The hosts of The Hammer MMA Radio have been contributing to the UFC’s Official Fighter Rankings since its inception earlier this year. While the UFC have confirmed that these rankings may not necessarily impact their matchmaking, the three of us still put a lot of thought into our selection process at the conclusion of each event. Following each event we will be breaking down our thought process on a few of the relevant divisions right here at Last Word On Sports.
You can find our updated Rankings, as well as the overall UFC Rankings at http://www.ufc.com/rankings, all updated on the Monday immediately following every UFC event.
UFC 167: St. Pierre vs. Hendricks
Steve Jeffery: Georges St. Pierre defended his championship with a close and favorable decision over #1 ranked Johny Hendricks. Most would argue that Hendricks earned the win, and due to his performance in the fight, he remains the #1 ranked Welterweight in the world and should likely fight for the belt again in the very near future.
Meanwhile, previously #8 ranked Robbie Lawler continued the most unlikely comeback story of the year by upsetting Rory MacDonald and then taking his place in the division at #3. MacDonald hasn’t dropped far though, and can get back on track with just one win over someone like Nick Diaz or Carlos Condit.
Finally, Tyron Woodley rebounded from his loss to Jake Shields by knocking out former contender Josh Koscheck. A win over Koscheck doesn’t mean quite as much as it did a year ago, and it is still not enough to rank T-Wood, but he’s getting close and it does guarantee Woodley a high profile opponent next time out.
Steve Jeffery: We finally have a new #1 Pound-For-Pound fighter. While most of our contemporaries on the UFC Rankings group have long since moved Jon Jones into the #1 pound-for-pound slot, we have been holding out.
As impressive as Jones’s run has been so far, it just didn’t feel right to move him past Georges St. Pierre, who has been just as dominant in his division, and for a much longer period of time.
On the other hand, Jones has been more active, has been finishing opponents, and his recent controversial win over Alexander Gustsfsson was not controversial to us (we thought Jones won the fight) as GSP’s was over Hendricks was (we thought GSP lost the fight). So we’re finally joining the bandwagon. Jon Jones is the Pound-For-Pound king for now.
Steve Jeffery: It is always good to see new Flyweights make an impression in the UFC due to the lack of depth. It’s been pretty easy to rank these guys so far since there’s only been 12-15 of them in the division at any one time, and no new fighters have cracked the top ten in the ten months that we’ve been doing this.
Ali Bagautinov’s decision win over previous #5 ranked Tim Elliot was the second win in a row for the Russian fighter, and as always in Flyweight he is probably only a win or two away from title contention. Likewise, Tim Elliot may have fallen out of the top five, but will always be in the mix in such a shallow division.
Depending on if the UFC sees Bagautinov as a contender, then he could be a solid matchup for Ian McCall when he returns or the next test for John Lineker, who needs to successfully make the weight limit for some fights before he can challenge for the title.
Main Photo Credit: teamleaks.com, CC
