With UFC 266 in the books, the ranking panelists went back to update their personal rankings (myself included). There were some divisions that saw major shake-ups, and others that saw virtually no movement. Let’s take a look at who moved and what the reason might be for it.
Bantamweight
The Movement
| Fighter | Placement |
| Merab Dvalishvili | #6 (+5) |
| Marlon Moraes | #10 (-4) |
| Dominick Cruz | #11 (-1) |
The Breakdown
After a wild, come-from-behind win, Merab Dvalishvili moves up to the #6 spot in the bantamweight rankings. This is most likely due to the high ranking of Marlon Moraes, who previously held that exact spot. The move shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise as it was the seventh straight win for the Georgian. However, to some, it seems like a bit of a shock given that it was one of his least impressive performances. He was hurt badly with the hands early in the fight and some argue that it could have been stopped for Moraes at that time. Still, he launches ahead of the likes of Frankie Edgar and Cody Garbrandt in the process.
Moraes nearly directly changed spots with Dvalishvili with one small exception. While Dvalishvili came from behind Dominick Cruz, Moraes also stayed ahead of the former champion.
Lightweight
The Movement
| Fighter | Placement |
| Dan Hooker | #6 (+2) |
| Rafael dos Anjos | #8 (-1) |
The Breakdown
Not only did Dan Hooker come out and bring a grinding halt to his losing streak, but he did so while showing a brand new wrinkle in his game. Hooker not only put the volume on Nasrat Haqparast with his striking, but he hit a few really sharp duck-unders into double leg takedowns. His top game also looked vastly improved once arriving there. For all of this, he earned himself two spots in the rankings. It likely would have been more with such a dominant performance, but a recent loss to #4 and the fact that his opponent was unranked slowed that climb.
This upward movement only came at the expense of Rafael dos Anjos, who just pulled out of his fight with Islam Makhachev. However, Hooker is now also tied with Tony Ferguson for that #6 spot too.
Heavyweight
The Movement
| Fighter | Placement |
| Chris Daukaus | #7 (+3) |
| Shamil Abdurakhimov | #8 (-1) |
| Marcin Tybura | #9 (-1) |
| Augusto Sakai | #10 (-1) |
The Breakdown
In his heavyweight bout with Shamil Abdurakhimov this weekend, Chris Daukaus seemed to pick up the KO at least 3 times. In the first round, the Russian was saved by the bell when Daukaus was hurting his from all places. Then in the second, he appeared to get that KO, but a weird angle from the referee led to more follow up shots that eventually got the call. The win was the fourth straight for Daukaus, and just the first that made it out of the first round. The big move up coincides with a report that he’ll be facing Derrick Lewis in December (although his management reports that it is still being negotiated on their end).
Of note, Abdurakhimov fell only behind Daukaus with the loss. This may be due to the fact that he does have a TKO win over Marcin Tybura, who is right behind him in the rankings.
Women’s Flyweight
| Figther | Placement |
| Taila Santos | #9 (+3) |
| Roxanne Modafferi | #11 (-2) |
| Andrea Lee | #12 (-1) |
The Breakdown
Taila Santos makes the big leap on the women’s side. After battering Roxanne Modafferi for the 15 minute limit, Santos jumped up three spots to grab Roxy’s #9 ranking. This marked the third straight win for Santos who dropped her first fight in the UFC. She took this fight as a late replacement after Tatiana Suarez backed out of the fight. She made the most of it with a dominant performance.
Modafferi has now lost three of her last four and drops two spots down to #11. The lone win in that span is over Andrea Lee, which is why she didn’t fall any further than that.
