Today is Tuesday, which means the ufc updates there rankings. I was looking forward to today after some pretty meaningful wins took place last Saturday. Curious to hear what people think about.... Coming into this fight they ranked: Islam (#9) vs Thiago (#14). Now after the Update Islam is now the #5 ranked UFC middleweight. Jumping Conor Mcgregor (from #5 to #9), Tony Ferguson and Dos Anjos both drop a spot. Coming into this fight Miesha Tate wasn't even ranked. She took this fight on a 5 year hiatus then secures a victory over the #9 ranked Women's Bantamweight. Now she's sitting comfortably in the #8 spot.
Personally for lightweight, I think they should have stuck Gaethje at #4 or lower since he's turning down fights and letting Ali lead him around by the balls. That Chandler fight would have had him right back at title contention, but he appears to be content with letting his best years go to waste while Makhachev and Dariush take center stage. Maybe Gregor Gillespie should have took #9 (not that it really matters), since Conor is now a non-entity in the division. Also, Rafael dos Anjos being ranked that high is very deceptive.
Justin Gaethje taking this long to get back in there is alarming. Hate to see divisions held up because these higher ranked guys are just planning to collect dust till a title shot opens up. Seems like Gaethje tried to take the Colby Covington route. Knowing they've probably done more than most of the guys in the top 5 so their positions are safe highly ranked. It worked for Colby, people been saying that's what is next for Usman after his last victory. Although, I must add in Justin's defense.. I think that Dana White and the UFC did him dirty in the past. I believe that it should've been him and not Chandler back in May.
Yeah, you can tell there's something off between Justin and Dana for sure. I think we're in the last days of the best fighting the best in the UFC with the way these new managers are trying their best to emulate boxing promoters.
It's even sillier that he's being pushed as the be all / end all of mixed martial artists and could leapfrog anyone ranked below Poirier to a title shot; yet he chooses to call out RDA and Tony Ferguson who's on a 3-fight losing streak. Nothing would make me happier to see dos Anjos pull off the upset, but we all know how he has a penchant for being blown out by strong wrestlers.
Silly is a understatement man. There's so many better, more meaningful fights than to chase one with RDA or Ferguson. It's only a matter of time until Islam is a champion so throw him out there with some real top dogs (i.e, Beneil Dariush, or Michael Chandler)
Yes! If you look at social media, then you see Islam being already hailed as the champ. It´s amazing. He is winning all of these fantasy matches and meanwhile he is calling out RDA and Toney RDA should not be ranked at 155 anyways. And Toney is barely hanging on.
I see your point although he has won 8 in a row whereas Conor has NOT won a fight at 155 for 4.5 years and is still in the top 10. Nothing is more farcical than that.
I get that Conor has lost to only top 5 guys and he himself was the champ. But he has also had long stints of inactivity. So it doesn´t make sense that he is ranked at all.
