New Rankings! Oliveira Is Now A Top 3 Lightweight

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) recently staged UFC 256 live from inside UFC APEX last Saturday night (Dec. 12, 2020) in Las Vegas, Nevada, featuring a Flyweight title fight that saw Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno fight to a majority draw in an instant classic.

In the co-main event, Charles Oliveira earned a dominant unanimous decision win over Tony Ferguson, which was good enough to shoot him up to the No. 3 spot in the stacked Lightweight division in the updated rankings. It also helped his case in the championship conversation. Also, Kevin Holland cracked the Top 10 after he knocked out Ronaldo Souza via devastating fashion in the very first round.

Here’s a refresher on 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. Khabib Nurmagomedov
2. Jon Jones
3. Israel Adesanya
4. Stipe Miocic
5. Kamaru Usman
6. Alexander Volkanovski
7. Dustin Poirier
8. Max Holloway -1
9. Deiveson Figueiredo +1
10. Petr Yan -1
11. Justin Gaethje
12. Conor McGregor
13. Robert Whittaker
14. Francis Ngannou +1
15. Jan Blachowicz NR

FLYWEIGHT

Champion: Deiveson Figueiredo

1. Brandon Moreno
2. Joseph Benavidez
3. Askar Askarov
4. Alex Perez
5. Alexandre Pantoja
6. Brandon Royval
7. Rogerio Bontorin
8. Kai Kara France -1
9. Matt Schnell
10. Raulian Paiva
11. David Dvorak
12. Tim Elliott
13. Tyson Nam
14. Jordan Espinosa
15. Amir Albazi

BANTAMWEIGHT

Champion: Petr Yan

1. Aljamain Sterling
2. Cory Sandhagen
3. Marlon Moraes
4. Cody Garbrandt
5. Frankie Edgar
6. Pedro Munhoz
7. Jose Aldo
8. Jimmie Rivera
9. Raphael Assuncao
10. Dominick Cruz
11. Rob Font
12. Merab Dvalishvili
13. Cody Stamann
14. Song Yadong
15. Marlon Vera

FEATHERWEIGHT

Champion: ALEXANDER VOLKANOVSKI

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

LIGHTWEIGHT

Champion: KHABIB NURMAGOMEDOV

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

WELTERWEIGHT

Champion: KAMARU USMAN

1. Colby Covington
2. Gilbert Burns
3. Leon Edwards
4. Jorge Masvidal
5. Stephen Thompson
6. Tyron Woodley
7. Demian Maia
8. Michael Chiesa
9. Neil Magny
10. Vicente Luque
11. Geoff Neal
12. Anthony Pettis
13. Belal Muhammed
14. Robbie Lawler
15. Khamzat Chimaev

MIDDLEWEIGHT

Champion: ISRAEL ADESANYA

1. Robert Whittaker
2. Paulo Costa
3. Jared Cannonier
4. Darren Till
5. Marvin Vettori
6. Jack Hermansson
7. Derek Brunson
8. Kelvin Gastelum
9. Uriah Hall
10. Kevin Holland +5
11. Chris Weidman -1
12. Edmen Shahbazyan -1
13. Omari Akhmedov -1
14. Brad Tavares -1
15. Ian Heinisch -1

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT

Champion: Jan Blachowicz

1. Glover Teixeira
2. Thiago Santos
3. Dominick Reyes
4. Aleksandar Rakic
5. Jiri Prochazka
6. Anthony Smith
7. Volkan Oezdemir
8. Nikita Krylov
9. Johnny Walker
10. Misha Cirkunov
11. Magomed Ankalaev
12. Ryan Spann
12. Jim Crute +1
14. Paul Craig
15. Jamahal Hill

HEAVYWEIGHT

Champion: STIPE MIOCIC

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

WOMEN’S POUND-FOR-POUND

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

WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT

Champion: WEILI ZHANG

1. Rose Namajunas
2. Joanna Jedrzejczyk
3. Yan Xiaonan
4. Carla Esparza
5. Nina Ansaroff
6. Claudia Gadelha
7. Michelle Waterson
8. Marina Rodriguez
9. Amanda Ribas
9. Tecia Torres +1
11. Mackenzie Dern
12. Angela Hill
13. Virna Jandiroba
14. Felice Herrig
15. Livinha Souza

WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT

Champion: VALENTINA SHEVCHENKO

1. Jessica Andrade
2. Katlyn Chookagian
3. Lauren Murphy
4. Jennifer Maia +1
5. Cynthia Calvillo -1
6. Jessica Eye
7. Joanne Calderwood
8. Roxanne Modafferi
9. Viviane Araujo
10. Maycee Barber
11. Andrea Lee
12. Alexis Davis +1
13. Gillian Robertson -1
14. Antonina Shevchenko
15. Montana De La Rosa

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT

Champion: AMANDA NUNES

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

There you have it.

You can expect these rankings to change around this time next week, particularly in the Welterweight division, following this weekend’s UFC Vegas 17: “Thompson vs Neal” mixed martial arts (MMA) event on ESPN+ from inside UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.

For much more on that upcoming fight card click here.