Nigeria’s UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman has risen to number one in the ESPN pound-for-pound men’s MMA rankings.
Usman retained his title with a knockout win against Jorge Masvidal on Saturday, his 18th consecutive victory and fourth title defense.
He takes over the number one spot from Jon Jones, whose stay was brief.
Jones, a former light heavyweight champ, who vacated his title in August in order to fight at heavyweight, had moved up to top spot in March after the retirement of Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Jones (26-1, 1 NC) had been a longtime number one prior to Nurmagomedov taking over.
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Now he has been surpassed again, and at the same time his career is in limbo, as he has been unable to come to terms with the UFC on a fight against heavyweight titlist Francis Ngannou.
Usman has been steadily rising. He moved from fourth to second in the March rankings, then grabbed the top spot on the strength of his UFC 261 performance, earning the first-place nod from three of the ESPN panel’s four voters.
The men’s top 10 also has a pair of new arrivals, as former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker and ex-bantamweight champ Petr Yan share 10th place.
In the women’s rankings, Rose Namajunas leapfrogs Zhang Weili after dethroning her at strawweight at UFC 261, moving up from number five.
And Jessica Andrade slips one spot, to number seven, after being knocked out by flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko on Saturday.
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