With UFC Fight Night 42 and UFC 174Finale taking place over the past two weeks, the MMAOddsBreaker rankings were bound to get shaken up. MMA Oddsbreaker’s Brian Hemminger (@BrianHemminger) and Jason Nawara (@JasonNawara) 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. Jose Aldo 3. Demetrious Johnson 4. Cain Velasquez 5. Chris Weidman 6. Anthony Pettis 7. Daniel Cormier 8. Johny Hendricks 9. Lyoto Machida (+1) 10. Vitor Belfort (-1) 11. Ronda Rousey 12. TJ Dillashaw 13. Gilbert Melendez 14. Benson Henderson (+1) 15. Renan Barao (-1) For consistency’s sake, we are moving Lyoto Machida ahead of Vitor Belfort in pound for pound because we had Machida ahead of Belfort at middleweight in the last rankings update. It didn’t make sense to have them flip-flopped, especially considering they both have performed well in multiple weight classes throughout their respective careers. Benson Henderson also moves up one spot after scoring his first UFC stoppage victory a week and a half ago. Light Heavyweight – Chael is out, moving Bader up, OSP debuts
MMAOddsBreaker Rankings Update (CMigrator copy 4)
1. Jon Jones 2. Daniel Cormier 3. Alexander Gustafsson 4. Rashad Evans 5. Glover Texeira 6. Anthony Johnson 7. Phil Davis 8. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira 9. Ryan Bader (+4) 10. Emanuel Newton (-1) 11. Dan Henderson (-1) 12. Mauricio Rua 13. Quinton Jackson (+2) 14. Ovince St. Preux NR 15. Rafael Cavalcante (-1)
The biggest things to affect the light heavyweight rankings are the retirement of Chael Sonnen following his second drug test failure and the big win for Ryan Bader this past weekend over former Strikeforce champion Rafael Cavalcante. Also, Ovince St. Preux debuts in our top 15 rankings after scoring his fourth straight victory inside the Octagon with a second round injury stoppage against Ryan Jimmo.
Welterweight – Woodley and MacDonald nearly swap places 1. Johny Hendricks 2. Robbie Lawler 3. Rory MacDonald (+3) 4. Matt Brown 5. Tyron Woodley (-2) 6. Carlos Condit (-1) 7. Ben Askren 8. Dong Hyun Kim 9. Hector Lombard 10. Tarec Saffiedine 11. Jake Shields 12. Demian Maia 13. Jake Ellenberger 14. Douglas Lima 15. Rousimar Palhares Rory MacDonald’s dominant UFC 174 victory over Tyron Woodley results in a significant jump in the top of the standings. He leapfrogs Woodley, Carlos Condit and Matt Brown in the rankings, as we felt scoring three top 10 wins in his last four fights was worthy of top 3 status. Lightweight
1. Anthony Pettis 2. Gilbert Melendez 3. Ben Henderson 4. Khabib Nurmagomedov 5. TJ Grant 6. Josh Thomson 7. Eddie Alvarez 8. Rafael dos Anjos (+2) 9. Nate Diaz (-1) 10. Donald Cerrone (-1) 11. Justin Gaethje 12. Jim Miller 13. Myles Jury 14. Michael Chandler 15. Bobby Green
Rafael dos Anjos scored a convincing victory over Jason High at UFC Fight Night 42 and deserves a slight bump in the rankings as we felt he was bumped down a bit too far following his loss to top contender Khabib Nurmagomedov. We moved him past the inactive Nate Diaz as well as Donald Cerrone, a fighter he defeated handily less than a year ago.
Featherweight 1. Jose Aldo 2. Chad Mendes 3. Frankie Edgar 4. Ricardo Lamas 5. Cub Swanson 6. Dustin Poirier 7. Pat Curran 8. Patricio Pitbull 9. Chan Sung Jung 10. Dennis Bermudez 11. Dennis Siver 12. Jeremy Stephens 13. Clay Guida 14. Daniel Straus 15. Nik Lentz NR
Nothing crazy here. We just moved Nik Lentz into the top 15, something he more than deserved with his performances since dropping down to the 145 pound division. We dropped Frodo Khasbulaev out of the rankings due to inactivity.
Bantamweight – Caraway debuts 1. TJ Dillashaw 2. Renan Barao 3. Rafael Assuncao 4. Urijah Faber 5. Michael McDonald 6. Marlon Moraes 7. Takeya Mizugaki 8. Eduardo Dantas 9. Johnny Eduardo 10. Bibiano Fernandes 11. Iuri Alcantara 12. Eddie Wineland 13. Bryan Caraway NR 14. Alex Caceres 15. Francisco Rivera (-2) Another small adjustment. Bryan Caraway makes his top 15 debut after scoring a convincing stoppage victory over Erik Perez at UFC Fight Night 42. We dropped Perez from the rankings to give Caraway a place.
Flyweight
1. Demetrious Johnson 2. John Dodson (+1) 3. Joseph Benavidez (-1) 4. Zach Makovsky (+1) 5. Ali Bagautinov (-1) 6. Ian McCall 7. Jussier Formiga 8. John Lineker 9. Justin Scoggins (+1) 10. John Moraga (-1) 11. Kyoji Horiguchi 12. Brad Pickett 13. Chris Cariaso 14. Dustin Ortiz 15. Louis Gaudinot
Nearly every top flyweight was in action in the last two weeks, so some slight changes were more than necessary. Despite not competing, Zach Makovsky moves into the number four position as the only contneder in the top six overall that champion Demetrious Johnson has not competed against yet. John Moraga drops slightly following his stoppage loss to John Dodson while Dodson moves into the number two spot overall for finishing the former title contender.