Sport
UFC pound-for-pound world rankings
After an exciting weekend at UFC Vegas 54 which saw Jan Blachowicz win after Aleksandar Rakic suffered a bad knee injury, we have taken a look at the UFC pound-for-pound world rankings and profiled the top five best fighters in the world.
Kamaru Usman
“The Nigerian Nightmare” Kamaru Usman has certainly justified this name as the current UFC Welterweight champion with nine KO victories in 21 professional fights, successfully defending his title five times. With an almost perfect record of 20-1, his only loss came in his second ever professional fight after making the transition from freestyle wrestling.
Although his kickboxing has improved with every fight, a lifetime of wrestling and his monstrous physicality have made his grappling too much to handle for almost every opponent he’s faced. However, somewhat surprisingly he has only won a single fight by submission.
Usman has recently called out boxing great Canelo Alvarez to attempt to lure him into a huge cross-over bout and what an interesting dual that would be!
Alexander Volkanovski
Alexander Volkanovski is the UFC Featherweight champion and has also competed in professional boxing. Before signing with the UFC in 2016, he came off the back of 10 straight wins and a record of 13-1, with his only loss coming in the Welterweight division. In the UFC he has won every fight and now stands at a record of 24-1, with 12 KO and three submission wins.
In the featherweight category, Volkanovski has beaten some of the division’s greatest ever fighters, but he still remains criminally under-appreciated. There were some who claimed he did not deserve the split decision victory in his rematch with Max Holloway.
However, as a good all-rounder and intelligent fighter with three successful defences of his world title he is a well-deserved number two in the pound-for-pound rankings.
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Israel Adesanya
Israel Adesanya has fought professionally across mixed martial arts, kickboxing and boxing and is widely considered as the best striker in MMA with 15 knockout wins in 23 matches.
Adesanya is the current UFC middleweight champion and will look to defend his title against Jared Cannonier for the fifth time after unifying the division against Robert Whittaker back in 2019.
The only blemish to his impressive 23-1 record came against the former Light Heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz in a fight that went the distance. This was at an unfamiliar weight for Adesanya, who has never lost in the middleweight division.
Charles Oliveira
Although he is not currently a world title holder, Charles Oliviera was previously the UFC lightweight champion. He was stripped of his title for failing to make the weight for his title defence against Justin Gaethje, a fight that he won by submission.
Oliveira holds a number of notable records, with the most finishes, bonuses and submissions in the history of the UFC, leading him to believe that he is the “chosen one” of UFC and destined for legendary status. Although he may not be there yet, he is certainly on track to become one of the greatest fighters in the history of the lightweight division and the sport as a whole.
Francis Ngannou
The UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou is a fighter with devastating power and is recognised as the hardest recorded puncher in the world. Tyson Fury called out Ngannou after his TKO victory against Dillian Whyte, proposing a mixed rules boxing match that would be an exciting prospect for fans of boxing and MMA alike.
Ngannou has a record of 17-3, with 12 knockout wins and one by decision, with only one of his career victories going the distance. As a hard hitter, he has stated his desire to box professionally, and according to Mike Tyson, we may see this happen at the end of Ngannou’s current UFC deal.
