With UFC Vegas 40 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.
Women’s Bantamweight
The Movement
| Fighter | Placement |
| Irene Aldana | #3 (+1) |
| Julianna Pena | #4 (+1) |
| Aspen Ladd | #5 (-2) |
| Karol Rosa | #14 (+1) |
| Julia Avila | #15 (-1) |
The Breakdown
The breakdown of the women’s bantamweight division is possibly the hardest for anyone who struggles with composite scores to understand. After watching Aspen Ladd lose at featherweight at UFC Vegas 40, she fell at bantamweight, and we see no movement for the winner of the fight, Norma Dumont. While this seems insane, it’s likely caused by a disagreement in how voters handled this fight.
If the majority of people decided that this should not matter to the 135lbs rankings, but a handful did, then Ladd would drop slightly. Her rank from a few people going down could cause a shift of a place or two. On the other hand, if only a couple of people started ranking Dumont, it may not be enough to get her in the rankings, even if they ranked her highly. As a result, it appears as if Dumont’s composite score didn’t change because she isn’t ranked. However, it 100% changed, just not enough to get her into the top 15 where that change would be visible.
Also, this disagreement in voters would also account for the switch at #14 and #15. If the voters who put Dumont in did so at the expense of Avila disproportionately to those who did so at the expense of Rosa, then Rosa’s score would move ahead of Avila’s.
Women’s Flyweight
The Movement
| Fighter | Placement |
| Manon Fiorot | #14 (NR) |
| Casey O’Neill | #15 (-1) |
| Miranda Maverick | NR (-1) |
The Breakdown
After the chaos up at bantamweight, flyweight is an easy one to understand. Fiorot won a fight at UFC Vegas 40. She looked good winning that fight. She moved ahead of some people, like Casey O’Neill and Miranda Maverick, who looked less good winning their last fight – pretty simple.
Heavyweight
The Movement
| Fighter | Placement |
| Marcin Tybura | #8 (+1) |
| Blagoy Ivanov | #12 (+1) |
| Walt Harris | #13 (-1) |
| Sergei Pavlovich | #14 (+1) |
| Sergey Spivak | #15 (-1) |
The Breakdown
This is another division that is tough to wrap your heads around. On one hand, none of these five fighters were in action this weekend, so seeing so much movement is wild-looking. However, it is pretty clear that all of the movement is caused by the win of Andrei Arlovski at UFC Vegas 40. He has now won four of his last five, with only a loss to Tom Aspinall. This likely gave him some votes from panelists.
Like with Avila and Rosa in the women’s bantamweight section, some fighters are affected more than others when someone new is getting votes (or just more votes). In this case, it appears that more panelists put Arlovski in the rankings (or higher up the rankings) at the expense of Walt Harris or Sergey Spivak, than they did at the expense of Blagoy Ivanov and Sergei Pavlovich. If their totals were already close, this could cause fluctuation like this.
Additionally, the move up for Tybura is likely due to a panelist (or more) moving Arlovski ahead of Shamil Aburakhimov after UFC Vegas 40 and lowering Abdurakhimov’s composite score.
Welterweight
The Movement
| Fighter | Placement |
| Michael Chiesa | #6 (+1) |
| Daniel Rodriguez | #14 (+1) |
| Muslim Salikhov | #15 (-1) |
The Breakdown
The movement of the bottom of these rankings is again due to the movement of a silent third party from UFC Vegas 40. In this case, it could be the advancement of another fighter or the falling. Danny Roberts likely did not do enough this past weekend to move up, but it is possible. More likely those voting for Ramazan Emeev for one of the ranking spots took him out. This helped Daniel Rodriguez more than it helped Muslim Salikhov and allowed him to jump a spot.
The weirdest movement is Michael Chiesa. The only reasonable explanations would be that someone may have had Emeev ahead of Chiesa on a ballot. Apart from that, it would have to be someone changing their list due to inactivity or another reason, which can happen from time to time.
Bantamweight
The Movement
| Fighter | Placement |
| Song Yadong | #15 (NR) |
| Raulian Paiva | #NR (-1) |
The Breakdown
The silent third party strikes again. This time, it is Danaa Batgerel who likely does the damage with his UFC Vegas 40 win. Now with three straight (T)KO finishes, it appears he’s nabbed some votes away from Raulian Paiva for that final spot (or at least more votes that he nabbed from Song Yadong). As a result, Yadong regains the spot that he lost when Nate Maness seemed to take some votes from him prior.
Women’s Strawweight
The Movement
| Fighter | Placement |
| Amanda Lemos | #12 (+1) |
| Virna Jandiroba | #13 (-1) |
The Breakdown
There’s a number of reasons why this change could have happened with neither of these two throwing down at UFC Vegas 40. Firstly, the back-to-back finishes for Ariane Carnelossi may have snagged votes from Jandiroba in a way that is disproportionate to those around her. Secondly, Lupita Godinez could have been ranked on some panelists’ rankings ahead of Lemos, and then been dropped, which would boost Lemos’ composite score.
