Khamzat Chimaev Tumbles in UFC Rankings as Sean Strickland Returns to P4P List

Sean Strickland has officially returned to the UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings after reclaiming the promotion’s middleweight title.

The world’s leading MMA promotion returned to Newark, NJ last weekend for UFC 328. The card was headlined by Khamzat Chimaev’s first title defense against the division’s former titleholder Strickland, which took place after Joshua Van and Tatsuro Taira went to war during their flyweight title bout in the night’s co-main event.

The highly-anticipated fight saw Strickland score the second title-winning upset of his career when he got his hand raised via split decision, which marked the first time that Chimaev has tasted defeated in his 16 professional MMA fights.

Sean Strickland Returns to UFC P4P List After Khamzat Chimaev Fight

Now once again sitting atop the UFC’s middleweight rankings, Strickland also broke back into the promotion’s pound-for-pound list at #7 as of this week.

Sean Strickland (blue gloves) celebrates after defeating Khamzat Chimaev (red gloves) during UFC 328 at Prudential Center. | John Jones-Imagn Images

Chimaev remains in the pound-for-pound rankings but tumbled seven spots down to the #10 place. Former middleweight titleholder Dricus du Plessis, who defeated Strickland twice before losing his title to Chimaev, also remains in the rankings but fell one spot down to #13.

Joshua Van (red gloves) celebrates after defeating Tatsuro Taira (blue gloves) during UFC 328 at Prudential Center. | John Jones-Imagn Images

Van moved up one place to #9 in the pound-for-pound rankings following a fifth-round stoppage against Taira. “The Fearless” famously won the flyweight belt from Alexandre Pantoja when the Brazilian suffered an arm injury just 26 seconds into their meeting at UFC 323, and Pantoja fell two spots to the #12 pound-for-pound slot in the latest rankings update.

Alexander Volkov & Sean Brady Stay Put After UFC 328 Victories

The main card for UFC 328 did feature a few other matchups between ranked fighters, but none of those results produced any movement in the promotion’s official rankings.

Alexander Volkov (red gloves) fights Waldo Cortes Acosta (blue gloves) during UFC 328 at Prudential Center. | John Jones-Imagn Images

Alexander Volkov stayed put at #2 in the heavyweight rankings after ending Waldo-Cortes Acosta’s three-fight win streak, and “Drago” now looks to be in line for a title opportunity whenever the winner of Alex Pereira vs. Ciryl Gane gets to meet Tom Aspinall in a title unification bout. Sean Brady also didn’t move up from his #6 ranking in the welterweight division after defeating #9-ranked Joaquin Buckley, but there was some other movement in the bottom third of the UFC’s welterweight Top 15.

Joel Alvarez (red gloves) fights Yaroslav Amosov (blue gloves) during UFC 328 at Prudential Center. | John Jones-Imagn Images

Making his second Octagon appearance, former Bellator titleholder Yaroslav Amosov defeated Joel Alvarez via second-round submission and secured a “Performance of the Night” bonus for his efforts. The Ukrainian has now submitted both of his UFC opponents, and he moved up four places to #10
in the official welterweight rankings following the impressive victory.

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