MMA pound-for-pound rankings
Each week, I’ll post my 10 choices for the best pound-for-pound mixed martial artist (including women) in the world. To understand this, it helps to understand what pound-for-pound means. To me, and the way I’ll be voting, it’s who would win a fight if everyone weighed the same and all of their skills and physical attributes were proportional. For example, if I’m considering a flyweight who is a murderous puncher in his or her division, I will assume he or she would be a murderous puncher in every division, punching proportionally as hard at heavyweight as he/she did at flyweight.
I will value activity and quality of opposition over inactivity and lighter opposition. That said, I won’t arbitrarily remove a fighter from my Top 10 if there is a logical and rational reason why they haven’t fought. But I will not vote for someone who has been inactive for a lengthy period for no apparent reason. Fighters who are under doping suspensions will not be included.
Men’s MMA pound-for-pound rankings (Aug. 20)
Jon Jones, UFC light heavyweight champion, 25-1. Last week: 1
Khabib Nurmagomedov, UFC lightweight champion, 27-0. LW: 3
Stipe Miocic, UFC heavyweight champion, 19-3. LW: 4
Daniel Cormier, UFC heavyweight contender, 22-2. LW: 2
Henry Cejudo, UFC flyweight and bantamweight champion, 15-2. LW: 5
Kamaru Usman, UFC welterweight champion, 15-1. LW: 6
Max Holloway, UFC featherweight champion, 21-4. LW: 7
Dustin Poirier, UFC interim lightweight champion, 25-5. LW: 8
Tony Ferguson, UFC lightweight contender, 25-3. LW: 9
Colby Covington, UFC welterweight contender, 15-1. LW: 10
Women’s MMA pound-for-pound rankings (Aug. 20)
Amanda Nunes, UFC bantamweight and featherweight champion, 18-4.
Valentina Shevchenko, UFC flyweight champion, 18-3.
Cris Cyborg, UFC featherweight contender, 20-2.
Jessica Andrade, UFC strawweight champion, 20-6.
Rose Namajunas, UFC strawweight contender, 8-4.
Tatiana Suarez, UFC strawweight contender, 8-0.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk, UFC strawweight contender, 15-3.
Ketlen Vieira, UFC bantamweight contender, 10-0.
Julianna Peña, UFC bantamweight contender, 9-3.
Ilima-Lei Macfarlane, Bellator flyweight champion, 10-0.