The surprising result at Saturday’s UFC 300 prompted a lively reaction from fans and fighters alike. And some of those fight results led to big changes in ESPN’s pound-for-pound MMA rankings.
Max Holloway broke into the men’s top 10 with his incredible strength, knocking out Justin Gaethje in the last second in the BMF title match. Light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira inched closer to moving up from No. 3 after KOing challenger and former champion Jamahal Hill in the first round, but the top five of these rankings remains intact . Another former UFC champion, lightweight Charles Oliveira, was dropped from the rankings after his loss on Saturday.
Kayla Harrison was already in the top 10 in the women’s rankings, but she had a dominant performance against former bantamweight champion Holly Holm in her UFC debut (which also marked Harrison’s debut as a 135-pounder). By showing this, he is currently ranked. Top 5 people. Manon Fiorotto is a new addition to these rankings based on her victory over top 10 flyweight Erin Blanchfield on March 30th.
Another change in these rankings is in the voting committee. Andreas Heil joins the martial arts team and Mark Raimondi now covers his NFL on ESPN.
Click here for ESPN Divisional MMA Rankings.
Note: Results are current. To be considered for rankings, fighters must have competed in the past 12 months or have upcoming bouts booked. Fighters demoted due to inactivity can only return after competition.
Men’s pound-for-pound rankings
Max Holloway delivered an epic knockout in the final second of his BMF fight against Justin Gaethje at UFC 300. Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
1. Islam Makhachev
UFC lightweight champion
Record: 25 wins, 1 loss
Last: W (KO1) vs. Alexander Volkanovski, October 21, 2023
Next: June 1st vs. Dustin Poirier
2. Leon Edwards
UFC welterweight champion
Record: 22 wins, 3 losses, 1NC
Last: W (UD) vs. Colby Covington, December 16, 2023
Next: TBA
3. Alex Pereira
UFC light heavyweight champion
Record: 10 wins, 2 losses
Previous: W (KO1) vs. Jamahal Hill, April 13, 2024
Next: TBA
4. Ilia Topuria
UFC featherweight champion
Record: 15-0
Last: W (KO2) vs. Alexander Volkanovski, February 17, 2024
Next: TBA
5. Sean O’Malley
UFC bantamweight champion
Record: 18-1, 1NC
Previous: W (UD) vs. Marlon Vera, March 9, 2024
Next: TBA
6. Alexandre Pantoja
UFC flyweight champion
Previous ranking: 7
Record: 27 wins, 5 losses
Last: W (UD) vs. Brandon Roybal, December 16, 2023
Next: May 4th vs. Steve Arseg
7. Alexander Volkanovsky
UFC featherweight
Previous ranking: 8
Record: 26 wins, 4 losses
Last: L (KO2) vs. Ilya Topria, February 17, 2024
Next: TBA
8. Israel Adesanya
UFC middleweight
Previous ranking: 9
Record: 24 wins, 3 losses
Last: L (UD) vs. Sean Strickland, September 9, 2023
Next: TBA
9. Max Holloway
UFC featherweight
Previous ranking: Not ranked
Record: 26 wins, 7 losses
Previous: W (KO5) vs. Justin Gaethje, April 13, 2024
Next: TBA
10. Doricus du Plessis
UFC middleweight champion
Record: 21 wins, 2 losses
Last: W (SD) vs. Sean Strickland, January 20, 2024
Next: TBA
Other fighters who received votes: Demetrius Johnson, Merab Dvalishvili, and Aljamain Sterling.
How our panel voted
Brett Okamoto: 1. Islam Makhachev. 2. Leon Edwards. 3. Alex Pereira; 4. Israel Adesanya. Ilia Topuria 5. 6. Alexandre Pantoja; 7. Sean O’Malley. 8. Alexander Volkanovsky. 9. Max Holloway. 10. Aljamain Sterling.
Andreas Hele: 1. Makhachev; 2. Pereira; 3. Edwards; Topuria 4. 5. O’Malley; 6. Pantoja. 7. Volkanovski; 8. Holloway. 9. Adesanya. 10. Dorikas du Plessis.
Megan Anderson: 1. Makhachev; 2. Edwards; 3. Pereira; 4. O’Malley; 5. Volkanovskiy; Topria; 6. 7. Holloway. 8. Du Plessis; 9. Adesanya. 10. Pantoja.
Carlos Contreras Legaspi: 1. Makhachev; 2. Edwards; 3. Pereira; Topuria 4. 5. O’Malley; 6. Adesanya. 7. Volkanovski; 8. Pantoja. 9. Du Plessis; 10. Holloway.
Ian Parker: 1. Makhachev; 2. Pereira; Topria; 3. 4. Edwards. 5. O’Malley. 6. Holloway. 7. Du Plessis; 8. Demetrius Johnson. 9. Pantoja. 10. Adesanya.
Eddie Maisonnet III: 1. Makhachev; 2. Edwards; 3. Pantoja. 4. Adesanya. 5. Pereira; 6. Volkanovski; Topria 7. 8. O’Malley; 9. Holloway. 10. Du Plessis.
Jeff Wagenheim: 1. Makhachev; 2. Pereira; 3. Edwards; Topuria 4. 5. Holloway. 6. O’Malley. 7. Pantoja. 8. Volkanovsky; 9. Merab Dvalishvili. 10. Du Plessis.
Women’s Pound-for-Pound Ranking
Kayla Harrison made a strong debut at UFC 300, tossing former champion Holly Holm at her mercy. Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
1. Zhang Weili
UFC strawweight champion
Record: 25 wins, 3 losses
Previous: W (UD) vs. Yang Xiaonan, April 13, 2024
Next: TBA
2. Alexa Grasso
UFC flyweight champion
Record: 16 wins, 3 losses, 1 draw
Last: Split Draw vs. Valentina Shevchenko, September 16, 2023
Next: TBA
3. Valentina Shevchenko
UFC flyweight
Record: 22 wins, 4 losses, 1 draw
Last: Split Draw vs. Alexa Grasso, September 16, 2023
Next: TBA
4. Cris Cyborg
Bellator featherweight champion
Record: 27 wins, 2 losses, 1NC
Last: W (TKO1) vs. Cat Zingano, October 7, 2023
Next: TBA
5. Kayla Harrison
UFC bantamweight
Previous ranking: 9th place tie
Record: 17-1
Last: W (Sub2) vs. Holly Holm, April 13, 2024
Next: TBA
6. Manon Fioreau
UFC flyweight
Previous ranking: Not ranked
Record: 12-1
Previously: W (UD) vs. Erin Blanchfield, March 30, 2024
Next: TBA
7. Raquel Pennington
UFC bantamweight champion
Previous ranking: 8
Record: 16 wins, 8 losses
Previous: W (UD) vs. Maira Bueno Silva, January 20, 2024
Next: TBA
T-8.Erin Blanchfield
UFC flyweight
Previous ranking: 5
Record: 12 wins, 2 losses
Last: L (UD) vs. Manon Fiorotto, March 30, 2024
Next: TBA
T-8.Larissa Pacheco
PFL featherweight champion
Previous ranking: 9th place tie
Record: 23 wins, 4 losses
Last: W (UD) vs. Marina Mokhnatkina, November 24, 2023
Next: TBA
T-10.Tatiana Suarez
UFC strawweight
Previous ranking: 7
Record: 10-0
Last: W (Sub2) vs. Jessica Andrade, August 5, 2023
Next: TBA
T-10.Yang Xiaonan
UFC strawweight
Previous ranking: 6
Record: 17 wins, 4 losses, 1NC
Last: L (UD) vs. Zhang Weili, April 13, 2024
Next: TBA
Other fighters who received votes: Rose Namajunas, Seika Izawa, Amanda Lemos and Juliana Peña.
How our panel voted
Brett Okamoto: 1. Weili Zhang; 2. Alexa Grasso. 3. Valentina Shevchenko; Manon Fioreau 4. 5. Cris Cyborg. 6. Tatiana Suarez. 7. Rose Namajunas. 8. Erin Blanchfield. 9. Kayla Harrison. 10. Larissa Pacheco.
Andreas Heil: 1. Chan; 2. Grasso. 3. Shevchenko. 4. Cyborg. 5. Fiorote. 6. Harrison. 7. Suarez. 8. Raquel Pennington. 9. Pacheco. 10. Namajunas.
Megan Anderson: 1. Chan; 2. Grasso. 3. Shevchenko. 4. Cyborg. 5. Fiorote. 6. Pennington. 7. Harrison. Yang Xiaonan, 8. 9. Blanchfield; 10. Juliana Peña.
Carlos Contreras Legaspi: 1. Chan; 2. Grasso. 3. Harrison. 4. Shevchenko. 5. Cyborg. 6. Pennington. Blanchfield; 7. Pacheco 8. 9. Yang. 10. Suarez.
Ian Parker: 1. Chan; 2. Grasso. 3. Shevchenko. 4. Cyborg. 5. Harrison. 6. Yang. 7. Suarez. 8. Pennington. 9. Pacheco. 10. Fiorotto.
Eddy Maisonette III: 1. Chan; 2. Grasso. 3. Shevchenko. 4. Pacheco. 5. Cyborg. 6. Harrison. 7. Fiorote. 8. Blanchfield; 9. Amanda Lemos. 10. Kiyoka Izawa.
Jeff Wagenheim: 1. Chan; 2. Grasso. 3. Cyborg; 4. Shevchenko. 5. Fiorote. 6. Harrison. 7. Yang. 8. Blanchfield; Izawa; 9. 10. Pennington.
