With UFC 180, World Series of Fighting 15 and Bellator 131 and The Ultimate Fighter season 20 taking place this past week, the MMAOddsBreaker rankings were bound to get shaken up. MMA Oddsbreaker’s Brian Hemminger (@BrianHemminger) and Brad Taschuk (@BradTaschuk) have taken over the reigns of the rankings, which are updated after nearly every UFC event. As always, we only show changes in the rankings with this update. To access the full MMAOddsBreaker rankings, click here. Disagree? Feel free to give us your take on our rankings either in the comment section here or on Twitter! Pound-for-Pound 1. Jon Jones 2. Demetrious Johnson 3. Jose Aldo 4. Chris Weidman 5. Cain Velasquez 6. Dominick Cruz 7. Johny Hendricks 8. Anthony Pettis 9. Daniel Cormier 10. Ronda Rousey 11. TJ Dillashaw 12. Vitor Belfort 13. Gilbert Melendez 14. Frankie Edgar (+1) 15. Fabricio Werdum (NR) Werdum makes his pound for pound debut after winning the UFC interim heavyweight title in the second round of his main event against Mark Hunt this past weekend. It was a shaky first round, but Werdum landed a brutal knee in the second to drop Hunt before finishing the former K-1 Grand Prix winner with ground strikes. Heavyweight 1. Cain Velasquez 2. Fabricio Werdum 3. Junior dos Santos 4. Travis Browne (+1) 5. Stipe Miocic (+1) 6. Mark Hunt (-2) 7. Josh Barnett 8. Andrei Arlovski 9. Vitaly Minakov 10. Bigfoot Silva 11. Gabriel Gonzaga 12. Ben Rothwell 13. Roy Nelson 14. Alistair Overeem 15. Brendan Schaub Hunt was competitive, but he still lost against Werdum convincingly, so we’re dropping him a few spots below contenders Stipe Miocic and Travis Browne respectively. Miocic and Browne both have big upcoming heavyweight tilts against Junior Dos Santos and Brendan Schaub, so their boosts could only be temporary depending on the outcomes of both battles.
Middleweight 1. Chris Weidman 2. Anderson Silva 3. Vitor Belfort 4. Jacare Souza 5. Lyoto Machida 6. Luke Rockhold 7. Yoel Romero 8. Tim Kennedy (
+1) 9. Gegard Mousasi (
+1) 10. CB Dollaway (
+1) 11. Thales Leites (
+1) 12. Costa Philippou (
+1) 13. Mark Munoz (
+1) 14. Michael Bisping (
+1) 15. Dave Branch (
NR) The main change here obviously is Yushin Okami, who we removed from our top 15 rankings completely. Okami has now been convincingly finished in all four of his last losses and while he’s still a solid wrestler and grinder overall, his chin just isn’t at a level where he can compete with the best in the world anymore. Dave Branch moves into the number 15 spot for now after scoring the biggest victory of his career in his first title defense for World Series of Fighting.
Welterweight 1. Johny Hendricks 2. Robbie Lawler 3. Rory MacDonald 4. Tyron Woodley 5. Carlos Condit 6. Ben Askren 7. Matt Brown 8. Hector Lombard 9. Dong Hyun Kim 10. Jake Shields 11. Demian Maia 12. Douglas Lima 13. Kelvin Gastelum (
+2) 14. Tarec Saffiedine (
-1) 15. Rousimar Palhares (
-1) Kelvin Gastelum proved he’s for real with his first round submission of former top contender Jake Ellenberger. With the victory, Gastelum has now defeated Niko Musoke, Uriah Hall and Rick Story in his UFC career. He’s stepping in against top competition and passing his tough tests with flying colors. It’s time to start moving him up the ladder. He’ll have a huge opportunity on his hands if rumors about a fight against Tyron Woodley are true.
Lightweight 1. Anthony Pettis 2. Gilbert Melendez 3. Khabib Nurmagomedov 4. Rafael dos Anjos 5. Ben Henderson 6. Donald Cerrone 7. Eddie Alvarez 8. Bobby Green 9. Josh Thomson 10. Myles Jury 11. Will Brooks (
NR) 12. Nate Diaz (
-1) 13. Michael Johnson (
-1) 14. Jorge Masvidal 15. Rustam Khabilov (
NR) Will Brooks proved his last decision victory over Michael Chandler wasn’t a fluke by finishing the former top Bellator lightweight in the fourth round of their rematch this past weekend for Bellator 131. Brooks was the better striker overall and his takedown defense was on another level against the former champion. We also dropped Justin Gaethje out of our rankings despite his victory against Melvin Guillard. He’s just too reckless and wild and we don’t feel his talent is quite top 15-worthy just yet now that we’ve seen him multiple times against above-average competition.
Featherweight
1. Jose Aldo 2. Chad Mendes 3. Frankie Edgar 4. Ricardo Lamas 5. Cub Swanson 6. Patricio Pitbull 7. Conor McGregor 8. Dustin Poirier (+1) 9. Pat Curran (+1) 10. Dennis Bermudez (-2) 11. Nik Lentz 12. Jeremy Stephens 13. Daniel Straus 14. Charles Oliveira 15. Dennis Siver
Unfortunately for Ricardo Lamas, we couldn’t move him further up despite his incredibly impressive first round finish of Dennis Bermudez this past weekend on the UFC 180 main card. Lamas put another great performance on his highlight reel after dropping Bermudez with a jab before locking in a guillotine choke to force a tap to snap Bermudez’ seven-fight winning streak. Bermudez drops a few spots for the loss.
Women’s Strawweight 1. Jessica Aguilar 2. Claudia Gadelha 3. Carla Esparza 4. Ayaka Hamasaki 5. Joanne Calderwood 6. Joanna Jedrzejczyk 7. Karolina Kowalkiewicz 8. Tecia Torres 9. Mizuki Inoue 10. Katja Kankaanpaa 11. Jessica Penne 12. Stephanie Eggink 13. Randa Markos 14. Rose Namajunas (+1) 15. Bec Rawlings (Hyatt) (-1) Death, taxes, and another successful Jessica Aguilar World Series of Fighting title defense. Aguilar looked great, albeit against an unranked opponent. In Ultimate Fighter season 20 action, Bec Rawlings lost to Tecia Torres in the final round of 16 bout so she swaps places with Rose Namajunas, who defeated Alex Chambers the week before to advance to the quarterfinals.
With UFC 180, World Series of Fighting 15 and Bellator 131 and The Ultimate Fighter season 20 taking place this past week, the MMAOddsBreaker rankings were bound to get shaken up. MMA Oddsbreaker’s Brian Hemminger (@BrianHemminger) and Brad Taschuk (@BradTaschuk) have taken over the reigns of the rankings, which are updated after nearly every UFC event. As always, we only show changes in the rankings with this update. To access the full MMAOddsBreaker rankings, click here. Disagree? Feel free to give us your take on our rankings either in the comment section here or on Twitter! Pound-for-Pound 1. Jon Jones 2. Demetrious Johnson 3. Jose Aldo 4. Chris Weidman 5. Cain Velasquez 6. Dominick Cruz 7. Johny Hendricks 8. Anthony Pettis 9. Daniel Cormier 10. Ronda Rousey 11. TJ Dillashaw 12. Vitor Belfort 13. Gilbert Melendez 14. Frankie Edgar (+1) 15. Fabricio Werdum (NR) Werdum makes his pound for pound debut after winning the UFC interim heavyweight title in the second round of his main event against Mark Hunt this past weekend. It was a shaky first round, but Werdum landed a brutal knee in the second to drop Hunt before finishing the former K-1 Grand Prix winner with ground strikes. Heavyweight 1. Cain Velasquez 2. Fabricio Werdum 3. Junior dos Santos 4. Travis Browne (+1) 5. Stipe Miocic (+1) 6. Mark Hunt (-2) 7. Josh Barnett 8. Andrei Arlovski 9. Vitaly Minakov 10. Bigfoot Silva 11. Gabriel Gonzaga 12. Ben Rothwell 13. Roy Nelson 14. Alistair Overeem 15. Brendan Schaub Hunt was competitive, but he still lost against Werdum convincingly, so we’re dropping him a few spots below contenders Stipe Miocic and Travis Browne respectively. Miocic and Browne both have big upcoming heavyweight tilts against Junior Dos Santos and Brendan Schaub, so their boosts could only be temporary depending on the outcomes of both battles.