Paddy Pimblett is now officially a top-10 UFC lightweight.
The streaking 155-pound star earned a dominant victory over perennial contender Michael Chandler in the UFC 314 co-main event and shot up to No. 8 in the division after the latest UFC rankings update.
Pimblett has had his doubters from the moment he first debuted in the UFC in 2021 following a successful early career in England under the Cage Warriors banner. The top-10 status is a distinction some doubted could come to fruition.
The 30-year-old from Liverpool has taken his physical conditioning more seriously the past couple years and steadily faced tougher and more experienced competition. He was coming off a submission win over Bobby “King” Green in his lone 2024 appearance and stopped Chandler with a third-round technical knockout at UFC 314 in Miami.
Pimblett is now 7-0 in the UFC with all five of his stoppage victories earning him a Performance of the Night bonus. Afterwards, he called for a fight with one of Charles Oliveira, Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje or Arman Tsarukyan.
Chandler, meanwhile, dropped out of the top 10 for the first time in years as he plummeted five spots down to No. 12 after his UFC record fell to 2-5 overall since he joined the UFC less than nine months before Pimblett made his organizational debut.
UFC 314 was also a consequential event for the featherweight division, and the main event crowned a new champion.
Alexander Volkanovski became a two-time titleholder at 145 pounds after putting on a five-round clinic and overcoming some heavy punches against Diego Lopes.
Volkanovski is back in his familiar spot at the top. The 36-year-old future Hall of Famer also moved up two spots on the pound-for-pound list to No. 8.
The featherweight rankings are somewhat muddled at the moment because Ilia Topuria, who vacated the 145-pound championship and is moving up to lightweight to pursue the 155-pound title, plus fellow former champion Max Holloway, have left the division.
Topuria and Holloway have confirmed they’re moving up to lightweight, while Brian Ortega has also indicated within the past year he is looking to stop cutting down to 145 pounds, a weight limit he has had difficulty making at times throughout his career. Those three are still taking up spots in the top seven even though none factor into the immediate title picture.
Yair Rodriguez, who beat former Bellator star Patricio “Pitbull” Freire by decision, moved up one spot and is now tied with the undefeated Movsar Evloev at No. 4.
Another big mover was Jean Silva, who went from unranked to now being No. 11 in the weight class. Silva improved to 5-0 in the UFC, submitting Bryce Mitchell with a ninja choke.
Mitchell fell out of the rankings altogether after previously being ranked No. 13, and Dan Ige beat Sean Woodson on the prelims to move up one spot to No. 14 at featherweight.
At 205 pounds, two-time title challenger Dominick extended his winning streak to three straight and moved up three spots back into the top 10.
Reyes knocked out Nikita Krylov impressively in the first round and said afterwards he thinks he should be one more win away from a title shot.
Virna Jandiroba and Yan Xiaonan swapped spots in the 115-pound ranks. Jandiroba now sits No. 1 at strawweight and Xiaonan fell to No. 3 below No. 2 Tatiana Suarez.
Jandiroba also shot up four spots to No. 8 on the women’s pound-for-pound list.
The following divisions had no movement following UFC 314: heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight, men’s and women’s bantamweight, plus men’s and women’s flyweight.
