MMA rankings: An important victory for Junior Dos Santos

By Todd Martin

April 18, 2016 6:27 AM PT

The Times’ MMA rankings for April:

Heavyweight

Fabricio Werdum
Cain Velasquez
Stipe Miocic
Alistair Overeem
Junior Dos Santos
Ben Rothwell
Andrei Arlovski
Travis Browne
Vitaly Minakov
Josh Barnett

Junior Dos Santos made a statement in Croatia, scoring an impressive victory over the surging Ben Rothwell to firmly demonstrate he’s still one of the world’s very best heavyweights. Dos Santos had struggled in recent fights, but he looked fast, crisp and athletic against Rothwell. It will be interesting to see who gets the next UFC heavyweight title shot against the winner of Fabricio Werdum vs. Stipe Miocic.

Light Heavyweight

Jon Jones
Daniel Cormier
Anthony Johnson
Alexander Gustafsson
Glover Teixeira
Ryan Bader
Phil Davis
Liam McGeary
Ovince St. Preux
Rashad Evans

Glover Teixeira picked up his third win in a row, all via stoppage, when he knocked out Rashad Evans in the main event of UFC’s most recent Fox card. Teixeira after the fight suggested he fight Anthony Johnson next, a fight that makes a lot of sense and would be an intriguing showdown between two of the division’s hardest hitters.

Middleweight

Luke Rockhold
Chris Weidman
Yoel Romero
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza
Michael Bisping
Lyoto Machida
Anderson Silva
Gegard Mousasi
Vitor Belfort
Tim Kennedy

In a weird situation, Lyoto Machida was taken out of his most recent scheduled fight when he self-reported an USADA violation. Machida put down in his fight application that he’d been taking a relatively harmless pharmaceutical supplement that is nonetheless banned by USADA. It was a costly gaffe by Machida and his team and could end up having even stronger consequences in the form of a long suspension.

Welterweight

Robbie Lawler
Carlos Condit
Rory MacDonald
Tyron Woodley
Stephen Thompson
Demian Maia
Ben Askren
Johny Hendricks
Dong Hyun Kim
Matt Brown

Ben Askren improved his record to 15-0 with a unanimous decision over Nikolay Aleksakhin for One Championship in the Philippines. Askren’s wrestling is extremely difficult to handle, and it remains disappointing that he isn’t fighting his prime years in a more high profile setting for American fans.

Lightweight

Rafael Dos Anjos
Khabib Nurmagomedov
Tony Ferguson
Eddie Alvarez
Anthony Pettis
Gilbert Melendez
Will Brooks
Nate Diaz
Justin Gaethje
Michael Chiesa

Khabib Nurmagomedov returned to action after a two-year hiatus due to injuries and looked as good as ever in the process. Nurmagomedov grounded Darrell Horcher with takedowns and stopped him in the second round with strikes on the ground. Nurmagomedov hopes for a title shot at Rafael Dos Anjos, who he previously defeated. First, Dos Anjos will defend his title against Eddie Alvarez in July.

Featherweight

Conor McGregor
Jose Aldo
Frankie Edgar
Max Holloway
Chad Mendes
Ricardo Lamas
Cub Swanson
Daniel Straus
Patricio “Pitbull” Freire
Charles Oliveira

Cub Swanson broke a two fight losing streak with a unanimous decision victory over Hacran Dias. It was an important win to keep him relevant in a division where everybody is looking to get a big money opportunity against Conor McGregor.

Bantamweight

Dominick Cruz
T.J. Dillashaw
Renan Barao
Urijah Faber
Raphael Assuncao
Bibiano Fernandes
Michael McDonald
Marlon Moraes
Thomas Almeida
Aljamain Sterling

An interesting addition to the bantamweight division is John Dodson, former flyweight title challenger with a win over former UFC bantamweight king T.J. Dillashaw. Dodson returned to 135 pounds in style, scoring a TKO win over Manny Gamburyan in just 47 seconds. He could be a force in his new division.

Women’s Bantamweight

Miesha Tate
Holly Holm
Ronda Rousey
Cat Zingano
Amanda Nunes
Alexis Davis
Sara McMann
Julianna Pena
Jessica Eye
Valentina Shevchenko

Miesha Tate will defend her UFC women’s bantamweight title at UFC 200 against Amanda Nunes. It’s a crucially important fight for Tate. A win and she’s likely to get another crack at old rival Ronda Rousey in a big money fall fight. A loss and that important opportunity is likely out the window.

Flyweight