The UFC rankings have been helping us know the who’s who of the UFC world for 11 years now. However, it seems like a major change is in place in the decade-old ranking system thanks to Dana White. After Alex Pereira mascaraed Khalil Rountree Jr in a neck-to-neck fight at UFC 307, there was an uproar about Rountree Jr.’s rankings who was at 8 even after fighting Pereira. There was also the case of Renato Moicano’s stagnation after a statement win over Benoit Saint-Denis in September.

So the CEO took matters into his own hands because he was appalled at the miscalculations. Now, the rankings seem to have drastically changed for a few fighters ahead of UFC 308, making things convenient for the UFC’s future plans.

Did Dana White’s lamentation see an effect on the rankings?

Since 2013, the UFC rankings on the official website have been decided upon by a group of media members. However, the rankings were all over the place as per the boss and now the latter has seemingly implemented some changes in the system.  “I just can’t handle incompetence,” White said after Dana White’s Contender Series 76. “I just can’t take it anymore. It’s driving me crazy. I can’t let people that I don’t believe know what the f*ck that they’re talking about deal with the rankings anymore. I just can’t do it. I have to figure out a solution.”

So he actively participated in scrutinizing the rankings and wanted to bring in people who could give him a solution, and even considered using AI for the same. However, he does not recommend internally controlled rankings because of possible bias.

Verdict MMA on Instagram uploaded a clip of the boss talking about Holloway’s rankings after UFC 300 and stating that the Lightweight star should not be at #9 because he defeated #3 ranked Justin Gaethje at UFC 300. In the video, White said, “Look at number 9. Max Holloway is number 9 now go from 9 up and look at number 3.” He then continued, “He beat him twice because he was beating him on point so then. So he[Justin Gaethje]  is 3 and Holloway is number 9. How the fu** does that make sense in any universe?”

So now ‘Blessed’ stands at #5 but Justin Gaethje is still at #3. Due to this change in numbers, Michael Chandler who will face Charles Oliveira at UFC 309 went down to #7 and Oliveira is at #2. Dan Hooker dropped a spot and is out of the top 5 as well. Magomed Ankalaev, who is also fighting at UFC 308, moved up to the #1 spot, tied with Jiri Prochazka.

These rankings updates surely raise the stakes for UFC 308. This means the winners stand to make some serious progress in their divisions if they can get the job done in Abu Dhabi. For Holloway, it secures a future at lightweight if he falls to Topuria, because that would essentially mean it would be his last shot at the 145 lbs title. He has already lost three times to former champion Alexander Volkanovski.

What would make White the happiest, perhaps, is that Khalil Rountree Jr. moved up a spot and is seventh in the division now. On the other hand White also admitted that he did not like that Topuria and Holloway were pitted against each other.  During his recent talk in the Outta Pocket podcast, the boss discussed the Max Holloway vs Ilia Topuria title fight and said that it was ‘terrible’ because he likes both featherweights.

He said, “’This Topuria vs. Holloway fight is terrible because when you like both guys and they have to go in there and somebody has to lose, it sucks.” However in an interesting turn of events, Topuria had claimed that ‘Blessed’ was forced to fight him at UFC 308 by White and co. What did Holloway say on this matter?

Max Holloway cleared the air on his fight with Topuria

Avoiding fights is not Holloway’s cup of tea and the Hawaiian native proved this by moving up a weight class to defeat Justin Gaethje, who is a fierce striker. So naturally after ‘El Matador’ claimed that Holloway was forced, the latter had to deny the claims. “I mean it’s just funny, you know. Like he says that but then you can go and you can go and click, there’s an interview of him saying that he won’t fight me if the BMF title wasn’t on the line. And the last time I checked the BMF title is not on the line,” Holloway said in MMA Fighting.

So this also meant that Topuria was the one who was ‘forced’ to fight him because he said that he was not going to fight Holloway unless the BMF title was not on the line. Surprisingly the BMF title is actually not at stake. UFC 300 saw Holloway become a BMF champ but since UFC 308 does not have this belt on the line, even if Holloway loses this bout, he will still remain the BMF champ.

But then again, in the fight world, the man who beats another man takes their place. Since Holloway is fighting in his natural weight class and the BMF title is not a divisional belt, whoever wins the fight is the rightful owner of the title of BMF. What are your thoughts on the change in ranks? Tell us in the comments below.