UFC Rankings Breakdown: Major Jumps, New Fighters, Returning Fighters, More.
UFC's rankings saw a major shift after last week's two-card weekend. You can check out some of the major movements in the company at this link!
Valerie Letourneau lost a controversial fight to Viviane Pereira, and missed weight en route. This dropped her four spots to #13, as she's lost three straight fights. This caused this weekend's main eventer in Michelle Waterson to jump a spot to #11. Paige VanZant and Joanne Calderwood curiously switched spots as well (#7 and #8, respectively).
Kelvin Gastelum caused mayhem in the rankings of two divisions. He was removed from the welterweight top-15, causing Gunnar Nelson, Tarec Saffieding and Jorge Masvidal to move up, while Jake Ellenberger resurfaced. Matt Brown fell to #15. Gastelum debuted in the middleweight rankings at #10, pushing down several names.
One of the biggest game changers was Misha Cirkunov, who went up five spots to number 8, after defeating former #8 Nikita Krylov, who has fallen to tenth. This pushed Antonio Rogerio Noguiera and Pat Cummins both down.
Dustin Ortiz leaped into the ninth spot in the flyweight division, while Zach Makovsky fell four spots to #11.
Alexis Davis may have lost to Sara McMann a couple of weeks ago, but she returned to the rankings in a big way at #13 in the women's bantamweight division. Davis was removed from the top 15 after announcing her pregnancy in August 2015.
Derrick Lewis and Francis Ngannou both jumped a spot each (#9 and #11). The two UFC Heavyweights both earned finishes, with the former knocking Shamil Abdurakhimov out of the rankings.
Tim Johnson at heavyweight and Jan Blachowicz at light heavyweight also cracked the top-15 this week.
