MMAOddsBreaker Rankings Update (CMigrator copy 14)

cruzWith UFC 178, The Ultimate Fighter season 20 and Bellator 126 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 (+1) 3. Jose Aldo (-1) 4. Chris Weidman 5. Cain Velasquez 6. Dominick Cruz (NR) 7. Johny Hendricks (-1) 8. Anthony Pettis (-1) 9. Daniel Cormier (-1) 10. Ronda Rousey (-1) 11. TJ Dillashaw (-1) 12. Vitor Belfort (-1) 13. Gilbert Melendez (-1) 14. Renan Barao (-1) 15. Frankie Edgar (-1) Demetrious Johnson takes claim to our number two pound-for-pound position after his crushing victory over Chris Cariaso via second round Kimura this past weekend. The other huge mover and shaker is Dominick Cruz, who returned to action looking better than ever at UFC 178 and takes back the spot in the polls he never should have lost (more on this later). Lightweight

1. Anthony Pettis 2. Gilbert Melendez 3. Khabib Nurmagomedov 4. Rafael dos Anjos 5. Ben Henderson 6. Donald Cerrone (+2) 7. TJ Grant (-1) 8. Eddie Alvarez (-1) 9. Bobby Green 10. Josh Thomson 11. Myles Jury 12. Nate Diaz 13. Michael Johnson 14. Justin Gaethje 15. Michael Chandler

The biggest lightweight fight this past weekend was a top 10 contest between Donald Cerrone and the debuting Eddie Alvarez on the UFC 178 main card. Alvarez came out strong, winning the first round, but Cerrone wore him down with constant pressure and repeated kicks which slowed him and allowed Cerrone to take control of the final two frames en route to a unanimous decision victory. Alvarez doesn’t drop much due to his solid showing, while Cerrone moves up two spots to number six. Featherweight

1. Jose Aldo 2. Chad Mendes 3. Frankie Edgar 4. Ricardo Lamas 5. Cub Swanson 6. Patricio Pitbull 7. Conor McGregor (+5) 8. Dennis Bermudez 9. Dustin Poirier (-2)
10. Pat Curran (-1) 11. Nik Lentz (-1) 12. Chan Sung Jung (-1) 13. Jeremy Stephens 14. Charles Oliveira 15. Daniel Straus

The biggest story of the past week was the hype train coming to a reality for Conor McGregor as the “Notorious” one followed through on his promise to knock out Dustin Poirier in the first round of their UFC 178 main card contest. McGregor soars up the featherweight rankings with his dominant showing and likely upcoming number one contender position while Poirier drops a couple spots for suffering a tough loss.

Bantamweight 1. Dominick Cruz (NR) 2. TJ Dillashaw (-1) 3. Renan Barao (-1) 4. Urijah Faber (-1) 5. Rafael Assuncao (-1) 6. Michael McDonald (-1) 7. Marlon Moraes 8. Eduardo Dantas 9. Iuri Alcantara 10. Takeya Mizugaki (-4) 11. Johnny Eduardo (-1) 12. Bibiano Fernandes (-1) 13. Eddie Wineland (-1) 14. Bryan Caraway (-1) 15. Kyung Ho Kang (-1) Dominick Cruz was the number one bantamweight in the world and the number four pound-for-pound fighter on the planet when he first got injured. “The Dominator” disappeared from our rankings due to his over 1000 day layoff, but he returned with a vengeance against Takeya Mizugaki, scoring his first stoppage victory since he initially won his WEC bantamweight title from Brian Bowles. Cruz looked better than ever and we were so impressed that we’re not only placing him back in the top 15, we’re debuting him at number one overall in the division. Yes, even ahead of current champion TJ Dillashaw, who Cruz will battle in early 2015.

Flyweight
1. Demetrious Johnson 2. John Dodson 3. Joseph Benavidez 4. Ian McCall 5. Jussier Formiga 6. Ali Bagautinov 7. Kyoji Horiguchi 8. John Lineker 9. Zach Makovsky 10. Dustin Ortiz 11. John Moraga 12. Ray Borg (+1) 13. Chris Cariaso (-1) 14. Justin Scoggins 15. Brad Pickett

There aren’t enough good things we can say about Demetrious Johnson, and since we can’t move him up further past number one in the flyweight division, he stays put. His recent opponent Chris Cariaso, however, drops down a notch for his one-sided loss. Women’s Bantamweight 1. Ronda Rousey 2. Cat Zingano 3. Sara Kaufman 4. Miesha Tate 5. Alexis Davis 6. Sara McMann 7. Jessica Eye 8. Lauren Murphy 9. Bethe Correira 10. Holly Holm 11. Jessica Andrade 12. Liz Carmouche (+1) 13. Amanda Nunes (-1) 14. Julianna Pena 15. Irene Aldana Cat Zingano looked impressive in the second and third rounds of her return bout against Amanda Nunes, but the first frame was a significant scare. It wasn’t enough to drop her in the rankings, but we did feel that Liz Carmouche deserved a little bit more love considering how good she looked in her last fight against Miesha Tate. Nunes drops one spot for once again failing to have cardio past the first round. Women’s Strawweight 1. Jessica Aguilar 2. Claudia Gadelha 3. Carla Esparza 4. Ayaka Hamasaki 5. Joanne Calderwood 6. Joanna Jedrzejczyk 7. Mizuki Inoue 8. Tecia Torres 9. Katja Kankaanpaa 10. Jessica Penne (NR) 11. Stephanie Eggink (-1) 12. Randa Markos (-1) 13. Felice Herrig (-1) 14. Bec Rawlings (Hyatt) (-1) 15. Rose Namajunas (-1) Jessica Penne was the former Invicta women’s atomweight champion before she lost the title to Michelle Waterson. She’s since won one fight at atomweight in the first round, and moved up a weight class to compete on The Ultimate Fighter season 20. Penne made her TUF 20 debut in a rematch against Lisa Ellis this past Wednesday, and she scored a dominant first round submission in a much less competitive bout than the first time they faced each other. Penne is ranked number four on the show by the UFC matchmakers, but we debuted her at number 10 in our rankings. We’ll see how she performs as the season continues and we’ll adjust accordingly.