B/R Pound-for-Pound UFC Rankings: July 2024

We've passed the halfway point in 2024, and the UFC landscape is already drastically different than it was since the year started.

The UFC has promoted seven pay-per-views and a dizzying 15 Fight Nights since the beginning of January. While we are still waiting for the returns of long-absent legends Jon Jones and Conor McGregor, we have seen appearances from some of the top fighters in the UFC in that time, including Islam Makhachev, Ilia Topuria, Sean O'Malley and Alex Pereira.

The light heavyweight champion Pereira has been particularly busy, having wedged two title defenses into the span of seven months. His latest, a second-round knockout of Jiri Prochazka at UFC 303 last weekend in Las Vegas, cemented him as one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in MMA — quite an accomplishment for a former kickboxing champ who has only been in the UFC for a couple of years.

Keep scrolling to see where Pereira is sitting in B/R's pound-for-pound UFC rankings as we head into the second half of the year, and for our complete women's pound-for-pound rankings.

10. Alexandre Pantoja

Brazil's Alexandre Pantoja won the UFC flyweight title in July of 2023, when he defeated Brandon Moreno by split decision. He then defended the title once before the year was out, with a unanimous decision win over Brandon Royval.

His lone title defense of 2024 came against Australia's Steve Erceg at UFC 301. Heading into the fight, Erceg was considered a huge underdog. In fact, many fans questioned whether he even deserved a shot at the belt to begin with. While Pantoja ultimately won the fight by unanimous decision, it turned out to be very difficult for him, with some viewers actually scoring the fight for the unheralded challenger.

It maintained Pantoja's spot on our pound-for-pound list, but it wasn't enough to push him up the ladder.

9. Israel Adesanya

Israel Adesanya has been a staple of pound-for-pound lists everywhere for years, but is currently in the midst of the worst slump of his UFC career. After losing the middleweight belt with a knockout loss to Alex Pereira in 2022, he then reclaimed the belt with a knockout win over Pereira, only to lose it again when he suffered a decision loss in a short-notice title fight with a big underdog in Sean Strickland last September.

After his loss to Strickland, Adesanya laid out plans for a long hiatus—potentially years long. In the end, however, that plan was short-lived.

He's now slated to challenge reigning champion Dricus Du Plessis in the main event of UFC 305 on August 17 in Perth, Australia. If he wins that fight, expect him to close out the year much higher in our rankings.

8. Dricus Du Plessis

As we covered above, UFC middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis is set to defend his belt against Israel Adesanya at UFC 305 this August. If the South African defeats the decorated former champion, it will go down as the biggest win of his career, and give him a big push up these rankings.

Of course, Du Plessis has already been very impressive in the Octagon, going 7-0 since he joined the UFC roster in 2020. His biggest wins have occurred in his last two fights, as he knocked out a former champion in Robert Whittaker last July, then swiped the title from Sean Strickland with a hard-fought unanimous decision at UFC 297 in January.

7. Max Holloway

Much like Israel Adesanya, Max Holloway has been appearing on pound-for-pound lists for years.

The Hawaiian, a former featherweight champion, is one of the greatest fighters in the division's history—maybe even the best outright. While he lost the belt with a decision defeat Alexander Volkanovski in 2019, and twice failed to reclaim it from the Australian, he has beaten every other featherweight contender he's met since, including top-flight foes like Calvin Kattar, Yair Rodriguez, Arnold Allen and "The Korean Zombie" Chan Sung Jung.

Holloway's most recent fight occurred up at lightweight at the landmark UFC 300 card in April, when he challenged Justin Gaethje for the UFC's novelty "BMF" belt. Despite being a big underdog heading into the fight, he dominated in the Octagon, and ultimately knocked Gaethje out cold with a wild flurry in the final second of their five-round fight.

It was arguably the best win of his illustrious career, and one that ensured his place on pound-for-pound lists everywhere for the time being.

6. Alexander Volkanovski

Australia's Alexander Volkanovski spent several years as one of the UFC's top pound-for-pound fighters, and will inevitably go down as one of the best fighters in MMA history. However, he has been struggling recently.

In February of 2023, after years of dominance at featherweight, he hiked up to lightweight to challenge Islam Makhachev for a second belt. He was a big underdog heading into the fight, and ultimately came up short by unanimous decision, but gave the lightweight champion one of the toughest tests of his career. After that loss, he returned to featherweight and scored a lopsided stoppage win over a tough challenger in Yair Rodriguez. That was followed by a short-notice lightweight rematch with Makhachev, which ended far worse than their first fight, as he was knocked out with a first-round head kick.

Volkanovski's most recent fight occurred in February, when he attempted to defend his belt against unbeaten challenger Ilia Topuria. Unfortunately for him, that fight ended in disaster, as he was knocked out in round two and lost the title.

He doesn't have a fight booked currently, but will need to win his next one if he hopes to keep his place on this list.

5. Sean O'Malley

Sean O'Malley has been one of the most hyped fighters on the UFC roster since he signed with the promotion in 2017. While his naysayers always doubted that he would ever reach the top of the bantamweight division, he proved them wrong last August, when he knocked out long-time champion and pound-for-pound star Aljamain Sterling to claim the crown for himself.

O'Malley has defended the title once since then, dominating Marlon "Chito" Vera to a unanimous decision in the main event of UFC 299 in March. Chito was not the top contender in the bantamweight division at the time, but he held the distinction of being the only person to beat O'Malley before, so it was an important win for the champion, and one that cemented him as one of the sport's top fighters.

His next fight isn't booked yet, but all signs point to a very tough challenge in the form of Georgian wrestler Merab Dvalishvili.

4. Ilia Topuria

As we covered above, Ilia Topuria became the undisputed UFC featherweight champion when he knocked out "The Great" Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298 in February. It was far and away the biggest win of his undefeated career, but it is really the only accomplishment on his resume that puts him in the pound-for-pound conversation.

While there is no questioning his ability, he will need to start taking out other big names if he hopes to climb this list.

Unfortunately, it's not clear when or where Topuria will fight again. Despite receiving challenges from Volkanovski, Max Holloway and even bantamweight champion Sean O'Malley, the featherweight champion still doesn't have a fight booked and appears to be quite choosy when it comes to his opponents.

Time will tell what he can pull off through the rest of 2024, but hopefully he's back in action soon.

3. Leon Edwards

British welterweight Leon Edwards burst into the pound-for-pound conversation in August of 2022, when he knocked out pound-for-pound king Kamaru Usman with a fifth-round head kick to claim the division's title. And while some fans considered that stunning victory a fluke, he went on to cement himself as a true pound-for-pound talent in their immediate rematch by defeating Usman by unanimous decision.

Edwards has only fought once since his two bouts with Usman, but it was a very impressive performance, as he picked up a second successful title defense with a wide decision victory over former interim champion Colby Covington.

He is set to return to the cage in the main event of UFC 304 on July 27, when he attempts to defend his title against streaking contender Belal Muhammad.

2. Alex Pereira

It would be fair to call Alex Pereira the MVP of the UFC right now. The former two-division kickboxing champion has fought three times since November, and each time was a short-notice title fight that he won by knockout.

First, he claimed the vacant heavyweight belt with a knockout of Jiri Prochazka at UFC 295. Then he defended the belt with a first-round knockout of former champ Jamahal Hill at UFC 300 in April. Most recently, he defended the belt for a second time in a short-notice rematch with Prochazka in the main event of last weekend's UFC 303 card, again winning by second-round KO.

It has been the continuation of an incredibly impressive run for Pereira. He has gone 8-1 since joining the UFC in November, 2021. Seven of those fights have been against former, current or future UFC champions, and the only one he lost was to Israel Adesanya — who had already beaten three times across kickboxing and MMA competition by that point.

Nobody would have believed it when he arrived in the UFC, when doubts about his grappling ability were rampant, but at this point, he is clearly one of the best mixed martial artists on earth.

1. Islam Makhachev

There's still a strong argument for undisputed heavyweight champion Jon Jones being the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in MMA. However, the former light heavyweight champion hasn't fought since he claimed the vacant heavyweight belt with a quick submission over an easy style matchup in Ciryl Gane last March, and that was his first fight since he scraped by Dominick Reyes in a light heavyweight title fight in February of 2020.

Great as he is, he just hasn't been active enough to be included in the pound-for-pound conversation at the moment.

Islam Makhachev, on the other hand, has been actively defending his lightweight belt against very strong competition, which is why he gets our No. 1 spot, and the long-absent Jones isn't even included on our list.

Makhachev won the vacant lightweight belt with a submission of the great Charles Oliveira in 2022. He then defended it twice against featherweight legend Alexander Volkanovski—first with a decision, then a knockout—and then authored a third defense against future Hall of Famer Dustin Poirier at UFC 302 last month.

These are the kinds of dominant wins over world-class foes that Jones used to deliver, but the kind we haven't seen from him in about half a decade.

10. Yan Xiaonan

China's Yan Xiaonan has been hovering around the top of the women's strawweight division for years, and finally got her crack at the belt at UFC 300 in March, when she took on her countrywoman Zhang Weili.

That fight didn't go her way, as she lost a unanimous decision to the champion, but it did little to diminish her status as one of the division's best. She may never be a champion, but after recent wins over Jessica Andrade and Mackenzie Dern, it's clear she's a tough test for most fighters in her weight class.

9. Erin Blanchfield

Erin Blanchfield started 2024 right on the cusp of a flyweight title shot, with nine straight victories behind her. In fact, if the UFC didn't already have plans for a trilogy fight between flyweight champ Alexa Grasso and former champ Valentina Shevchenko, Blanchfield might have been granted a shot at the title.

Because of the Grasso-Shevchenko plans, however, Blanchfield was booked for a No. 1 contender fight with France's Manon Fiorot, at which point her momentum finally slowed with a unanimous-decision loss.

Given that Fiorot was also near the top of the flyweight rankings at the time, Blanchfield didn't lose too much ground in defeat, but she will now need a couple more wins if she hopes to win the title and continue her climb up the women's pound-for-pound rankings.

8. Tatiana Suarez

Tatiana Suarez has been considered a future champion since she arrived in the UFC after a win on The Ultimate Fighter in 2016. Unfortunately, she has spent much of the time since sidelined by injuries, but after six straight wins in the flyweight and strawweight divisions, she is finally right on the cusp of the title shot that her fans have forecasted from the beginning.

Time will tell when and where it happens, but all signs point to her challenging strawweight champion Zhang Weili for the division's undisputed title sometime soon. It will be a tough challenge for the undefeated contender, but she can definitely pull it off, and may even enter the cage as a betting favorite based on her ridiculous wrestling and submission skill.

7. Rose Namajunas

Former strawweight champion Rose Namajunas was once one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world but has been both inactive and inconsistent of late, hence her position on the bottom half of this list.

After defending her belt with a split-decision win over Zhang Weili in 2021, Namajunas relinquished the title with a 2022 split-decision loss to Carla Esparza in what was objectively one of the most boring fights ever.

After nearly two years on the shelf, she finally returned to the Octagon last September, when she climbed up to flyweight to take on Manon Fiorot, only to lose by unanimous decision. Despite widespread calls to return to strawweight, Namajunas decided to stick to flyweight, and this past March, scored her first win in the division, defeating Amanda Ribas by unanimous decision.

Her next fight goes down in Denver this Saturday, when she takes on rising contender Tracy Cortez, who stepped in to replace the injured Maycee Barber.

6. Raquel Pennington

Raquel Pennington has been a member of the bantamweight top-15 for what feels like forever, but never seemed quite capable of becoming a champion — particularly with former pound-for-pound queen Amanda Nunes in the division.

That finally changed this past January when, after Nunes' retirement, Pennington fought Mayra Bueno Silva for the vacant belt, and won by unanimous decision.

Pennington has yet to defend her new title, but rumors are swirling that she will defend her belt against former champion Julianna Peña later this year. Peña is too inactive and too short on meaningful wins to be included on this list, but should still be a decent challenge for the champ, should the fight actually occur.

5. Manon Fiorot

French flyweight Manon Fiorot is riding one of the best streaks in all of women's MMA right now, with victories over top contenders and former champions and title challengers like Erin Blanchfield, Rose Namajunas, Katlyn Cerminara, Jennifer Maia, and Mayra Bueno Silva behind her.

Under normal circumstances, she would almost certainly be booked for a flyweight title shot by now. Unfortunately for her, the UFC has plans to pit champion Alexa Grasso against former champion Valentina Shevchenko at The Sphere later this year. It'll be the third time the two stars have met, and presumably the last. Unless they fight to another draw or their fight ends by disqualification, Fiorot should get the next crack at the winner.

4. Kayla Harrison

Kayla Harrison can fairly be called the UFC's biggest signing of 2024.

A former Olympic gold medalist in judo and a two-time PFL champion, she made her UFC debut at UFC 300 in March, tapping former bantamweight champion Holly Holm out inside two rounds.

Choking Holm out is impressive under any circumstances, but it was all the more impressive in Harrison's case as the fight occurred in the 135-pound bantamweight division, and she has spent most of her career fighting at 155 pounds.

Having proven she can make bantamweight, and made a huge splash in her UFC debut, Harrison is completely deserving of a crack at the champ Raquel Pennington. She definitely deserves the opportunity more than Julianna Pena, who hasn't fought since she was walloped by Amanda Nunes in July, 2022, but it seems the UFC sees things differently.

3. Valentina Shevchenko

Former flyweight champ Valentina Shevchenko spent many years right near the top of everyone's women's pound-for-pound rankings, and probably would have been No. 1 across the board were it not for the existence of Amanda Nunes, who she lost to twice as a bantamweight.

While Shevchenko remains one of the sport's top female players, her stock has taken a bit over the last year thanks to Alexa Grasso.

First, Shevchenko lost the title to Grasso when she was submitted in a stunning upset in March of 2023. The pair then met in a rematch the following September, which ended in a draw. That outcome didn't do much to prove which woman was superior, but all signs point to them fighting for a more decisive outcome at The Sphere later this year.

Whomever wins that fight might just become the sport's pound-for-pound queen.

2. Alexa Grasso

As we covered above, Alexa Grasso has surged toward pound-for-pound supremacy over the course of two fights with the great Valentina Shevchenko—first, a shocking submission win, then a hard-fought draw that meant she retained her title, even if she didn't win.

The pair are expected to fight for a third time when the UFC debuts in Las Vegas' state of the art Sphere this September, and whomever wins will cement themselves as one of the best female fighters alive.

Unfortunately for that winner, the road isn't going to get any easier from there, as tough contenders like Manon Fiorot, Erin Blanchfield, Rose Namajunas, Maycee Barber and Tracy Cortez are all closing in on title shots.

1. Zhang Weili

Zhang Weili's decision victory over Yan Xiaonan at UFC 300 was largely overshadowed by the many stunning moments on the card—namely Max Holloway and Alex Pereira's knockouts of Justin Gaethje and Jamahal Hill, respectively. However, it was an excellent performance from the champ, and one that cemented her as the best female fighter in the world right now.

With her win over Yan, and other recent triumphs over the likes of Amanda Lemos and Carla Esparza, Zhang proved that she is going to be very difficult to dethrone. However, there are some interesting challenges on the way for her, namely undefeated wrestler Tatiana Suarez, who will hopefully get a title shot before the year is out.

Whatever the future holds, she is clearly the sport's pound-for-pound queen as we enter the second half of the year.