The following Monday of every weekend that is host to a UFC event, the official UFC rankings which are generated selected media members are updated. UFC 178 took place last Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, and was headlined by flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson taking on Chris Cariaso.
Former champ Dominick Cruz made the biggest leap from the No. 10 position all the way up to No. 2, just under the current bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw and former champion Renan Barao, with his 61 second knockout win over top bantamweight Takeya Mizugaki, who dropped down to No. 6 from No. 5, following his loss. This huge jump in the rankings was no surprise, because he is a former champion who never even lost his belt, and defeated a top 5 opponent. Cruz is now setup to fight for the title, date TBD.
Conor McGregor made his own mark in the featherweight division, moving up four spots to No. 5, stealing Dustin Poirier’s exact spot, following a knockout win over ‘The Diamond’. Poirier fell down two spots, now residing at No. 7.
Johnson submitted Cariaso in the second round last weekend, which was his fifth successful defense of his flyweight gold, and also caused him to move up the pound-for-pound rankings, now sitting at No. 3, stealing heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez’s position.
Donald Cerrone, who defeated Eddie Alvarez by decision in the co-main event, didn’t move up much, but went ahead of Benson Henderson, and is now sitting at No. 4.
You can view the official rankings page here.
Here are the current rankings (+/- means movement in rankings, *NR means not previously ranked), courtesy of UFC.com:
Pound-for-Pound
1. Jon Jones
2. Jose Aldo
3. Demetrious Johnson +1
4. Cain Velasquez -1
5. Chris Weidman
6. Anthony Pettis
7. Anderson Silva
8. Ronda Rousey
9. Johny Hendricks
10. Renan Barao
11. T.J. Dillashaw
12. Vitor Belfort
13. Daniel Cormier +1
14. Alexander Gustafsson -1
15. Dominick Cruz *NR
Flyweight
Champion: Demetrious Johnson
1. John Dodson
2. Joseph Benavidez
3. Ian McCall
4. Jussier Formiga
5. John Moraga
6. Ali Bagautinov +1
7. John Lineker -1
8. Chris Cariaso
9. Zach Makovsky
10. Timothy Elliott
11. Brad Pickett
12. Dustin Ortiz
13. Kyoji Horiguchi
14. Louis Gaudinot
15. Scott Jorgensen
Bantamweight
Champion: T.J. Dillashaw
1. Renan Barao
2. Dominick Cruz +8
3. Urijah Faber -1
4. Rafael Assuncao -1
5. Michael McDonald -1
6. Takeya Mizugaki -1
7. Eddie Wineland -1
8. Iuri Alcantara -1
9. Johny Eduardo -1
10. Bryan Caraway -1
11. Francisco Rivera
12. Alex Caceres +1
13. Erik Perez -1
14. Joe Soto
15. Masanori Kanehara
Featherweight
Champion: Jose Aldo
1. Chad Mendes
2. Cub Swanson
3. Frankie Edgar
4. Ricardo Lamas
5. Conor McGregor +4
6. Chan Sung Jung
7. Dustin Poirier -2
8. Dennis Bermudez -1
9. Nik Lentz -1
10. Jeremy Stephens
11. Dennis Siver
12. Clay Guida
13. Darren Elkins
14. Charles Oliveira
15. Tatsuya Kawajiri
Lightweight
Champion: Anthony Pettis
1. Gilbert Melendez
2. Khabib Nurmagomedov
3. Rafael dos Anjos
4. Donald Cerrone +1
5. Benson Henderson -1
6. Josh Thomson
7. Bobby Green
8. Miles Jury
9. Jim Miller
10. Eddie Alvarez +4
11. Michael Johnson -1
12. Edson Barboza -1
13. Jorge Masvidal -1
14. Rustam Khabilov -1
15. Nate Diaz *NR
Welterweight
Champion: Johny Hendricks
1. Robbie Lawler
2. Rory MacDonald
3. Tyron Woodley
4. Carlos Condit
5. Matt Brown
6. Hector Lombard
7. Jake Ellenberger
8. Demian Maia
9. Tarec Saffiedine
10. Dong Hyun Kim
11. Kelvin Gastelum
12. Gunnar Nelson
13. Jordan Mein
14. Ryan LaFlare
15. Mike Pyle
Middleweight
Champion: Chris Weidman
1. Anderson Silva
2. Jacare Souza
3. Vitor Belfort
4. Lyoto Machida
5. Luke Rockhold
6. Yoel Romero +4
7. Tim Kennedy -1
8. Gegard Mousasi
9. Michal Bisping -2
10. C.B. Dolloaway -1
11. Thales Leites +1
12. Costas Philippou -1
13. Tim Boetsch
14. Mark Munoz
15. Brad Tavares
Light Heavyweight
Champion: Jon Jones
1. Alexander Gustafsson
2. Daniel Cormier
3. Rashad Evans
4. Glover Teixeira
5. Anthony Johnson
6. Phil Davis
7. Ryan Bader +1
8. Dan Henderson -1
9. Mauricio Rua
10. Ovince Saint Preux
11. Jimi Manuwa
12. Rafael Cavalcante
13. Vitor Belfort
14. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
15. Fabio Maldonado
Heavyweight
Champion: Cain Velasquez
1. Fabricio Werdum
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. Gabriel Gonzaga
13. Frank Mir
14. Stefan Struve
15.Matt Mitrione
Women’s Bantamweight
Champion: 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 Corriera +1
9. Amanda Nunes -1
10. Jessica Andrade
11. Julianna Pena
12. Germaine de Randamie
13. Leslie Smith
14. Raquel Pennington
15. Holly Holm
That’s it till next week. This weekend we have two UFC events, both headlined by pivotal welterweight matchups which could shift around the division a fair bit so stick around to MMASucka.com for the next rankings update, next Monday.
