MMA Divisional Rankings, December 2023: Does Colby Covington deserve spot after dismal UFC 296 performance?

In the ever-shifting MMA landscape, ranking the world’s greatest fighters might seem like a fool’s errand, but that’s exactly we’ve set out to do with the MMA Fighting Global Rankings. Here, our esteemed panel sorts out the movers and shakers from every division to provide you with the most definitive list of the best fighters on the planet.

Let’s take a look at the biggest storylines from this past two-month cycle (Oct. 25 - Nov. 17) and make sure to check out the latest rankings podcast for a deep dive into our thought process.

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Colby Covington, ‘Ya Fired’

As much as it hurt Colby Covington to fall short in his third shot at becoming the UFC’s undisputed welterweight champion, and as much as it hurt him to see former president Donald Trump make a hasty exit from the arena before Covington was finished his post-fight consolation speech, what will truly surely haunt him the most is knowing that he will not be making a return to the hallowed MMA Fighting Global Rankings.

Though a pair of panelists still found a spot for Covington on their ballots, it was nowhere near enough for Covington regain the top 10 spot that he had held for the past few years. In our previous rankings update, Covington was removed due to being inactive for 18 months, but it was under the assumption that he would have a number next to his name again if he defeated Leon Edwards at UFC 296 or at least put on a convincing performance.

He failed on both fronts.

One could argue that based on Covington’s overall body of work at 170 pounds that he still merits a ranking, though as it’s been noted by several media members including MMA Fighting’s Shaun Al-Shatti, Covington’s past accomplishments have aged poorly and he does not have a win over a current ranked welterweight. Not to mention that whatever reputation he had prior to fighting Edwards went down the toilet in dull fashion as he provided almost no threat to the champion.

The truth is that the division and perhaps the fan base has moved on from Covington’s outdated shtick (jury is still out on that second part), so if Covington is to ever enter the rankings again, he’ll have to fight his back to the front of the line. Or just beat Stephen Thompson, I guess.

Welterweight waves

UFC 296 was supposed to see even more of a shakeup in the welterweight division before the card lost a matchup between the polarizing Ian Machado Garry and fan favorite Vicente Luque, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t see a contender stake their claim to a title shot.

Shavkat Rakhmonov defeated “Wonderboy” as expected, but the victory has even greater resonance when you consider that he became the first fighter ever to submit the two-time title challenger and that he beat Thompson with one good wheel. The Kazakh star stayed undefeated with every single one of his 18 wins coming inside the distance and were it not for a deserving Belal Muhammad standing in his way, he’d likely be next for Edwards.

Meanwhile, over in Bellator, Jason Jackson shocked oddsmakers with a third-round knockout of welterweight champion Yaroslav Amosov. There was no reason to count Jackson out of that matchup as he’s been one of Bellator’s steadiest competitors since debuting for the promotion in 2019, but Amosov’s 27-0 record made him a clear favorite and the result that much more shocking.

Like several Bellator fighters, Jackson enters 2024 with uncertainty following the promotion being acquired by the PFL. One thing he can be sure of though is that he is one of the ten best welterweights on the planet.

Moving on up

If you’ve scrolled down and seen plenty of green arrows at middleweight and flyweight, it’s because two of those divisions best fighters are no longer eligible for those lists. Don’t feel too badly for them: One of them is recently crowned light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira and the other is Deiveson Figueiredo, the former 125-pound champion who just made a spectacular 135-pound debut.

Pereira has been the man most responsible for wreaking havoc on our precious rankings over the past year and change, so it’s only fitting that he went from being a top 5 middleweight to the No. 1 light heavyweight, forcing our committee to decide whether he should be dual-division eligible. We reasoned that it’s unlikely he ever returns to 185 pounds unless it’s for a trilogy with Israel Adesanya and even if that is in the plans it won’t be for a long time, so out of the middleweight rankings he goes.

Figueiredo is a tougher nut to crack as there’s no way to no for sure that he won’t drop back to flyweight (his cut to that division was always a perilous one, but he made it for years and likely could again), but we’re trusting him not to dabble in two divisions at this stage of his career.

For our sake, let’s hope Figueiredo and Pereira don’t become rankings flip-floppers anytime soon (I’m looking at you Rafael dos Anjos and Amanda Ribas!).

Check out the complete December rankings update below.

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Heavyweight

Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 6 Jailton Almeida def. No. 14 Derrick Lewis

Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 8 Tai Tuivasa vs. No. 11 Marcin Tybura (UFC 298, Feb. 17)

Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Phil De Fries (5), Alexandr Romanov (2), Ante Delija (1)

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Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Light Heavyweight

Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 5 Alex Pereira def. No. 1 Jiri Prochazka, Khalil Rountree def. No. 11 Anthony Smith

Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 3 Magomed Anklaev vs. No. 8 Johnny Walker (UFC Vegas 84, Jan. 13)

Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Alonzo Menifield (2), Azamat Murzakanov (2), Rob Wilkinson (2), Thiago Santos (1)

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Middleweight

Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 11 Brendan Allen def. Paul Craig (UFC Vegas 82, Nov. 18), No. 12 Derek Brunson def. Ray Cooper III

Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 1 Sean Strickland vs. No. 3 Dricus Du Plessis (UFC 297, Jan. 20), No. 12 Roman Dolidze vs. No. 14 (tied) Nassourdine Imavov (UFC Vegas 85, Feb. 3)

Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Caio Borralho (5), Paul Craig (3), Ikram Aliskerov (2), Kelvin Gastelum (1), Jack Hermansson (1), Bo Nickal (1), Kamaru Usman (1)

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Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images

Welterweight

Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 1 Leon Edwards def. Colby Covington, No. 4 Shavkat Rakhmonov def. No. 7 Stephen Thompson, No. 15 Jason Jackson def. No. 5 (tied) Yaroslav Amosov, No. 8 Sean Brady def. Kelvin Gastelum

Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: N/A

Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Magomed Magomedkerimov (3), Colby Covington (2), Andrey Koreshkov (1), Neil Magny (1), Michael Page (1)

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Lightweight

Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 10 Arman Tsarukyan def. No. 4 Beneil Dariush, No. 12 Olivier Aubin-Mercier def. Clay Collard, No. 13 (tied) Jalin Turner def. No. 13 (tied) Bobby Green, No. 13 (tied) A.J. McKee def. Sidney Outlaw

Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 14 Renato Moicano vs. Drew Dober (UFC Vegas 85, Feb. 3)

Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Bobby Green (3), Drew Dober (2), Alexander Shabliy (2), Joel Alvarez (1), Matt Frevola (1), Drakkar Klose (1)

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Featherweight

Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 8 Josh Emmett vs. No. 12 Bryce Mitchell

Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 1 Alexander Volkanovski vs. No. 3 (tied) Ilia Topuria (UFC 298, Feb. 17), No. 5 Arnold Allen vs. No. 9 (tied) Movsar Evloev (UFC 297, Jan. 20), No. 15 Dan Ige vs. Lerone Murphy (UFC Vegas 86, Feb. 10)

Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Edson Barboza (3), Lerone Murphy (3), Joanderson Brito (2), Chihiro Suzuki (2), Adam Borics (1), Jesus Pinedo (1)

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Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Bantamweight

Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 5 Patchy Mix def. No. 6 Sergio Pettis, No. 4 FLW Deiveson Figueiredo def. No. 10 Rob Font, No. 12 Raufeon Stots def. Danny Sabatello, No. 13 Song Yadong def. Chris Gutierrez

Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 4 Merab Dvalishvili vs. No. 7 Henry Cejudo (UFC 298, Feb. 17)

Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Juan Archuleta (2), Pedro Munhoz (2), Dominick Cruz (1), Kyoji Horiguchi (1), Ricky Simon (1)

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Flyweight

Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 2 Alexandre Pantoja def. No. 8 Brandon Royval, No. 4 Deiveson Figueiredo def. Rob Font (bantamweight bout), No. 14 (tied) Tim Elliott def. Sumudaerji

Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 3 Brandon Moreno vs. No. 5 Amir Albazi (UFC Mexico City, Feb. 24), No. 8 Manel Kape vs. No. 9 Matheus Nicolau (UFC Vegas 84, Jan. 13), No. 14 John Dodson vs. Hiromasa Ougikubo (RIZIN 45, Dec. 31)

Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Azamat Kerefov (3), Askar Askarov (3), Steve Erceg (2), Kairat Akhmetov (1)

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Women’s Bantamweight

Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 6 Irene Aldana def. No. 7 Karol Rosa, No. 11 Miesha Tate def. Julia Avila, Ailin Perez def. No. 13 (tied) Lucie Pudilova

Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 1 Mayra Bueno Silva vs. No. 2 Raquel Pennington (UFC 297, Jan. 20), No. 4 Ketlen Vieira vs. No. 10 Macy Chiasson (UFC Vegas 84, Jan. 13)

Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Ailin Perez (4), Lucie Pudilova (2), Julia Avila (1), Serena DeJesus (1), Claire Guthrie (1), Olga Rubin (1), Taneisha Tennant (1), Darya Zheleznyakova (1)

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Women’s Flyweight

Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 13 (tied) Amanda Ribas def. Luana Pinheiro (strawweight bout)

Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 11 Viviane Araujo vs. No. 15 Natalia Silva (UFC Vegas 85, Feb. 3)

Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Ariane Lipski (6), Karine Silva (2)

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Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images

Strawweight

Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 5 Jessica Andrade def. No. 9 Mackenzie Dern, No. 12 Angela Hill def. Denise Gomes, No. 14 Loopy Godinez def. No. 13 Tabatha Ricci, No. 13 (tied) WFLW Amanda Ribas def. No. 15 Luana Pinheiro

Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 2 Tatiana Suarez vs. No. 6 (tied) Amanda Lemos (UFC 298, Feb. 17)

Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Karolina Kowalkiewicz (4), Xiong Jingnan (3), Emily Ducote (2), Michelle Waterson-Gomez (2), Gillian Robertson (1), Luana Pinheiro (1)

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A refresher on the ground rules:

• Our eight-person voting panel consists of MMA Fighting staffers Shaheen Al-Shatti, Alexander K. Lee, Guilherme Cruz, Mike Heck, E. Casey Leydon, Steven Marrocco, Damon Martin, and Jed Meshew.
• Fighters will be removed from the rankings if they do not compete within 18 months of their most recent bout. Updates to the rankings are typically completed following each month’s UFC pay-per-view.
• Should a fighter announce their retirement, our panel will decide whether that fighter should immediately be removed from the rankings or maintain their position until further notice. (Let’s put it this way: We’d have taken Khabib Nurmagomedov out of our rankings a lot quicker than the UFC did.)
• Holding a promotion’s title does not guarantee that fighter will be viewed as the best in their promotion. Additionally, fighters who regularly compete or hold titles in multiple weight classes are eligible to be ranked in multiple lists.

Thoughts? Questions? Concerns? Make your voice heard in the comments below.