After a relatively quiet week, our latest USA TODAY Sports and MMAjunkie.com MMA rankings saw minimal movement. With Shane Carwin‘s announced retirement, both Stefan Struve and Stipe Miocic moved up a spot in the latest installment of our heavyweight rankings.
This week, though, the middleweight rankings will get a shakeup. Vitor Belfort (No. 3) and Luke Rockhold (No. 6) meet in Saturday’s UFC on FX 8 headliner while Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (No. 8) and Chris Camozzi (honorable mention) meet in the co-headliner. The lightweight division is also well-represented at the Brazilian event with Evan Dunham (No. 15), Rafael dos Anjos (honorable mention) and Gleison Tibau (honorable mention) in action.
The rankings take into account a fighter's wins/losses, quality of competition, finishing rate/dominance and frequency of fights.
Fighters are no longer eligible to be ranked after they've been inactive for 24 months, either due to injuries, drug/conduct suspensions, contract disputes or self-imposed hiatuses.
Fighters serving drug/conduct suspensions are eligible to be ranked, so long as they're not inactive for more than 24 months.
To the best of our ability, fighters will be ranked in their primary weight class. Catchweight fights and bouts outside the fighter's primary weight class can have a positive or negative impact on the ranking. However, fighters can be ranked in only one weight class at a given time, and in most cases, they won't be ranked in a new weight class until they've had their first fight at that weight.