{"id":682242,"date":"2026-05-20T04:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T04:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/682242\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T04:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T04:24:08","slug":"usa-today-sports-mma-junkie-rankings-may-19-francis-ngannou-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/682242\/","title":{"rendered":"USA TODAY Sports\/MMA Junkie rankings, May 19: Francis Ngannou returns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>USA TODAY Sports\/MMA Junkie rankings, May 19: Francis Ngannou returns<a class=\"gnt_bc\"\/><\/p>\n<p>May 19, 2026, 10:00 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Although there was a UFC event on the same night, it was Rousey vs. Carano on Netflix that created the most notable ranking movement this past week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Inside the octagon, Arnold Allen maintained his position in the USA TODAY Sports\/MMA Junkie featherweight rankings with <a href=\"http:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/ufc\/2026\/05\/16\/ufc-vegas-117-results-arnold-allen-vs-melquizael-costa\/90126065007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a main event victory<\/a> over Melquizael Costa at UFC Fight Night 276 from the Meta APEX in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">In MVP MMA&#8217;s hexagon, however, former UFC heavyweight champion <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/fighters\/francis-ngannou\/\" data-autotag=\"6f5ceb67-df2c-4abc-b7a5-cfd8082f532a\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Francis Ngannou<\/a> returned to MMA competition after nearly two years with <a href=\"http:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/mma\/2026\/05\/16\/rousey-vs-carano-video-francis-ngannou-vs-philipe-lins\/90125670007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a first-round knockout<\/a> of Philipe Lins. Ngannou was not ranked due to inactivity, but is now eligible to rejoin the list.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Check out all of the moves in the latest <a href=\"http:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/rankings\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">USA TODAY Sports\/MMA Junkie rankings<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"gnt_em_cp_cw_i\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/90127753007-getty-images-2276640901.jpg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\"\/><img class=\"gnt_em_cp_cw_i\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/89676783007-image-1776525437294.jpg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 2026 mmajunkie.usatoday.com. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"USA TODAY Sports\/MMA Junkie rankings, May 19: Francis Ngannou returns May 19, 2026, 10:00 p.m. ET Although there&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[202558,64,63,786,785,315656,85,203779,203780,263529,203781,235716,211351,202563,203139,202561],"class_list":["post-682242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-accessfree","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sourcemma-junkie","tag-sports","tag-sstssportsufc","tag-sstsnufc","tag-tagfrancis-ngannou","tag-tagmartial-arts","tag-tagmma-rankings","tag-tagnetflix","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682242","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=682242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}