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Hosed and exposed.

Sean O’Malley coughed up his bantamweight crown to Merab Dvalishvili in the UFC 306 pay-per-view (PPV) main event last weekend at The Sphere in Las Vegas, because “Suga” had no answer for “The Machine’s” wrestling-based offense.

As predicted.

But former UFC bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo, who also got dominated by Dvalishvili when they went to war at UFC 298, insists O’Malley was never going to pan out as champion and may have gotten lucky against Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292.

“What can I say? I predicted these things,” Cejudo said on his Pound 4 Pound podcast (transcribed by MMA Junkie). “Sean is not accustomed to going five rounds, and he is not accustomed to people on his legs, and I just felt like — I still go back and say, ‘Hey, that fight with Aljamain Sterling, that was a fluke too.’ Aljamain was still in that fight, and people thought I was just hating. No, I’ve been in there with Merab. I did a whole lot better than Sean did when I fought Merab. I mean, I took down Merab. Like, Merab is lucky that I had that groin injury.”

The Cejudo camp claims this injury is to blame for his Dvalishvili loss.

“Merab was lucky that I was hurt in that fight,” Cejudo continued. “Moving forward, if Sean O’Malley is willing and wants to fight this troll who’s the true king of Arizona, well then here I am. But if not, I’m making my way back down to 125 pounds because I’m not going to waste my time. I personally would love to fight him. I think with all the trolling that we have done to each other, we both live in the same city, but I just don’t think that he’s going to want to fight me particularly right after this performance that Merab did to him.”

O’Malley is expected to be out of action until late 2025, according to this statement.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

This past Saturday UFC 306 took place at Sphere in Las Vegas, in a fight card that was promised to be “the greatest live action sporting event of all-time.” While “Noche UFC” might not have delivered on those lofty expectations, it still was packed with great fights and meaningful results, most notably the two new UFC champions. In the co-main event, Valentina Shevchenko avenged her previous loss to Alexa Grasso, winning a dominant decision to reclaim the flyweight title. Then in the main event, Merab Dvalishvili backed up his words and dominated Sean O’Malley to win the bantamweight title.

A lot of important and exciting stuff happened so let’s talk about it all by answering questions from our readers.

Sphere

“Was it REALLY the greatest live sporting event of all time? From what I saw on TV & read on Twitter, it seemed like a funky venue for fights.”

Funnily enough, we did a reaction piece that addresses this very question, plus all our other takeaways from UFC 306. You should go read that right now.

Done?

Terrific!

Heading into UFC 306, Sphere was billed as the true star of the show and that played out on Saturday. Yes, two new champions were crowned, but the biggest talking point from the event was all the bells and whistles the UFC brought for this “once-in-a-lifetime” show. Vignettes before every fight, drones, an army of octagon girls with different themed outfits, the whole nine yards. And by every account I’ve heard from people who attended UFC 306, it was indeed quite spectacular. That experience didn’t entirely translate to those watching from home though.

Don’t get me wrong, UFC 306 was very cool. The crowd shots looked insane, and the broad idea of telling a cohesive story through the night was fun and well executed. But ultimately, fights aren’t a concert and so there was an almost jarring dichotomy between the production and then the fights. The production was ambitious and new and exciting, but the fights were ultimately the same fights you get anywhere else in the UFC, and at home, there’s not much you can do to spice that up. Viewers are ostensibly there to watch the fights, so you’ve got to show that, and that negates any of the cool stuff Sphere can do.

That being said, this was still a very fun event from the UFC. We constantly decry them for not taking any risks and delivering the same production week over week, year over year, and this shows why: because the UFC can do a lot of cool stuff when they feel compelled to try, and it makes the experience unique and interesting. I hope they take the success of this show and run with it and we see a little more personality in future fight cards. The product will be all the better for it.

Best chapter

“What was your favorite chapter of the show tonight? Mine personally was the Día de Los Muertos/Day of the Dead chapter.”

So if you missed the show, the biggest thing the UFC did for the main card was tell the story of Mexico between fights, in the form of little video package chapters (the UFC has all of them up on its YouTube channel). It began with the creation of the universe, came right up through the modern day, and culminated in an imagining of the future of Mexico. It was a big, ambitious idea, and one that I thought they pulled off fairly well.

I agree that aesthetically speaking, the Día de Los Muertos section (Chapter Three) was the best, especially if you’re factoring in the octagon girl outfits. They were easily the best ones of the evening. But I also enjoyed Chapter Two, covering early civilizations, and Chapter Five, the modern day fighters and heroes of Mexico.

The weakest of the chapters was easily the final one, looking ahead to the future of Mexico, and that makes sense I guess as it’s easier to tell stories about the past than predict the future. Even still, I thought the graphics on Chapter Six were the worst and not that far off from mobile game advertisements you see. Still, very cool to seem the UFC try new things.

Merab Dvalishvili

“I know its early, but Merab has 11 straight wins (bantamweight record), all one sided dominations, 4 against ex-champions, 2 against pound-for-pound all-time greats. Even if he loses to Umar, how much more until he’s in the conversation for top 3/5 bantamweight ever?”

Dvalishvili is already in the conversation for top-5 greatest ever at bantamweight. Certainly not saying he’s got that locked up, but we’re talking about a division that’s still pretty young and hasn’t had a lot of clear-cut dominance at the top. Basically, anyone who has ever won a title at 135 pounds is in the conversation for top-5 all-time of the weight class.

Now, how long until he becomes the bantamweight GOAT? That’s a different question, but frankly, he’s not that far off it, because again, the weight class hasn’t had a dominant champion.

As of right now, Dominick Cruz is the bantamweight GOAT. He’s got five title defenses (across two different reigns) and that’s the trump card in any argument. It’s entirely possible that if he weren’t made out of a particularly brittle form of glass, that Cruz would have cemented himself as a true all-time great in the sport, regardless of weight class. But if I had wheels I’d be a wagon. So instead Cruz is left as the clear greatest ever at 135.

But that won’t last forever. Of Cruz’s five title defenses, two came against Demetrious Johnson and Joseph Benavidez. Yes, they are all-time great fighters, but the only reason they fought Cruz was because flyweight did not exist at the time. So in some sense we’re talking about a title reign that was Urijah Faber twice and Scott Jorgensen. Quality wins, but not insurmountable by any means.

Sterling was well on his way to establishing himself as bantamweight GOAT when he ran into O’Malley. Well, Merab just mushed O’Malley same as he has everyone on this current streak. It’s impressive, and now that he has the belt, subsequent wins mean more. If Dvalishvili can string together three title defenses, I’m very open to him taking the GOAT mantle, especially as bantamweight has only continued to improve in quality over the years.

Umar Nurmagomedov

“How boring will Merab vs. Umar be?”

Of course, getting three title defenses is a lot easier said than done for Dvalishvili as it appears his first defense is going to come against Umar Nurmagomedov.

I’ve been loudly banging the drum about Umar for a long time at this point and confidently proclaimed him to be the best bantamweight on Earth about two years ago. His only issue was getting in the cage and proving it against the best in the world. Well, now he’s gotten to do it some, and I haven’t changed my mind one iota.

Dvalishvili is an exceptional fighter, but I can hardly think of a worse matchup for him than Nurmagomedov. Umar is his equal in wrestling (and possibly his superior), extremely crafty, and a FAR better striker. As I see it, the only clear advantage Dvalishvili has is his insane cardio, but that’s tough to bring to bear on a guy who has your number everywhere else.

And as a result, I don’t think that fight will be boring at all. For one, I enjoy Merab’s fights. This past weekend wasn’t exactly thrilling, but to me that came down to O’Malley seeming to be broken early and not trying to make a fight of it. But I have no issue watching Merab show off the peak of the current MMA wrestling metagame against the best fighters in the world. And against Umar, I doubt he’ll be able to. Umar will stuff takedowns, maybe take Merab down himself, and tune Dvalishvili up on the feet. It should be a good time.

Dvalishvili is a great fighter from a very good camp so we should never rule out his chances to surprise us, but Umar is coming.

Sean O’Malley vs. Cory Sandhagen

“Sean vs. Cory. When?”

Heading into UFC 306 the question was whether Sean O’Malley could become the biggest star in the sport with an impressive win. Now it’s where does the former champion go from here? And there are a lot of options.

O’Malley vs. Sandhagen is a popular choice, one that Sandhagen himself is angling for and one that I would love to see. But there’s also possible matchups with Jose Aldo, Henry Cejudo, or Deiveson Figueiredo.

But if I’m putting on my Sean Shelby hat and matchmaking, my guess is we get O’Malley vs. Figueiredo next. Figgy Smalls wants a title shot but he’s the odd man out right not and he’ll need to fight again. If he beats O’Malley (which he must feel confident he can given the grappling advantage Dvalishvili just showed off) then he’s easily getting the first crack at the winner of Merab vs. Umar. And if Umar wins and O’Malley beats Figgy, he’s right there for another shot at the belt.

Meanwhile, Cejudo can fight Jose Aldo (after Aldo beats Mario Bautista) in a legend fight and Sandhagen and Petr Yan can rematch.

Valentina Shevchenko

“Do you see Valentina going on to defend the belt multiple times again in her second reign?”

I do not.

Shevchenko is, at worst, the third greatest female fighter of all-time. Losing to Alexa Grasso could have ended her chance to chase down Amanda Nunes as the WMMA GOAT, but reclaiming the title brings it back as a possibility. If Shevchenko never got the belt back and instead started dropping fights, then the conversation is entirely over. Now that she is once again champion, both Shevchenko and Nunes dropped titles and recovered them, which brings her back to the table.

The women’s GOAT conversation is basically Nunes, Shevchenko, or Cris Cyborg. You can make other cases for Megumi Fujii and Joanna Jedrzejczyk, but they’re weaker than those two women. And for me, Cyborg isn’t really in the conversation either. Yes, she had an incredible run of dominance, but it was in a weight class that barely exists. Her opponents were all massively undersized or not very good. Her best win is Holly Holm, a bantamweight. Its not Cyborg’s fault that the opposition wasn’t there, but it is what it is. Fujii has the same issue and people don’t freak out about leaving her out of the conversation (also, getting iced by Nunes instantaneously really nukes Cyborg’s case).

So if the argument is Nunes vs. Shevchenko, and at this point, Nunes has the advantage. Both women have seven straight title defenses (Nunes’s come across two weight classes, even though women’s featherweight isn’t a real thing) but Nunes was generally more dominant in her performances and has two wins over Shevchenko, which serves as a trump card. If Shevchenko sticks around at 125 for awhile, and defends her title, I’ll be impressed but I’m not sure that gets her past the two-losses hump.

What does? Moving back up to bantamweight and becoming a two-division champion. Shevchenko is 36 years old and the bantamweight division is in dreadful shape. If she defends her belt against Manon Fiorot, I strongly suspect “Bullet” will make the case to challenge Kayla Harrison (who will have the belt by then). And if she does that and becomes a two-division champion over two real weight classes? Then you’re talking about the WMMA GOAT.

Diego Lopes

“Do you see Diego Lopes facing the winner of Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway or facing Alexander Volkanovski in 2025?”

I know Volkanovski threw out the idea of fighting Lopes for an interim belt but frankly, I just don’t see that happening. Rightly or wrongly, Volk is next in line to fight the winner of Topuria vs. Holloway, and with that fight right around the corner, accepting another fight would be lunacy for him. He’ll wait it out.

Which means Lopes will have to find another opponent to earn his title shot against and there is one that’s so obvious I’ll be shocked if anything else happens: the winner of Movsar Evloev vs. Aljamain Sterling.

Evloev already deserves a title shot, and if he beats Sterling, he will super deserve it, but the UFC does not appear interested in doing him any favors. So given the beef between Movsar and Lopes, that rematch sells itself. And if Sterling wins, same thing, just without the beef. Sterling will need another win because of the logjam and so that fight as a true No. 1 contender matchup makes perfect sense.

Fight of the Year

Esteban Ribovics v. Daniel Zellhuber, Hall of Fame worthy?”

Heading into UFC 306 I said that Ribovics vs. Zellhuber was going to steal the show and boy was I right. Those two put on one heck of a display earning Fight of the Night honors and potentially Fight of the Year honors for 2024. There’s still plenty of time left in the year obviously, but that matchup is on the short list right now.

And ultimately, that’s probably what will determine if it becomes a Hall of Fame fight. The action in it is undoubtedly worthy, but it’s really difficult for non-title fights to get inducted unless there is a damn good reason. There are simply so many great fights throughout history and title fights tend to be both the best and the most meaningful.

Of the nine fights currently enshrined, only three of them are modern-era non-title bouts: Mauricio Rua vs. Dan Henderson 1, Diego Sanchez vs. Clay Guida, and Cub Swanson vs. Doo Ho Choi. Shogun-Hendo and Cub vs. Choi were both Fights of the Year. That’s pretty much the bar for the Hall of Fame, so unless it wins that award this year, I’d say it’s unlikely.

Even if it doesn’t though, that was an all-timer of a third round and a sensational fight. Go back and watch it if you haven’t already.

Jose Aldo

“Merab 0/16 takedowns against Aldo just keeps getting more and more incredible.”

And at altitude no less.

Jose Aldo is the GOAT. Real ones know.

Thanks for reading, and thank you for everyone who sent in tweets (Xs?)! Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck, because you can send your tweets to me, @JedKMeshew, and I will answer my favorite ones! Doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane, just so long as they are good. Thanks again, and see y’all next week.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Jon Jones will “more than likely” retire after his UFC 309 clash with Stipe Miocic on Nov. 16, and the UFC was close to signing another “Jon Jones” through Dana White’s Contender Series.

Arthur Lopes battles fellow Brazilian heavyweight Tallison Teixeira on Tuesday’s DWCS card at the UFC APEX looking for a contract with the organization, and he was nicknamed “Jon Jones” when called for the opportunity. Lopes, however, decided to change his nickname to “Demolidor” before flying to Las Vegas.

“That was my nickname because our fighting style was kind of similar, and I looked like him at the time, so people started calling me Jon Jones,” Lopes said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “I hated it at first [laughs], I won’t lie to you, but people liked it, so there was no escape.”

Lopes is 6-1 as a professional with all wins coming by stoppage, with five knockouts and one DQ, and chose to get rid of the nickname to make a name for himself inside the octagon.

“There’s already a Jon Jones, and we don’t need to continue someone else’s story,” Lopes said. “Let’s write a new story, something different, so here comes ‘Demolidor.’ We’ll make history, and you’ll all hear about this name for a long time. God willing, I want to build a career better than his. I want to be the best, always. I don’t want to be like him. I want to be fun, athletic, and do new things.”

Lopes started his career back in 2015, and won four of five fights in just over a year, and then returned in 2018 to collect another pair of finishes before leaving the sport for good. Lopes only returned in March 2024, knocking out Daniel Bucher in just 20 seconds to earn a shot at DWCS.

“I stayed out for a long time but decided on Jan. 1st that I would become an athlete again,” said Lopes, who worked as a car mechanic while fighting in MMA. “I worked hard for six months and came out victorious to get this opportunity on the Contender. It’s great to see that I still have wood to burn and live my dream.”

“It’s hard to live as an athlete in Brazil,” he continued. “Sometimes you even have to pay to fight because the purse is so low it doesn’t cover your costs. I’m a father of four and it was hard to pay the bills with no sponsors or support. I wasn’t paid for my last fight [in 2018] so I just quit fighting. But I guess God heard one of my prayers of wanting something better, so I decided to come back.”

Lopes quit his job as car mechanic to focus on his fighting career ahead of DWCS and moved from Uberlandia to Tres Rios to train at ATS, and sees heavier, bigger and undefeated Teixeira as a tough but beatable foe.

“[His size] makes no difference to me,” Lopes said. “I wanna see if he’s all that. I think he talks to much. Too cocky. Let’s end that [tonight]. I’d rather not fight a Brazilian, but it’s the opportunity I have, so I will walk through anyone to earn my spot in the UFC. … I want to win by knockout, but I’m a black belt in luta livre, and we’ll fight wherever we need to win this. I’m ready for everything.”

MMA Fighting – All Posts

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Tom Aspinall is ready to step in at UFC 309.

This past weekend, the UFC finally made official the worst-kept secret in MMA: Jon Jones is set to defend his heavyweight title against former champion Stipe Miocic in the main event of UFC 309, which takes place on Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Aspinall is excited the promotion finally made things official, and plans to be in attendance either as a backup or as an interested observer.

“What else happened there was big Jon Jones, big Stipe Miocic matched up with one another,” Aspinall said on his YouTube channel. “Finally, it’s official. Nov. 16, MSG, New York City. The heavyweight title is on the line at long last. Finally. We are confirmed for it.

“I, of course, will be there to watch these two gentlemen go at it. I, of course, have told the UFC if anybody gets injured or for any other reason why nobody can make it to that fight, why one of them might pull out, I’m ready to go. If I need to, I’ll fight both of them in the same night, no problem.”

Jones and Miocic were originally scheduled to face each other at UFC 295. However, Jones withdrew from the bout due to injury, and instead of rebooking Miocic, the promotion simply postponed the fight. Instead, Aspinall stepped in on short notice against planned backup fighter Sergei Pavlovich for an interim title fight, and won the belt with a 69-second knockout. In lieu of booking a title unification bout though, the UFC has forged ahead with the Jones vs. Miocic matchup, and so in July, Aspinall defended his interim title against Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304, scoring a 60-second knockout.

It’s not often that an interim champion even defends his title and much rarer still that an interim champion is passed over for a fight with the undisputed champion. As a result, Aspinall has become increasingly frustrated the past few months with Jones and the UFC insisting on the Miocic fight.

But at least with that fight finally official now, Aspinall sees light at the end of the tunnel for his title journey.

“Give me my undisputed title, because in my opinion it should not be two champions in one weight division,” Aspinall said. “I think that is silly. This is not what the UFC is about, this is not what MMA is about. There’s one guy in each weight division, and I believe it’s me. So I’ll be fighting the winner.

“As I said, I’ll be there if they need me. I’ll be fit and ready. I’m training right now. I’m ready to go, I’ll be to go on the 16th of November if I need to. MSG, the place where I won the title. I’ll go back there and I’ll unify the title there as well if I need to.”

Unfortunately for Aspinall, he may not get his wish to fight the winner of the UFC 309 main event as over the weekend, Jones declared that his fight with Miocic is “more than likely” the final fight of his career.

MMA Fighting – All Posts

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The latest UFC rankings update has been published … and it’s more bad news for Sean O’Malley fans.

Suga State Athletic Commission may be able to overturn Merab’s win over Sean O’Malley, but it can’t keep the former 135-pound champion in the pound-for-pound (P4P) Top 10 after last weekend’s UFC 306 pay-per-view (PPV) event at The Sphere in Las Vegas.

Newly-crowned bantamweight titleholder, Merab Dvalishvili, debuted at No. 7 on the P4P chart, sending O’Malley tumbling down to No. 13. Elsewhere in the rankings, Diego Lopes climbed 10 spots at featherweight with his UFC 306 victory over Brian Ortega.

Norma Dumont also cracked the Top 5 at bantamweight by slicing and dicing Irene Aldana.

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. Islam Makhachev
2. Alex Pereira
3. Jon Jones
4. Ilia Topuria
5. Belal Muhammad +1
6. Dricus Du Plessis -1
7. Merab Dvalishvili *NR
8. Tom Aspinall
9. Leon Edwards
10. Alexander Volkanovski
11. Max Holloway
12. Alexandre Pantoja
13. Sean O’Malley -7
14. Sean Strickland -1
15. Charles Oliveira -1

FLYWEIGHT

Champion: Alexandre Pantoja

1. Brandon Royval
2. Brandon Moreno
3. Amir Albazi
4. Kai Kara France
5. Tatsuro Taira
6. Alex Perez
7. Matheus Nicolau
8. Steve Erceg
9. Manel Kape
10. Tim Elliott
11. Tagir Ulanbekov
12. Bruno Silva
13. Cody Durden
14. (T) Matt Schnell
14. (T) Asu Almabayev +1

BANTAMWEIGHT

Champion: Merab Dvalishvili

1. Sean O’Malley -1
2. Umar Nurmagomedov
3. Petr Yan
4. Cory Sandhagen
5. Deiveson Figueiredo
6. Henry Cejudo
7. Marlon Vera
8. Song Yadong
9. Rob Font
10. Jose Aldo
11. Mario Bautista
12. Kyler Phillips
13. Jonathan Martinez
14. Dominick Cruz
15. Montel Jackson

FEATHERWEIGHT

Champion: Ilia Topuria

1. Alexander Volkanovski
2. Max Holloway
3. Diego Lopes +10
4. Yair Rodriguez
5. Brian Ortega -2
6. Movsar Evloev
7. Arnold Allen -2
8. Josh Emmett -1
9. Aljamain Sterling -1
10. Calvin Kattar -1
11. Giga Chikadze -1
12. Lerone Murphy -1
13. Bryce Mitchell -1
14. Dan Ige
15. Edson Barboza

LIGHTWEIGHT

Champion: Islam Makhachev

1. Arman Tsarukyan
2. Charles Oliveira
3. Justin Gaethje
4. Dustin Poirier
5. Dan Hooker
6. Michael Chandler
7. Beneil Dariush
8. Mateusz Gamrot
9. (T) Max Holloway
9. (T) Rafael Fiziev
11. Renato Moicano
12. Benoit Saint-Denis
13. Rafael dos Anjos
14. Jalin Turner
15. Paddy Pimblett

WELTERWEIGHT

Champion: Belal Muhammed

1. Leon Edwards
2. Kamaru Usman
3. Shavkat Rakhmonov
4. Jack Della Maddalena
5. Colby Covington
6. Sean Brady
7. Ian Machado Garry
8. Gilbert Burns
9. Stephen Thompson
10. Geoff Neal
11. Joaquin Buckley
12. Michael Morales
13. Michael Page
14. Vicente Luque
15. (T) Neil Magny
15. (T) Kevin Holland

MIDDLEWEIGHT

Champion: Dricus Du Plessis

1. Sean Strickland
2. Israel Adesanya
3. Robert Whittaker
4. Nassourdine Imavov
5. Caio Borralho
6. Marvin Vettori
7. Jared Cannonier
8. Brendan Allen
9. Paulo Costa
10. Roman Dolidze
11. Jack Hermansson
12. Khamzat Chimaev
13. Anthony Hernandez
14. Michel Pereira
15. Chris Curtis

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT

Champion: Alex Pereira

1. Jiri Prochazka
2. Magomed Ankalaev
3. Jamahal Hill
4. Jan Blachowicz
5. Aleksandar Rakic
6. Volkan Oezdemir
7. Nikita Krylov
8. Khalil Rountree
9. Johnny Walker
10. Carlos Ulberg
11. Azamat Murzakanov
12. Anthony Smith
13. Dominick Reyes
14. Bogdan Guskov
15. Roman Dolidze

HEAVYWEIGHT

Champion: Jon Jones

1. Tom Aspinall
2. Ciryl Gane
3. Alexander Volkov
4. Sergei Pavlovich
5. Curtis Blaydes
6. Jailton Almeida
7. Serghei Spivac
8. Stipe Miocic
9. (T) Marcin Tybura
9. (T) Jairzinho Rozenstruik
11. Derrick Lewis
12. Tai Tuivasa
13. Alexander Romanov
14. Marcos Rogerio De Lima
15. Rodrigo Nascimento

WOMEN’S POUND-FOR-POUND

1. Valentina Shevchenko +2
2. Zhang Weili
3. Alexa Grasso -2
4. Manon Fiorot
5. Julianna Pena
6. Rose Namajunas
7. Erin Blanchfield
8. Raquel Pennington
9. Tatiana Suarez
10. Yan Xiaonan
11. Kayla Harrison
12. Virna Jandiroba
13. (T) Jessica Andrade
13. (T) Natalia Silva +1
15. Amanda Lemos

WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT

Champion: Zhang Weili

1. Tatiana Suarez
2. Yan Xiaonan
3. Virna Jandiroba
4. Jessica Andrade
5. Amanda Lemos
6. Marina Rodriguez
7. Mackenzie Dern
8. Amanda Ribas
9. Tabatha Ricci
10. Loopy Godinez
11. Angela Hill
12. Luana Pinheiro
13. Gillian Robertson
14. Iasmin Lucindo
15. Karolina Kowalkiewicz

WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT

Champion: Valentina Shevchenko

1. Alexa Grasso -1
2. Manon Fiorot
3. Erin Blanchfield
4. Maycee Barber
5. Rose Namajunas
6. Natalia Silva
7. Katlyn Cerminara
8. Jessica Andrade
9. Viviane Araújo
10. Amanda Ribas
11. Karine Silva
12. Tracy Cortez
13. Ariane Da Silva
14. Jasmine Jasudavicius
15. Casey O’Neill

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT

Champion: Raquel Pennington

1. Julianna Pena
2. Ketlen Vieira
3. Kayla Harrison
4. Macy Chiasson
5. Norma Dumont +3
6. Irene Aldana -1
7. Mayra Bueno Silva -1
8. Holly Holm -1
9. Karol Rosa
10. Yana Santos
11. Miesha Tate
12. Julia Avila
13. Germaine De Randamie
14. Chelsea Chandler
15. Ailin Perez

You can expect these rankings to change in roughly two weeks, particularly in the lightweight division, following the UFC Paris: “Moicano vs. Saint Denis” mixed martial arts (MMA) event on ESPN+, scheduled for Sat., Sept. 28, 2024 at APEX in Las Vegas.

For much more on that upcoming fight card click here.

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