Aldo Jumps To No. 3 In Official UFC Rankings

It was a good weekend for Jose Aldo.

The former UFC featherweight champion won his third straight at 135 pounds by turning away fellow division title contender Rob Font in the UFC Vegas 44 bantamweight main event last Sat. night (Dec. 4) inside the promotion’s APEX facility in Las Vegas.

The victory pushed “Junior” to No. 3 in the official rankings.

As a result, Cory Sandhagen drops one spot to No. 4 while Font moves down to No. 5. The prevailing theory is that UFC will have Sandhagen and Font square off at some point in early 2022, barring injury or some other sort of fight-canceling happenstance.

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. Kamaru Usman
2. Alexander Volkanovski
3. Israel Adesanya
4. Francis Ngannou
5. Dustin Poirier
6. Jon Jones
7. Max Holloway
8. Charles Oliveira
9. Stipe Miocic
10. Brandon Moreno
11. Petr Yan
12. Glover Teixeira
13. Robert Whittaker
14. Jan Blachowicz
15. Cyril Gane

FLYWEIGHT

Champion: Brandon Moreno

1. Deiveson Figueiredo
2. Askar Askarov
3. Alexandre Pantoja
4. Alex Perez
5. Brandon Royval
6. Kai Kara France
7. Rogerio Bontorin
8. Matheus Nicolau
9. Matt Schnell
10. David Dvorak
11. Tim Elliott
12. Amir Albazi +1
13. Su Mudaerji -1
14. Manel Kape *NR
15. Tagir Ulanbekov -1

BANTAMWEIGHT

Champion: Aljamain Sterling

1. Petr Yan (Interim champion)
2. T.J. Dillashaw
3. Jose Aldo +2
4. Cory Sandhagen -1
5. Rob Font -1
6. Merab Dvalishvili
7. Cody Garbrandt
8. Pedro Munhoz
9. Dominick Cruz +1
10. Marlon Moraes -1
11. Marlon Vera
12. Raphael Assuncao
13. Frankie Edgar
14. Song Yadong
15. Cody Stamann

FEATHERWEIGHT

Champion: ALEXANDER VOLKANOVSKI

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

LIGHTWEIGHT

Champion: Charles Oliveira

1. Dustin Poirier
2. Justin Gaethje
3. Beneil Dariush
4. Islam Makhachev
5. Michael Chandler
6. Rafael dos Anjos
7. Tony Ferguson
8. Dan Hooker
9. Conor McGregor
10. Gregor Gillespie
11. Rafael Fiziev +3
12. Diego Ferreira -1
13. Arman Tsarukyan
14. Brad Riddell -2
15. Joel Alvarez

WELTERWEIGHT

Champion: KAMARU USMAN

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

MIDDLEWEIGHT

Champion: ISRAEL ADESANYA

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

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT

Champion: Glover Teixeira

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

HEAVYWEIGHT

Champion: Francis Ngannou

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

WOMEN’S POUND-FOR-POUND

1. Amanda Nunes
2. Valentina Shevchenko
3. Rose Namajunas
4. Weili Zhang
5. Jessica Andrade
6. Holly Holm
7. Carla Esparza +1
8. Katlyn Chookagian +1
9. Marina Rodriguez +1
10. Yan Xiaonan +1
11. Julianna Pena +1
12. Irene Aldana *NR
13. Mackenzie Dern +1
14. Lauren Murphy -1
15. Aspen Ladd

WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT

Champion: ROSE NAMAJUNAS

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

WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT

Champion: VALENTINA SHEVCHENKO

1. Jessica Andrade
2. Katlyn Chookagian
3. Lauren Murphy
4. Jennifer Maia
5. Talia Santos
6. Joanne Wood
7. Viviane Araujo
8. Andrea Lee
9. Jessica Eye
10. Cynthia Calvillo
11. Alexa Grasso
12. Roxanne Modafferi
13. Maycee Barber
14. Manon Fiorot
15. Casey O’Neill

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT

Champion: AMANDA NUNES

1. Holly Holm +1
2. Irene Aldana +1
3. Julianna Pena +1
4. Aspen Ladd +1
5. Ketlen Vieira +1
6. Yana Kunitskaya +1
7. Miesha Tate +1
8. Raquel Pennington +1
9. Sara McMann +1
10. Macy Chiasson +1
11. Lina Lansberg +1
12. Karol Rosa +2
13. Pannie Kianzad
14. Julia Avila +1
15. Norma Dumont *NR

You can expect these rankings to change around this time next week, particularly in the lightweight division, as Charles Oliveira and Dustin Poirier collide for the Brazilian’s 155-pound strap this Sat. night (Dec. 11, 2021) inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

For much more on that upcoming fight card click here.