Every month, Combat Press will provide MMA rankings for each weight class from heavyweight to flyweight, 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)
- Jon Jones (2)
- Ciryl Gane (3)
- Sergei Pavlovich (4)
- Curtis Blaydes (5)
- Tom Aspinall (6)
- Alexander Volkov (7)
- Jailton Almeida (8)
- Ryan Bader (9)
- Tai Tuivasa (10)
No top-10 fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Jiří Procházka (1)
- Jamahal Hill (2)
- Glover Teixeira (3)
- Alex Pereira (4)
- Vadim Nemkov (5)
- Magomed Ankalaev (6)
- Jan Błachowicz (7)
- Aleksandar Rakić (8)
- Corey Anderson (9)
- Phil Davis (10)
No top-10 fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Israel Adesanya (1)
- Dricus du Plessis (2)
- Robert Whittaker (3)
- Jared Cannonier (4)
- Marvin Vettori (5)
- Sean Strickland (6)
- Paulo Costa (7)
- Derek Brunson (8)
- Johnny Eblen (9)
- Roman Doldize (10)
No top-10 fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Leon Edwards (1)
- Kamaru Usman (2)
- Colby Covington (3)
- Khamzat Chimaev (4)
- Belal Muhammad (5)
- Gilbert Burns (6)
- Yaroslav Amosov (7)
- Stephen Thompson (8)
- Sean Brady (9)
- Shavkat Rakhmonov (10)
No top-10 fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Islam Makhachev (1)
- Charles Oliveira (2)
- Justin Gaethje (3)
- Dustin Poirier (4)
- Beneil Dariush (5)
- Michael Chandler (6)
- Rafael Fiziev (7)
- Mateusz Gamrot (8)
- Usman Nurmagomedov (9)
- Arman Tsarukyan (10)
No top-10 fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Alex Volkanovski (1)
- Yair Rodriguez (2)
- Max Holloway (3)
- Brian Ortega (4)
- Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (5)
- Ilia Topuria (6)
- A.J. McKee (7)
- Arnold Allen (8)
- Chan Sung Jung (9)
- Josh Emmett (10)
Former featherweight champ and currently third-ranked Max Holloway continued his four-year theme of beating anyone not named Alexander Volkanovski when he faced “The Korean Zombie” Chan-Sung Jung at UFC Singapore on Aug. 26. After landing a hard knockout punch only 23 seconds into Round 3, Holloway sent The Korean Zombie out of the cage for the final time in his long and storied career, as the two-time title challenger and perennial bonus winner retired after the devastating loss. Both men hang onto their respective spots in the rankings.
- Sean O’Malley (4)
- Demetrious Johnson (2)
- Aljamain Sterling (1)
- Merab Dvalishvili (3)
- Cory Sandhagen (5)
- T.J. Dillashaw (7)
- Petr Yan (6)
- Marlon Vera (8)
- Adriano Moraes (9)
- Patchy Mix (-)
Dropped from the rankings: Jose Aldo (10)
The bantamweight division was, by far, the most active in August. At UFC Nashville on Aug. 5, No. 5 Cory Sandhagen was supposed to headline the event against Umar Nurmagomedov. However, Nurmagomedov pulled out with an injury only a few weeks out, and he was replaced by Rob Font. After five rounds, Sandhagen cruised to a unanimous decision victory. Two weeks later, UFC 292 hosted two big bantamweight fights.
To kick off the main card of UFC 292, No. 8 Marlon “Chito” Vera took on Pedro Munhoz, and the Ecuadoran standout took all three round en route to a decision victory. In the main event “Suga” Sean O’Malley faced champion Aljamain Sterling for the bantamweight title. Early in the second round, O’Malley clipped Sterling, sending the champ to the mat and finished the fight on the ground to crown himself the new champ.
O’Malley jumps to No. 1, Sterling falls to No. 3, and Dvalishvili drops to No. 4. In addition, due to a shake-up in the rankings panel, the lower end of the rankings had some minor shifts, and with Jose Aldo falling out, Patchy Mix enters at No. 10.
- Alexandre Pantoja (1)
- Brandon Moreno (2)
- Deiveson Figueiredo (3)
- Amir Albazi (4)
- Askar Askarov (5)
- Kai Kara-France (6)
- Brandon Royval (7)
- Alex Perez (8)
- Matheus Nicolau (9)
- Rogério Bontorin (10)
No top-10 fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Islam Makhachev (1)
- Alexander Volkanovski (2)
- Jon Jones (3)
- Francis Ngannou (4)
- Charles Oliveira (5)
- Demetrious Johnson (6)
- Justin Gaethje (7)
- Leon Edwards (8)
- Dustin Poirier (9)
- Amanda Nunes (10)
No top-10 fighters were in action this 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.