UFC Power Rankings
TweetThe top 10 fighters in the heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight, and lightweight divisions in the UFC.
Note: Rankings reflect performances up to UFC Fight Night 24. Featherweight and Bantamweight will be included soon.
UFC Power Rankings
| Fighter | Stock | Rank (Previous) | Record | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Heavyweight |
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Cain Velasquez |  | 1. (1) | 9-0 | A torn rotator cuff has put the champion on the back burner. Return in the early fall looks likely. |
Junior Dos Santos |  | 2. (2) | 12-1 | Dos Santos will coach the next Ultimate Fighter with Brock and they will face each other at UFC 131. |
Brock Lesnar | | 3. (3) | 5-2 | Lesnar lost his belt last October but opportunity presents itself yet again. Dos Santos and Lesnar will square off after the Ultimate Fighter. |
Shane Carwin | | 4. (4) | 12-1 | Carwin was going to meet Roy Nelson at UFC 125 but due to a back injury, he was sidelined for a little while. He should be back late spring at UFC 131. It's looking like his opponent will be UFC newcomer Jon Olav Einemo. Why Einemo? I’m not sure. Another top ten guy seems more suitable but at least he’s finally fighting. |
Frank Mir | | 5. (5) | 14-5 | Mir will face Roy Nelson at UFC 130. After his KO win against Cro Cop at UFC 119, Mir is just a few wins away from another title shot. |
Brendan Shaub | | 6. (8) | 8-1 | Cro-cop was the biggest win of his young career. The knockout win has him knocking on the door of the elite. |
Minotauro Nogueira | | 7. (6) | 32-6-1, 1 NC | “Big Nog” was called out by Shaub directly. Shaub insisted that it should happen in Brazil, Nogueira’s backyard. |
Ben Rothwell | | 8. (7) | 31-7 | Rothwell gave Gilbert Yvel a nice beating last spring but that was a while ago now and we still haven’t received a injury update. Late spring return might be possible but I won’t be surprised if it ends up being next summer. |
Cheick Kongo |  | 9. (9) | 25-6-2 | Kongo has been rumored to fight Pat Barry at UFC Live on Versus 4 this summer. If he ever hopes to fight for the UFC strap in his career then it's do or die and he needs to make a big statement. |
Roy Nelson | | 10. (11) | 15-5 | Nelson has drawn former champ Frank Mir. Mir will be his biggest test to date without a doubt. |
| Outside Looking In: Mirko "Cro-cop", Stephan Stuve, Matt Mitrione | ||||
Light Heavyweight |
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Jon "Bones" Jones | | 1. (3) | 13-1 | It seemed like it was only a matter of time for the young gifted superstar. Now he has to face his buddy Evans; this should get very interesting. The fight is not scheduled yet but Dana White has verbally confirmed the fight. |
Rashad "Suga" Evans | | 2. (2) | 20-1-1 | Evans had an unfortunate knee injury and lost his shot at the title at UFC 128 but he will still get a shot against the new 205 lb king. Evans left his camp though because Jones trains at the same place. Two hungry lions Just one belt. |
Maurício "Shogun" Rua | | 3. (1) | 19-5 | Shogun’s championship run has been stopped abruptly by the Jones train. Some of his next opponents could be Bonner, Franklin, or maybe even Griffin for the second time. |
Quinton Jackson | | 4. (4) | 31-8 | Squeaked a decision win over Machida in November at UFC 123. Matt Hamill will be the next one to step up and test this top-level veteran and UFC 130 is where it's going to happen. |
Lyoto Machida | | 5. (5) | 16-2 | After his close loss to Rampage, he has a chance to rebound quickly with a fight against the Hall of Famer Randy Couture at UFC 129. |
Forrest Griffin | | 6. (6) | 18-6 | Although his win streak is only at two and he was coming off of a lengthy layoff, Griffin moved up three spots from his victory over Rich Franklin. |
Ryan "Darth" Bader | | 7. (8) | 12-1 | Tito Ortiz has been the rumor for Bader’s next battle but Ortiz has a history now for pulling out of fights. Only time will tell where this rumor goes. |
Phil Davis | | 8. (12) | 9-0 | Excellent hard fought win against “Little Nog” at Fight Night 24. Griffin or Franklin would be exciting matchups for him next. Maybe Bonner will be in the mix too. |
Rich "Ace" Franklin | | 9. (9) | 28-6, 1 NC | Franklin is 36 years old and his loss to Forrest Griffin is a huge damper on his chances at a title before retirement. |
Thiago Silva | | 10. (7) | 15-2 | With steroid accusations, and urine sample mix ups, Silva is on the verge of being suspended. He had a dominating win over Vera at UFC 125 but it was all for nothing if he doesn’t come out of this situation clean. |
| Outside Looking In: Rogerio Nogueira, Matt Hamill, Stephan Bonner | ||||
Middleweight |
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Anderson Silva | | 1. (1) | 28-4 | He was impressive at UFC 126, winning with a rare front kick to the face. The kick caught Vitor by surprise and ended his title hopes. |
Chael Sonnen | | 2. (2) | 26-11-1 | A lucky submission in round five from Silva was the only thing that prevented this guy from taking “The Spider's” belt. Drug allegations and money laundering has resulted in Sonnen serving a six month suspension. We probably won’t see him again till late summer. |
Yuhsin Okami | | 3. (3) | 27-5 | Okami handled Nate Marquardt and has earned the next title shot against the Spider. Even though Yushin should get the next title shot, it could go to GSP if he decides to move up. |
Demian Maia | | 4. (4) | 14-2 | Maia has won his past two fights and has landed a big one against fellow contender Mark Muñoz. Maia fought for Silva’s belt once already. Although he was dominated in the fight, Silva couldn’t finish Maia and I actually believe that if the fight continued, Maia would've won because Silva was completely exhausted. |
Michael Bisping | | 5. (5) | 22-3 | Bisping beat Rivera with ease at UFC 127 but many people think that his “accidental” illegal knee played a big factor in the fight. Because of the knee strike and his disrespect shown to Rivera’s team after the fight, Bisping could be looking at some sort of suspension. |
Mark Muñoz | | 6. (7) | 9-2 | Maia will be a huge test for Muñoz and if he wins, it will be the biggest victory of his career. |
Vitor Belfort | | 7. (6) | 19-9 | It was a disappointing loss for the former heavyweight and light heavyweight champ for sure. UFC has expressed their want to Belfort take on Wanderlei Silva in his next fight. |
Nate Marquardt | | 8. (8) | 33-10-2 | Beating Yoshihiro Akiyama would have been more impressive for Marquardt but Dan Miller is a pretty good win too. Marquardt has called out Bisping but its hard to tell if Bisping will be fighting anytime soon. |
Chris Leben | | 9. (9) | 21-7 | The knockout loss to unranked Brian Stann was a major road block for Leben. Now he’s going back to the drawling board. He needs at least three wins to get back into title contention. |
Maiquel Falcao  | | 10. (10) | 26-3, 1 NC | Yes, Falcao has only one UFC fight on his record but Falcao was a diamond found in the rough. He has 21 KO victories and is on an eight fight win streak and has won 12 of his last 13. |
| Outside Looking In: Yoshihiro Akiyama, Alan Belcher, Wanderlei Silva | ||||
Welterweight |
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Georges St-Pierre | | 1. (1) | 21-2 | The best athlete in all of MMA and a obvious contender for the pound-for-pound champion. GSP dominates again. He ran over Koscheck at UFC 124 and seems to have Jake Shields up next. |
Jake Shields | | 2. (2) | 26-4-1 | Not only has he not lost since 2004, but he has defeated multiple MMA superstars in the process. He got through a super tough Martin Kampmann and will take on GSP for the welterweight strap. |
Jon Fitch | | 3. (3) | 26-3, 1 NC | He has lost one out of his last twenty fights and that was to GSP. Enough said. |
B.J. Penn | | 4. (5) | 16-7-1 | Considering his last three prior fights, a draw against Fitch is a positive. Fitch was injured during training and has to drop out of their rematch. No opponent has been lined up for Fitch’s replacement yet, but Koscheck, Sanchez, and Johnson are a few guys that could be in the mix. |
Josh Koscheck | | 5. (4) | 17-5 | He put up a good effort against GSP but he still wasn’t even close to taking the champ's belt. His road back to another title shot will be very long and rocky. Early summer return is likely. |
Thiago “Pittbull” Alves | | 6. (7) | 18-7 | Alves was dominated by Fitch two fights ago but with a solid win against Josh Howard, Alves is set for Rick Story at UFC 130, another non-top ten guy for Alves. Fighting guys like this is risky. Story can be dangerous and if Alves lose,. it will be a huge hit on his title shot hopes. |
Diego Sanchez | | 7. (10) | 24-4 | Many didn’t agree with the judges' decision at UFC Live on Versus 3 when he scored a unanimous 29-28 win over Kampmann. I am not one of those people. Diego looked bad after the fight, yes, but I watched the fight several times and scored it the same way. 29-28 for Sanchez. |
Martin Kampmann | | 8. (6) | 17-5 | Sorry Kampmann but I agree with the judges. He did lose the Sanchez fight, but with a couple big wins, he will be right back in the mix. |
Carlos Condit | | 9. (8) | 26-5 | Condit suffered an injury while preparing for Chris Lytle. He’ll be on the back burner for a little bit but a mid-summer fight should be expected. |
Matt Hughes | | 10. (11) | 45-8 | Hughes seems to be bouncing on and off this list. He was bounced off this list thanks to a KO loss to Penn at UFC 123. Now he finds himself back on here due to another fighter's loss (Hardy). |
| Outside Looking In: Anthony Johnson, John Hathaway, Jake Ellenberger | ||||
Lightweight |
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Frankie Edgar | | 1. (1) | 13-1-1 | After his second title defense ended in a draw, Edgar will now face the same opponent twice in a row. |
Gray Maynard | | 2. (2) | 10-0-1, 1 NC | Maynard put in an impressive performance against Edgar for the belt that ended in a rare championship draw. So what does the UFC do now? Well, I guess just do it again. |
Anthony Pettis | | 3. (3) | 13-1 | Pettis lost his title shot due to an unfortunate draw between Edgar and Maynard but if he beats Clay Guida at the TUF Finale, then he will get it right back. |
Jim Miller | | 4. (6) | 20-2 | Miller continues to dominate and make his case for a title shot. UFC, can you please get this guy a top ten lightweight so he can prove himself? No offense to Shalorus, but he is not even in the same league. Sherk would be a great match up for Miller. |
Sean Sherk | | 5. (4) | 38-4-1 | Sherk is coming off of a big win against top prospect Evan Dunham. The victory wasn’t pretty but he got it done and that’s that. I don’t know his next opponent, but it should be another top ten for sure. |
George Sotiropoulos | | 6. (5) | 14-3 | Big loss to Siver at UFC 127. I think it was due to bad game planning. Siver showed us how vulnerable Soti can be when he can’t get the fight to the ground. |
Clay Guida | | 7. (7) | 28-8 | Guida has been on a big roll and has a huge opportunity to steal the success of Anthony Pettis. A win against Pettis would really shake up the division. |
Melvin Guillard | | 8. (8) | 45-9-3, 1 NC | Melvin is on fire. He’s on a four fight win streak with two of those against Jeremy Stephens and Evan Dunham. If he can keep this title run up, then a chance at the crown could be in Guillard’s near future. |
Dennis Siver | | 9. (NR) | 18-7 | Welcome to the top ten Dennis Siver. Siver earned this spot with a big upset win over Sotiropoulos. Siver has gone 7-1 in his last eight fights. He needs another top ten guy to be a legitimate contender for the belt. |
Ben Henderson | | 10. (9) | 12-2 | Henderson’s loss to Pettis at the last WEC event was huge. He lost his WEC belt and his chance at the lightweight champion. Good news is that he’s young and has plenty of years left. He starts his next run against Mark Bocek at UFC 129. |
| Outside Looking In: Takanori Gomi, Nik Lentz, Evan Dunham | ||||
UFC 114 will have a great deal of suits, but none at the magnitude of the bout among Quinton Jackson and Rashad Evans. This is just one of the most anticipated match-ups, which will last but not least carry spot this month.
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I dont see randy couture on any of those lists. He’s gonna fight Lyoto Machida in UFC 129. He should definately be higher than Rich Franklin.
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@Joshua I honestly thought that randy was going to retire. That’s the only reason he wasn’t on the list. Also. I agree with the Rich Franklin statement but I’m going to wait and see what he says after the Machida fight and win or lose, if he’s committed to fighting for another championship run. If yes, then I’ll put him on there. If he was on here now, he would be #7 behind Griffin. I just don’t want to put him on here just to take him off after the Machida fight. I feel if he wins that fight, then it puts him right in the mix and it will motivate him for another title run. If he loses, then he will probably retire. I will be writing a preview on it. It will be interesting to see the outcome of the fight and his plans post fight. Thanks for the comment and very good observation.
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