UFC rankings update: Daniel Cormier rises at light heavyweight

The official UFC rankings have been updated in the wake of Saturday’s UFC Newark card, and they feature some interesting changes — though perhaps not in the way you’d expect.

While it was expected to see some movement at welterweight after Colby Covington thumped Robbie Lawler in the card’s main event, the most notable change occurred in the light heavyweight division, where former champion Daniel Cormier has inexplicably climbed back into the top spot under the reigning champ Jon Jones, surpassing Thiago Santos.

Cormier is currently the champion at heavyweight, and is scheduled for a rematch with Stipe Miocic at UFC 241 later this month. While he and Jones have a long and turbulent history, Cormier has made no indication that he intends to return to the light heavyweight division… Instead, this seems to be the latest piece of evidence that the UFC rankings are based on little more than whim.

Without further ado, here are the newest UFC rankings (h/t MMA News):

Note:
+/- = movement in rankings
*NR = Not previously ranked

Official UFC Rankings:

Pound-For-Pound:

1 Daniel Cormier
2 Jon Jones
3 Khabib Nurmagomedov
4 Henry Cejudo
5 Max Holloway +1
6 Amanda Nunes -1
7 Dustin Poirier
8 Kamaru Usman
9 Robert Whittaker
10 Tony Ferguson +1
11 Stipe Miocic -1
12 Conor McGregor
13 Valentina Shevchenko
14 Tyron Woodley
15 Jessica Andrade

Flyweight:

Champion: Henry Cejudo
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 Jussier Formiga
3 Alexandre Pantoja
4 Deiveson Figueiredo
5 Sergio Pettis
6 Tim Elliott
7 Brandon Moreno
8 Rogerio Bontorin
9 Matt Schnell +4
10 Ryan Benoit
11 Kai Kara France
12 Jordan Espinosa -3
13 Alex Perez -1
14 Raulian Paiva -1
15 Mark de la Rosa

Bantamweight:

Champion: Henry Cejudo
1 Marlon Moraes
2 Aljamain Sterling
3 Raphael Assuncao
4 Petr Yan
5 Pedro Munhoz
6 Dominick Cruz
7 Cody Garbrandt
8 Jimmie Rivera
9 Corey Sandhagen
10 Cody Stamann
11 Rob Font
12 John Dodson
13 Song Yadong
14 Urijah Faber
15 Thomas Almeida

Featherweight:

Champion: Max Holloway
1 Alexander Volkanovski
2 Brian Ortega
3 Jose Aldo
4 Frankie Edgar
5 Zabit Magomedsharipov
6 Chan Sung Jung
7 Yair Rodriguez
8 Jeremy Stephens
9 Renato Moicano
10 Josh Emmett
11 Calvin Kattar
12 Arnold Allen
13 Shane Burgos
14 Ryan Hall
15 Mirsad Bektic

Lightweight:

Champion: Khabib Nurmagomedov
1 Dustin Poirier (Interim Champion)
2 Tony Ferguson
3 Conor McGregor
4 Donald Cerrone
5 Justin Gaethje
6 Al Iaquinta
7 Edson Barboza
8 Kevin Lee
9 Anthony Pettis
10 Paul Felder
11 Gregor Gillespie +1
12 Charles Oliveira -1
13 Alexander Hernandez
14 Dan Hooker
15 Islam Makhachev

Welterweight:

Champion: Kamaru Usman
1 Tyron Woodley
2 Colby Covington
3 Jorge Masvidal
4 Leon Edwards
5 Rafael Dos Anjos
6 Darren Till
7 Stephen Thompson
8 Anthony Pettis
9 Santiago Ponzinibbio
10 Demian Maia +2
11 Ben Askren -1
12 Robbie Lawler -1
13 Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos
14 Neil Magny
15 Geoff Neal

Middleweight:

Champion: Robert Whittaker
1 Israel Adesanya (Interim Champion)
2 Yoel Romero
3 Kelvin Gastelum
4 Jack Hermansson
5 Ronaldo Souza
6 Chris Weidman
7 Paulo Costa
8 Derek Brunson
9 Jared Cannonier
10 Ian Heinisch
11 Brad Tavares +1
12 Uriah Hall-1
13 Antonio Carlos Junior
14 Anderson Silva +1
15 Krzysztof Jotko

Light Heavyweight:

Champion: Jon Jones
1 Daniel Cormier +1
2 Thiago Santos -1
3 Anthony Smith
4 Dominick Reyes
5 (T) Jan Blachowicz
5 (T) Alexander Gustafsson
7 Volkan Oezdemir
8 Corey Anderson
9 Ilir Latifi +1
10 Glover Teixeira -1
11 Aleksandar Rakic
12 Johnny Walker
13 Nikita Krylov
14 Mauricio Rua
15 Misha Cirkunov

Heavyweight:

Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Stipe Miocic
2 Francis Ngannou
3 Junior Dos Santos
4 Curtis Blaydes
5 Derrick Lewis
6 Alexander Volkov
7 Alistair Overeem
8 Cain Velasquez
9 Shamil Abdurakhimov
10 Blagoy Ivanov
11 Walt Harris
12 Aleksei Oleinik
13 Tai Tuivasa
14 Marcin Tybura
15 Augusto Sakai

Women’s Strawweight:

Champion: Jessica Andrade
1 Rose Namajunas
2 Tatiana Suarez
3 Nina Ansaroff
4 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
5 Claudia Gadelha
6 Weili Zhang
7 Michelle Waterson
8 Tecia Torres
9 Carla Esparza
10 Alexa Grasso
11 Cynthia Calvillo
12 Felice Herrig
13 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
14 Cortney Casey
15 Yan Xiaonan

Women’s Flyweight:

Champion: Valentina Shevchenko
1 Jessica Eye
2 Katlyn Chookagian
3 Liz Carmouche
4 Jennifer Maia
5 Joanne Calderwood
6 Andrea Lee +1
7 Viviane Araujo -1
8 Roxanne Modafferi
9 Lauren Murphy +1
10 Alexis Davis -1
11 Montana De La Rosa
12 Maycee Barber +1
13 Antonina Shevchenko NR
14 Mara Romero Borella -2
15 Gillian Robertson

Women’s Bantamweight:

Champion: Amanda Nunes
1 Germaine de Randamie
2 Ketlen Vieira
3 Holly Holm
4 Julianna Pena
5 Aspen Ladd
6 Raquel Pennington
7 Cat Zingano
8 Yana Kunitskaya
9 Marion Reneau +1
10 Sara McMann
11 Irene Aldana -2
12 Macy Chiasson
13 Lina Lansberg
14 Sijara Eubanks
15 Nicco Montano NR

What do you think of these new UFC rankings?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 8/8/2019.