Going into his UFC 268 main event against Colby Covington, welterweight champion Kamaru Usman already was No. 1 in the ESPN men’s pound-for-pound rankings. There was no room for upward movement. However, Usman’s strong performance at Madison Square Garden did earn him the backing of the last holdout on our voting panel. So Usman now is a unanimous No. 1.
Amanda Nunes already was a unanimous No. 1 among women, and she has an opportunity to solidify that standing on Dec. 11 when she defends the UFC bantamweight championship — one of Nunes’ two titles — against Julianna Peña.
Beyond the two fighters at the top of their respective mountains, a few other champions made advances on the strength of recent performances: UFC men’s featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski moved up a spot, PFL women’s lightweight titlist Kayla Harrison jumped two positions and UFC interim men’s bantamweight belt holder Petr Yan entered the rankings.
Glover Teixeira, fresh off winning the UFC light heavyweight belt at age 42, got some support from voters but did not quite make the top 10.
Note: Results are current; rankings as of Nov. 9.
Men’s pound-for-pound rankings
1. Kamaru Usman
UFC welterweight champion
Record: 20-1
Last: W (UD) Colby Covington, Nov. 6, 2021
Next: TBD
2. Israel Adesanya 
UFC middleweight champion
Record: 21-1
Last: W (UD) Marvin Vettori, June 12, 2021
Next: TBD
3. Alexander Volkanovski 
UFC featherweight champion
Previous ranking: 4
Record: 23-1
Last: W (UD) Brian Ortega, Sept. 25, 2021
Next: TBD
4. Francis Ngannou 
UFC heavyweight champion
Previous ranking: 3
Record: 16-3
Last: W (KO2) Stipe Miocic, March 27, 2021
Next: Jan. 22 vs. Ciryl Gane
5. Dustin Poirier
UFC lightweight
Previous ranking: 6
Record: 28-6, 1 NC
Last: W (TKO1) Conor McGregor, July 10, 2021
Next: Dec. 11 vs. Charles Oliveira
6. Charles Oliveira
UFC lightweight champion
Previous ranking: 7
Record: 31-8, 1 NC
Last: W (TKO2) Michael Chandler, May 15, 2021
Next: Dec. 11 vs. Dustin Poirier
7. Petr Yan
Source : espn
