UFC 283 offered a little bit of everything. Jamahal Hill was able to make good on a fortuitous light heavyweight title shot by beating (and retiring) the 43-year-old war horse Glover Teixeira, while Brandon Moreno put an exclamation mark on his quadrilogy with Deiveson Figueiredo by stopping him after three rounds.
You know what that means? We have some movement in the men’s and women’s top 10 pound-for-pound lists. The panel of Chuck Mindenhall, Ariel Helwani, Petesy Carrol, and producer Troy Farkas—known as 3PAC on The Ringer MMA Show—put together a new list for each category, spanning all of mixed martial arts. In other words, though most of the best fighters are in the UFC, these rankings are not UFC exclusive. We take into consideration all the major promotions, from Bellator to ONE Championship to the Professional Fighters League.
As always, our only criterion for these monthly rankings is that a fighter has competed within the past calendar year, or has at least had a fight booked within that window. That is why you will not see Jon Jones or Henry Cejudo listed among the P4P best, and it’s also the reason UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou—who was no. 4 overall in the last month’s rankings—is also excluded.
Without further ado, the Ringer MMA P4P Rankings.
Men’s Pound-for-Pound Rankings
1. Alexander Volkanovski
UFC Featherweight Champion
Last month: no. 1
Alexander “the Great” gets to hold on to his top spot for at least another month, but his toughest test yet will take place in just three weeks when he’s scheduled to move up to lightweight to challenge Islam Makhachev at UFC 284 for the belt. Having won a dozen fights in a row (the UFC’s longest active win streak) and fighting in his home country of Australia for the first time in five years, Volk can (and will) be mentioned among the all-time greats if he earns a second title.
2. Islam Makhachev
UFC Lightweight Champion
Last month: no. 2
Makhachev caught a break by fighting Charles Oliveira for the lightweight title in Abu Dhabi last October, with the crowd firmly behind him. This time? Well, things won’t be so nice for his first title defense. It will be a wild scene in Perth when Makhachev shows up as a cruel landlord that needs to be overthrown, but if his 11-fight win streak has told us anything, it’s that he’s cold-blooded. He will relish the opportunity to silence the raucous din of partisans.
3. Leon Edwards
UFC Welterweight Champion
Last month: no. 3
Let’s face it, 2022 was Leon’s year. He fought only one time, but that one fight showed the contents of his heart and helped him realize a million dreams all at once. The upset of the welterweight titan Kamaru Usman at UFC 278 was one for the ages, and the trilogy fight is set for March 18, this time in Edwards’s home country of England. Though the series is technically tied 1-1 and Usman was beating Edwards soundly for over four rounds last August before getting caught with the head kick heard around the world, the word “fluke” doesn’t quite fit. It feels like Rocky might just have Usman’s number.
4. Kamaru Usman
Former UFC Lightweight Champion
Last month: no. 5
Now that the pundits aren’t blowing up the airwaves with GOAT talk and discussion of whether Usman could break Anderson Silva’s record of 16 straight wins (and now that he isn’t rattling on about an absurd boxing match with Canelo Álvarez), the Nigerian Nightmare heads into his March rematch with Edwards from a totally different angle: challenger. The former champion now must dig deep to see whether he can return serve against a guy who currently owns his soul, storing it in a mason jar on his bookshelf. How much did that knockout take out of Usman? The drama is at an all-time high heading into the big springtime reveal.
5. Aljamain Sterling
UFC Bantamweight Champion
Last month: no. 6
As the bantamweight champion, Aljo is in the catbird seat of what is arguably the UFC’s most stacked division. For whatever reason he doesn’t command the respect of that station, even though he proved that beating Petr Yan the first time wasn’t an illusion and sent T.J. Dillashaw off to golf in Florida. A date with Henry Cejudo might be next, which would be a fun one. After that there’s Sean O’Malley, Chito Vera, and, of course, his training comrade, Merab Dvalishvili, whom he crosses his heart and hopes to die that he’ll never fight.
6. Alex Pereira
UFC Middleweight Champion
Last month: no. 7
Heading into his middleweight title fight with Israel Adesanya, Pereira never so much as cracked a smile. He was shark-eyed and completely devoid of humor, a Brazilian bounty hunter who was put on earth to destroy Adesanya. His victory lap has been … well, enlightening. Pereira has since been playful on social media, messing around with guys like Daniel Cormier, riding roller coasters, just having a ball. Somewhere in the not too distant future Pereira will be asked to stand in there against Adesanya again, and here’s guessing that’ll return the ice to his veins.
7. Charles Oliveira
Former UFC Lightweight Champion
Last month: no. 8
Just like Volkanovski, Oliveira was riding a ridiculously long winning streak heading into his fight with Makhachev last October, and in the course of that streak broke several UFC records (namely as the all-time submission king). Does losing the belt hurt? Sure it does, but Oliveira has been in tougher spots. There was a time earlier in his career when he perennially missed weight, lost winnable fights, and rubbed the UFC the wrong way. He has a mission now, which he stated in Rio this week: win a fight this spring, then avenge that loss against Makhachev. He’s like the Count of Monte Cristo with bleached-blond hair.
8. Israel Adesanya
Former UFC Middleweight Champion
Last month: no. 9
It’s almost eerie how quiet things get for a buzzy champion when he loses the belt. Adesanya was the closest thing the UFC had to a transcendent star over the past couple of years. He is cool personified. Yet now that a rival has been introduced in Pereira—a man who falls somewhere between a thorn in his side and the very bane of his existence—the mortal side of the man will take on all the scrutiny. Can he beat Pereira? Seriously, I’m asking.
9. Brandon Moreno
UFC Flyweight Champion
Last month: not ranked
Look, when Deiveson Figueiredo became the eccentric flyweight champion by not just beating Joseph Benavidez but by snatching his soul, it felt like we were in for a long, long run. He was 8-1 in the UFC, a mite-sized juggernaut with a nasty streak. Who in the hell was going to beat him? Then smiling Brandon Moreno came along. Moreno looks like he enjoys ice cream. He laughs when people throw beers at him, as they did Saturday night in Brazil. He grins when the blood trickles down his face. He also just beat Figueiredo in their fourth and final fight to become the undisputed 125-pound champion. Not only that, but he’s emerged as a Mexican icon.
10. Jiri Prochazka
Former UFC Lightweight Champion
Last month: no. 10
It’s hard to keep track of the UFC’s light heavyweight division at this point, but a few things are now clear. One, we’ll never get to see Prochazka-Teixeira II, as Teixeira retired after losing to Hill for the vacant 205-pound title. That hurts, as the first fight was an instant classic. Two, is that while all the light heavyweights are out there having their day, masquerading as contenders and champions, there’s a consensus that Prochazka is still the man to beat in the division, the lineal champion who only vacated because of an injury. Business will pick back up when he returns.
Falling out: Francis Ngannou (last month: no. 4)
Others receiving votes: Demetrious Johnson, Khamzat Chimaev
Women’s Pound-for-Pound Rankings
1. Valentina Shevchenko
UFC Flyweight Champion
Last month: no. 1
If this past year has taught us anything, it’s that it’s exceedingly difficult to stay on top, even when your name is synonymous with greatness. We saw Kamaru Usman and Israel Adesanya stumble under that weight, yet Valentina Shevchenko is still there. Granted, her fight with Taila Santos was close back in June. Maybe too close. So close that some believed that Shevchenko was the beneficiary of some favorable scorecards, but she won and she’s now poised to make a run at Amanda Nunes for the reign of all-time women’s GOAT. First she has to get through Alexa Grasso at UFC 285.
2. Amanda Nunes
UFC Bantamweight and Featherweight Champion
Last month: no. 2
What’s left for a two-division champion? There is literally nobody in the women’s featherweight division poised to challenge her, and most of the top bantamweights have already taken their lumps against Nunes. A Julianna Peña trilogy could be a fight down the line, or perhaps Ketlen Vieira or Irene Aldana will break through for a shot. The two biggest fights for Nunes just happen to be from the outskirts from either division, though—a trilogy with Valentina Shevchenko (which would be exponentially more massive than either of the first two), and a fight with the PFL’s Kayla Harrison.
3. Zhang Weili
UFC Strawweight Champion
Last month: no. 3
There was a point, not all that long ago, when it felt as though Weili had coughed up all her charms. The back-to-back losses to Rose Namajunas buried Weili behind the wave of contenders, but since then she has proved most resilient. First she beat Joanna Jedrzejczyk in a rematch from the 2020 Fight of the Decade, which proved that the reports of her demise were exaggerated. But what she did to Carla Esparza at Madison Square Garden in November was an ambush. Weili is back.
4. Cris Cyborg
Bellator Featherweight Champion; Former UFC Featherweight Champion
Last month: no. 5
For Cyborg, who has treated opponents like turnstiles for 18 years, a six-fight win streak like she’s on right now seems pretty modest. She is a machine. Always has been. Her only loss in nearly two decades came against Amanda Nunes, which is all that stands between her and folk-hero status. The boxing ring beckons, and that’s fine, but for the love of everything holy, here’s hoping that the PFL and Bellator reach an agreement on how to book her against Kayla Harrison at some not-so-far-off juncture.
5. Rose Namajunas
Former UFC Strawweight Champion
Last month: no. 6
Sitting cozily at the no. 5 spot on the women’s pound-for-pound rankings is a nice cooling spot for Namajunas, who lost her title (again) to Carla Esparza last May. Not one to rush back into things and certainly the strawweight division’s most enigmatic intrigue, Namajunas will have plenty of options when she comes back later this year. Given that she has beaten the current champion Zhang Weili twice, there’s no inferiority complexes to be found out in Colorado. In the meantime she’s competing in grappling matches, so she’s still staying active during her time away from the cage.
6. Carla Esparza
Former UFC Strawweight Champion
Last month: no. 4
It’s really been a round-robin situation in the strawweight division, with Esparza taking the title from Namajunas (two different times), Rose beating Zhang Weili (twice), and Zhang destroying Esparza to whisk that hot potato belt off to China. Anything can happen, but Esparza’s route back to the top is a tougher climb than most. Her fights are almost never barnburners, and her personality is a little on the reserved side, meaning the UFC will search under every rock for better options than to rush her back into contention.
7. Julianna Peña
Former UFC Bantamweight Champion
Last month: no. 7
The ace up Peña’s sleeve is that she owns that unforgettable victory over Amanda Nunes, even though she lost the belt back in the rematch last summer. Most thought it was unwise for Peña to get into the Nunes sweepstakes to begin with, thinking she’d be overmatched and overwhelmed. Well, the series is now tied at 1, meaning she stretched an ambitious call out into a full-blown rivalry. Should she be granted that third fight, Peña still has a chance to be the one to ultimately derail an all-time great. Not a bad position to be in.
8. Jessica Andrade
Former UFC Strawweight Champion
Last month: no. 8
She has bounced around weight classes, but when Andrade shows up she shows up. Her return to flyweight at UFC 283 against Lauren Murphy looked like a fair enough matchup on paper. But in reality, this was a mismatch of the highest order. With the fight being held in Brazil, Murphy was like a mouse being dropped into the tank of a reticulated python. Andrade landed 231 significant strikes over the course of 15 bludgeoning minutes, to the point that the only damage Andrade took was to her knuckles. That’s three in a row for Andrade, who seems primed for another title run.
9. Manon Fiorot
UFC Flyweight Contender
Last month: no. 9
Things are looking up for Manon Fiorot, who has won all five of her fights in the UFC and is knocking on the door of a title shot. With the UFC booking Valentina Shevchenko against Alexa Grasso, Fiorot will remain a no. 1 contender in the division. She banged up her knee in her last bout against the overweight Katlyn Chookagian, yet she prevailed anyway. A title shot seems likely at some point in 2023, though, and wouldn’t it be something if she became the UFC’s first French-born champion?
10. Larissa Pacheco
Winner of PFL’s 2022 Lightweight Tournament
Last month: not ranked
You know what happens when you spring an upset over a nationally celebrated tyrant like Kayla Harrison, a feat that had people tearing up their parlay slips and mumbling deep resentments all over the country? You get a spot in the Ringer MMA Pound-for-Pound Rankings. Pacheco had lost to Harrison twice before, but there was something about her heading into the PFL lightweight final to close out 2022 that felt different. She was hell-bent on beating the former Olympic judoka Harrison, and she did. That victory ruined a lot of tomorrow’s plans for anyone hoping to be the one to bring Harrison to earth.
Falling out: Taila Santos (last month: no. 10)
Others receiving votes: Kayla Harrison, Taila Santos
Chuck Mindenhall writes about combat sports without bias, and sometimes about his Denver teams with extreme bias. He cohosts The Ringer MMA Show on Spotify.
