Randa Markos’ split decision win over Carla Esparza has put her in the top 10 of the UFC women’s strawweight rankings.
Had Randa Markos lost to Carla Esparza at UFC Halifax, she could’ve been out of the UFC. Instead, the underdog Markos defeated her TUF 20 rival by split decision, and has found her way into the top 10 of the UFC’s rankings update. That’s basically the biggest move related to the fights from last Sunday, as it’s not as if this card was chock full of ranked fighters to begin with.
The full UFC rankings can be found here.
Pound-for-Pound: No changes
Women’s Strawweight: Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes aplenty! Carla Esparza fell five spots to #8. Jessica Andrade, Rose Namajunas, Tecia Torres, Michelle Waterson, and Joanne Calderwood all got that beneficial bump to 3rd-7th. Randa Markos went from unranked to #9. Maryna Moroz fell two places to 11th. Felice Herrig, Jessica Aguilar, and Jessica Penne dropped to 12th-14th. With Valerie Letourneau out of the UFC, Justine Kish has assumed 15th spot.
Flyweight: Kyoji Horiguchi is now with RIZIN, which left the #3 spot vacant. That bumped everyone ranked below him up one spot (except Ian McCall and Dustin Ortiz, who climbed two spots to #6 over McCall, who remained at #7). Jussier Formiga assumes Horiguchi’s previous spot at #3, while Ryan Benoit rounds out the rankings at #15.
Men’s Bantamweight: No changes
Women’s Bantamweight: Julianna Pena went into a tie for #2 with Ronda Rousey. Sara McMann’s win over the unranked Gina Mazany sent her up one spot to #6. Cat Zingano drops down to 7th.
Men’s Featherweight: No changes
Women’s Featherweight: No rankings yet
Lightweight: No changes
Welterweight: Johny Hendricks is out of the 170 lbs rankings now that he’s made the permanent move to 185. Tarec Saffiedine, Kamaru Usman, and Jake Ellenberger rose to 10th-12th respectively. Ryan LaFlare jumped two spots to 13th. Matt Brown is still in 14th. Santiago Ponzinibbio enters the rankings at #15 after his win over Nordine Taleb.
Middleweight: No changes
Light Heavyweight: Nikita Krylov is no longer in the UFC, so fighters ranked
Heavyweight: Derrick Lewis moved up to 7th, dropping Mark Hunt down to 8th. Travis Browne dropped to 10th with the loss to Lewis, moving Andrei Arlovski up to 9th
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