The newest version of the UFC rankings are out, and as a panelist, I’m mildly frustrated. There weren’t many changes in the wake of UFC Fight Night 36, but the divisions that were affected were the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions. Middleweight because the top two fights on the card were in that division, and light heavyweight because one ranked fighter (Thiago Silva) was fired while the other dropped to middleweight. But some silly panelists apparently don’t care about that!
Look, I understand if you forgot to take Gegard Mousasi out of your light heavyweight rankings. He just fought, and to err is human. But the fact that Lyoto Machida is still ranked at LHW despite fighting TWICE at middleweight is ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. Even having Chael Sonnen still ranked as a middleweight doesn’t make much sense. Yes he said he was going to return to the division, but he has fought three times at LHW now and has another fight scheduled there.
Dear panelists – please smarten up. You’re embarrassing the rest of us.
Anyway, let’s more on the changes in this edition of the rankings.
P4P – Renan Barao moved up into a tie with Cain Velasquez for the number three spot. Urijah Faber dropped one spot to 14, with Gilbert Melendez moving up to 13. He might be out of the rankings pretty quick though if the UFC doesn’t match Bellator’s offer.
Heavyweight – No changes.
Light Heavyweight – Mauricio Rua and Dan Henderson flip-flopped the six and seven spots again. They’ve done that in nearly every edition of the rankings in 2014 so far. Gegard Mousasi fell two spots to number 11, which allowed Ryan Bader and Jimi Manuwa to move up to nine and ten. Vitor Belfort moved up one spot to 12. James Te Huna moved up two spots to 13. Rafael Cavalcante entered the rankings at 14, while Machida is still hanging around at 15.
Middleweight – Despite both men picking up wins at UFC Fight Night 36, Machida took over the three spot and bumped Ronaldo Souza to four. Francis Carmont dropped one spot to nine with his loss, allowing Tim Kennedy to move up to eight. Mousasi made his middleweight debut at 12, With Alan Belcher and Brad Tavares dropping one spot to 13 and 14. Sonnen re-appeared on the list at 15, bumping Yoel Romero out of the rankings. Yeah.
Welterweight – No changes.
Lightweight – Rustam Khabilov moved up one spot to 13, bumping Michael Johnson to 14.
Featherweight – No changes.
Bantamweight – Ivan Menjivar and Bryan Caraway flip-flopped the 14 and 15 spots.
Flyweight – Scott Jorgensen moved up a spot to 12, bumping Dustin Ortiz to 13.
Women’s Bantamweight – Jessica Eye moved back up into the five spot, passing Sarah Kaufman.
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