In a shocking turn of events, Ilia Topuria defeated the long-reigning Alexander Volkonvski at UFC 298, making it to the top of the featherweight rankings, and number 5 in the UFC pound-for-pound rankings. Here are our updated rankings for featherweight, but first let’s look at some honorable mentions.

Honorable Mention

Edson Barboza

Promotion: UFC

Edson Barboza is a Brazilian MMA fighter with a professional record of 24 wins and 11 losses. He is on a 2 fight win streak which deserves an honorable mention in the MMA UFC Featherweight Rankings.

Dan Ige

Promotion: UFC

Dan Ige is an American MMA fighter with a professional record of 18 wins and 7 losses. His last win was against Andre Fili by knockout which deserves an honorable mention in the MMA UFC Featherweight Rankings.

Sodiq Yusuff

Promotion: UFC

Sodiq Yusuff is a Nigerian MMA fighter with a professional record of 13 wins and 3 losses. His last fight was against Edson Barboza which ended in a unanimous decision loss.

Bryce Mitchell

Promotion: UFC

Bryce Mitchell is an American MMA fighter with a professional record of 16 wins and 2 losses. He recently lost by knockout against Josh Emmett who deserves an honorable mention in the MMA UFC Featherweight Rankings.

Calvin Kattar

Promotion: UFC

Calvin Katar is an MMA fighter from the USA, and he has a professional record of 23 wins and 7 losses. 

Katar is a very talented boxer and has several notable wins in the UFC over fighters like Andre Fili, Ricardo Lamas, Jeremy Stephens, Dan Ige, and Giga Chikadze.

In his most recent fight, Calvin Katar fought Arnold Allen and lost the fight via Technical Knockout after he injured his knee. He is scheduled to face Aljamain Sterling on April 13, 2024 at UFC 300.

Top 10 MMA Featherweight Rankings

10. Patricio Freire

Promotion: Bellator

Title: Bellator Featherweight World Champion

Patrício Freire, more commonly known as Patrício Pitbull, is a professional MMA fighter from Brazil. He fights for Bellator and has a record of 35 wins and 6 losses.

Pitbull is a three-time Bellator Featherweight World champion and has defended the title 8 times. He has also held the Bellator lightweight world title.

He went down in weight and challenged the Bantamweight Bellator Champion Sergio Pettis. Pettis was in control throughout the fight and Freire lost by unanimous decision. He later lost a catchweight bout against Chihiro Suzuki.

9. Giga Chikadze

Promotion: UFC

Fighting out of Georgia, Giga Chikadze has a professional MMA record of 15 wins and 3 losses. 

He has won eight out of his nine fights in the UFC, with notable wins over Cub Swanson, Edson Barboza, and in his most recent fight, Alex Caceres. 

He has won four post-fight bonuses in the UFC, and was supposed to fight Josh Emmet at UFC 296, however, he had to pull out because of an injury. As of now, there is no official announcement about his next fight. 

8. Arnold Allen

Promotion: UFC

Arnold Allen is a British fighter who has a professional MMA record of 19 wins and 3 losses.

Allen is a very talented up-and-coming prospect and already has wins over Makwan Amirkhani, Mads Burnell, Gilbert Melendez, Nik Lentz, Sodiq Yusuff, Dan Hooker, and Calvin Kattar

However, he has had some tough fights recently, which have bumped him down a few spots in the rankings. He lost to Movsar Evloev in his most recent fight, and his next fight has not been announced yet.

7. Josh Emmett

Promotion: UFC

Josh Emmett is an American professional MMA fighter with a record of 19 wins and 4 losses. 

Emmet has notable wins over Michael Johnson, Mirsad Bektić, Dan Ige, and Calvin Kattar. He also fought for the UFC Interim Featherweight title, however, he lost the fight. 

After a couple of back-to-back losses, Emmett came back with a win in his most recent fight, defeating Bryce Mitchell via First round Knockout. His next fight has not been announced yet.

6. Yair Rodríguez

Promotion: UFC

Yair Rodríguez is a Mexican MMA fighter with a record of 15 wins and 4 losses. 

He is the current UFC Interim Featherweight champion, and has notable wins over Jung Chan-sung, Jeremy Stephens, and Brian Ortega. 

Rodríguez won the Interim title at UFC 284 after defeating Josh Emmet via Submission. He also won the Performance of the Night Bonus.

Rodríguez fought Alexander Volkonovski in a title unification bout but lost the fight. He had some good moments on the feet, but Volkonovski’s wrestling was too much for him.

Recently, Yair took on Brian Ortega in a rematch which he won via TKO in which Ortega suffered a shoulder injury. In the rematch Yair was submitted in the third round.

5. Brian Ortega

Promotion: UFC

Opening the Top 5 of the MMA UFC Featherweight Rankings list is Brian Ortega. Ortega is a Mexican-American MMA fighter, with a professional MMA record of 16 wins, 3 losses, and 1 no-contest. 

Brian has challenged for the UFC featherweight title twice, once against Holloway, and more recently against Volkonovski, but came short both times. He has impressive wins over some of the best featherweight fighters in the UFC, including, Renato Moicano, Cub Swanson, Frankie Edgar, and the Korean Zombie. 

He lost his fight to Yair Rodríguez due to a shoulder injury and in a rematch recently submitted him in the 3rd round. As of now, there is no official announcement about his next fight.

4. Movsar Evloev

Promotion: UFC

Movsar Evloev is an undefeated professional MMA fighter from Russia and he has a record of 18 wins and no losses.

He has won 8 straight fights in the UFC and has notable wins over Nik Lentz, Hakeem Dawodu, Dan Ige, and Diego Lopes. In his most recent fight, Evolov took on Arnold Alen and won the fight via Unanimous Decision. 

As of now, there is no official announcement about his next fight.

3. Max Holloway

Promotion: UFC

Max Holloway is a professional MMA fighter from Hawaii, and he has an MMA record of 25 wins and 7 losses. 

Max is the former UFC Featherweight Champion and has won over some of the best fighters in the division, including, Charles Oliveira, Jeremy Stephens, Anthony Pettis, Jose Aldo, Frankie Edgar, Brian Ortega, and Calvin Kattar. 

Holloway fought Alexander Volkanovski for the third time. Though he had a decent start, after he got cut above his left eye, the fight was a landslide win for Volkanovski.

In his most recent fight, Holloway defeated the Korean Zombie, and he is scheduled to fight Justin Gaetjhe at lightweight for the Honorary BMF title at UFC 300.

2. Alexander Volkanovski

Promotion: UFC

Alexander Volkanovski is an Australian professional MMA fighter with a record of 26 wins and 1 loss. 

Volkanovski is the current undisputed UFC featherweight champion and has defended the title four times. Volkanovski has defeated some of the best fighters in the UFC featherweight division, including Chad Mendes, Jose Aldo, Max Holloway, Brian Ortega, and Chan Sung Jung as well. 

He moved up to Lightweight to fight the champion Islam Makhachev for the title. Though he gave the champion the toughest fight of his career, he lost via Unanimous Decision.

Next, he defended his title against Interim champion Yair Rodríguez winning the fight via 3rd round TKO. The fight was mostly one-sided, with Volkonvoski showcasing a wrestling dominant performance.

Recently, he lost the title to Ilia Topuria at UFC 298. He took a massive right hand from Topuria in the second round, which sent him to the canvas, and he could not recover. 

1. Ilia Topuria

Promotion: UFC

Title: UFC Featherweight World Champion

Ilia Topuria is a Georgian-Spanish MMA fighter with an undefeated record of 15 wins and 0 losses. 

He is the Current UFC Featherweight world champion, and won the title last weekend, at UFC 298, after defeating the longest reigning active champion in the UFC, Alexander Vokonovski. He shocked the world with a brutal right-hand knockout in the second round, which put Volkanovski out. 

With a win over the former Champ, he now sits at the top of our Featherweight rankings. 

Where do you rank these Contenders and Champions? Rank below to be added in the Mixed Martial Arts Rankings 

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