![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260323123111_fw032326.JPG\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nImage: John Brannigan\/Sherdog.com illustration<\/p>\n
Featherweight
\n<\/p>\n
Topuria called his shot and delivered, as he knocked out Charles
\nOliveira in the UFC 317 headliner. With the victory, \u201cEl Matador\u201d
\nbecomes the first undefeated fighter to be a two-division UFC
\nchampion. Topuria now has successive knockout victories over
\nAlexander Volkanovski, Max Holloway and Oliveira \u2014 a run that\u2019s as
\nimpressive as any in recent memory. After taking the first portion
\nof 2026 off to attend to personal issues, Topuria will face Justin
\nGaethje in the main event of the UFC White House card on June 14.
\nAt featherweight, the Georgian-Spaniard\u2019s rankings eligibility will
\nexpire on April 26, 2026.
\nIt\u2019s a testament to Volkanovski\u2019s overall greatness that he made a
\nrematch with Diego Lopes seem relatively uneventful, as he cruised
\nto a unanimous decision triumph at UFC 325 in front of his home
\nfans in Sydney, Australia. Volkanovski has now tied Jose Aldo for
\nthe most all-time featherweight title victories with eight, further
\ncementing his legacy in the division. Volkanovski will look ahead
\nto a future matchup with the likes of Lerone Murphy or Movsar
\nEvloev.<\/p>\n
After more than a year on the sidelines, Evloev got back to work at
\nUFC London, outdueling Lerone Murphy in a closely contested
\nmajority decision triumph on March 21. Despite the bout being
\nbilled as a featherweight title eliminator ahead of time \u2014 and
\nAlexander Volkanovski accepting Evloev\u2019s callout on the UFC
\npost-fight show \u2014 promotion head Dana White wasn\u2019t ready to commit
\nto the Russian as the division\u2019s No. 1 contender. Whether that
\nchanges with time remains to be seen, as Evloev\u2019s string of 10
\nstraight decision wins in the UFC could prove to be a hindrance to
\nhis cause.
\nThe third time proved to be the charm for Holloway, who played the
\nrole of spoiler by defeating Dustin Poirier via unanimous decision
\nin the UFC 318 headliner in New Orleans. While Poirier bids the
\nsport farewell, \u201cBlessed\u201d looks capable of making a run at 155
\npounds at this stage of his UFC career. Holloway will next put his
\nBMF belt on the line in a rematch against Charles Oliveira \u2014 more
\nthan 15 years after their first meeting \u2014 in the UFC 326 main
\nevent. At featherweight, Holloway\u2019s rankings eligibility will
\nexpire on April 26, 2026.<\/p>\n
Despite receiving a relatively quick rematch against Alexander
\nVolkanovski, Lopes couldn\u2019t solve the puzzle of the great in their
\nchampionship clash at UFC 325, losing a relatively clear-cut
\nunanimous decision in Sydney, Australia on Jan. 31. Two losses
\nlikely remove the Brazilian from the championship conversation for
\nthe foreseeable future. The Lobo Gym MMA standout will return
\nagainst streaking featherweight finisher Steve Garcia at the UFC
\nWhite House event on June 14.
\nSilva was violent yet tactical at UFC 324, as he outdueled Arnold
\nAllen en route to a unanimous decision triumph in their bout at the
\nT-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Jan. 24. Not only does \u201cLord\u201d
\nrebound from a loss to Diego Lopes at Noche UFC in September 2024,
\nbut he remains in the thick of the title hunt at 145 pounds. The
\nFighting Nerds standout has been victorious in six of seven Octagon
\nappearances overall.
\nMurphy started well and remained competitive throughout the UFC
\nLondon main event, but he nonetheless suffered his first career
\ndefeat to Movsar Evloev in a featherweight title eliminator on
\nMarch 21. Though more than a few observers thought the fight should
\nhave been scored in Murphy\u2019s favor \u2014 or at the very least, a draw \u2014
\nthe official verdict marks an end to the Englishman\u2019s nine-fight
\nwinning streak in the promotion. Given the close nature of the
\ndefeat, Murphy\u2019s stock shouldn\u2019t fall too far at 145 pounds.
\nAfter spending about a year and a half on the shelf due to a
\nshoulder injury, Allen came up short in his promotional return,
\ndropping a three-round verdict to Jean Silva at UFC 324. The
\n32-year-old Allen has lost three of his last four UFC outings
\ndating back to April 2023. The Englishman will look to rebound
\nagainst the streaking Melquizael Costa in the UFC Fight Night 276
\nmain event on May 16.
\nRodriguez gave Patricio Freire a rude welcome to the featherweight
\ndivision at UFC 314, controlling the range with his versatile
\nstriking arsenal to take a clear-cut unanimous decision triumph
\nover the former Bellator champion at the Kaseya Center in Miami.
\nThat ends a two-fight losing streak for \u201cEl Pantera,\u201d was rumored
\nto be receiving a title shot against Alexander Volkanovski at Noche
\nUFC before the event was moved from Guadalajara to San Antonio.
\nShaidullaev wrecked Japanese fan favorite Mikuru Askaura in the
\nRizin \u201cShiwasu no Cho Tsuwamono Matsuri\u201d headliner, retaining his
\nfeatherweight crown with a first-round technical knockout on Dec.
\n31 in Saitama, Japan. The Kyrgyz standout is now 6-0 under the
\nRizin banner, with all but one of those victories coming inside of
\na round. The 25-year-old has finished all 18 of his victims inside
\nthe distance and has clearly established himself as of the top
\n145-pound talents in the world, regardless of promotion.<\/p>\n
Other Contenders: Youssef Jump To \u00bb
\nZalal<\/a>, Timur
\nKhizriev<\/a>, Aljamain
\nSterling<\/a>, Steve
\nGarcia<\/a>, Movlid
\nKhaybulaev<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nHEAVYWEIGHT<\/a>
\nLIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT<\/a>
\nMIDDLEWEIGHT<\/a>
\nWELTERWEIGHT<\/a>
\nLIGHTWEIGHT<\/a>
FEATHERWEIGHT
\nBANTAMWEIGHT<\/a>
\nFLYWEIGHT<\/a>
\nWOMEN’S FEATHERWEIGHT<\/a>
\nWOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT<\/a>
\nWOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT<\/a>
\nWOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT<\/a>
\nWOMEN’S ATOMWEIGHT<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image: John Brannigan\/Sherdog.com illustration Featherweight Topuria called his shot and delivered, as he knocked out Charles Oliveira in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[1331,49,48,641,215753,638,44,82],"class_list":["post-557035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-article","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-https-www-sherdog-com-news-rankings-7-ufc","tag-mma","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557035","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=557035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}