Every month, Combat Press will provide MMA rankings for each weight class from heavyweight to strawweight, as well as the pound-for-pound rankings (including all genders).
Note: the numbers in parentheses represent the fighter’s ranking from the previous month.
- Francis Ngannou (1)
- Ciryl Gane (2)
- Stipe Miocic (3)
- Tai Tuivasa (4)
- Curtis Blaydes (5)
- Derrick Lewis (6)
- Tom Aspinall (7)
- Alexander Volkov (8)
- Jairzinho Rozenstruik (9)
- Ryan Bader (10)
The only ranked heavyweight in action in May was Ryan Bader. The Bellator heavyweight champion made a successful title defense at Bellator 280, where he scored a unanimous-decision victory over fellow UFC veteran Cheick Kongo. Bader holds steady in the No. 10 spot in the rankings.
- Glover Teixeira (1)
- Jan Błachowicz (2)
- Jiří Procházka (3)
- Corey Anderson (4)
- Vadim Nemkov (5)
- Aleksandar Rakić (6)
- Magomed Ankalaev (7)
- Thiago Santos (8)
- Anthony Smith (9)
- Dominick Reyes (10)
Former UFC light-heavyweight champ Jan Błachowicz moved one step closer to a title rematch with Glover Teixeira. Unfortunately, the Polish star’s win came via an injury TKO over fellow ranked fighter Aleksandar Rakić. Rakić suffered a knee injury in the bout that left him unable to continue. Both fighters retain their positions in the top 10.
- Israel Adesanya (1)
- Robert Whittaker (2)
- Marvin Vettori (3)
- Jared Cannonier (4)
- Paulo Costa (5)
- Derek Brunson (6)
- Sean Strickland (7)
- Gegard Mousasi (8)
- Jack Hermansson (9)
- Darren Till (10)
There were no fighters in action during the month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Kamaru Usman (1)
- Colby Covington (2)
- Khamzat Chimaev (3)
- Gilbert Burns (4)
- Leon Edwards (5)
- Belal Muhammad (6)
- Vicente Luque (7)
- Stephen Thompson (8)
- Sean Brady (9)
- Yaroslav Amosov (10)
There were no fighters in action during the month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Charles Oliveira (1)
- Dustin Poirier (2)
- Justin Gaethje (3)
- Islam Makhachev (4)
- Michael Chandler (5)
- Beneil Dariush (6)
- Rafael dos Anjos (7)
- Conor McGregor (8)
- Rafael Fiziev (9)
- Arman Tsarukyan (10)
May was a busy month for ranked lightweights. Charles Oliveira missed weight by half a pound for his UFC title defense at UFC 274, but he quickly proved his superiority with a first-round submission of Justin Gaethje. The Brazilian’s weight miss and subsequent win results in a vacated championship. Meanwhile, both fighters sit tight in the rankings. Michael Chandler scored a big knockout win earlier the same night over Tony Ferguson. Chandler also retains his spot in the rankings with the victory.
- Alex Volkanovski (1)
- Max Holloway (2)
- Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (3)
- A.J. McKee (4)
- Brian Ortega (5)
- Yair Rodriguez (6)
- Calvin Kattar (7)
- Chan Sung Jung (8)
- Arnold Allen (9)
- Giga Chikadze (10)
There were no fighters in action during the month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Aljamain Sterling (1)
- Petr Yan (2)
- T.J. Dillashaw (3)
- Cory Sandhagen (4)
- Adriano Moraes (5)
- José Aldo (6)
- Demetrious Johnson (7)
- Dominick Cruz (8)
- Marlon Vera (9)
- Sergio Pettis (10)
There were no fighters in action during the month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Deiveson Figueiredo (1)
- Brandon Moreno (2)
- Kai Kara-France (3)
- Askar Askarov (4)
- Alexandre Pantoja (5)
- Alex Perez (6)
- Brandon Royval (7)
- Matheus Nicolau (8)
- Rogério Bontorin (9)
- Joshua Pacio (10)
Brandon Royval added another feather to his cap with a first-round submission finish of Matt Schnell at UFC 274. As is the trend with many of this month’s winning fighters, Royval fails to advance up the rankings board with the win. Instead, he remains at seventh in our poll.
- Daichi Kitakata (1)
- Gexi Sanlang (4)
- Keito Yamakita (2)
- Ryosuke Noda (3)
- Toshiya Takashima (5)
- Yuta Miyazawa (6)
- Ryo Hatta (7)
- Junji Ito (-)
- Jo Arai (-)
- Tatsuki Ozaki (10)
Dropped from the rankings: Billy Pasulatan (8), Shuto Aki (9)
Two 115-pounders make their rankings debut this month. The first of those men is Junji Ito, who captured the Shooto interim belt in late 2021 with a submission victory over Ryohei Kurosawa. The 35-year-old lays claim to the No. 8 spot in the rankings. Meanwhile, Jo Arai lands at ninth with a May win of his own against Kurosawa. Arai, who knocked out his recent foe, is now on a six-fight winning streak that dates back to 2019. Of course, these new entries also mean that two men depart our top 10. Those men are One Pride MMA strawweight kingpin Billy Pasulatan and Shooto staple Shuto Aki.
- Kamaru Usman (1)
- Valentina Shevchenko (2)
- Alexander Volkanovski (3)
- Francis Ngannou (5)
- Charles Oliveira (6)
- Deiveson Figueiredo (8)
- Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (7)
- Israel Adesanya (9)
- Dustin Poirier (-)
- Glover Teixeira (10)
Dropped from the rankings: Rose Namajunas (4)
The most significant shake-up of the month comes in the pound-for-pound rankings, where Rose Namajunas surrenders her grip on the No. 4 spot following a UFC women’s strawweight title defeat at the hands of Carla Esparza. Despite the razor-thin win at UFC 274, Esparza fails to crack the top 10. Instead, Dustin Poirier returns to the rankings in ninth.
Editor’s Note: Fighters are eligible to be ranked if they have competed in the last 18 months. Any fighter that chooses to switch weight classes will be ranked in their previous weight class until they have competed twice in their new division. Fighters who announce their retirement will remain ranked for a period of six months following their final bout.