USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Feb. 8: Sean Strickland making moves

Sean Strickland wasn’t super high on his performance in the UFC Fight Night 200 main event, but he’s still making moves.

Strickland (25-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC) was mostly dominant in his win over Jack Hermansson (22-7 MMA, 9-5 UFC) – though the fight is in the books as a split decision. One judge saw the fight for Hermansson, which had much of the MMA world in a tizzy for a while over how that happened.

But regardless of how he got it done, the fact is Strickland got it done – and ran his winning streak to six fights. That means he made a leap in the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie middleweight rankings.

And that same list at 185 pounds could have some movement after this week, too. UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya (21-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) puts his belt on the line against former champ Robert Whittaker (23-5 MMA, 14-3 UFC) in the UFC 271 main event. And two fights before that, top-five fighters Derek Brunson (23-7 MMA, 14-5 UFC) and Jared Cannonier (14-5 MMA, 7-5 UFC) throw down.

After UFC Fight Night 200 and ahead of UFC 271, take a look at the rankings in the middleweight division, as well as the rest of the full rankings, using the dropdown menu above.