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)
- Tom Aspinall (6)
- Alexander Volkov (7)
- Ryan Bader (8)
- Jairzinho Rozenstruik (10)
- Sergei Pavlovich (9)
France’s Cyril Gane delivered an excellent rebound performance following his title loss to Francis Ngannou. In a UFC Fight Night headliner in early September, Gane halted the beer-guzzling rise of Tai Tuivasa via strikes in the third round. Despite the fight’s outcome, Tuivasa holds tight in the No. 4 spot. Gane continues to trail only Ngannou in the rankings.
- Jiří Procházka (1)
- Glover Teixeira (2)
- Jan Błachowicz (3)
- Corey Anderson (4)
- Vadim Nemkov (5)
- Magomed Ankalaev (6)
- Aleksandar Rakić (7)
- Jamahal Hill (8)
- Dominick Reyes (9)
- Anthony Smith (10)
There were no fighters in action during the month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Israel Adesanya (1)
- Robert Whittaker (2)
- Marvin Vettori (3)
- Jared Cannonier (4)
- Alex Pereira (5)
- Paulo Costa (6)
- Derek Brunson (7)
- Sean Strickland (8)
- Johnny Eblen (9)
- Jack Hermansson (10)
Robert Whittaker further cemented his standing as the No. 2 middleweight in the world with a unanimous verdict over Marvin Vettori at UFC Fight Night: Gane vs. Tuivasa in early September. Despite the loss, Vettori holds firm as the third-ranked 185-pounder, one spot behind Whittaker.
- Leon Edwards (1)
- Kamaru Usman (2)
- Colby Covington (3)
- Khamzat Chimaev (4)
- Gilbert Burns (5)
- Belal Muhammad (6)
- Yaroslav Amosov (7)
- Stephen Thompson (8)
- Sean Brady (9)
- Shavkat Rakhmonov (10)
Khamzat Chimaev was the only ranked welterweight in action in September, but his bout, a late change that came as the result of a backstage brawl at a press conference event, took place at 180 pounds and doesn’t count toward his standing in the division. Chimaev, who was initially set to meet Nate Diaz in the UFC 279 headliner, instead steamrolled middleweight fighter Kevin Holland en route to a first-round submission victory.
- Charles Oliveira (1)
- Dustin Poirier (2)
- Justin Gaethje (3)
- Islam Makhachev (4)
- Michael Chandler (5)
- Beneil Dariush (6)
- Rafael Fiziev (7)
- Mateusz Gamrot (8)
- Conor McGregor (9)
- Rafael dos Anjos (10)
There were no fighters in action during the month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Alex Volkanovski (1)
- Max Holloway (2)
- Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (3)
- Yair Rodriguez (4)
- Brian Ortega (5)
- A.J. McKee (6)
- Josh Emmett (7)
- Calvin Kattar (8)
- Chan Sung Jung (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)
- Demetrious Johnson (5)
- Merab Dvalishvili (6)
- Adriano Moraes (7)
- Marlon Vera (8)
- José Aldo (9)
- Sergio Pettis (10)
Cory Sandhagen scored a doctor’s stoppage TKO of Song Yadong in the pair’s Sept. 17 UFC Fight Night headliner. Sandhagen opened a cut above Song’s eye that only got worse as the fight went on. The ringside physician had seen enough by the fourth round and decided Song could not continue. Sandhagen remains at fourth in the bantamweight division following the victory.
- Deiveson Figueiredo (1)
- Brandon Moreno (2)
- Kai Kara-France (3)
- Alexandre Pantoja (4)
- Askar Askarov (5)
- Brandon Royval (6)
- Alex Perez (7)
- Matheus Nicolau (8)
- Rogério Bontorin (9)
- Jarred Brooks (10)
There were no fighters in action during the month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Keito Yamakita (1)
- Daichi Kitakata (2)
- Gexi Sanlang (3)
- Ryo Hatta (4)
- Ryosuke Noda (5)
- Toshiya Takashima (6)
- Jo Arai (9)
- Kohei Wakabayashi (-)
- Billy Pasulatan (-)
- Junji Ito (8)
Dropped from rankings: Yuta Miyazawa (7), Tatsuki Ozaki (10)
The strawweight division features the biggest September moves of any weight class. Yuta Miyazawa’s misfortunes continued at Pancrase 329. The recent title challenger suffered his second consecutive loss when he was decisioned by Kohei Wakabayashi. The loss sends Miyazawa tumbling outside of the top 10, while Wakabayashi, who is now 5-1-1, enters in eighth. There was a point when Jo Arai had suffered eight consecutive defeats, but he’s now on the rise in the strawweight division. The veteran collected his seventh straight win when he landed a right hook to finish off Junji Ito at Shooto 2022 Vol 6. Arai climbs to seventh in our poll with the victory and sends Ito down two spots to 10th. The shuffling at the bottom of the rankings also allows ONE Pride MMA strawweight kingpin Billy Pasulatan to climb back into the top 10 in ninth. Meanwhile, Tatsuki Ozaki relinquishes his spot in the rankings.
- Alexander Volkanovski (1)
- Valentina Shevchenko (2)
- Charles Oliveira (3)
- Francis Ngannou (4)
- Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (5)
- Deiveson Figueiredo (6)
- Kamaru Usman (7)
- Dustin Poirier (8)
- Israel Adesanya (9)
- Amanda Nunes (10)
There were no fighters in action during the month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
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.