McGregor out: How the pound-for-pound rankings look after UFC 259

With Conor McGregor out, Aljamain Sterling in and multiple movers – the men’s P4P rankings look pretty interesting after UFC 259.

While not much changed for the women’s P4P top 15 courtesy of Amanda Nunes still being the GOAT, there was a whole lot of movement for the guys after an explosive three title fights in Las Vegas.

Today, we’re going to focus on the five big stories coming out of the latest update.

Israel Adesanya – 3rd to 6th

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He’s great, but not quite the best.

Israel Adesanya took a risk and it just didn’t pay off at UFC 259. He lost to the bigger guy who had a better gameplan and now, heading back down to middleweight should be on the cards. He can always move back up later down the road, but this was a misstep in hindsight.

Jan Blachowicz – 14th to 8th

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Polish Power is officially in the top 10.

Jan Blachowicz wanted to make a statement in defending his light heavyweight crown for the first time. He wanted to silence the doubters and and prove why he deserves to be at the top of the mountain. In the end, we’d say beating Adesanya helped him to accomplish that goal and then some.

Petr Yan – 10th to 12th

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Throwing an illegal knee and only getting docked two places? Petr Yan is a lucky boy.

Sure, the Russian was winning on two scorecards before the disqualification, but that doesn’t make up for the mistake. Yan needs to go back to the drawing board and really get his head straight for the inevitable second chapter.

Aljamain Sterling – 15th (NR)

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You may not like it, but “Funk Master” is the UFC bantamweight champion.

Despite winning by DQ, Sterling has been inserted into the top 15 as per him winning the title. It isn’t enough to take him above rival Yan but a win in the rematch certainly would be.

Conor McGregor drops out

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The Notorious One is no longer a top 15 fighter.

After losing to Dustin Poirier at UFC 257, many wondered what it would take for McGregor to finally drop out of the P4P rankings. As it turns out we only had to wait a few more PPVs to see it happen.

Conor has what it takes to break back into that elite space but it’s going to take time – and a few more wins.

MEN’S POUND-FORPOUND

1. Khabib Nurmagomedov
2. Jon Jones
3. Kamaru Usman +1
4. Stipe Miocic +1
5. Alexander Volkanovski +1
6. Israel Adesanya -3
7. Dustin Poirier
8. Jan Blachowicz +6
9. Max Holloway -1
10. Deiveson Figueiredo -1
11. Justin Gaethje
12. Petr Yan -2
13. Robert Whittaker -1
14. Francis Ngannou -1
15. Aljamain Sterling *NR

WOMEN’S POUND-FOR-POUND

1. Amanda Nunes
2. Valentina Shevchenko
3. Weili Zhang
4. Rose Namajunas
5. Jessica Andrade
6. Joanna Jedrzejczyk
7. Germaine De Randamie
8. Holly Holm
9. Aspen Ladd
10. Katlyn Chookagian
11. Nina Ansaroff
12. Yan Xiaonan
13. Carla Esparza
14. Cynthia Calvillo
15. Claudia Gadelha

Featured image credit: Getty