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.
- Jon Jones (1)
- Ciryl Gane (2)
- Tom Aspinall (3)
- Alexander Volkov (4)
- Curtis Blaydes (5)
- Sergei Pavlovich (6)
- Jailton Almeida (7)
- Serghei Spivac (-)
- Jairzinho Rozenstruik (9)
- Marcin Tybura (8)
Dropped from the rankings: Tai Tuivasa (10)
On Aug. 10, at UFC Vegas 95, crafty veteran Serghei Spivac submitted No. 8 Marcin Tybura with an armbar in the first round. A week later, at UFC 305, No. 9 Jairzinho Rozenstruik picked up a split decision over tenth-ranked Tai Tuivasa. Spivac enters the rankings at No. 8, Tybura drops to No. 1, and Tuivasa falls out of the rankings.
- Alex Pereira (1)
- Jiří Procházka (2)
- Jamahal Hill (3)
- Magomed Ankalaev (4)
- Jan Błachowicz (5)
- Aleksandar Rakić (6)
- Corey Anderson (7)
- Phil Davis (8)
- Volkan Oezdemir (9)
- Bogdan Guskov (10)
No top-10 fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Dricus du Plessis (1)
- Sean Strickland (2)
- Israel Adesanya (3)
- Robert Whittaker (4)
- Nassourdine Imavov (5)
- Marvin Vettori (6)
- Khamzat Chimaev (7)
- Paulo Costa (8)
- Caio Borralho (-)
- Johnny Eblen (10)
Dropped from the rankings: Jared Cannonier (9)
In the UFC UFC 305 headliner, defending champ Dricus Du Plessis finally faced his nemesis in former longtime champ Israel Adesanya. In the fourth round, DDP pulled off a submission to retain the title. The following week at UFC Vegas 96, unranked Caio Borralho won a decision over No. 9 Jared Cannonier. Borralho enters at No. 9 and Cannonier falls from the rankings.
- Belal Muhammad (1)
- Leon Edwards (2)
- Kamaru Usman (3)
- Shavkat Rakhmonov (4)
- Colby Covington (5)
- Jack Della Maddalena (6)
- Sean Brady (7)
- Gilbert Burns (8)
- Ian Garry (9)
- Ramazan Kuramagomedov (10)
No top-10 fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Islam Makhachev (1)
- Arman Tsarukyan (2)
- Charles Oliveira (3)
- Justin Gaethje (4)
- Dustin Poirier (5)
- Michael Chandler (6)
- Dan Hooker (-)
- Mateusz Gamrot (7)
- Beneil Dariush (8)
- Rafael Fiziev (9)
Dropped from the rankings: A.J. McKee (10)
A shake-up happened at UFC 305, when Dan Hooker picked up a split decision over No. 7 Mateusz Gamrot. Hooker enters at No. 7, pushing four men down, leaving A.J. McKee as the odd man out.
- Ilia Topuria (1)
- Brian Ortega (2)
- Alex Volkanovski (3)
- Max Holloway (4)
- Yair Rodriguez (5)
- Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (6)
- Movsar Evloev (7)
- Chan Sung Jung (8)
- Josh Emmett (9)
- Aljamain Sterling (10)
No top-10 fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Sean O’Malley (1)
- Demetrious Johnson (2)
- Umar Nurmagomedov (-)
- Merab Dvalishvili (3)
- Cory Sandhagen (4)
- Petr Yan (6)
- Deiveson Figueiredo (-)
- Henry Cejudo (7)
- Patchy Mix (9)
- Marlon Vera (8)
Dropped from the rankings: T.J. Dillashaw (5), Adriano Moraes (10)
Before getting to the monthly action, it should be noted that T.J. Dillashaw has been removed from the rankings after nearly two years of inactivity.
On Aug. 3, UFC Abu Dhabi ended up being a very significant card for the bantamweight division. A featured fight on the main card saw former UFC flyweight champion pick up a unanimous decision over No. 8 Marlon “Chito” Vera. In the main event, unranked Umar Nurmagomedov kept his undefeated record intact when he dominated No. 4 Cory Sandhagen in a five-round battle. When everything shook out, Nurmagomedov entered at No. 3, Sandhagen fell to No. 5, Figueiredo landed at No. 7, and, after some movement down, Adriano Moraes fell off.
- Alexandre Pantoja (1)
- Brandon Royval (2)
- Brandon Moreno (3)
- Deiveson Figueiredo (4)
- Amir Albazi (5)
- Askar Askarov (6)
- Kai Kara-France (7)
- Muhammad Mokaev (8)
- Tatsuro Taira (9)
- Alex Perez (10)
At UFC 305, No. 7 Kai Kara-France scored a first-round TKO of Steve Erceg to keep his spot in the rankings.
- Islam Makhachev (1)
- Jon Jones (2)
- Max Holloway (3)
- Demetrious Johnson (4)
- Alex Pereira (5)
- Belal Muhammad (6)
- Dustin Poirier (7)
- Amanda Nunes (8)
- Ilia Topuria (9)
- Justin Gaethje (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.