Not all important, resounding wins are created equally. Sometimes a single win could send your stock skyrocketing. Sometimes, even if you author a stirring “Knockout of the Year” contender in an Ultimate Fighting Championship main event, a major victory could mean merely maintaining your place.
Holm, our No. 3 bantamweight woman in the world, remains fixed into her position at 135 pounds by virtue of her March 2016 title loss to Miesha Tate and more specifically her five-round decision defeat to top contender Valentina Shevchenko in July. However, on June 17, “The Preacher's Daughter” destroyed former UFC title contender Bethe Correia with, poetically, a Brazilian kick to the head in Kallang, Singapore. Not every moment of the bout was exciting, but the eventual outcome is instructive that the 35-year-old former boxing star's UFC title run and her bantamweight stature are not flukes.
The biggest shift in this update does come courtesy of the UFC Fight Night 111 card but in an unexpected fashion. Rafael dos Anjos once ruled the 155-pound rankings and most recently checked in at No. 5. Now fresh off of his move to welterweight and a dominant performance over Tarec Saffiedine, he exits our lightweight list.
In his place, former World Series of Fighting champion Justin Gaethje makes his return to the 10th spot. The 17-0 Gaethje is due to make his UFC debut on July 7, headlining “The Ultimate Fighter 25” Finale against Michael Johnson, who is just on the outside looking in at 155.
Speaking of being on the outside looking in, these rankings do have three notables cropping up on divisional contenders list, eyeing a top-10 spot in the near future. With Gaethje's promotion to the top 10, Francisco Trinaldo returns to the bubble list, while prospects Colby Covington and Marcin Tybura creep into the top 15 for the first time in their budding careers, the former at welterweight, the latter at heavyweight.
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