{"id":148778,"date":"2025-09-16T20:14:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T20:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/148778\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T20:14:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T20:14:16","slug":"ufc-heavyweight-rankings-cause-stir-as-tom-aspinalls-teammate-drops-below-fighter-he-beat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/148778\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC heavyweight rankings cause stir as Tom Aspinall’s teammate drops below fighter he beat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ante Delija has been demoted in the UFC heavyweight rankings despite beating the man above him in his last fight.<\/p>\n

Delija knocked out Marcin Tybura at UFC<\/a> Paris earlier this month, stopping the Polish heavyweight with a vicious left hand two minutes into the first round.<\/p>\n

\"Delija<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Delija made light work of Tybura at UFC Paris, stopping the Pole with an array of punches in the first round of their fightCredit: Getty\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

The Croatian heavyweight was brought to tears after the victory as he celebrated his first UFC winCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

The win for ‘Walking Trouble’ marked his first in Dana White<\/a>‘s promotion, leaving his training partner Tom Aspinall emotional and in tears<\/a>.<\/p>\n

UFC heavyweight champion Aspinall had made the journey to France to watch his teammate after taking part in his first face-off with Ciryl Gane<\/a> ahead of their title fight next month.<\/p>\n

The pair lock horns at UFC 321 on October 25 in what is Aspinall’s first defence of the heavyweight title<\/a> since Jon Jones<\/a> retired.<\/p>\n

The emotions were high at UFC Paris and also got the better of Croatia’s Delija, who collapsed to his knees immediately after securing his win.<\/p>\n

Delija expected to climb the rankings through his emphatic performance, but has instead bizarrely taken a hit.<\/p>\n

Ante Delija drops in heavyweight rankings despite UFC Paris win<\/p>\n

Having debuted in the UFC heavyweight rankings in the No. 9 spot, Delija has now dropped down to No. 10.<\/p>\n

What makes it even more strange is the fact that the man who overtook him is Tybura, who has now been knocked out by Delija and Aspinall.<\/p>\n

MMA fans call heavyweight rankings update ’embarrassing’<\/p>\n

MMA fans were quick to react to the weird change, and there was one general consensus.<\/p>\n

One responded: “That\u2019s just embarrassing for whoever made it\u2026”<\/p>\n

Another added: “He beat him literally 10 days ago in less than half a round, yet he\u2019s ranked lower? Yeah, that makes tons of sense. Dumba** rankings.”<\/p>\n

\"Aspinall<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Aspinall had a front row seat for Delija’s epic KO win at UFC ParisCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

UFC Heavyweight Rankings: Updated<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Champion: Tom Aspinall<\/p>\n

Ciryl GaneAlexander VolkovSergei PavlovichCurtis BlaydesJailton AlmeidaWaldo Cortes AcostaSerghei SpivacDerrick LewisMarcin Tybure (+1)Ante Delija (-1)Tai TuivasaShamil GazievMick ParkinTallison TeixeiraValter Walker<\/p>\n

And a third said: “These rankings are ridiculous.”<\/p>\n

The update comes just five months after UFC CEO Dana White joined forces with Mark Zuckerberg<\/a> to introduce an overhaul to his rankings system..<\/p>\n

White has previously expressed his frustrations towards the UFC rankings<\/a>, which are voted on by members of the media every other week.<\/p>\n

He brought in Zuckerberg to incorporate Meta’s technology within the UFC, declaring the move as his promotion’s ‘first-ever official fan technology partner.’<\/p>\n

It is unknown whether Meta’s involvement with the rankings began to date, which could explain the change to Delija’s rank, one month after Paddy Pimblett<\/a> also received a bizarre rankings boost<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What is Delija’s MMA record?<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the change will mean little to nothing to newly signed UFC heavyweight Delija.<\/p>\n

\"Delija<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Delija is now the No. 10-ranked UFC heavyweight, even after beating the fighter above him, TyburaCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

He had 31 professional MMA fights before joining the UFC, previously winning heavyweight gold under the PFL banner<\/a>.<\/p>\n

‘Walking Trouble’ now boasts a pro record of 26-6, winning eight of his last ten bouts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ante Delija has been demoted in the UFC heavyweight rankings despite beating the man above him in his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[4224,49,48,641,638,82,1972,79219,79218,38883,25212,50095],"class_list":{"0":"post-148778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-aspinall","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-fighting","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tom-aspinall","15":"tag-tom-aspinall-teammate","16":"tag-tom-aspinall-ufc","17":"tag-ufc-heavyweight","18":"tag-ufc-heavyweight-rankings","19":"tag-ufc-rankings"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}