Makhachev and Shevchenko, No. 1 P4P: UFC 322 Changes MMA Ranking

Makhachev and Shevchenko Climb to the Top of the UFC Rankings

In a day full of action and dominance, Islam Makhachev and Valentina Shevchenko were consecrated as the number one in their respective UFC categories. Both athletes achieved resounding victories at the UFC 322 event, marking a milestone in their careers. Makhachev, who started the day in second place in the men’s pound-for-pound ranking, proved his worth by rising to first place. For her part, Shevchenko, also number two in the women’s list, replicated the feat, securing her position as the best fighter of today. The victories of both fighters were decisive. Shevchenko defended her women’s flyweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Zhang Weili, who had previously vacated her strawweight championship to move up a weight class. Makhachev, for his part, had no problem dethroning Jack Della Maddalena at welterweight. A notable difference between both performances was the ranking level of their opponents. Shevchenko faced Zhang Weili, who at that time was number one in the women’s rankings, making their fight a clash between the two best female MMA fighters. Makhachev, on the other hand, defeated Della Maddalena, who was in eighth place in the men’s rankings. Here are the updated UFC rankings.

Men’s Pound-for-Pound Ranking

• Islam Makhachev

UFC Welterweight Champion Record: 28-1 Last Fight: Victory (Unanimous Decision) vs. Jack Della Maddalena, November 15th. Makhachev fulfilled his promise to become a two-division champion by neutralizing Della Maddalena’s striking threat with relative ease at UFC 322. This victory tied him with Anderson Silva for the longest winning streak in UFC history, with 16, and places him on the list of the greatest MMA fighters of all time. With a group of incredibly talented welterweight contenders, he won’t lack opponents. However, the fight everyone wants to see is a showdown with the current lightweight champion, Ilia Topuria.

1. Ilia Topuria

UFC Lightweight Champion Record: 17-0 Last Fight: Victory (KO1) vs. Charles Oliveira, June 28th. After knocking out two of the best featherweights in UFC history (Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway) in 2024, it would be difficult for Topuria to surpass that in 2025. He moved up to lightweight with the goal of challenging Makhachev, but with Makhachev moving up a division, Topuria captured the vacant title by knocking out Oliveira at UFC 317.

3. Merab Dvalishvili

UFC Bantamweight Champion Record: 21-4 Last Fight: Victory (Unanimous Decision) vs. Cory Sandhagen, October 4th Dvalishvili is on one of the most impressive runs in the UFC bantamweight division. Not only did he defeat Sean O’Malley for the second time in nine months at UFC 316, but he also showed a new facet of his game, finishing O’Malley with a guillotine in the third round. Since August 2022, Dvalishvili has beaten José Aldo, Yan, Henry Cejudo, O’Malley (twice), Umar Nurmagomedov, and Sandhagen. And he will defend his title again, in a rematch with Yan, in December, becoming the only champion in UFC history to defend a title four times in a year.

4. Tom Aspinall

UFC Heavyweight Champion Record: 15-3, 1 NC Last Fight: NC1 vs. Ciryl Gane, October 25th It can be argued that Aspinall is the most dynamic, skilled, and talented heavyweight the sport has seen. He is dominating his opponents in an unparalleled way. Nobody can last a round with him. He was hoping to prove his supremacy against Jon Jones, but Jones chose to withdraw, elevating Aspinall from interim champion. His first defense of the undisputed belt ended anticlimactically, as an eye poke caused his UFC 321 fight with Gane to be declared a no-contest.

5. Alex Pereira

UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Record: 13-3 Last Fight: Victory (TKO1) vs. Magomed Ankalaev, October 4th A stellar 2024 consolidated Pereira’s place as a star in the UFC, but he faced possibly his toughest test as a light heavyweight champion when he entered the Octagon with Ankalaev at UFC 313. Pereira had faced strikers, but the question was whether he could do the job against a talented grappler. Pereira kept the fight standing but fell short by unanimous decision. He violently changed that result when he met Ankalaev in a rematch at UFC 320.

6. Khamzat Chimaev

UFC Middleweight Champion Record: 15-0 Last Fight: Victory (Unanimous Decision) vs. Dricus Du Plessis, August 16th After five years of anticipation, Chimaev finally fought for a championship at UFC 319, and the result was one of the most dominant title fight performances in UFC history. Chimaev failed to record a finish, but completely demolished Du Plessis in their five-round bout and answered questions about his endurance along the way. If Chimaev can stay healthy and compete frequently, there is still plenty of time for him to rise to the top of this list.

7. Alexandre Pantoja

UFC Flyweight Champion Record: 30-5 Last Fight: Victory (Sum3) vs. Kai Kara-France, June 28th The UFC flyweight king has amassed four title defenses, including two in pay-per-view main events in 2024. He built his winning streak to eight in his UFC 317 victory over Kara-France, whom he had already defeated before. He will defend the belt against Yan at UFC 323. Pantoja is quickly circling the 125-pound division.

8. Alexander Volkanovski

UFC Featherweight Champion Record: 27-4 Last Fight: Victory (Unanimous Decision) vs. Diego Lopes, April 12th It seemed that the sport had begun to write Volkanovski’s eulogy after his knockout loss to Topuria in February 2024. Volkanovski took notice and made a point of showing everyone that he still has a lot left to recapture the featherweight belt at UFC 314. His age (36) will likely remain a pre-fight topic, which is fine because Volkanovski likes to prove people wrong.

9. Jack Della Maddalena

UFC Welterweight Record: 18-3 Last Fight: Defeat (Unanimous Decision) vs. Islam Makhachev, November 15

Retaining a spot in the top 10 for Della Maddalena might be a surprise, but it speaks to a few things. One, of course, is that there’s no shame in losing to Makhachev. And two, this might be the deepest welterweight division in MMA history. Della Maddalena’s eight-fight win streak in this division still means a lot. And while Della Maddalena had a bad night at UFC 322, the perception of his talent hasn’t changed drastically because of it.

10. Dricus Du Plessis

UFC Middleweight

Record: 23-3 Last Fight: Defeat (Unanimous Decision) vs. Khamzat Chimaev, August 16th

Before being choked out by Chimaev and losing the belt, Du Plessis was dominating the middleweight division with 11 consecutive victories, including four in a row over champions or former champions (Sean Strickland twice, Israel Adesanya, and Robert Whittaker). Can he rebuild for another opportunity against Chimaev?

10. Max Holloway

UFC Lightweight Record: 27-8 Last Fight: Victory (Unanimous Decision) vs. Dustin Poirier, July 19th Holloway has won four of his last five fights, bouncing between lightweight and featherweight. The only loss was against Ilia Topuria, who now reigns in Holloway’s current division, lightweight. Other fighters who received votes: Magomed Ankalaev, Umar Nurmagomedov, and Arman Tsarukyan.

Women’s Pound-for-Pound Ranking

• Valentina Shevchenko

UFC Flyweight Champion Record: 26-4-1 Last Fight: Victory (Unanimous Decision) vs. Zhang Weili, November 15th Shevchenko’s dominance was questioned in 2022 and 2023, when she had a 1-1-1 record in a trilogy with Alexa Grasso. Wow, that seems like a long time ago now. Shevchenko has reasserted herself as the best flyweight in the world, and now she has asserted herself as the number 1 in the world, period. It wasn’t surprising that she beat Zhang, but it was surprising how easy she made it look.

1. Zhang Weili

UFC Flyweight / Strawweight Record: 26-4 Last Fight: Defeat (Unanimous Decision) vs. Valentina Shevchenko, November 15th It’s difficult to gain weight, especially at the highest level. That sounds obvious, but Zhang had been dominant at 115 pounds for so long that some of us might have taken for granted how big the challenge of moving to 125 would be. UFC 322 was a bad night for Zhang, but she doesn’t have many. And if she decides to stay at 125, it certainly seems reasonable that she will do better in the future.

3. Kayla Harrison

UFC Bantamweight Champion Record: 19-1 Last Fight: Victory (Sum2) vs. Julianna Peña, June 7th The face of PFL for a long time is also quickly becoming the face of the UFC women’s divisions. With a dominant victory over Peña at UFC 316, Harrison has a 4-0 record in the UFC and has the hardware to add to her two Olympic judo gold medals. However, she will not have it easy in her first title defense, because Nunes returns with the belt in sight.

4. Cris Cyborg

Peso Pluma from PFL Record: 28-2, 1 NC Last Fight: Victory (Unanimous Decision) vs. Larissa Pacheco, October 19, 2024 It had been a while since Cyborg had fought an elite MMA opponent until she met Pacheco in 2024. That was a legitimate fight, and many within the industry predicted Cyborg’s downfall. Instead, she eliminated the PFL two-weight champion, reversing all of Pacheco’s momentum. One of the original pioneers of women’s MMA is somehow still going strong, and she will go for the vacant PFL title against Collins, an Australian with a 6-0 record but little high-level experience.

5. Manon Fiorot

UFC Flyweight Record: 13-2 Last Fight: Victory (TKO1) vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius, October 18th Fiorot fell short in her challenge against Shevchenko, the champion, at UFC 315. But by defeating Rose Namajunas and Erin Blanchfield in her two previous fights, Fiorot has shown that she has the tools to become a champion.

6. Mackenzie Dern

UFC Strawweight Champion Record: 16-5 Last Fight: Victory (Unanimous Decision) vs. Virna Jandiroba, October 25th The ascent of Dern to the 115-pound throne was truly a changing of the guard. She is the first first-time champion of the division since 2019, because the previous three champions (Zhang Weili, Carla Esparza, and Rose Namajunas) were in their second reigns. Dern, almost a decade after her MMA career following multiple world jiu-jitsu championships, has won three fights in a row.

7. Natalia Silva

UFC Flyweight Record: 19-5-1 Last Fight: Victory (Unanimous Decision) vs. Alexa Grasso, May 10 Silva appears to be the future UFC champion after a dominant performance against Grasso at UFC 315. Silva’s “hit and move” style has frustrated even the highest-level opponent, and she has youth on her side, as she won’t turn 30 until 2027.

8. Erin Blanchfield

UFC Flyweight Record: 14-2 Last Fight: Victory (Sum2) vs. Tracy Cortez, November 15th Blanchfield avenged her 2019 defeat to Cortez emphatically at UFC 322, submitting her in the second round of their rematch. At just 26 years old, Blanchfield continues to evolve with improved striking and a suffocating grip. She will have to wait her turn for a title shot, with Natalia Silva likely next, but Blanchfield’s turn is certainly coming.

9. Dakota Ditcheva

PFL Flyweight Record: 14-0 Last Fight: Victory (Unanimous Decision) vs. Sumiko Inaba, July 19th Ditcheva not only won the PFL flyweight season last year, but she did so in spectacular fashion: a TKO finish over Taila Santos, who once challenged for a UFC title. Ditcheva opened her 2025 campaign by dominating Inaba in the co-main event of the first PFL Champions Series card in Cape Town, South Africa. She will open 2026 with a matchup against fellow kickboxer Kielholtz.

10. Julianna Peña

UFC Bantamweight Record: 12-6 Last Fight: Defeat (Sum2) vs. Kayla Harrison, June 7th Peña is a two-time women’s bantamweight champion, with one of those reigns made possible by one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, her 2021 submission victory over Amanda Nunes. Peña’s four most recent appearances have been in title fights, so she is prepared for big moments. Other fighters who received votes: Alexa Grasso, Virna Jandiroba, Rose Namajunas, and Tatiana Suarez.