MMA pound-for-pound rankings: Justin Gaethje head-kicks his way into Top 10
Justin Gaethje’s head-kick knockout of Dustin Poirier on Saturday at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the main event of UFC 291 was set-up beautifully and gave "The Highlight" what may well have been his most significant victory.
It also returned him to the Yahoo Sports’ pound-for-pound rankings, which were updated for the first time since June 20. With two UFC pay-per-view cards in July, I opted to wait until both were completed to update the rankings.
Alexander Volkanovski, the UFC’s featherweight champion, had been No. 3, but he jumped to No. 2, swapping places with lightweight champion Islam Makhachev after Volkanovski's dominant win over Yair Rodriguez.
But Gaethje’s KO booted Henry Cejudo from the 10th spot in the rankings. Even though Cejudo lost to bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling at UFC 288 in May, he fought well after a nearly three-year absence and deserved a spot in the rankings.
On Saturday, though, Gaethje and light heavyweight Alex Pereira made a case for that spot. Gaethje KO’d the estimable Poirier, while Pereira slipped past former light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz in the co-main event of UFC 291.
Pereira is 2-1 in his last three, with a win over the middleweight champion and former light heavyweight champion sandwiched around a loss to middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
Gaethje, though, has been on a roll. He’s now 25-4 but is 7-2 in his last nine. He lost to Khabib Nurmagomedov, arguably one of the five greatest fighters in UFC history, and to Charles Oliveira in a lightweight title fight. But in that span, he’s defeated Poirier, Rafael Fiziev, Michael Chandler, Tony Ferguson, Donald Cerrone, Edson Barboza and James Vick.
That’s doing some work, and it put him into my rankings at No. 10.
Nothing changed on the women’s side, but with many of the top fighters active in the next two months, there should be a shakeup there soon, as well.
Men’s MMA pound-for-pound rankings as of Aug. 1
1. Jon Jones (27-1), UFC heavyweight champion. Previous Ranking: 1.
2. Alexander Volkanovski (25-2), UFC featherweight champion. Previous Ranking: 3.
3. Islam Makhachev (24-1), UFC lightweight champion. Previous Ranking: 2.
4. Israel Adesanya (24-2), UFC middleweight champion. Previous Ranking: 4.
5. Leon Edwards (21-3), UFC welterweight champion. Previous Ranking: 5.
6. Khamzat Chimaev (12-0) UFC welterweight/middleweight contender. Previous Ranking: 6.
7. Aljamain Sterling (23-3) UFC bantamweight champion. Previous Ranking: 7.
8. Kamaru Usman (20-3), former UFC welterweight champion. Previous Ranking: 8.
9. Charles Oliveira (33-9), former UFC lightweight champion. Previous Ranking: 9.
10. Justin Gaethje (25-4), UFC BMF champion. Previous Ranking: NR.
Women’s MMA pound-for-pound rankings as of Aug. 1
1. Julianna Peña (12-5), UFC bantamweight contender. Previous Ranking: 1.
2. Alexa Grasso (16-3), UFC flyweight champion. Previous Ranking: 2.
3. Valentina Shevchenko (23-4), UFC flyweight contender. Previous Ranking: 3.
4. Zhang Weili (23-3), UFC strawweight champion. Previous Ranking: 4.
5. Erin Blanchfield (11-1), UFC flyweight contender. Previous Ranking: 5.
6. Manon Fiorot (10-1), UFC flyweight contender. Previous Ranking: 6.
7. Taila Santos (19-2), UFC flyweight contender. Previous Ranking: 7.
8. Amanda Lemos (13-2-1), UFC strawweight contender. Previous Ranking: 8.
9. Raquel Pennington (15-8), UFC bantamweight contender. Previous Ranking: 9.
10. Larissa Pacheco (21-4), 2022 PFL lightweight champion. Previous Ranking: 10.
