Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) recently tied the ribbon at the UFC Houston Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) event held at Paramount+ last Saturday. night (February 21, 2026) at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. Here, Sean Strickland defeated Anthony Hernandez, which vaulted “Fluffy” into the top five middleweights. Elsewhere on the card, Uros Medic made his top 15 welterweight debut with a knockout of 170-pound veteran Geoff Neal.
Here’s how rankings will be compiled, at least until AI takes over.
The rankings are created by a voting panel made up of media members. Journalists were asked to vote on who the best fighter in the UFC was, both by weight class and pound-for-pound. Fighters can only vote if they are active in the UFC. Fighters may appear in more than one weight class at a time. Champions and interim champions cannot be voted on by weight class as they are considered to be at the top of their division. However, champions can be voted on by pound-for-pound ranking.
Take a look at the latest rankings field from UFC.com. Note: (+/- = change in ranking, T = tie, *NR = no previous ranking).
1. Islam Makhachev
2. Ilya Topuria
3. Khamzat Chimaev
4. Alexander Volkanovski
5. Alex Ferreira
6. Petr Jan
7. Merab Dvalishvili
8. Tom Aspinall
9. Alexandre Pantoja
10. Max Holloway
11. Joshua Van
12. Dricus du Plessis
13. Magomed Ankalaev
14. Jack della Madalena
15. Arman Tsarukyan
1. Alexandre Pantoja
2. Manel Cafe
3. Taira Tatsuro
4. Brandon Roybal
5. Kyoji Horiguchi
6. Brandon Moreno
7. Amir Albazi
8. Asu Almabaev
9. Tim Elliott
10. Alex Perez
11. Steve Erceg
12. Tagir Ulanbekov
13. Charles Johnson
14. Bruno Silva
15. Joseph Morales *NR
1. Merab Dvalishvili
2. Umar Nurmagomedov
3. Sean O’Malley
4. Corey Sandhagen
5. Songya-dong
6. Ayman Zahavi
7. Daveson Figueiredo
8. Mario Batista
9. Marlon Vera
10. David Martinez
11. Payton Talbot
12. Vinicius Oliveira
13. Rob Font
14. Kyler Phillips
15. Montel Jackson
Champion: Alexander Volkanovski
1. Movsar Evloev
2. Diego Lopez
3. Leron Murphy
4. Yair Rodriguez
5. Aljamain Sterling
6. Jean Silva
7. Arnold Allen
8. Yousef Jalal
9. Steve Garcia
10. Brian Ortega
11. Josh Emmett
12. Patricio Pitbull
13. Melquizael Costa *NR
14. Kevin Vallejos -1
15. David Onama
1. Justin Gaethje (interim champion)
2. Arman Charukyan
3. Charles Oliveira
4. Max Holloway
5. Benoit Saint-Denis
6. Paddy Pimblett
7. Mateus Gamrot
8. Dan Hooker
9. Mauricio Lupi
10. Renato Moicano
11. Raphael P.S.E.F.
12. Beneil Dariush
13. Michael Chandler
14. Manuel Torres
15. Fee Jiam
Champion: Islam Makhachev
1. Jack della Madalena
2. Ian Machado Gary
3. Michael Morales
4. Belal Muhammad
5. Carlos Prates
6. Sean Brady
7. Kamaru Usman
8. Leon Edwards
9. Joaquin Buckley
10. Gabriel Bonfim
11. Gilbert Burns
12. Uros Medic *NR
13. Colby Covington +1
14. Michael Page
15. Daniel Rodriguez -2
Champion: Khamzat Chimaev
1. Dricus du Plessis
2. Nasordin Imabov
3. Sean Strickland
4. Brendan Allen +1
5. Israel Adesanya +1
6. Anthony Hernández -2
7. Kaio Boralyu
8. Rainier de Ryder
9. Robert Whitaker
10. Jared Cannonier
11. Roman Dolije
12. Paulo Costa
13. Gregory Rodriguez
14. Joe Piper
15. Bruno Ferreira
1. Magomed Ankalaev
2. Jiri Prochazka
3. Carlos Ullberg
4. Khalil Roundtree
5. Jan Blachowicz
6. Azamat Murzakhanov
7. Jamahal Hill
8. Volkan Özdemir
9. Bogdan Guskov
10. Dominic Reyes
11. Aleksandar Rakic
12. Johnnie Walker
13. Nikita Krylov
14. Dustin Jacoby
15. Zhang Mingyang
1. Cyril is gone
2. Alexander Volkov
3. Sergei Pavlovich
4. Curtis Blaze
5. Waldo Cortes Acosta
6. Sergey Spivak +1
7. Rizvan Kuniev -1
8. (T) Derrick Lewis +3
8. (T) Marcin Tybura +2
10. Ante Delilla -1
11. Talison Teixeira +1
12. Shamil Gajiev +1
13. Mick Paquin +2
14. Walter Walker
15. Vitor Petrino *NR
pound for pound for women
1. Valentina Shevchenko
2. Kayla Harrison
3. Zhang Weili
4. Natalia Silva
5. Mackenzie Dunn
6. Manon Fioro
7. Erin Blanchfield
8. Juliana Pena
9. Alexa Grasso
10. Birna Jandirova
11. Raquel Pennington
12. Tatiana Suarez
13. Rose Namajunas
14. Yan Xiaonan
15. Macy Barber
1. Zhang Weili
2. Tatiana Suarez
3. Birna Jandirova
4. Yan Xiaonan
5. Amanda Lemos
6. Lupe Godinez
7. Tabitha Rich
8. Gillian Robertson
9. Jessica Andrade
10. Amanda Rivas
11. Fatima Klein
12. Dennis Gomes
13. Alexia Tanara
14. Angela Hill
15. Mizuki Inoue
Champion: Valentina Shevchenko
1. (T) Manon Fioro
1. (T) Natalia Silva
3. Alexa Grasso
4. Erin Blanchfield
5. Macy’s Barber
6. Jasmine Jasudavicius
7. Rose Namajunas
8. Tracy Cortez
9. Karin Silva
10. Miranda Maverick
11. Wang Kong
12. Casey O’Neill
13. Eduarda Moura
14. Gabriela Fernandez +1
15. JJ Aldrich -1
1. Juliana Pena
2. Raquel Pennington
3. Norma Dumont
4. Ketlen Vieira
5. Jana Santos
6. Irene Aldana
7. Eileen Perez
8. Macy Chiasson
9. Carol Rosa
10. Jacqueline Cavalcanti
11. Jocelyn Edwards +3
12. Myra Bueno Silva -1
13. Nora Cornol-1
14. Miesha Tate-1
15. Luana Santos
You can expect the rankings to change around this time next week, especially in the men’s flyweight division, following the UFC Mexico: “Moreno vs. Cabana” event on Paramount+ on Saturday, February 28, 2026 at Arena CDMX in Mexico City, Mexico.
Click here for more information on the upcoming fight card.
