Alex Pereira and Merab Dvalishvili have shaken up the rankings once again.
Both stars shined at UFC 320 on Saturday, with Alex Pereira reclaiming his place atop the light heavyweight mountain with a swift knockout of rival Magomed Ankalaev, and Merab Dvalishvili denying Cory Sandhagen to record his third straight defense of the bantamweight title and his 14th straight win overall. Unsurprisingly, these boys are moving on up in the MMA Fighting Pound-for-Pound Rankings.
Pereira makes a big jump back into the top 5 after temporarily residing in the No. 10 spot following his UFC 313 defeat at the hands of Ankalaev. When Ankalaev beat Pereira the first time, “Poatan” looked flat and uninspired, raising the question of whether his hectic schedule had finally gotten the better of him and if a decline was in order. That question was answered emphatically with Pereira running through Ankalaev in the rematch and making the past seven months seem like a mere blip in Pereira’s increasingly absurd combat sports career.
Two spots ahead of Pereira is Dvalishvili, who claims a top 3 spot and a first-place vote after putting together another complete five-round performance. Sandhagen was a worthy challenger with plenty of tricks up his sleeve to deal with the usual Dvalishvili onslaught, but “The Machine” had the best moment of the fight by far as he nearly finished Sandhagen with strikes in the second round. Outside of that, Dvalishvili stopped Sandhagen from finding any offensive rhythm and when the final bell rang, the outcome wasn’t in doubt. It rarely is for Dvalishvili and now he only trails Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria in our rankings.
If Makhachev falters in his chase for Jack Della Maddalena’s welterweight title, and Topuria’s inactivity drags on, don’t be surprised if Dvalishvili keeps climbing, especially if he authors a fourth championship defense in 2025 as planned.
Check out the post-UFC 320 Men’s Pound-for-Pound Rankings below.
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 4 Merab Dvalishvili def. Cory Sandhagen, No. 10 Alex Pereira def. No. 6 Magomed Ankalaev, No. 18 Jiri Prochazka def. Khalil Rountree, No. 20 Usman Nurmagomedov def. Paul Hughes
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 1 Islam Makhachev vs. No. 8 Jack Della Maddalena (UFC 322, Nov. 15), No. 7 Tom Aspinall vs. Ciryl Gane (UFC 321, Oct. 25), No. 11 Belal Muhammad vs. Ian Machado Garry (UFC Qatar, Nov. 22), No. 14 Arman Tsarukyan vs. Dan Hooker (UFC Qatar, Nov. 22), No. 19 Charles Oliveira vs. Mateusz Gamrot (UFC Rio, Oct. 11)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Francis Ngannou (2), Joshua Van (2), Diego Lopes (1), Brandon Moreno (1), Sean O’Malley (1), Usman Nurmagomedov (1)
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