MMA rankings: An important victory for Junior Dos Santos

The Times’ MMA rankings for April:

Heavyweight

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

Junior Dos Santos made a statement in Croatia, scoring an impressive victory over the surging Ben Rothwell to firmly demonstrate he’s still one of the world’s very best heavyweights. Dos Santos had struggled in recent fights, but he looked fast, crisp and athletic against Rothwell. It will be interesting to see who gets the next UFC heavyweight title shot against the winner of Fabricio Werdum vs. Stipe Miocic.

Light Heavyweight

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

Glover Teixeira picked up his third win in a row, all via stoppage, when he knocked out Rashad Evans in the main event of UFC’s most recent Fox card. Teixeira after the fight suggested he fight Anthony Johnson next, a fight that makes a lot of sense and would be an intriguing showdown between two of the division’s hardest hitters.

Middleweight

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

In a weird situation, Lyoto Machida was taken out of his most recent scheduled fight when he self-reported an USADA violation. Machida put down in his fight application that he’d been taking a relatively harmless pharmaceutical supplement that is nonetheless banned by USADA. It was a costly gaffe by Machida and his team and could end up having even stronger consequences in the form of a long suspension.

Welterweight

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

Ben Askren improved his record to 15-0 with a unanimous decision over Nikolay Aleksakhin for One Championship in the Philippines. Askren’s wrestling is extremely difficult to handle, and it remains disappointing that he isn’t fighting his prime years in a more high profile setting for American fans.

Lightweight

1. Rafael Dos Anjos
2. Khabib Nurmagomedov
3. Tony Ferguson
4. Eddie Alvarez
5. Anthony Pettis
6. Gilbert Melendez
7. Will Brooks
8. Nate Diaz
9. Justin Gaethje
10. Michael Chiesa

Khabib Nurmagomedov returned to action after a two-year hiatus due to injuries and looked as good as ever in the process. Nurmagomedov grounded Darrell Horcher with takedowns and stopped him in the second round with strikes on the ground. Nurmagomedov hopes for a title shot at Rafael Dos Anjos, who he previously defeated. First, Dos Anjos will defend his title against Eddie Alvarez in July.

Featherweight

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

Cub Swanson broke a two fight losing streak with a unanimous decision victory over Hacran Dias. It was an important win to keep him relevant in a division where everybody is looking to get a big money opportunity against Conor McGregor.

Bantamweight

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

An interesting addition to the bantamweight division is John Dodson, former flyweight title challenger with a win over former UFC bantamweight king T.J. Dillashaw. Dodson returned to 135 pounds in style, scoring a TKO win over Manny Gamburyan in just 47 seconds. He could be a force in his new division.

Women’s Bantamweight

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

Miesha Tate will defend her UFC women’s bantamweight title at UFC 200 against Amanda Nunes. It’s a crucially important fight for Tate. A win and she’s likely to get another crack at old rival Ronda Rousey in a big money fall fight. A loss and that important opportunity is likely out the window.

Flyweight

1. Demetrious Johnson
2. Joseph Benavidez
3. Henry Cejudo
4. Jussier Formiga
5. Ian McCall

Women’s Strawweight

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