Sherdog’s Official Mixed Martial Arts Rankings

UFC 208 on Feb. 11 was a letdown in the cage, but that does not mean it was without ranking relevance. In fact, this is one our biggest updates on record: While the Ultimate Fighting Championship launched one division in Brooklyn, New York, this Sherdog.com rankings update introduces three.

Germaine de Randamie earned 48-47 scores across the board to top former women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm in the UFC 208 headliner and become the promotion’s inaugural 145-pound women’s titleholder. With the UFC’s introduction of a third women’s weight class, we decided it was time to be egalitarian and complete with our rankings, and this update welcomes women’s top 10s at 145, 125 and 105 pounds. De Randamie debuts in our women’s featherweight rankings at No. 4, but at 145 pounds, Cristiane Justino joins Jennifer Maia and Ayaka Hamasaki as our new No. 1 fighters.

On the men’s side of featherweight, we have had to do some housekeeping: Conor McGregor, now stripped of his UFC featherweight title and with no likely fights period on the horizon, let alone at 145 pounds, has been formally removed from the division’s top 10.

Also at UFC 208, a former divisional ruler found a way to sneak back into our rankings, as MMA legend Anderson Silva won a highly controversial unanimous decision over Derek Brunson in the co-main event. With Silva’s no-contest with Nick Diaz negating his win at UFC 183, it represents the first official victory for “The Spider” in over four years. Nonetheless, the all-time greatest middleweight is back in our 185-pound rankings at No. 8.

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