{"id":501902,"date":"2026-02-24T23:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T23:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/501902\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T23:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T23:12:09","slug":"new-faces-break-into-ufc-rankings-after-highlight-reel-wins-at-ufc-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/501902\/","title":{"rendered":"New Faces Break Into UFC Rankings After Highlight-Reel Wins at UFC Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another UFC Fight Night card is in the books, and the official UFC rankings have undergone a few notable changes following the promotion\u2019s return to Houston. <\/p>\n

Headlined by a middleweight bout that saw the division\u2019s former titleholder Sean Strickland halt Anthony Hernandez\u2019s eight-fight win streak<\/a>, UFC Houston was a fairly decision-heavy affair before four out of six fights ended via stoppage<\/a> during the night\u2019s main card. <\/p>\n

There weren\u2019t a ton of ranked fighters in action <\/a>at Houston\u2019s Toyota Center on Saturday night, but a few of the card\u2019s biggest winners have officially broken through into the official UFC rankings<\/a> as of this week. <\/p>\n

Sean Strickland Stays Put After Big Win At UFC Houston<\/p>\n

Strickland remains the middleweight division\u2019s #3-ranked contender after stopping Hernandez, who dropped two places down to #6 following his first loss since 2020.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Ex-UFC Champ Merab Dvalishvili to Compete Outside UFC for First Time Since 2021<\/a><\/p>\n

The lone heavyweight contest at UFC Houston saw Serghei Spivac snap a two-fight skid when he took a unanimous decision over Ante Delija. Spivac moved one spot up to #6 and Delija fell one spot to #10, but some other movement in that division included Derrick Lewis moving up three spots to #8, despite the fact that \u201cThe Black Beast\u201d suffered a stoppage-loss at UFC 324 last month. <\/p>\n

\"Serghei<\/p>\n

Serghei Spivac (red gloves) fights Ante Delija (blue gloves) in a heavyweight bout during UFC Fight Night at Toyota Center. | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Joselyene Edwards also submitted Nora Cornolle in the only other matchup between two ranked fighters at UFC Houston. Edwards has now stopped four-straight opponents and jumped three spots to #11 in the women\u2019s bantamweight division, while Cornolle dropped one spot to #13. <\/p>\n

Melquizael Costa & Uros Medic Break Into UFC Rankings<\/p>\n

Longtime welterweight and featherweight staples Geoff Neal and Dan Ige were the other ranked fighters in action at UFC Houston, but both men have exited the Top 15 following their respective losses at the event. <\/p>\n

\"Dan<\/p>\n

Dan Ige (red gloves) fights Melquizael Costa (blue gloves) in a featherweight bout during UFC Fight Night at Toyota Center. | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Ex-UFC Champion Ronda Rousey Takes Shot at UFC and Dana White in New Video<\/a><\/p>\n

Coming into the night looking to rebound from a unanimous decision loss to Patricio Pitbull at UFC 318, Ige was tasked with trying to end Melquizael Costa\u2019s five-fight win streak. Instead, Costa extended his winning run to six fights and became the first man to stop Ige, and the Brazilian now sits at #13 in the UFC featherweight division. <\/p>\n

\"Geoff<\/p>\n

Geoff Neal (red gloves) fights Uros Medic (blue gloves) in a welterweight bout during UFC Fight Night at Toyota Center. | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Neal took on Uros Medic in the UFC Houston co-main event and became the latest victim of Medic\u2019s 100% finishing rate when he was knocked out a little over a minute into the fight<\/a>. Riding the momentum of three-straight first-round knockouts, \u201cThe Doctor\u201d joins the welterweight rankings at #12. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another UFC Fight Night card is in the books, and the official UFC rankings have undergone a few…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-501902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}