The official UFC rankings have been updated and there are some strange changes.

This follows CFU 308 in Abu Dhabi on Saturday as Ilia Topuria retained his bantamweight title by becoming the first to knock out Max Holloway.

4

Topuria’s victory – in addition to his own Alexander Volkanovski KO in the same way – cemented his position as one of the greatest UFC fighters on the current roster in the eyes of many MMA fans.

However, the recently updated rankings don’t seem to agree.

Topuria remains fourth in the UFC men’s pound-for-pound list with Islam Makhachev, Alex Pereira And Jon Jones everything in front of him.

Jones has fought once in the UFC since his victory over Dominick Reyes at UFC 247 in February 2020.

He submitted Ciryl Gane to win the heavyweight belt for the first time in March 2023 after a three-year hiatus.

During the same period, Topuria debuted in Dana White’s promotion, reeled off eight straight victories and captured the featherweight title – all while knocking out two of the UFC’s most established fighters.

MMA fans were quick to react to the updated rankings.

One spoke to to him. »

A second added: “Ridiculous. He (Topuria) chinned Max Holloway.

While a third commented: “Ilia is definitely number two in P4P, no disrespect to Alex Pereira. »

4

4

And a fourth said: “This is criminal. »

Topuria has yet to make his thoughts on the rankings known, but criticized White on Monday for not giving him more than $50,000 in bonuses after his showing at UFC 308.

UFC President White called members of the media “morons” in an explosive social media rant in October, due to their ranking voting history.

The ranking system was introduced in February 2013 to give fans the ability to clearly identify the best fighters on the UFC’s roster, which consists of more than 700 fighters.

Members of the media collectively vote on who should be included in the top 15 fighters for each weight class, as well as the pound-for-pound rankings to compare fighters regardless of weight class.

The rest of the updated pound-for-pound rankings include all other current UFC champions, plus the likes of Leon Edwards, Sean O’Malley And Sean Strickland.

Three changes were made to the P4P rankings after UFC 308 as Holloway, due to his loss to Topuria, swapped places with Alexandra Pantoja and Israel Adesanya was reintroduced to the top 15.

4

He replaced the Brazilian Charles Oliveirawho lost by split decision to Arman Tsarukyan at UFC 300 in April, in 15th place.

Adesanya has tasted defeat in his last two appearances in the octagon, so it was strange to see “The Last Stylebender” propelled among the UFC’s elite.

Khamzat Chimaev climbed ten spots in the UFC middleweight rankings following his ruthless submission victory over Robert Whittaker on Saturday.

And fellow middleweight Shara Magomedov, who produced a outrageous double punch on the same card to eliminate Armen Petrosyan, was introduced for the first time in the 185-pound rankings.

He rose above Michael Pereirawho was defeated by Anthony Hernandez in their UFC Fight Night main event on October 19.