The rankings for several UFC divisions underwent major shakeups following the promotion’s return to Vancouver last weekend.
Last Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card featured as the middle offering of a three-week stretch of international events that will conclude when UFC 321 goes down in Abu Dhabi this weekend. UFC Vancouver featured a middleweight headliner between Reinier de Ridder and Brendan Allen, who forced de Ridder to quit on the stool in between the fourth and fifth rounds after Allen stepped in on short notice to replace Anthony Hernandez.
There were several other ranked fighters in action as part of a surprisingly stacked UFC Fight Night offering, and some of the card’s more notable results generated some significant movement in the UFC rankings.
UFC Vancouver headliner de Ridder looked poised for a middleweight title shot following an undefeated start to his UFC career, but after losing to Allen the 35-year-old has dropped four spots and is now the #8-ranked contender at 185 lbs.
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“RDR” displaced his former opponent Robert Whittaker and sent the former champion down to #9, while former title challenger Jared Cannonier moved up one spot and now shares the #10 spot with Michael “Venom” Page, who defeated Cannonier via unanimous decision at UFC 319.
Reinier De Ridder (red gloves) reacts after the fight against Brendan Allen (blue gloves) during UFC Fight Night at Rogers Arena. / Simon Fearn-Imagn Images
Allen’s upset-win allowed him vault up four spots to #5 and drop two-time middleweight king Israel Adesanya down to #6. Despite his withdrawal from UFC Vancouver, “Fluffy” Hernandez actually moved up two spots in the rankings and now sits just ahead of Allen at #4.
Outside of the main event, arguably the most significant fight at UFC Vancouver was a main card clash between women’s flyweight contenders Manon Fiorot and Jasmine Jasudavicius.
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Fiorot came into UFC Vancouver following a failed title bid against Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 315, while Jasudavicius carried the momentum of five-straight wins that had her on the cusp of her first shot at UFC gold. The Canadian was unfortunately stopped with strikes just over a minute into the fight, and as a result she dropped two places in the women’s flyweight rankings and now sits as the division’s #7 contender.
Manon Fiorot (red gloves) reacts after the fight against Jasmine Jasudavicius (blue gloves) during UFC Fight Night at Rogers Arena. / Simon Fearn-Imagn Images
Fiorot’s impressive win allowed her to reclaim the division’s #1 contender spot from Natalia Silva. In a somewhat bizarre twist, “The Beast” actually dropped down to the #5 place in the women’s pound-for-pound rankings after Silva moved up two places to #4, while two-time Women’s Bantamweight Champion Peña now sits at #6 after dropping one spot.
The only other UFC Vancouver matchup to feature two ranked fighters was a bantamweight tilt between Aiemann Zahabi and former title challenger Marlon Vera, who came into the night looking to avoid the first three-fight skid of his career.
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Zahabi ended up extending his win streak to seven fights with a razor-close split decision and now occupies the #7 spot in the bantamweight division. Vera dropped down to #8 but remains ahead of Mario Bautista, who fell to #9 ahead of his UFC 321 matchup with Umar Nurmagomedov.
Marlon Vera (red gloves) fights Aiemann Zahabi (blue gloves) during UFC Fight Night at Rogers Arena. / Simon Fearn-Imagn Images
Rob Font (#12) and Vinicius Oliviera (#13) also swapped places in the bantamweight division in a move unrelated to UFC Vancouver. The only other matchup on the card featuring a ranked fighter was Kevin Holland vs. Mike Malott, and “Proper” now rounds out the welterweight rankings at #15 after taking a unanimous decision over the previously-ranked Holland.
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