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)
- Francis Ngannou (2)
- Ciryl Gane (3)
- Tom Aspinall (4)
- Alexander Volkov (5)
- Curtis Blaydes (6)
- Sergei Pavlovich (7)
- Jailton Almeida (8)
- Serghei Spivac (9)
- Jairzinho Rozenstruik (10)
The only heavyweights competing in December were No. 3 Ciryl Gane and No. 5 Alexander Volkov, who fought at UFC 310 on Dec. 7. Gane took a split decision win, and the rankings remain unchanged.
- 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)
- Khamzat Chimaev (4)
- Robert Whittaker (5)
- Nassourdine Imavov (6)
- Marvin Vettori (7)
- Paulo Costa (8)
- Caio Borralho (9)
- Johnny Eblen (10)
No top-10 fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Belal Muhammad (1)
- Leon Edwards (2)
- Kamaru Usman (3)
- Shavkat Rakhmonov (4)
- Joaquin Buckley (-)
- Jack Della Maddalena (6)
- Sean Brady (7)
- Colby Covington (5)
- Ramazan Kuramagomedov (10)
- Gilbert Burns (8)
Dropped from the rankings: Ian Machado Garry (9)
At UFC 310 on Dec. 7, seventh-ranked Shavkat Rakhmonov scored a decision win over ninth-ranked Ian Garry. A week later, at UFC Tampa, unranked Joaquin Buckley extended his winning streak to six, when he defeated No. 5 Colby Covington with a TKO due to doctor stoppage. All of this caused a shake-up in the rankings with Buckley entering at No. 5, Covington dropping to No. 8, Gilbert Burns falling to No. 10, and Garry falling out.
- Islam Makhachev (1)
- Arman Tsarukyan (2)
- Charles Oliveira (3)
- Justin Gaethje (4)
- Dustin Poirier (5)
- Michael Chandler (6)
- Dan Hooker (7)
- Mateusz Gamrot (8)
- Beneil Dariush (8)
- Rafael Fiziev (10)
No top-10 fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- Ilia Topuria (1)
- Alex Volkanovski (2)
- Max Holloway (3)
- Diego Lopes (4)
- Brian Ortega (5)
- Yair Rodriguez (6)
- Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (7)
- Movsar Evloev (8)
- Chan Sung Jung (9)
- Josh Emmett (10)
The only featherweight in action was No. 8 Movsar Evloev, who beat former UFC bantamweight titleholder Aljamain Sterling by unanimous decision. The rankings remain unchanged.
- Merab Dvalishvili (1)
- Sean O’Malley (2)
- Demetrious Johnson (3)
- Umar Nurmagomedov (4)
- Cory Sandhagen (5)
- Petr Yan (6)
- Henry Cejudo (7)
- Patchy Mix (8)
- Deiveson Figueiredo (9)
- Marlon Vera (10)
No top-10 fighters were in action this month, so the rankings remain unchanged.
- 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 310 on Dec. 7, UFC flyweight titleholder Alexandre Pantoja scored a second-round technical submission over promotional newcomer, and former longtime RIZIN FF bantamweight champ, Kai Asakura. The rankings remain unchanged.
- Islam Makhachev (1)
- Jon Jones (2)
- Ilia Topuria (3)
- Alex Pereira (4)
- Max Holloway (5)
- Demetrious Johnson (6)
- Dustin Poirier (7)
- Belal Muhammad (8)
- Amanda Nunes (9)
- Justin Gaethje (10)
The only pound-for-pound ranked fighter in action was UFC flyweight champ Alexandre Pantoja who picked up a technical submission of Kai Asakura. 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.