UFC Rankings 2022: Ranking All 12 Current UFC Champions

UFC Rankings 2022: Ranking All 12 Current UFC Champions

It’s been a great year thus far for the UFC, as the promotion’s deal with ESPN has propelled it into the mainstream of the sports world here in the United States. With the added attention, the sport’s 12 division champions have also continued to see bigger and bigger payday as the popularity has followed suit. 

Let’s take a closer look at all 12 current UFC champions, ranking them each from top to bottom.

12. Julianna Pena

One of the newest champions of the lot, Pena grabbed the UFC Women's Bantamweight belt in December with a win over Amanda Nunes, just her third win in five fights. Due to the relative shallowness of this division, Pena ascended the ranks quickly and will likely soon be getting a rematch vs. Nunes to see if her belt can stick. 

11. Jiri Prochazka

With just three fights in the UFC, Prochazka is one of the fastest ever to pick up a championship belt which he did last month in his defeat of Glover Teixeira. Likely to lose that fight should Glover have just stayed upright, Prochazka is a champion nonetheless, though time will tell where he ranks amongst them.

10. Deiveson Figueiredo

The UFC flyweight championship belt has pretty much alternated between him and Brandon Moreno since early 2020, as the three have now fought three times in a row (1-1-1). A fourth fight is likely on the horizon. 

9. Carla Esparza

In one of the biggest title fight upsets in UFC history, Esparza grabbed the UFC strawweight belt with a May win over Rose Namajunas, her sixth straight victory. Time will tell how long she can hold it, however. 

8. Aljamain Sterling

Sterling picked up this belt with a DQ win over Yan in March of 2021, beating him by split decision in April despite dominating large stretches of the fight. With wins over some of the biggest names in the class, Sterling’s wrestling is second to none. 

7. Francis Ngannou

One of the hardest punchers on the planet, Ngannou earned the belt via KO over Stipe Miocic in March 2021, having defended it once vs. Ciryl Gane in January. He needs to be more active to move higher up this list. 

6. Charles Oliveira

Technically, the lightweight belt is currently vacant, as Oliveira missed weight prior to his May win in the first round over Justin Gaethje. You have to go all the way back to December 2017 to find the last time he lost, with 10 of 11 wins since coming inside the distance. 

5. Amanda Nunes

A two-weight class champ before her December loss to Pena at bantamweight, Nunes has held the featherweight belt since December 2018, having successfully defended it twice. With little competition in her current form within the class, I expect Nunes to hold it for quite a while. 

4. Valentina Shevchenko

As far as the women’s weight classes go, flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko is at the very top of my list. With her last loss coming in September 2017 vs. Nunes at bantamweight, Shevchenko picked up the flyweight belt in December of 2018 and hasn’t looked back since. Her seven defenses of the flyweight championship are amongst the most in any weight class, across both men and women. 

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3. Israel Adesanya

The Last Stylebender is slowly but surely turning in one of the most impressive resumes in the history of the UFC. Picking up the middleweight belt in just his sixth fight with the promotion in 2019, Adesanya has now defended it seven times with his win Saturday over Jared Cannonier. 

The one critique is that he does it rarely inside the distance, with his past three coming by way of the judge’s scorecards. If it not for his March 2021 decision loss vs. Jan Blachowicz, we’d also be talking about a two-weight class champion. 

2. Alexander Volkanovski

Likely the next fighter we see go for the two-weight class belts simultaneously, Volkanovski has shown dominance of the featherweight division; most recently with his battering of Max Holloway at UFC 276. With it being his third over Holloway and wins over Brian Ortego and Chan Sung Jung in a decisive fashion, I see lightweight in the cards for Volkanovski within the next 18 months. 

1. Kamaru Usman

The No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter on the roster, Usman hasn’t suffered a loss in professional fighting since March of 2013, joining the UFC in 2015 and putting on one clinic after another. Winning the welterweight belt in March 2019 with a win over Tyron Woodley, Usman has successfully defended it now five times, most recently with a unanimous decision win over Colby Covington in November. A move to middleweight and a super fight with Adesanya is what would cement Usman as one of the best of all time.