MMA Pound-for-Pound Rankings: Where does Belal Muhammad land after Leon Edwards stunner at UFC 304?

Welcome to the latest update to the MMA Fighting pound-for-pound rankings, where every month our esteemed panel sort through the noise to answer one question: Who are the best overall male and female MMA fighters in the world?

Let’s take a look at how things stand following a wild week in Manchester for UFC 304.

Photo by Richard Sellers/PA Images via Getty Images

MMA Fighting

Belal Muhammad actually did it.

The embattled welterweight’s long and winding road to title contention finally bore fruit at UFC 304, as Muhammad shocked the MMA world by dominating Leon Edwards en route to a unanimous decision win to capture UFC gold. Muhammad’s résumé now takes completely new shape with his brilliance in Manchester behind him — his 11-fight run is the fourth-longest active unbeaten streak in the current UFC, and Muhammad has a host of big-name scalps sitting on his mantelpiece, including wins over Edwards, Gilbert Burns, Sean Brady, Stephen Thompson, Vicente Luque, and Demian Maia.

For his handiwork, Muhammad makes his debut on the pound-for-pound list at No. 5, sending the previous No. 3 Edwards tumbling all the way down outside of the top 10.

The other big winner of UFC 304, MMA Fighting’s No. 1 ranked heavyweight Tom Aspinall, also makes another jump after demolishing Curtis Blaydes in just 60 seconds to defend his interim UFC heavyweight title. After making short work of yet another top heavyweight, Aspinall leaps all the way from No. 12 to No. 6 — and ironically enough, leapfrogs over the man who continues to evade him at every turn, No. 7 Jon Jones.

Looking ahead, all eyes now turn to Perth, Australia, where No. 8 Dricus du Plessis makes the first defense of his UFC middleweight title on August 17 in a long-awaited grudge match against returning No. 17 Israel Adesanya in the main event of UFC 305.

Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): Belal Muhammad def. No. 3 Leon Edwards, No. 12 Tom Aspinall def. Curtis Blaydes

Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 8 Dricus du Plessis vs. No. 17 Israel Adesanya (UFC 305, August 17)

Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Merab Dvalishvili (5), Anatoly Malykhin (2), Patricio Pitbull (2), Khamzat Chimaev (1), Kamaru Usman (1), A.J. McKee (1), Johnny Eblen (1), Justin Gaethje (1), Kyoji Horiguchi (1) Usman Nurmagomedov (1)

Falling out of the rankings (previous ranking shown): No. 20 Merab Dvalishvili

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

MMA Fighting

Virna Jandiroba continues to make her case.

The 36-year-old strawweight punctuated the biggest statement of her career on July 20 when she submitted previous No. 16 Amanda Lemos with a second-round armbar in her first UFC main event. With four increasingly impressive wins in a row, Jandiroba has emerged as a true dark horse in the UFC strawweight division, which remains ruled over by pound-for-pound No. 1 Weili Zhang.

Jandiroba debuts at No. 16 on our list after dispatching Lemos, and depending on how things shake out, she may get her chance to vault much further up the ladder soon. With the health of Tatiana Suarez still up in the air, Jandiroba appears to be in pole position to challenge for Zhang’s strawweight title — and pound-for-pound throne — next.

As for what’s ahead, the upcoming rankings cycle is light on marquee women’s matchups, but there is one date of consequence worth circling when No. 14 Liz Carmouche and No. 17 Taila Santos collide on August 2 in the semifinals of PFL’s $1 million flyweight tournament. For the winner, a spot in the season final awaits.

Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 15 Rose Namajunas def. Tracy Cortez, Virna Jandiroba def. No. 16 Amanda Lemos

Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 14 Liz Carmouche vs. No. 17 Taila Santos (PFL 7, August 2)

Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Maycee Barber (5), Natalia Silva (3), Mayra Bueno Silva (1), Marina Rodriguez (1), Irene Aldana (1), Lauren Murphy (1), Ketlen Vieira (1)

Falling out of the rankings (previous ranking shown): No. 20 Mayra Bueno Silva

Lastly, a refresher on some ground rules:

• The seven-person voting panel consists of MMA Fighting staffers Shaun Al-Shatti, Alexander K. Lee, Guilherme Cruz, Mike Heck, E. Casey Leydon, Damon Martin and Jed Meshew.
• Updates to the rankings will be completed following every UFC pay-per-view. Fighters will be removed from the rankings if they do not compete within 18 months of their most recent bout.
• Should a fighter announce their retirement, our panel will decide whether that fighter should immediately be removed from the rankings or maintain their position until further notice (let’s put it this way: we’d have taken Khabib Nurmagomedov out of our rankings a lot quicker than the UFC did).

As a reminder, the notion of pound-for-pound supremacy is always going to inherently be subjective. When you’re debating whether someone like Justin Gaethje should be ranked above someone like Max Holloway, there is no true right answer. In other words: It’s not serious business, folks.

Thoughts? Questions? Concerns? Make your voice heard in the comments below.