Following UFC 309 this past Saturday, the new ranking update has once again stirred controversy as Jon Jones is still unable to claim the top spot.
The UFC pound-for-pound rankings have been a serious topic of debate this year as UFC CEO Dana White has continuously banged the drum that Jon Jones should be in the top spot.
Following his return to the Octagon this past Saturday at UFC 309, ‘Bones’ picked up an impressive win over the consensus greatest heavyweight of all time, Stipe Miocic, finishing him in the third round.
Alex Pereira comments on the pound-for-pound rankings update
The main argument against the 37-year-old being pound-for-pound number one is that he has not been active enough over the past few years.
Despite picking up another win this past Saturday, Jones is still yet to crack the top spot of the rankings with the recent update this Tuesday.
Current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev remains top of the pile, despite having not fought since UFC 302 this past June.
Falling down a spot to third place is light heavyweight king and current star of the UFC, Alex Pereira. ‘Poatan’ has been the most active champion this year having fought three times, scoring three extremely impressive KOs.
Ahead of Jones’ comeback, the consensus greatest of all time admitted that he would like to fight Pereira next, dismissing the challenge of the interim champion, Tom Aspinall.
Following Jones’ performance and having not reclaimed the top spot, Pereira commented on the update.
“With this change only I would be already happy,” Pereira posted on his Instagram story whilst suggesting Jones and Makhachev switch places.
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Dana White left seething following pound-for-pound rankings update
After having banged the drum all year that Jones is the greatest fighter of all time and should be number one in the pound-for-pound rankings, the UFC boss was left seething with the recent update.
White has recently claimed that he is planning on overhauling the current ranking system, laying the blame on the MMA media members who make up the rankings panel, labeling them as ‘clueless’ on several occasions.
He has teased multiple times that he is considering having Artificial Intelligence fix the rankings, however, he still hasn’t come up with a way of fixing the issue.
Having said that, reacting to the recent update, White called upon the assistance of Mark Zuckerberg to fix it once and for all, after finding out that Jones had only jumped up to second on the list.
“I have to get rid of these CLOWNS!! Mark Zuckerberg let’s get this AI deal done ASAP!!!” White said in a post on his Instagram story.
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