On paper, UFC 323 looked like it would maintain the status quo of the pound-for-pound rankings; in practice? Pure chaos.
Not only did a resurgent Petr Yan foil Merab Dvalishili’s plans to become the first champion in UFC history to defend a title four times in a calendar year, 24-year-old fighting prodigy Joshua Van toppled long-reigning flyweight king Alexandre Pantoja—literally toppling him and causing a freak arm injury that cost Pantoja his belt after just 26 seconds of action.
To put it simply: The MMA Fighting Pound-for-Pound Rankings haven’t been broken like this since Sean Strickland upset Israel Adesanya.
Entering Saturday’s event, Dvalishvili (3) and Pantoja (4) were entrenched in our top 5 and while Yan’s incredible performance was guaranteed to bump Dvalishvili down a few spots, the abrupt end to Pantoja’s championship reign left our panel divided on what to make of his loss and how much Van should gain from the win.
The highest ranking Van received was 7th from one voter, while another declined to rank him altogether (Van was already unranked on their list and the brief nature of the fight was essentially a no-contest in their eyes). Our other three voters had him at 9th, 16th, and 20th. Outrageous, maybe? But even given Van’s inspiring run to a UFC title less than five years into his pro career, we still don’t know for sure what we have with him, and I feel that’s reflected in the No. 15 spot he eventually landed on.
Winning a rematch would cement Van as being worthy of taking Pantoja’s spot. However, with Pantoja’s arm injury keeping him shelved for an indefinite period of time, Van may have to settle for a title defense against Tatsuro Taira. Nobody said building a legacy would be easy.
Yan rises from unranked to No. 6, an astounding leap, but really one that says more about how poorly we evaluated him prior to him getting this title shot. Three straight wins over bantamweight contenders should have had Yan on our list already, so consider this an over-correction of sorts.
As for Dvalishvili, he falls to his lowest ranking in ages, settling in at No. 8, tied with two-time featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski. Time off could do the dogged Dvalishvili good and I’d wager this time next year he’ll be fighting for top 5 consideration again.
Check out the post-UFC 323 Men’s Pound-for-Pound Rankings below.
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): Petr Yan def. No. 3 Merab Dvalishvili, Joshua Van def. No. 4 Alexandre Pantoja, Ian Machado Garry def. No. 11 Belal Muhammad, No. 14 Arman Tsarukyan def. Dan Hooker
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 8 (tied) Alexander Volkanovski vs. Diego Lopes (UFC 325, Jan. 31), No. 13 Max Holloway vs. No. 18 Charles Oliveira (UFC 326, March 7)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Sean O’Malley (2), Usman Nurmagomedov (2), Francis Ngannou (1), Belal Muhammad (1), Aljamain Sterling (1), Diego Lopes (1)
A refresher on the ground rules:
- The five-person voting panel consists of MMA Fighting staffers Alexander K. Lee, Guilherme Cruz, Mike Heck, Damon Martin, and Jed Meshew.
- Fighters will be removed from the rankings if they do not compete within 18 months of their most recent bout in a given weight class. Updates to the rankings are typically completed following each month’s UFC pay-per-view.
- Should a fighter announce their retirement, our panel will decide whether that fighter should immediately be removed from the rankings or maintain their position until further notice. (Let’s put it this way: We’d have taken Khabib Nurmagomedov out of our rankings a lot quicker than the UFC did.)
- Holding a promotion’s title does not guarantee that fighter will be viewed as the best in their promotion. Additionally, fighters who regularly compete or hold titles in multiple weight classes are eligible to be ranked in multiple lists.
Thoughts? Questions? Concerns? Make your voice heard in the comments below.
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