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Some in the MMA community are not happy with the most recent update to the UFC male pound-for-pound rankings.
Former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor has been a staple on the pound-for-pound rankings, but as of Tuesday, he’s no longer on them. “Notorious” was removed in favor of the new bantamweight champion, Aljamain Sterling.
“The Funkmaster” won the championship on March 6 at UFC 259 in Las Vegas. Sterling took on then-champ Petr Yan in what was the Russian’s first title defense. The fight went four rounds until Yan landed a knee to the head of Sterling, who was a grounded opponent at the time. The illegal strike led to Yan being disqualified and losing his title to The Funkmaster.
Sterling has taken heat from some fans and fighters over not continuing to fight with some claiming he was acting more hurt than he actually was. Many fans and fighters have defended The Funkmaster as well.
By becoming champion, Sterling is now ranked No. 15 on the male pound-for-pound list, kicking McGregor out of the top 15.
UFCUFC male pound-for-pound rankings after they updated on Tuesday, March 9, 2020.
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Social Media Was Flooded With Users Who Weren’t Happy With the New Rankings
GettyAljamain Sterling punches Petr Yan in their UFC bantamweight championship fight during the UFC 259 event at UFC APEX on March 06, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
After the rankings updated Tuesday, the news of Sterling and McGregor’s placements circulated on social media, being shared by MMA accounts across multiple platforms. And some fight fans aren’t happy.
For example, on the MMA Instagram page “War.iorz,” followers flooded the comment section after the page shared the news.
One person wrote, “This is f****** illegal.”
Another commented, “So all you need to do to enter the P4P rankings is get your a** beat for 4 rounds and then act like you can’t continue the fight? Got it.”
One user wrote, “Bro after seeing this I don’t even take the rankings serious anymore.”
It is important to note that Sterling has had a lot of supporters online as well, including supporting his new ranking.
The last time McGregor fought was in January, a TKO loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 257. McGregor is 1-2 in his last three MMA bouts, spanning since October 2018.
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Israel Adesanya Still Ranks Ahead of Jan Blachowicz in the Pound-for-Pound Rankings
Getty ImagesOpponents Jan Blachowicz of Poland and Israel Adesanya of Nigeria.
In the main event of Saturday night’s UFC 259, middleweight king Israel Adesanya moved up to 205 pounds to challenge light heavyweight champ Jan Blachowicz in a quest to become a double champ.
“The Last Stylebender” was denied by the Polish fighter, however. Blachowicz picked up the unanimous decision win after utilizing his wrestling in the championship rounds.
Interestingly, after the rankings updated Tuesday, Adesanya still ranks ahead of Blachowicz on the pound-for-pound list. Adesanya dropped three spots to No. 6 and the “Prince of Cieszyn” moved up six spots to No. 8.
Where The Last Stylebender and Blachowicz sit on the list has also been disputed by fans online, arguing whether Blachowicz deserves to be ahead of the fighter he defeated last weekend.
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