USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings – October 27
See who has moved places in USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings for October 27
UFC 321 didn’t produce all the ranking movements that were expected thanks to a controversial no contest in the heavyweight title main event.
But before that, the women’s strawweight division crowned a new champion when Mackenzie Dern (16-5 MMA, 11-5 UFC) outworked Virna Jandiroba (22-4 MMA, 8-4 UFC) with a unanimous decision to win the title. The belt was vacated by Zhang Weili, who in a little less than three weeks will challenge Valentina Shevchenko for the women’s flyweight belt.
Once Zhang makes her official flyweight move at UFC 322 on Nov. 15, she’ll either head to a ranked spot at 125 pounds – or decide to move back to strawweight. So for now, we’re keeping her atop the 115-pound division until things shake out.
Yeah – we definitely expect Dern might have some thoughts about being the UFC strawweight champion, but still sitting at No. 2 in our rankings. The good news for her is she wasn’t ranked in the women’s pound-for-pound list before UFC 321, and her title win now has her right into the heart of that chart.
Check out all of the moves in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings.
