New Rankings! Esparza Takes Over No. 3 Spot

Former UFC strawweight champion Carla Esparza won her fifth straight fight by smashing fellow 115-pound contender Xiaonan Yan in the UFC Vegas 27 co-main event last Sat. night (May 22, 2021) inside APEX facility in Las Vegas, Nevada, landing at No. 3 in the division. rankings as a result.

Message received.

Elsewhere on the charts, longtime middleweight contender Jack Hermansson jumped one spot to No. 6 by outpointing Edmen Shahbazyan, demoting Darren Till in the process. As for UFC Vegas 27 headliner Rob Font, he holds steady at No. 3 after outclassing Cody Garbrandt, who drops to No. 5 in defeat.

Here’s how UFC compiles its “official” rankings:

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. Kamaru Usman
3. Alexander Volkanovski
4. Israel Adesanya
5. Francis Ngannou
6. Dustin Poirier
7. Jan Blachowicz
8. Stipe Miocic
9. Max Holloway
10. Deiveson Figueiredo
11. Charles Oliveira
12. Robert Whittaker
13. Petr Yan
14. Justin Gaethje
15. Aljamain Sterling

FLYWEIGHT

Champion: Deiveson Figueiredo

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

BANTAMWEIGHT

Champion: Aljamain Sterling

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

FEATHERWEIGHT

Champion: ALEXANDER VOLKANOVSKI

1. Max Holloway
2. Brian Ortega
3. Yair Rodriguez
4. Chan Sung Jung
5. Calvin Kattar
6. Josh Emmett
7. Arnold Allen
8. Dan Ige
9. Edson Barboza
10. Giga Chikadze
11. Sodiq Yusuff
12. Bryce Mitchell
13. Shane Burgos
14. Movsar Evloev
15. Hakeem Dawodu

LIGHTWEIGHT

Champion: Charles Oliveira

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

WELTERWEIGHT

Champion: KAMARU USMAN

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

MIDDLEWEIGHT

Champion: ISRAEL ADESANYA

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

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT

Champion: Jan Blachowicz

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

HEAVYWEIGHT

Champion: Francis Ngannou

1. Stipe Miocic
2. Derrick Lewis
3. Ciryl Gane
4. Curtis Blaydes
5. Alexander Volkov
6. Jairzinho Rozenstruik
7. Shamil Abdurakhimov
8. Walt Harris
9. Augusto Sakai
10. Chris Daukaus
11. Blagoy Ivanov
12. Marcin Tybura
13. Tom Aspinall
14. Sergei Pavlovich
15. Aleksei Oleinik

WOMEN’S POUND-FOR-POUND

1. Amanda Nunes
2. Valentina Shevchenko
3. Rose Namajunas
4. Weili Zhang
5. Joanna Jedrzejczyk
6. Jessica Andrade
7. Germaine De Randamie
8. Holly Holm
9. Carla Esparza +4
10. Katlyn Chookagian
11. Aspen Ladd -2
12. Mackenzie Dern
13. Yan Xiaonan -2
14. Julianna Pena *NR
15. Claudia Gadelha -1

WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT

Champion: ROSE NAMAJUNAS

1. Zhang Weili
2. Joanna Jedrzejczyk
3. Carla Esparza +1
4. Yan Xiaonan -1
5. Marina Rodriguez +1
6. Mackenzie Dern -1
7. Nina Nunes
8. Claudia Gadelha
9. Michelle Waterson
10. Tecia Torres
11. Amanda Ribas
12. Angela Hill
13. Virna Jandiroba
14. Amanda Lemos
15. Felice Herrig

WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT

Champion: VALENTINA SHEVCHENKO

1. Jessica Andrade
2. Katlyn Chookagian
3. Lauren Murphy
4. Jennifer Maia
5. Cynthia Calvillo
6. Joanne Calderwood
7. Jessica Eye
8. Viviane Araujo
9. Roxanne Modafferi
10. Alexa Grasso
11. Andrea Lee
12. Talia Santos
13. Miranda Maverick
14. Maycee Barber
15. Antonina Shevchenko

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT

Champion: AMANDA NUNES

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

There you have it.

You can expect these rankings to change in roughly two weeks — particularly in the heavyweight division — following the UFC Vegas 28: “Rozenstruik vs. Sakai” mixed martial arts (MMA) event on Sat., June 5, 2021 from inside APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.

For much more on that upcoming fight card click here.