The two newest UFC champions have surged up the organization’s official pound-for-pound rankings after their UFC 323 title victories.
New men’s bantamweight champion Petr Yan debuted on the pound-for-pound list at No. 6, while new men’s flyweight champion Joshua Van also debuted in the top 15 at No. 11.
Yan put on a masterclass in a five-round main event and snapped Merab Dvalishvili’s 14-fight winning streak, and Van became the new top-ranked 125-pounder after former champion Alexandre Pantoja sustained a fluke arm injury just 26 seconds into their co-main event matchup.
Both former champions had significant drops in their pound-for-pound standing.
Dvalishvili entered his fourth title defence of 2025 as the No. 3 P4P fighter but fell five spots down to No. 8 after losing a unanimous decision to Yan. Dvalishvili didn't lose much ground in the 135-pound rankings, though, and is now the No. 1 contender.
Even though there’s an unofficial asterisk beside Pantoja’s technical knockout loss to Van, the Brazilian dropped four spots from fifth to ninth pound-for-pound but remains the No. 1 contender on the flyweight list.
“I don’t see (Pantoja) coming back anytime soon,” UFC president Dana White said at the UFC 323 post-fight press conference, when asked about whether Van’s first title defence would be an immediate rematch. “I think that there would be a defence before he comes back.”
The 35-year-old Pantoja will undergo more medical testing on his injury to determine the nature and severity of the injury, and approximately how much time he’ll need to fully recover. Van said after the event that he feels Pantoja deserves a rematch.
Yan, now a three-time UFC titleholder at 135 pounds, became the first former UFC champion go on a three-fight losing streak after losing his or her title and eventually regain the belt.
The 32-year-old from Russia won a vacant title when he beat Jose Aldo in 2020, then an interim title in 2021, when he beat Cory Sandhagen before losing consecutive split decisions to Aljamain Sterling and Sean O’Malley in 2022, and a unanimous decision to Dvalishvili in their 2023 non-title matchup. Yan has bounced back with wins over Song Yadong, Deiveson Figueiredo and Marcus McGhee before avenging his previous loss to Dvalishvili.
Yan didn’t sound too keen on an immediate rematch with Dvalishvili, especially considering how one-sided the 25-minute bout ended up being.
“Just understand the fact that for me to get the opportunity, to fight for the belt again, UFC made me go three more fights before I was able to get into the contender position again,” Yan said over the weekend after UFC 323.
In other official fighter rankings movement, Payton Talbott sent Henry Cejudo into retirement on a losing note and debuted in the bantamweight rankings at No. 12.
Flyweight contender Tatsuro Taira leapfrogged Brandon Moreno in the flyweight rankings after the 25-year-old from Japan picked up the biggest win of his career. Taira is ranked No. 3 at flyweight and is an option for being Van’s first title challenger. Moreno, a former champion, fell two spots and now sits at No. 4 in the division.
Manuel Torres took Grant Dawson’s spot at No. 13 in the lightweight division after knocking Dawson out in less than half a round. Also at 155 pounds, Fares Ziam cracked the lightweight rankings at No. 15, thanks to a TKO win over Nazim Sadykhov that extended his winning streak to six.
Brunno Ferreira’s unanimous decision win over one-time middleweight title challenger Marvin Vettori wasn’t enough for him to get a number next to his name at 185 pounds but it did bump Vettori out of the rankings. Joe Pyfer, who didn’t fight at UFC 323 but has won three in a row and recently submitted Abus Magomedov at UFC 320 in October, went from being unranked to now being the No. 15 contender.
Bogdan Guskov moved up one spot, to No. 10, at 205 pounds after his majority draw with Jan Blachowicz, who kept steady at No. 5.
The only movement on the women’s side was Maycee Barber. The 27-year-old kept her spot at No. 5 in the women’s flyweight division but also debuted on the women’s pound-for-pound list at No. 15. Barber returned from a lengthy absence, during which she dealt with prolonged illness, and defeated Karine Silva by unanimous decision.
