Rankings Update: Pound for pound shuffle
Although the two events featured a total of twenty three bouts only one had significant meaning in division rankings, Rick Story vs. Gunnar Nelson.
After each event, the UFC polls various members of the media to update its rankings in each weight division as well as the pound for pound rankings.
This past weekend the UFC held two events, UFC Fight Night: Story vs. Nelson in Stockholm, Sweden and UFC Fight Night: MacDonald vs. Saffiedine in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Although the two events featured a total of twenty three bouts only one had significant meaning in division rankings, Rick Story vs. Gunnar Nelson.
Champion : Johny Hendricks
1 Robbie Lawler
2 Rory MacDonald
3 Tyron Woodley
4 Carlos Condit
5 Matt Brown
6 Hector Lombard
7 Demian Maia +1
8 Jake Ellenberger -1
9 Tarec Saffiedine
9 Dong Hyun Kim +1
11 Kelvin Gastelum
12 Rick Story *NR
13 Jordan Mein
14 Gunnar Nelson -2
15 Ryan LaFlare -1
Rick Story was unranked coming into the UFC Fight Night 53 main event against Gunnar Nelson who had been ranked at number twelve. With the win story took his spot and Nelson moved down two spots.
The bigger story is that although none of them competed, there was a lot of movement in the fighters ranked in the pound for pound list:
POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Jon Jones
2 Jose Aldo
3 Demetrious Johnson
4 Chris Weidman +1
5 Cain Velasquez -1
6 Anthony Pettis
7 Anderson Silva
8 Johny Hendricks +1
9 Ronda Rousey -1
10 T.J. Dillashaw +1
11 Renan Barao -1
12 Vitor Belfort
13 Alexander Gustafsson +1
14 Dominick Cruz +1
15 Daniel Cormier -2
Each week select members of the media review their rankings and change them accordingly. With no fights for these fighter it is just likely the media reassessed their decisions based on activity or lack thereof and the results of opponents of these fighters.