rounds.
Enter Jon Jones… After thrashing almost everyone in the 205-pound roster he made a successful entry into the heavyweight category and has once again regained his place on the P4P throne. Volkanovski has even gone as far as admitting that it’s hard to deny Jones’ claim to the top spot despite and with some amusement (and amazement) saying:
“Everyone loves talking about it. It’s a big deal. I’ll be honest with you, (becoming) a champion was great, being pound-for-pound #1 (was greater), which Jon Jones took from me, I don’t think with all of the (rankings), but the UFC, yes… It was just that one (fight in three years), but what he did, moving up, at least he moved up and showed that pound-for-pound comes into play.
“The body of work that we’ve done in the last three years, obviously, a lot of people are gonna be like, ‘Look what Alex has done in the last three years.’ You can get that, but at the same time, look at what Jon Jones has done as well. Can I really argue that when you look at it? He’s gonna be one of the greatest of all time. For him to take that is like, ‘Damn it, what do you do?’”
Although not directly rankings related but still a valid talking point, some of the older UFC Champions from a few years back can again be seen in action, but this time its onscreen and in the form of an online slots game titled the Ultimate Fighting Championship™ Slot (which was created by Endomol Games and you can read more about it here). We must admit it was great seeing the likes of legendary UFC fighters such as Jon “Bones” Jones, Rampage Jackson, Michael Bisping, and others back in action. Which then begs the question, should there not be a UFC Legends League bout that entices these great back into the Octagon? It might not shake up the overall UFC rankings, but it could show some of the younger fighters how things were done back then.
What are your thoughts on the UFC Rankings Changes in March so far? Please leave us your thoughts below in the comments.