UFC Rankings: Latest top 10 in every major division, including lightweight and heavyweight

UFC rankings are viewed by many fight fans as a listing of the very best fighters in each major division in mixed martial arts. However, which competitors get ranked and where is always a source of much debate. Ringside Intel is here to further the subjective discourse with our rundown of the top fighters in the UFC.

Also Read: UFC tonight – Get watch times and odds for Saturday’s UFC card

This space will be your one-stop shop for the top 10 in the UFC rankings, from the men’s flyweight division to the women’s pound-for-pound list. Scroll down and feast your eyes on the latest rankings.

Men’s pound-for-pound UFC rankings

Twelve straight victories are part of why UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev is at the top of our current pound-for-pound UFC rankings. However, it is also how dominant he has been, and his back-to-back wins over fellow P4P fighters Charles Oliveira and Alexander Volkanovski that place him head and shoulders above any other fighters in the promotion right now.

RankFighterRecordLast 3 Results
#1Islam Makhachev25-1W-W-W
#2Jon Jones27-1W-W-W
#3Leon Edwards21-3W-W-W
#4Alexander Volkanovski26-3L-W-L
#5Israel Adesanya24-3L-W-L
#6Charles Oliveira34-9W-L-W
#7Alexandre Pantoja20-5W-W-W
#8Kamaru Usman20-4L-L-L
#9Alex Pereira9-2W-W-L
#10Sean O’Malley17-1-1W-W-NC

UFC flyweight rankings

Brazil’s Alexandre Pantoja has had a long hard road to becoming the new UFC flyweight king. He has toiled away inside the division for five years before he was finally able to earn a title fight at UFC 290. In his first chance at being champion, he made good by scoring a second (third unofficial) win over division king Brandon Moreno. He is not just a 125-pound superstar but a pound-for-pound level competitor as well.

RankFighterRecordLast 3 Results
#1Alexandre Pantoja26-5W-W-W
#2Brandon Moreno21-7-2L-W-W
#3Brandon Royval15-6W-W-W
#4Amir Albazi17-1W-W-W
#5Matheus Nicolau19-4-1L-W-W
#6Manel Kape19-6W-W-W
#7Kai Kara-France24-11L-L-W
#8Muhammad Mokaev11-0W-W-W
#9Matt Schnell16-7L-W-L
#10Tim Elliott20-13-1L-W-W

UFC bantamweight rankings

ufc rankings
Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

Sean O’Malley has had many doubters during his UFC career but he put that to rest definitively at UFC 292. His second-round technical knockout win over Aljamain Sterling proved he is not just an elite striker but a fighter with a high fight IQ. At just 28 he is the division king and at the top of our latest UFC bantamweight rankings.

RankFighterRecordLast 3 Results
#1Sean O’Malley17-1-1W-W-NC
#2Aljamain Sterling23-4W-W-W
#3Merab Dvalishvili16-4W-W-W
#4Cory Sandhagen16-4W-W-W
#5Marlon Vera21-7-1W-L-W
#6Petr Yan16-5L-L-W
#7Yadong Song20-7W-L-W
#8Umar Nurmagomedov16-0W-W-W
#9Henry Cejudo16-3L-W-W
#10Deiveson Figueiredo22-3W-L-W

UFC featherweight rankings

While Alexander Volkanovski failed in his bid to become a champ-champ, he still remains the best featherweight fighter of all time. Three wins over division legend Max Holloway and outclassing MMA great Jose Aldo will make any resume bulletproof. In his return, he dominantly defended his place at the top of the rankings against interim champion Yair Rodriguez.

RankFighterRecordLast 3 Results
#1Alexander Volkanovski26-2L-W-W
#2Max Holloway25-7W-W-L
#3Arnold Allen19-2L-W-W
#4Yair Rodriguez16-4L-W-W
#5Ilia Topuria14-0W-W-W
#6Brian Ortega15-3L-L-W
#7Josh Emmett18-4L-L-W
#8Calvin Kattar23-7L-L-W
#9Giga Chikadze14-3L-W-W
#10Movsar Evloev17-0W-W-W

What are MMA rankings?

MMA rankings are just like rankings for boxers of NFL teams. It is a list of the best fighters in a particular weight class or overall in the sport of mixed martial arts.

UFC lightweight rankings

Islam Makhachev, like his friend and mentor Khabib Nurmagomedov, has been a dominant force in the UFC lightweight division. He won 10 straight to land a title fight and now has one of the best back-to-back title defenses in weight class history when he defeated former champ Charles Oliveria and featherweight king Alexander Volkanovski.

RankFighterRecordLast 3 Results
#1Islam Makhachev25-1W-W-W
#2Charles Oliveira34-9W-L-W
#3Justin Gaethje25-4W-W-L
#4Dustin Poirier29-8W-L-W
#5Mateusz Gamrot21-3W-W-W
#6Arman Tsarukyan21-3W-W-W
#7Beniel Dariush22-6-1L-W-W
#8Michael Chandler23-8L-W-L
#9Rafael Fiziev12-2L-W-W
#10Jalin Turner13-7W-L-L

UFC welterweight rankings

Fight fans were shocked when Leon Edwards shocked welterweight legend Kamaru Usman in the final seconds of their rematch in 2022. They figured it was a fluke and the champ got lazy late. Well, he proved it was no miracle in March when he defeated Usman again and landed bragging rights for their trilogy. Like it or not, “Rocky” is the cream of the UFC rankings crop at 170 pounds.

RankFighterRecordLast 3 Results
#1Leon Edwards21-3W-W-W
#2Belal Muhammad26-3W-W-W
#3Kamaru Usman20-4L-L-L
#4Gilbert Burns22-6L-W-W
#5Shavkat Rakhmonov17-0W-W-W
#6Stephen Thompson17-6-1W-L-L
#7Colby Covington17-3W-L-W
#8Vicente Luque22-8-1W-L-L
#9Sean Brady15-1L-W-W
#10Ian Garry13-0W-W-W

UFC middleweight rankings

ufc rankings
Credit: Jasmin Frank-USA TODAY Sports

At UFC 293, Sean Strickland stunned the MMA world by beating division legend Israel Adesanya despite being a +440 underdog entering fight night. It was a stunning moment that forever changed opinions about who is the division GOAT and opened up the top of the division to all sorts of possibilities in the months ahead.

RankFighterRecordLast 3 Results
#1Sean Strickland28-5W-W-W
#2Israel Adesanya24-3L-W-L
#3Dricus Du Plessis20-2W-W-W
#4Robert Whittaker25-7L-W-L
#5Jared Cannonier17-6W-W-L
#6Marvin Vettori19-7-1L-W-L
#7Brendan Allen23-5W-W-W
#8Paulo Costa14-2W-L-L
#9Roman Dolidze12-2L-W-W
#10Khamzat Chimaev13-0W-W-W

UFC light heavyweight rankings

In a short amount of time, Alex Pereira stamped his place as one of the best middleweight MMA fighters on the planet. His knockout win over former champion Israel Adesanya forever stamped his spot in division lore and he likely would have been first in line to get a chance to again beat new champion Sean Strickland. However, he switched divisions and rapidly rose to the top at light heavyweight.

At UFC 295, he proved any doubters left wrong when he scored a destructive second-round finish over former champion Jiri Prochazka. Not only is he the ninth fighter in UFC history to win titles in two divisions, but he is by far the fastest to ever achieve the legendary feat as he did it in just seven fights.

RankFighterRecordLast 3 Results
#1Alex Pereira9-2W-W-L
#2Jamahal Hill12-1W-W-W
#3Jiri Prochazka29-4-1W-W-W
#4Magomed Ankalaev18-1-1D-W-W
#5Jan Blachowicz29-10-1W-D-W
#6Aleksandar Rakic14-3L-W-W
#7Johnny Walker21-7W-W-W
#8Nikita Krylov30-9W-W-W
#9Anthony Smith37-18W-L-L
#10Azamat Murzakanvo13-0W-W-W

UFC heavyweight rankings

ufc rankings
Credit: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

Englishman Tom Aspinall is the best heavyweight in the UFC. While the current title he holds is an interim belt, with all due respect to lineal champion Jon Jones, Aspinall has beaten many of the best fighters in the division for the last three years instead of a great win in one fight.

His lone defeat in the company came after he tore knee ligaments against Curtis Blaydes, otherwise, he has met little resistance during eight bouts in the Octagon and he stamped his place as the best in the class with a destructive championship win over Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295.

RankFighterRecordLast 3 Results
#1Tom Aspinall14-3W-W-L
#2Jon Jones27-1W-W-W
#3Ciryl Gane12-2W-L-W
#4Sergei Pavlovich18-2L-W-W
#5Jailton Almeida20-2W-W-W
#6Curtis Blaydes20-3L-W-W
#7Alexander Volkov37-10W-W-W
#8Stipe Miocic20-4L-W-W
#9Sergey Spivak16-4L-W-W
#10Marcin Tybura24-8L-W-W

Women’s UFC pound for pound rankings

ufc rankings
Credit: Jessica Alcheh-USA TODAY Sports

With Amanda Nunes walking away from the sport, the women’s pound-for-pound rankings are now wide open. In the wake of the GOAT’s departure and Valentina Shevchenko’s shocking loss, Chinese superstar Zhang Weili jumped into the top spot. At UFC 292 she showed why she is one of the best female fighters alive with a dominant win as she used a complete attack to beat Amanda Lemos.

RankFighterRecordLast 3 Results
#1Zhang Weili24-3W-W-W
#2Alexa Grasso16-3-1D-W-W
#3Valentina Shevchenko23-4-1D-L-W
#4Carla Esparza20-7L-W-W
#5Erin Blanchfield11-1W-W-W
#6Yan Xiaonan17-3W-W-L
#7Rose Namajunas12-6L-L-W
#8Julianna Pena12-5L-W-W
#9Tatiana Suarez10-0W-W-W
#10Manon Fiorot11-1W-W-W

Where is Islam Makhachev ranked?

UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev is ranked in two categories in our current UFC rankings and the Russian star lands in the top spot for both. Makhachev is No. 1 in our latest lightweight and pound-for-pound rankings.

Who is the best pound for pound MMA history?

Deciding who is the greatest MMA fighter ever is very subjective. But if one had to be chosen, either light heavyweight great Jon Jones, welterweight legend Georges St. Pierre, and flyweight icon Demetrious Johnson would be the likely choices for many fight fans.

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