Holly Holm shoots to the top of Times’ MMA rankings

After one of the most shocking upsets in sports history, Holly Holm surges to the top of the women’s bantamweight MMA rankings, with Ronda Rousey dropping to second place. A look at the top 10 in each weight class:

Women’s Bantamweight

1. Holly Holm
2. Ronda Rousey
3. Miesha Tate
4. Cat Zingano
5. Alexis Davis
6. Amanda Nunes
7. Sara McMann
8. Sarah Kaufman
9. Julianna Pena
10. Jessica Eye

In one of the most shocking results in MMA history, Holly Holm picked Ronda Rousey apart with strikes and finished her with a head kick knockout to end Rousey’s title reign and aura of invincibility of one fell swoop. Holm’s footwork was key as she kept Rousey at distance and punished her with precision striking. The result sets up a massive rematch that is likely to take place at UFC 200 in July.

Heavyweight

1. Fabricio Werdum
2. Cain Velasquez
3. Junior Dos Santos
4. Stipe Miocic
5. Andrei Arlovski
6. Travis Browne
7. Josh Barnett
8. Ben Rothwell
9. Alistair Overeem
10. Mark Hunt

Mark Hunt avenged his loss to Antonio Silva with a first round knockout in the rematch. The fight sets up the popular 41-year-old for future high profile fights. The next big heavyweight fight will take place December 19 when Junior Dos Santos and Alistair Overeem finally face off.

Light Heavyweight

1. Jon Jones
2. Daniel Cormier
3. Anthony Johnson
4. Ryan Bader
5. Alexander Gustafsson
6. Phil Davis
7. Glover Teixeira
8. Rashad Evans
9. Liam McGeary
10. Ovince St. Preux

Glover Teixeira was impressive in his second round TKO win over Patrick Cummins in Brazil. Since dropping a pair of fights to elite competition in Jon Jones and Phil Davis, he has nicely rebounded with a pair of wins.

Middleweight

1. Chris Weidman
2. Luke Rockhold
3. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza
4. Yoel Romero
5. Anderson Silva
6. Lyoto Machida
7. Vitor Belfort
8. Tim Kennedy
9. Michael Bisping
10. Gegard Mousasi

Vitor Belfort knocked out Dan Henderson to conclude their trilogy of fights. Henderson has now lost 6 of 8 including three knockouts in less than three minutes and a lot of people would like to see the legend retire.

Welterweight

1. Robbie Lawler
2. Johny Hendricks
3. Rory MacDonald
4. Tyron Woodley
5. Ben Askren
6. Carlos Condit
7. Demian Maia
8. Hector Lombard
9. Dong Hyun Kim
10. Matt Brown

Welterweights will figure prominently in the next wave of UFC action. 11-1 Kelvin Gastelum looks to continue his emergence as a welterweight contender when he takes on Neil Magny in the main event of UFC’s November 21 card. UFC’s November 28 main card then features nothing but welterweights, including Yoshihiro Akiyama’s return against Alberto Mina, Dong Hyun Kim battling Dominic Waters and Benson Henderson competing in the main event against Jorge Masvidal.

Lightweight

1. Rafael Dos Anjos
2. Khabib Nurmagomedov
3. Anthony Pettis
4. Donald Cerrone
5. Ben Henderson
6. Eddie Alvarez
7. Gilbert Melendez
8. Tony Ferguson
9. Will Brooks
10. Beneil Dariush

Khabib Nurmagomedov was forced to withdraw from a scheduled December 11 bout with Tony Ferguson, adding to the frustrating injury woes that have prevented him from fighting more than once since 2013. He needs to be more active to work his way into a title shot. Will Brooks successfully defended his Bellator lightweight title against Marcin Held and remains one of the promotion’s top young stars.

Featherweight

1. Jose Aldo
2. Conor McGregor
3. Frankie Edgar
4. Chad Mendes
5. Max Holloway
6. Cub Swanson
7. Daniel Straus
8. Patricio “Pitbull” Freire
9. Ricardo Lamas
10. Charles Oliveira

Daniel Straus scored the biggest win of his career at Bellator Vengeance, avenging a pair of previous losses to Patricio Freire and capturing the Bellator featherweight title. Straus held that title previously and lost it in his first title defense so his next fight will be an important test.

Bantamweight

1. T.J. Dillashaw
2. Dominick Cruz
3. Renan Barao
4. Urijah Faber
5. Raphael Assuncao
6. Bibiano Fernandes
7. Thomas Almeida
8. Aljamain Sterling
9. Marlon Moraes
10. Takeya Mizugaki

Thomas Almeida’s ascent continued on November 7 when he scored a third consecutive knockout and performance bonus. The undefeated Brazilian is now 20-0 and is one of the brightest rising stars in the sport.

Flyweight

1. Demetrious Johnson
2. Joseph Benavidez
3. John Dodson
4. Jussier Formiga
5. John Moraga

Women’s Strawweight

1. Joanna Jedrzejczyk
2. Claudia Gadelha
3. Jessica Aguilar
4. Carla Esparza
5. Jessica Penne