UFC 322: Islam Makhachev tops men’s rankings

Islam Makhachev returned to the top of the UFC men’s rankings after defeating Jack Della Maddalena to win the welterweight title.

Russian Makhachev dominated his way to a unanimous decision win at UFC 322 in New York last week as he became only the 11th champion in the promotion’s history.

The 34-year-old replaced lightweight champion Ilya Topuria – the belt Makhachev held before it was vacated in June – at the top of the world rankings.

In the women’s flyweight classification, Valentina Shevchenko from Kyrgyzstan remained in the lead after defending her flyweight title against Chinese Zhang Weili.

Willey, who relinquished the strawweight belt in October to challenge Shevchenko, has dropped to third place behind bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison.

In the welterweight classification, former British champion Leon Edwards fell five places to ninth place after being eliminated from the tournament by Carlos Prats.

The defeat was Edwards’ third in a row and leaves the 34-year-old out of title contention in the division.

The biggest riser was Ecuadorian Michael Morales, who stopped American Sean Brady in the first round to advance to third place in the welterweight rankings.

Morales will be watching Ireland’s Ian Machado Gary, ranked sixth, and Bilal Mohammed, ranked second, who face off in Qatar on Saturday in a match that could determine Makhachev’s next challenger for the title.