Mike Malott is now a top 10 UFC welterweight after his second-round knee knockout of Joaquin Buckley at UFC Edmonton, with the UFC’s updated rankings placing him No. 10 on the media-panel list and No. 8 on the Meta rankings. Buckley slid to No. 12 on both.
Malott (15-2-1) finished Buckley at 2:32 of the second round at Rogers Place on Oct. 17, extending his winning streak to five fights. He said afterward that he wants an opponent from the top five, or at least the top 10, next.
Two rankings, two different spots for Malott
The UFC lists both its media-voted panel rankings and the algorithm-driven Meta rankings on UFC.com, and the two place Malott differently. On the panel he rose three spots to No. 10, one place behind Kamaru Usman. On Meta he also rose three, to No. 8, ahead of Uros Medic, Leon Edwards and Usman.
Buckley fell two spots to No. 12 on the panel, where he is tied with Medic, and four spots to No. 12 on Meta. It was his third straight loss, following defeats to Usman and Sean Brady. He has since said his next UFC fight will be his last. “Hearing my grandmother cry because she couldn’t believe what she saw, y’all don’t know how that affected me,” Buckley said when announcing the decision.
Jasudavicius and Chandler climb the women’s boards
Jasmine Jasudavicius rose two spots to No. 4 in the panel women’s flyweight rankings and three spots to No. 3 on Meta after outpointing Erin Blanchfield in the co-main event. All three judges scored it 29-28. Blanchfield slipped to No. 5 on both lists.
Jasudavicius also entered the panel women’s pound-for-pound rankings at No. 12, previously unranked. Blanchfield fell one spot to No. 9 and Tatiana Suarez moved up one to No. 8, while Rose Namajunas, Raquel Pennington and Denise Gomes each dropped a place, to Nos. 13, 14 and 15.
Chelsea Chandler entered the panel women’s bantamweight rankings at No. 14 after submitting Melissa Croden with a first-round kimura at UFC Edmonton, and she climbed six places to No. 9 on Meta. Norma Dumont moved up one to No. 4 on the panel, with Pennington down one to No. 5 and Alice Pereira down one to No. 15.
Other panel movement
- At bantamweight, David Martinez rose one spot to No. 8 and Aiemann Zahabi fell to No. 9. Marcus McGhee moved up to No. 13, Raoni Barcelos to No. 14, and Bryce Mitchell entered at No. 15.
- At women’s flyweight, Namajunas and Maycee Barber each dropped one place, to Nos. 6 and 7, while Gabriella Fernandes rose to No. 14 and Regina Tarin fell to No. 15.
- In the men’s pound-for-pound rankings, Tom Aspinall moved up one to No. 7, tied with Sean Strickland.
The UFC’s rankings pages still carried an Oct. 17 update stamp when checked Tuesday, so the results from UFC 333 do not appear to be reflected yet. Alexander Volkanovski stopped Movsar Evloev in the second round in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, and Petr Yan outpointed Merab Dvalishvili in their trilogy fight.
