New Rankings! Garbrandt Blasts His Way Back Into Top 5

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) recently tied a ribbon around its UFC 250: “Nunes vs. Spencer” pay-per-view (PPV) event, which took place last Sat. night (June 6, 2020) inside UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada. And since the promotion doesn’t have enough female featherweights to populate 15 open slots, there is nothing to update at 145 pounds.

The rest of the field, however, had some movers and shakers.

Particularly in the men’s bantamweight division, where former champion Cody Garbrandt blasted his way back into the Top 5 by planishing Raphael Assuncao. In addition, “Sugar” Sean O’Malley cracked the Top 15 with his thunderous knockout of longtime veteran Eddie Wineland, while Cody Stamann breached the Top 10 after outlasting Brian Kelleher.

Here’s how the rankings work, courtesy of UFC.com:

Rankings were generated by a voting panel made up of media members. The media members were asked to vote for who they feel are the top fighters in the UFC by weight-class and pound-for-pound. A fighter is only eligible to be voted on if they are in active status in the UFC. A fighter can appear in more than one weight division at a time. The champion and interim champion are considered to be in the top positions of their respective divisions and therefore are not eligible for voting by weight-class. However, the champions can be voted on for the pound-for-pound rankings.

Take a look at what the latest rankings field looks like courtesy of UFC.com. Note: (+/- = movement in rankings, T = tie, *NR = Not previously ranked).

MEN’S POUND-FOR-POUND

1. Jon Jones
2. Khabib Nurmagomedov
3. Stipe Miocic
4. Israel Adesanya
5. Daniel Cormier
6. Kamaru Usman
7. Alexander Volkanovski
8. Conor McGregor
9. Max Holloway
10. Justin Gaethje
11. Dustin Poirier
12. Tony Ferguson
13. Robert Whittaker
14. Francis Ngannou
15. Dominick Reyes

FLYWEIGHT

Champion: VACANT

1. Deiveson Figueiredo
2. Joseph Benavidez
3. Brandon Moreno
4. (T) Alexandre Pantoja +1
4. (T) Alex Perez +5
6. Jussier Formiga -2
7. Askar Askarov -1
8. Kai Kara France -1
9. Rogerio Bontorin -1
10. Matt Schnell
11. Brandon Royval
12. Tim Elliott
13. Jordan Espinosa
14. Raulian Paiva
15. David Dvorak

BANTAMWEIGHT

Champion: VACANT

1. Marlon Moraes
2. Aljamain Sterling
3. Petr Yan
4. Cory Sandhagen
5. Cody Garbrandt +4
6. Jose Aldo
7. Pedro Munhoz
8. Raphael Assuncao -3
9. Jimmie Rivera -1
10. Cody Stamann +2
11. Rob Font -1
12. Dominick Cruz -1
13. John Dodson
14. Song Yadong
15. Sean O’Malley *NR

FEATHERWEIGHT

Champion: ALEXANDER VOLKANOVSKI

1. Max Holloway
2. Brian Ortega
3. Zabit Magomedsharipov
4. Chan Sung Jung
5. Yair Rodriguez
6. Calvin Kattar
7. Frankie Edgar
8. Josh Emmett
9. Jeremy Stephens
10. Shane Burgos
11. Dan Ige
12. Arnold Allen
13. Jose Aldo
14. Ryan Hall
15. Sodiq Yosef

LIGHTWEIGHT

Champion: KHABIB NURMAGOMEDOV

1. Justin Gaethje
2. Tony Ferguson
3. Dustin Poirier
4. Conor McGregor
5. Dan Hooker
6. Paul Felder
7. Charles Oliveira
8. Kevin Lee
9. Al Iaquinta
10. Diego Ferreira
11. Gregor Gillespie
12. Donald Cerrone
13. Islam Makhachev
14. Beneil Dariush
15. Drew Dober

WELTERWEIGHT

Champion: KAMARU USMAN

1. Gilbert Burns
2. Colby Covington
3. Jorge Masvidal
4. Tyron Woodley
5. Leon Edwards
6. Stephen Thompson
7. Demian Maia
8. Michael Chiesa
9. Rafael dos Anjos
10. Nate Diaz
11. Geoff Neal
12. Robbie Lawler
13. Vicente Luque
14. Anthony Pettis
15. Neil Magny *NR

MIDDLEWEIGHT

Champion: ISRAEL ADESANYA

1. Robert Whittaker
2. Paulo Costa
3. Jared Cannonier
4. (T) Yoel Romero
4. (T) Darren Till
6. Jack Hermansson
7. Kelvin Gastelum
8. Derek Brunson
9. Edmen Shahbazyan
10. Uriah Hall
11. Omari Akhmedov +1
12. Brad Tavares -1
13. Ian Heinisch
14. Antonio Carlos Junior
15. Krzysztof Jotko

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT

Champion: JON JONES

1. Dominick Reyes
2. Thiago Santos
3. Jan Blachowicz
4. Corey Anderson
5. Glover Teixeira
6. Anthony Smith
7. Volkan Oezdemir
8. Alexander Gustafsson
9. Aleksandar Rakic
10. Nikita Krylov
11. Johnny Walker
12. Misha Cirkunov
13. Ryan Spann
14. Magomed Ankalaev
15. Mauricio Rua

HEAVYWEIGHT

Champion: STIPE MIOCIC

1. Daniel Cormier
2. Francis Ngannou
3. Curtis Blaydes
4. Derrick Lewis
5. Junior dos Santos
6. Jairzinho Rozenstruik
7. Alexander Volkov
8. Alistair Overeem
9. Walt Harris
10. Augusto Sakai
11. Aleksei Oleinik
12. Shamil Abdurakhimov
13. Sergei Pavlovich
14. Fabricio Werdum
15. Blagoy Ivanov

WOMEN’S POUND-FOR-POUND

1. Amanda Nunes
2. Weili Zhang
3. Valentina Shevchenko
4. Jessica Andrade
5. Joanna Jedrzejczyk
6. Rose Namajunas
7. Tatiana Suarez
8. Holly Holm
9. Germaine De Randamie
10. Aspen Ladd
11. Katlyn Chookagian
12. Jessica Eye
13. Claudia Gadelha
14. Nina Ansaroff +1
15. Julianna Pena -1

WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT

Champion: WEILI ZHANG

1. Jessica Andrade
2. Rose Namajunas
3. Tatiana Suarez
4. Joanna Jedrzejczyk
5. Nina Ansaroff
6. Claudia Gadelha
7. Carla Esparza
8. Michelle Waterson
9. Marina Rodriguez
10. Cynthia Calvillo
11. Yan Xiaonan
12. Tecia Torres
13. Alexa Grasso
14. Felice Herrig
15. Amanda Ribas

WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT

Champion: VALENTINA SHEVCHENKO

1. Jessica Eye
2. Katlyn Chookagian
3. Joanne Calderwood
4. Jennifer Maia
5. Roxanne Modafferi
6. Lauren Murphy
7. Viviane Araujo
8. Andrea Lee
9. Maycee Barber
10. Alexis Davis
11. Montana De La Rosa
12. Antonina Shevchenko
13. Ji Yeon Kim
14. Molly McCann
15. Cortney Casey

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT

Champion: AMANDA NUNES

1. Germaine de Randamie
2. Holly Holm
3. Aspen Ladd
4. Julianna Pena
5. Irene Aldana
6. Raquel Pennington
7. Ketlen Vieira
8. Yana Kunitskaya
9. Sara McMann
10. Marion Reneau
11. Lina Lansberg
12. Macy Chiasson
13. Bethe Correia
14. Sijara Eubanks
15. Nicco Montano

There you have it.

You can expect these rankings to change in roughly one week, following the UFC on ESPN 10: “Eye vs. Calvillo” mixed martial arts (MMA) event, which takes place this Sat. night (June 13, 2020) from inside UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.

For much more on that upcoming event click here.