Sunday, December 22, 2024

UFC divisional rankings: Thiago Santos climbs at light heavyweight with win over Johnny Walker

UFC divisional rankings: Thiago Santos climbs at light heavyweight with win over Johnny Walker
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Thiago Santos faced something near a must-win fight in the main event of this past Saturday’s UFC Fight Night. Santos entered his light heavyweight fight with Johnny Walker on a three-fight losing skid and far from having earned a second opportunity at a title shot.

Santos managed to edge out a narrow decision, scoring his first win since February 2019, when he defeated Jan Blachowicz, the man who now holds the 205-pound title. With the win, Santos moves up one spot to No. 9 in the CBS Sports UFC Divisional Rankings.

Walker is now 1-3 in his four most recent fights and is winless in the UFC in fights that go past the three-minute mark of the first round. He remains at the No. 9 spot in the rankings.

Saturday’s UFC Fight Night features just one fight featuring CBS Sports ranked fighters.

  • Women’s strawweight: No. 5 Mackenzie Dern vs. No. 6 Marina Rodriguez

Rankings are compiled following the submission of ballots by Brent Brookhouse, Brian Campbell and Brandon Wise. Without further ado, here’s where things stand ahead of Saturday’s card.

For Brian Campbell’s updated Pound for Pound Rankings, click here.

Flyweight

Fighter

Record

1. Brandon Moreno (c)

19-5-2

2. Deiveson Figueiredo

20-2-1

3. Askar Askarov

14-0-1

4. Matt Schnell

15-6

5. Alexandre Pantoja

23-5

6. Kai Kara-France

22-9

7. Joseph Benavidez

28-8

8. Alex Perez

24-6

9. Brandon Royval

12-6

10. Jussier Formiga

23-8

Bantamweight

Fighter

Record

1. Petr Yan

15-2

2. Aljamain Sterling (c)

19-4

3. Cory Sandhagen

14-3

4. TJ Dillashaw

17-4

5. Rob Font

19-4

6. Jose Aldo

30-7

7. Merab Dvalishvili

14-4

T8. Cody Garbrandt

12-4

T8. Marlon Moraes

23-9-1

T8. Jimmie Rivera

23-5

Featherweight

Fighter

Record

1. Alexander Volkanovski (c)

22-1

2. Max Holloway

22-6

3. Zabit Magomedsharipov

18-1

4. Brian Ortega

15-2

5. Yair Rodriguez

13-2

6. Korean Zombie

17-6

7. Giga Chikadze

14-2

8. Calvin Kattar

22-5

9. Josh Emmett

16-2

10. Edson Barboza

22-10

Lightweight

Fighter

Record

1. Dustin Poirier

28-6

2. Charles Oliveira (c)

31-8

3. Justin Gaethje

22-3

4. Michael Chandler

22-6

5. Islam Makhachev

20-1

6. Rafael dos Anjos

30-13

7. Beneil Dariush

21-4-1

8. Dan Hooker

20-10

9. Gregor Gillespie

14-1

10. Tony Ferguson

25-6

Welterweight

Fighter

Record

1. Kamaru Usman (c)

19-1

2. Colby Covington

16-2

3. Leon Edwards

19-3

4. Gilbert Burns

20-4

5. Stephen Thompson

16-5-1

6. Vicente Luque

21-7-1

7. Jorge Masvidal

35-15

8. Michael Chiesa

18-5

9. Neil Magny

25-8

10. Santiago Ponzinibbio

28-4

Middleweight

Fighter

Record

1. Israel Adesanya (c)

21-1

2. Robert Whittaker

23-5

T3. Paulo Costa

13-1

T3. Derek Brunson

23-7

5. Jared Cannonier

14-5

6. Marvin Vettori

17-5-1

7. Jack Hermansson

22-6

8. Sean Strickland

24-3

9. Kelvin Gastelum

16-8

10. Darren Till

18-4-1

Light heavyweight

Fighter

Record

1. Jan Blachowicz (c)

28-8

2. Glover Teixeira

32-7

3. Jiri Prochazka

28-3-1

4. Aleksandar Rakic

14-2

5. Anthony Smith

36-16

6. Thiago Santos

22-9

7. Dominick Reyes

12-3

8. Magomed Ankalaev

15-1

9. Johnny Walker

18-6

10. Nikita Krylov

26-8

Heavyweight

Fighter

Record

1. Francis Ngannou (c)

16-3

2. Stipe Miocic

20-4

3. Ciryl Gane

10-0

4. Curtis Blaydes

15-3

5. Derrick Lewis

25-8

6. Alexander Volkov

33-9

7. Marcin Tybura

22-6

8. Chris Daukaus

12-3

9. Jairzinho Rozenstruik

12-3

10. Tai Tuivasa

12-3

Women’s strawweight

Fighter

Record

1. Rose Namajunas (c) 

10-4

2. Weili Zhang

21-2

3. Carla Esparza

18-6

4. Joanna Jedrzejczyk

16-4

5. Mackenzie Dern

11-1

6. Marina Rodriguez

14-1-2

7. Yan Xiaonan

13-2

8. Tatiana Suarez

8-0

9. Michelle Waterson

18-9

10. Jessica Andrade

22-9

Women’s flyweight

Fighter

Record

1. Valentina Shevchenko (c)

22-3

2. Jessica Andrade

22-9

3. Jennifer Maia

19-7-1

4. Lauren Murphy

15-5

5. Maycee Barber

9-2

Women’s bantamweight

Fighter

Record

1. Amanda Nunes (c)

21-4

2. Germaine de Randamie

10-4

3. Holly Holm

14-5

4. Aspen Ladd

9-1

5. Irene Aldana

13-6

6. Julianna Pena

10-4

7. Yana Kunitskaya

14-6

8. Julia Avila

9-2

9. Ketlen Vieira

11-2

10. Miesha Tate

19-7

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