{"id":636646,"date":"2026-04-28T17:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T17:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/636646\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T17:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T17:31:10","slug":"surging-ufc-contender-makes-massive-jump-in-ufc-rankings-following-upset-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/636646\/","title":{"rendered":"Surging UFC Contender Makes Massive Jump in UFC Rankings Following Upset-Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

With another UFC Fight Night event in the books, the promotion\u2019s official rankings have undergone a few adjustments. <\/p>\n

The world\u2019s leading MMA promotion is set to return to Perth, Australia this Saturday for a card headlined by former UFC Welterweight Champion Jack Della Maddalena and Carlos Prates<\/a>, and last weekend another former UFC titleholder was also in action at the Meta APEX facility in Las Vegas, NV. <\/p>\n

Making his fourth featherweight appearance, Aljamain Sterling put on a largely dominant showing in the main event of UFC Vegas 116 to halt the rise of Youssef Zalal<\/a>, who had won five-straight fights and finished four opponents since rejoining the UFC in 2024. <\/p>\n

Aljamain Sterling Moves Closer Towards Featherweight Title Shot<\/p>\n

Ranked as the featherweight division\u2019s #5 contender<\/a> heading into UFC Vegas 116, Sterling has moved up one place to #4 and swapped spots with former interim titleholder Yair Rodriguez. <\/p>\n

\"Aljamain<\/p>\n

Aljamain Sterling during UFC 300 at T-Mobile Arena. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\u201cFunk Master\u201d has now won back-to-back fights after he also took a unanimous decision over two-time title challenger Brian Ortega in his only outing of 2025. His lone featherweight loss came at the hands of undefeated contender Movsar Evloev, who occupies the division\u2019s #1 spot after defeating Lerone Murphy in the main event of UFC London.<\/p>\n

\"Movsar<\/p>\n

Movsar Evloev (red gloves) fights Lerone Murphy (blue gloves) during UFC Fight Night at O2 Arena. | Peter van den Berg-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The win at UFC Vegas 116 puts Sterling in the conversation for a featherweight title shot (though Evloev should presumably get the next crack at Alexander Volkanovski<\/a>), while Zalal switched places with Arnold Allen and now sits at #8 in the official UFC rankings.<\/p>\n

Joselyne Edwards Vaults into Top 5 of UFC Rankings<\/p>\n

Other than Sterling, the biggest winner at UFC Vegas 116 was easily Joselyne Edwards, who took on fellow top-ranked women\u2019s bantamweight contender Norma Dumont in the night\u2019s co-main event.<\/p>\n

\"Nora<\/p>\n

Nora Cornolle (red gloves) fights Joselyne Edwards (blue gloves) in a womens bantamweight bout during UFC Fight Night at Toyota Center. | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Both women came into the matchup looking to extend their respective win streaks and try to position themselves for a crack at the winner of the still-planned title bout between Kayla Harrison and returning UFC Hall of Famer Amanda Nunes<\/a>. Following three rounds of action, it was Edwards who got her hand raised via unanimous decision and extended her winning run to five fights.<\/p>\n

\"Kayla<\/p>\n

Kayla Harrison (blue gloves) reacts after defeating Julianna Pena (not pictured) in a bantamweight title bout during UFC 316 at Prudential Center. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\u201cLa Pantera\u201d impressively finished the previous four opponents she faced before UFC Vegas 116 and has vaulted up a staggering eight spots to #3 in the women\u2019s bantamweight rankings, bumping Dumont down to #4 in the process after the Brazilian previously won six-straight fights. <\/p>\n

\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With another UFC Fight Night event in the books, the promotion\u2019s official rankings have undergone a few adjustments.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-636646","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\/636646","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=636646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}