Merab Dvalishvili has made a splash in the pound-for-pound rankings following his UFC 311 title defense with Islam Makhachev also retaining his crown.
In the co-main event of UFC 311 this past Saturday, Merab Dvalishvili successfully defended his bantamweight title for the first time, beating Umar Nurmagomedov via unanimous decision.
Then in the main event, Islam Makhachev broke the UFC record for the most amount of title defenses in the lightweight division with a win over Renato Moicano.
Merab Dvalishvili cracks the P4P top 5 as Makhachev retains the number 1 spot
Following Makhachev’s first-round victory, he was praised by UFC boss Dana White who finally admitted that he recognizes him as the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world.
Makhachev is widely regarded as the rightful pound-for-pound number one, despite White’s tireless campaigning last year for Jon Jones to be in the top spot, and following his win, he remained at the top.
Prior to UFC 311, Merab ‘The Machine’ sat in the number seven spot on the pound-for-pound list below the likes of Belal Muhammad and Dricus Du Plessis.
However, following his impressive underdog win over the undefeated Umar, the bantamweight champion moved up two spots and has now cracked the top five as he sits in at number five.
READ MORE: Merab Dvalishvili explains how he tricked the commission to fight injured at UFC 311
Unfortunately for Muhammad and Du Plessis, they both dropped down a spot and will look to climb back up the rankings with their next fights.
Tom Aspinall, Alexandre Pantoja, and Leon Edwards make up the rest of the top 10, with Alex Pereira and Ilia Topuria occupying third and fourth spots.
Dana White provides an update on AI-assisted rankings
Although White has finally changed his mind on the order of the top two, he remains insistent that the ranking system needs an overhaul.
Throughout 2024, the UFC boss stated that he was working on several different ways of improving the ranking system, even revealing that he was hoping to work with Mark Zuckerberg to implement AI-controlled rankings.
And with that, following UFC 311, the boss provided an update on the implementation of a new ranking system.
“Yeah, we’re still working on it and actually we should be announcing that in the next few weeks, like two or three weeks. Yeah (it will include AI), and some other stuff too, I think we have a good plan in place and when we’re ready to unveil it, we will,” White said at the post-fight press conference.
White was recently appointed to Meta’s board of directors by Zuckerberg which could potentially lead to Meta’s involvement in White’s cunning rankings plan.