Stock Up, Stock Down: Pound-for-Pound Rankings After UFC 281
UFC 281 went down Saturday inside New York City’s world famous Madison Square Garden, which means it’s time for another update to B/R’s pound-for-pound UFC rankings.
The UFC stops in New York City every November and always brings a blockbuster pay-per-view with it. This year was no different.
Headlining honours went to a middleweight title fight between champion Israel Adesanya and challenger Alex Pereira, which the latter won by fifth-round knockout.
The co-headlining spot, meanwhile, was filled by a women’s strawweight title fight, as China’s Zhang Weili reclaimed the belt with a second-round submission of Carla Esparza.
Earlier on the card, Dustin Poirier cemented himself as one of the sport’s great lightweights with an impressive third-round submission win over former Bellator champ Michael Chandler.
Considering Adesanya, Zhang, Esparza and Poirier were all fixtures of our rankings heading into UFC 281, it should come as no surprise that there have been some changes after the event.
Keep scrolling to see where everybody is sitting post-fight.
Men: Nos. 10-6
10. Deiveson Figueiredo
9. Aljamain Sterling
8. Alex Pereira
7. Charles Oliveira
6. Leon Edwards
After knocking out longtime pound-for-pound star Israel Adesanya in the UFC 281 main event, Alex Pereira is now a member of our Top 10. But we decided to take a conservative approach to bringing him into the rankings, as he is still only eight fights into his professional MMA career, and outside of his win over Adesanya, he really hasn’t done anything worthy of pound-for-pound consideration yet. So, he lands at No. 8.
Unfortunately, Pereira’s entrance into the pound-for-pound Top 10 means that somebody else had to go. In the end, that person was Dustin Poirier.
As we covered, Poirier picked up an incredible win on the UFC 281 main card, submitting Michael Chandler in the third-round of a Fight of the Year contender. But there are too many incredible champions in the UFC to keep a pound-for-pound spot open for a guy who has stumbled in two fairly recent title fights.
Poirier is truly great, but the alternative was cutting flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo or bantamweight champ Aljamain Sterling, both of whom have belts around their waists and impressive title defenses in the books.
Men: Nos. 5-1
5. Islam Makhachev
4. Francis Ngannou
3. Israel Adesanya
2. Kamaru Usman
1. Alexander Volkanovski
Israel Adesanya was knocked out by Alex Pereira at UFC 281, but he is still ranked ahead of his Brazilian rival in our pound-for-pound rankings—just like Kamaru Usman is still ranked ahead of his recent foil Leon Edwards.
The reason for this is simple: As we covered above, beating Adesanya is the only thing Pereira has done in MMA to earn a place on this list. Adesanya, meanwhile, has been at the top of the sport for several years and has beaten a slew of world-class fighters in that time—several of them on the cusp of this list themselves, such as Robert Whittaker. He may have lost to Pereira, but he has still done far more to prove himself as one of the pound-for-pound kings than his rival has.
Adesanya did, however, take a tumble in defeat. He’s now ranked No. 3, down from his previous roost at No. 2.
Women: Nos. 10-6
10. Manon Fiorot
9. Ketlen Vieira
8. Amanda Lemos
7. Julianna Peña
6. Jessica Andrade
There’s only been one change to the back-half of our women’s rankings, but it doesn’t concern last weekend’s UFC 281 event.
The change is based on the outcome of the UFC Fight Night 214 main event, which saw Brazil’s Amanda Lemos knock out her countrywoman Marina Rodriguez at strawweight.
Rodriguez had the No. 8 spot on this list heading into the fight, but no longer. That spot is now the domain of her foil Lemos, who is now a strong 7-2 in the UFC.
Women: Nos. 5-1
5. Carla Esparza
4. Zhang Weili
3. Rose Namajunas
2. Amanda Nunes
1. Valentina Shevchenko
While Carla Esparza was the strawweight champion heading into UFC 281, we actually had her ranked behind her challenger, Zhang, before the card. That’s because, much like Pereira, she really only had one victory that put her in the pound-for-pound conversation: her razor-close title win over Rose Namajunas.
Esparza had the belt going into Saturday's fight, but Zhang proved she was the better fighter all along—just as our rankings suggested.