Sherdog’s Official Mixed Martial Arts Rankings

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Tom Aspinall seized his moment and made the absolute most of it.

In the co-headliner of UFC 304 on Saturday in his native Manchester, England, Aspinall defended his interim heavyweight strap, clocking Curtis Blaydes with a massive right hand and finishing the job with unanswered punches on the ground. With the emphatic defense, Aspinall erased his freakish injury TKO loss to Blaydes two years ago and furthered his case for a title unification bout with lineal champ Jon Jones, but as far as Sherdog’s official rankings are concerned, he did more than enough to maintain his hold on the No. 1 spot at heavyweight. Blaydes, who seems doomed to come up short against the very best of the best despite being one of the most dominant big men of his era, holds onto sixth place.

Belal Muhammad took to the Octagon immediately after Aspinall on Saturday and achieved vindication in his own rematch, upending welterweight champion Leon Edwards in a remarkable display of wrestling, aggression and pace. “Remember the Name” jumps from third to first in our latest welterweight poll, with Edwards and former champ Kamaru Usman falling to second and third respectively.

In other ranked action at UFC 304, Paddy Pimblett arguably stole the show, choking Bobby Green all the way to sleep in the feature bout. Pimblett joins the lightweight rankings at No. 12, with Green and the rest of the bubble listers moving down a spot. Arnold Allen snapped his first-ever losing streak, taking a one-sided unanimous decision over Giga Chikadze. While Allen is undoubtedly glad to be back in the win column, he remains at No. 8 thanks to his recent head-to-head losses to Movsar Evloev and Max Holloway. Chikadze, who has been on something of a slump over the last couple of years, loses his No. 14 spot, with the streaking Joanderson Brito joining the featherweight bubble. Muhammad Mokaev edged out Manel Kape via decision in a fight that was oddly flat compared to their fiery feud leading up to the event. The two flyweights switch places at No. 8 and No. 9, but with Mokaev apparently released by the UFC thanks to his antics, he may struggle to keep that ranking.

At Super Rizin 3 on Sunday, Rena Kubota looked impressive in scoring a second-round TKO of Kate Oyama. That was enough to maintain her No. 10 spot in the atomweight rankings, but she remains behind ninth-ranked Saori Oshima thanks to a chain of head-to-head results.

Note: Previous rankings listed in brackets.

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