Welcome to the 3rd annual Divisional Rankings from MMA Complete Podcast. The ear of 2022 is coming to an end and as we do every year at MMA Complete we speak the honest truth and rank ever fighter and ever division.
Some of our placements will no doubt be controversial but they are the real rankings with no ties to fighter popularity and no asses being kissed. We will not apologize for ranking some of your favorite fighters above or below where you or the UFC want them to be. If you believe you can make a better list then us, go make them then.
The format for this article is simple; The fighter will be given after his current rank, while appearing after the fighters name in parenthesis, will be his ranking at the end of 2021. A detailed list of where the UFC has the fighter ranked compared to where we have the fighter ranked will not be given. The UFC's rankings have no bearing on our own.
Please direct all praises of how perfect our lists are to our twitter @complete_mma and enjoy!
Pound-For-Pound
1. Alexander Volkanovski (No.2)
2. Islam Makhachev (No.20)
3. Francis Ngannou (No.6)
4. Kamaru Usman (No.1)
5. Charles Oliveira (No.3)
6. Israel Adesanya (No.4)
7. Jon Jones (No.5)
8. Aljamain Sterling (No.15)
9. Khamzat Chimaev (No.27)
10. Leon Edwards (No.35)
11. Dustin Poirier (No.12)
12. Alex Pereira (No.73)
13. Jiri Prochazka (No.24)
14. Deiveson Figueiredo (No.13)
15. Robert Whittaker (No.14)
Controversial Ranks:
Adesanya at 6 while Pereira at 12
You'll see a common theme in these ranks. If a fighter won 90% of the fight but then gets finished at the end, I will keep them above the victor. Additionally, Adesanya's reign of dominance is still worth more than me than Pereira's 4 UFC wins.
Usman at 4 while Edwards at 10
Usman won the majority of the fight and would've marked his 16th win in a row. Usman is clearly one of the very top fighters in the world while Edwards has only 2 wins in three-and-a-half years.
Heavyweight
1. Francis Ngannou ( No.1)
2. Ciryl Gane (No.4)
3. Jon Jones (No. 3)
4. Stipe Miocic (No.2)
5. Curtis Blaydes (No.5)
6. Tom Aspinall (No.12)
7. Sergei Pavlovich (No.17)
8. Alexander Volkov (No.8)
9. Tai Tuivasa (No.6)
10. Jairzinho Rozenstruik (No. 9)
11. Sergey Spivac (No.14)
12. Derrick Lewis (No.7)
13. Marcin Tybura (No.13)
14. Alexandr Romanov (No.19)
15. Jailton Almeida (No. 37)
Controversial Ranks:
Jon Jones at 3
Jones isn't even technically a Heavyweight so having him on the rankings will always ruffle some feathers. Also he hasn't had a fight in almost three years and will be over three ears b the time he gets back in the octagon. HE IS STILL JON JONES. The only reason Gane is above him is because his high activity against top fighters.
Tai Tuivasa at 9
I love Tuivasa and shoeys as much as the next guy but he is a hype train. When you look at his record he only has one very significant win against Derrick Lewis who has taken a huge drop this year.
Light Heavyweight
1. Jiri Prochazka (No.2)
2. Glover Teixeira (No.1)
3. Magomed Ankalaev (No.5)
4. Aleksander Rakic (No.4)
5. Jan Blachowicz (No.3)
6. Jamahal Hill (No.11)
7. Anthony Smith (No.6)
8. Nikita Krylov (No.12)
9. Volkan Oezdemir (No.9)
10. Paul Craig (No.10)
11. Ryan Spann (No.15)
12. Johnny Walker (No.14)
13. Khalil Rountree Jr. (No.26)
14. Dustin Jacoby (No.19)
15. Dominick Reyes (No.7)
Controversial Ranks:
Rakic at 4 while Blachowicz at 5
While Blachowicz has a win over Rakic via TKO it was because Rakic tore his ACL. Rakic was doing very well in that fight and Blachowicz's only win in the last two ears besides Rakic was Adesanya who weighed about thirty pounds less at the time of the fight.
Middleweight
1. Israel Adesanya (No.1)
2. Alex Pereira (No.25)
3. Robert Whittaker (No.2)
4. Marvin Vettori (No.4)
5. Jared Cannonier (No. 3)
6. Paulo Costa (No.7)
7. Roman Dolidze (No.20)
8. Sean Strickland (No.6)
9. Derek Brunson (No.5)
10. Andre Muniz (No.13)
11. Dricus Du Plessis (No.18)
12. Jack Hermansson (No.8)
13. Nassourdine Imavov (No.12)
14. Chris Curtis (No.16)
15. Darren Till (No.9)
Controversial Ranks:
Adesanya at 1 while Pereira at 2
This is the same reason I stated in the pound-for-pound rankings. Adesanya was winning most of the fight and has had a much longer dominance than Pereira.
Roman Dolidze at 7 while Jack Hermansson at 12
So of course Dolidze is above Hermansson after he beat him at UFC 281. The larger gap between the two comes from Dolidze's dominance in his last two fights and his potential in the division and the fact that Hermansson hasn't beaten a fighter who had a full camp before their fight since Gastellum in 2020.
Welterweight
1. Kamaru Usman (No.1)
2. Khamzat Chimaev (No.9)
3. Leon Edwards (No.5)
4. Colby Covington (No.2)
5. Gilbert Burns (No.3)
6. Belal Muhammed (No.7)
7. Shavkat Rakhmonov (No.18)
8. Stephen Thompson (No.11)
9. Geoff Neal (No.12)
10. Jorge Masvidal (No.6)
11. Sean Brady (No.11)
12. Vicente Luque (No.4)
13. Neil Magny (No. 10)
14. Michael Chiesa (No.13)
15. Kevin Holland (N/A)
Controversial Ranks:
Edwards at 3
So I've already spoken on Usman being better than Edwards in the pound-for-pound rankings, but what I haven't expanded on is Chimaev being above Edwards as well. This has more to do with my disbelief in Edwards than m belief in Chimaev. Chimaev has dominated everyone he's faced besides Burns who he still beat whereas Edwards barely beat Usman and almost got knocked out by Nate Diaz in his fight prior.
Lightweight
1. Islam Makhachev (No.4)
2. Charles Oliveira (No.1)
3. Dustin Poirier (No.2)
4. Beneil Dariush (No.5)
5. Justin Gaethje (No.3)
6. Rafael Fiziev (No.9)
7. Arman Tsarukyan (No.15)
8. Michael Chandler (No.6)
9. Mateusz Gamrot (No.22)
10. Damir Ismagulov (No.21)
11. Conor McGregor (No.7)
12. Rafael Dos Anjos (No.10)
13. Jalin Turner (No.27)
14. Renato Moicano (No.24)
15. Grant Dawson (No. 31)
Controversial Ranks:
Chandler at 8
Michael Chandler is a very entertaining fighter maybe even the most so in the UFC. However every time he's faced elite competition he's been beaten. Whereas the controversial fighters ranked above him in Fiziev and Tsarukyan are tearing the division up while not even scratching the surface due to (in their words) being ducked by everyone in the top[ five.
Conor at 11
So Conor just got dropped out of an divisions top-fifteen for the first time in seven ears and it is due to inactivity. Yes Conor didn't look good in his last fights but those were against the #11 pound-for-pound in the world Dustin Poirier. Conor is still one of the best strikers in the world and can definitely beat some of the fighters ranked 10 and below in this division and possibly even Welterweight or even Middleweight in the future.
Featherweight
1. Alexander Volkanovski (No.1)
2. Max Holloway (No.2)
3. Yair Rodriguez (No.4)
4. Brian Ortega (No.3)
5. Arnold Allen (No.10)
6. Josh Emmett (No.9)
7. Calvin Kattar (No.6)
8. Ilia Topuria (No. 17)
9. Giga Chikadze (No. 8)
10. Chan Sung Jung (No.7)
11. Movsar Evloev (No.11)
12. Bryce Mitchell (No.12)
13. Edson Barboza (No.13)
14. Dan Ige (No.11)
15. Sodiq Yusuff (No.16)
Bantamweight
1. Aljamain Sterling (No.2
2. Merab Dvalishvili (No.6)
3. Petr Yan (No.1)
4. Marlon Vera (No.9)
5. Sean O'Malley (No.14)
6. Cory Sandhagen (No.5)
7. Dominick Cruz (No.10)
8. Song Yadong (No.16)
9. Rob Font (No.7)
10. Umar Nurmagomedov (No. 30)
11. Ricky Simon (No.25)
12. Said Nurmagomedov (No.27)
13. Pedro Munhoz (No.11)
14. Adrian Yanez (No.22)
15. Douglas Silva de Andrade (No. 28)
Controversial Ranks:
Petr an at 3 while Sean O'Malley at 5
So I believe a decent amount of people will be with me on this. Yan has been on the losing side of two very controversial decisions this year including his lost to O'Malley. While O'Malley certainly deserves an elite spot on this list, Yan is still one of the best fighters in this division and will likel be back in the top 2 of the UFC's rankings by next ear.
Flyweight
1. Deiveson Figueiredo (No.1)
2. Brandon Moreno (No.2)
3. Kai Kara-France (No.5)
4. Alexandre Pantoja (No.4)
5. Matheus Nicolau (No.10)
6. Brandon Royval (No.6)
7. Manel Kape (No.12)
8. Amir Albazi (No.14)
9. Matthew Schnell (No.9)
10. Alex Perez (No.6)
11. Tim Elliot (No.13)
12. Sumudaerji (No.16)
13. Jeff Molina (No.23)
14. Muhammad Mokaev (N/A)
15. David Dvorak (No.11)
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