As MMA continues to grow its presence with the UFC, Bellator MMA, WSOF and ONE FC, fighters are constantly jockeying for position in the eyes (and rankings) of the media.
Every week, Combat Press will rank each weight class from heavyweight to flyweight, as well as the pound-for-pound rankings.
Note: the numbers in parentheses represent the fighter’s ranking from last week
- Cain Velasquez (1)
- Fabricio Werdum (2)
- Junior dos Santos (3)
- Travis Browne (4)
- Josh Barnett (5)
- Stipe Miocic (6)
- Mark Hunt (7)
- Ben Rothwell (8)
- Andrei Arlovski (9)
- Roy Nelson (10)
No fighters in the top 10 were in action this week, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Jon Jones (1)
- Alexander Gustafsson (2)
- Daniel Cormier (3)
- Anthony “Rumble” Johnson (4)
- Rashad Evans (5)
- Phil Davis (6)
- Glover Teixeira (7)
- Vitor Belfort (8)
- Ryan Bader (9)
- Ovince Saint Preux (10)
No fighters in the top 10 were in action this week, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Chris Weidman (1)
- Vitor Belfort (2)
- Anderson Silva (3)
- Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (4)
- Lyoto Machida (5)
- Luke Rockhold (6)
- Yoel Romero (7)
- Tim Kennedy (8)
- Michael Bisping (9)
- Gegard Mousasi (10)
No fighters in the top 10 were in action this week, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Robbie Lawler (1)
- Johny Hendricks (2)
- Georges St-Pierre (3)
- Ben Askren (4)
- Rory MacDonald (5)
- Hector Lombard (6)
- Matt Brown (7)
- Tyron Woodley (8)
- Carlos Condit (9)
- Dong Hyun Kim (10)
No fighters in the top 10 were in action this week, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Anthony Pettis (1)
- Gilbert Melendez (2)
- Khabib Nurmagomedov (3)
- Rafael dos Anjos (4)
- Donald Cerrone (5)
- Benson Henderson (6)
- Eddie Alvarez (7)
- Will Brooks (8)
- Edson Barboza (9)
- Myles Jury (10)
If you didn’t already know Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone was a little crazy, stepping in on two weeks’ notice to face former UFC and WEC champion Benson Henderson at UFC Fight Night 59 should provide you with plenty of evidence. The third meeting between the pair was very different than their first two match-ups. Instead of entertaining grappling, the fight was largely contested on the feet. Normally, that would heavily favor the Muay Thai stylist Cerrone, but Henderson more than held his own, utilizing a variety of kicks to frustrate Cerrone. After three hard-fought rounds, it appeared Henderson had done enough to eke out the win, but the Boston judges saw otherwise, handing Cerrone his second win over a top-10 opponent this month.
- Jose Aldo (1)
- Chad Mendes (2)
- Frankie Edgar (3)
- Cub Swanson (4)
- Conor McGregor (7)
- Ricardo Lamas (5)
- Dennis Bermudez (6)
- Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (9)
- Dustin Poirier (8)
- Pat Curran (10)
Say what you will about the way the UFC has chosen to market Ireland’s Conor McGregor, but thus far he’s been able to back up his trash talk and prove the hype is real. His UFC Fight Night 59 opponent Dennis Siver was mostly ignored in the lead-up to the fight, as McGregor was promised a title shot at featherweight kingpin Jose Aldo with a win. All McGregor did in Boston was batter Siver from the opening bell and earn a second-round TKO win. Not only did he lock up the title shot, he jumped out of the cage to confront Aldo cageside. The champion just smiled, setting up the a highly anticipated fight later this year.
- T.J. Dillashaw (1)
- Renan Barão (2)
- Dominick Cruz (3)
- Urijah Faber (4)
- Bibiano Fernandes (5)
- Raphael Assuncao (6)
- Michael McDonald (7)
- Iuri Alcantara (8)
- Marlon Moraes (9)
- Joe Warren (10)
No fighters in the top 10 were in action this week, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Demetrious Johnson (1)
- Joseph Benavidez (2)
- John Dodson (3)
- Ian McCall (4)
- Jussier “Formiga” da Silva (5)
- Zach Makovsky (6)
- John Lineker (7)
- Kyoji Horiguchi (8)
- John Moraga (9)
- Ali Bagautinov (10)
No fighters in the top 10 were in action this week, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Jose Aldo (1)
- Jon Jones (2)
- Demetrious Johnson (3)
- Ronda Rousey (4)
- Cain Velasquez (5)
- Chris Weidman (6)
- Anthony Pettis (7)
- T.J. Dillashaw (8)
- Robbie Lawler (9)
- Anderson Silva (10)
No fighters in the top 10 were in action this week, so the rankings remain unchanged.