MMA Pound-for-Pound Rankings: Henry Cejudo Back In Top 10, Aljamene Sterling Makes Debut

aljamen sterling Despite holding the bantamweight title for more than two years, he is not on Yahoo Sports' pound-for-pound list. But after Sterling lost henry cejudo It's high time to change that, via split decision at UFC 288 on Saturday.

Sterling has been on an amazing run, winning his last nine and 11 of his last 12 starts. In that span, he has scored five victories over current or former UFC champions (Petr Yan Twice, Cejudo, TJ Dilshaw And renan barao) and earned Cejudo's praise.

Cejudo later said, “He's better than I thought.”

Sterling has been in the 11-15 range on Yahoo Sports' rankings of the best mixed martial artists in the world for the past few years, but the time has come for him to break into the top 10. He is going to do so here at number 7.

The issue I grappled with afterward was what to do with Cejudo and demetrius johnsonwho is among the top 10 best pound-for-pound MMA fighters of all time.

Starting with Johnson, he was once No. 1 on this list. He dropped his UFC flyweight title to Cejudo by split decision on August 4, 2018, but has since gone 5-1 and become the ONE Championship flyweight champion (though the ONE title weighs 135 pounds). he was dismissed by Adriano Moraes on April 7, 2021, but came back to defeat Moraes twice, including in ONE's US debut on Friday.

Cejudo was one of the three best pound-for-pound fighters in the world when he retired in the octagon after being stopped Dominic Cruz May 9, 2020 in Jacksonville, Florida.

He returned on Saturday to fight Sterling at UFC 288 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, and although he didn't seem as explosive as he once was, he performed quite well after a three-year layoff. which many believed she'd pulled off the win.

He left open the possibility that he would fight again, and so the question is, if he did, would he look better than Sterling? Answer should be yes. Sitting on the sidelines for three years takes something from a fighter, and then coming back against an elite – and extremely awkward – opponent like Sterling is difficult.

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That's why I've decided that Cejudo belongs in the top 10 as well, despite the loss. This means I have to take out two fighters. So I'm going to put Sterling up against the former Welterweight Champion kamru usman and former lightweight champion charles olivera And to bring Sterling to 7th position in that ranking.

To accommodate Cejudo's entry, I'll have to drop two fighters. There is an easy option. number nine jiri prochazka Has not fought in 11 months and will be dropped from the rankings next month due to inactivity. He doesn't have anything scheduled as he recovers from shoulder surgery, so it's not difficult to drop him now.

number 10 is hard to topple brandon moreno, But I think Cejudo is a better and more skilled fighter at this stage. Prochazka and Moreno therefore drop out of the top 10 and Cejudo enters at No. 10, one spot behind Oliveira.

Women's Side, No. 6 chris cyborg and number 7 Rose Namajunas Excluded due to inactivity. Bellator Featherweight Champion Cyborg has not fought since April 23, 2022. Namajunas has not fought since May 2022 and no bout is scheduled. will be replaced in the ranking by Amanda Lemos And Raquel Pennington,

With that, the full rankings are as follows:

Men's MMA pound-for-pound rankings as of May 8

1. Jon Jones (27-1), UFC heavyweight Champion. Previous ranking: 1.

2. Islam Makhachev (24-1), UFC Lightweight Champion. Previous ranking: 2.

3. Alexander Volkanovski (25-2), UFC Featherweight Champion. Previous ranking: 3.

4. Israel Adesanya (24-2), UFC Middleweight Champion. Previous ranking: 4.

5. Leon Edwards (21-3), UFC Welterweight Champion. Previous ranking: 5.

6. Khamzat Chimaev (12-0) UFC welterweight/middleweight contender. Previous ranking: 6.

7. Aljamene Sterling (23-3) UFC Bantamweight Champion. Previous ranking: Nr.

8. Kamaru Usman (20-3), former UFC welterweight champion. Previous ranking: 7.

9. Charles Oliveira (33-9), former UFC Lightweight Champion. Previous ranking: 8.

10. Henry Cejudo (16-3), former UFC flyweight and bantamweight champion. Previous ranking: Nr.

Women's MMA pound-for-pound rankings as of May 8

1. Amanda Nunes (22-5), UFC Bantamweight/Featherweight Champion. Previous ranking: 1.

2. Juliana Peña (12-5), former UFC Bantamweight Champion. Previous ranking: 2.

3. Alexa Grasso (16-3), UFC Flyweight Champion. Previous ranking: 3.

4. Valentina Shevchenko (23-4), former UFC flyweight champion. Previous ranking: 4.

5. Zhang Weili (23-3), UFC Strawweight Champion. Previous ranking: 5.

6. Erin Blanchfield (11-1), UFC flyweight contender. Previous ranking: 8.

7. Manon Fiorot (10-1), UFC flyweight contender. Previous ranking: 9.

8. Tayla Santos (19-2), UFC flyweight contender. Previous ranking: 10.

9. Amanda Lemos (13-2-1), UFC strawweight contender. Previous ranking: Nr.

10. Raquel Pennington (15-8), UFC bantamweight contender. Previous ranking: Nr.