UFC 262 rankings update: Beneil Dariush soars while Tony Ferguson continues to plummet

Following UFC 262, the promotion’s official rankings were updated and Beneil Dariush soared at lightweight while Tony Ferguson plummeted.

Beneil Dariush absolutely dominated Ferguson for 15 minutes in the UFC 262 co-main event with his grappling en route to a lopsided unanimous decision win. Dariush has now won his last seven fights in a row and appears to be a serious title contender at 155lbs. The UFC rankings panelists have noticed his run, too, as following the win over Ferguson, Dariush made a huge jump in the promotion’s official rankings. He jumped up six spots in the ranking and now sits firmly entrenched in the top-five of 155lbs, ranked at No. 3 now.

Updated #UFC LW Rankings pic.twitter.com/k3YX6frWWt

— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) May 18, 2021

Ferguson, meanwhile, dropped one spot in the rankings as he now sits at No. 6, with Conor McGregor moving up one spot to No. 5. Donald Cerrone also dropped out of the top-15 and now Thiago Moises is the No. 15 ranked fighter ahead of his fight with Islam Makhachev.

There were several other changes to the UFC rankings. In the men’s P4P list, Charles Oliveira entered the top-15 at No. 11 overall in the world, which dropped several fighters down the list. As well, Jan Blachowicz and Stipe Miocic switched spots, with Blachowicz moving to No. 7 P4P and Miocic moving down to No. 8 following losing to Francis Ngannou.

At flyweight, Rogerio Bontorin moved up one spot ahead of Matt Schnell after beating him via unanimous decision at UFC 262, even though the fight took place at a catchweight of 137lbs after Bontorin missed weight. At featherweight, Edson Barboza moved up four spots to No. 9 while Shane Burgos dropped down four spots to No. 13 in the 145lbs division.

At middleweight, Sean Strickland moved one spot ahead of Chris Weidman, while Omari Akhmedov moved one spot ahead of Kevin Holland. And then at women’s flyweight, Antonina Shevchenko moved down to No. 15 after losing to Andrea Lee at UFC 262. Jessica Eye also moved one spot above Viviane Araujo after losing to Katlyn Chookagian.

What do you think of the top-15 rankings post-UFC 262?