UFC Middleweight Rankings 17th May 2018
As Jacare drops 3 places from his loss at UFC224 to Kelvin Gastelum the top 3 guys under Romero all get an automatic bump up by one place.
With Rockhold rumoured to be fighting his next fight at 205 against Alexander Gustafsson I can understand why Alex would want his next fight to be for a title since Cormier is going up to Heavyweight to face Stipe and it is not clear that he will ever return to the division.
Let’s be honest, Cormier is going to enjoy being a heavyweight so much he is never going to cut that weight to make 205 again, in my personal opinion. It just doesn’t make sense since he has wiped out the division (besides Jon Jones) and has very little to achieve or prove at 205.
Let Rockhold and Gustafsson fight for an interim title or the vacant title because until Cormier can face Jon Jones again (which is the only fight worth cutting weight for) he is just holding up the division that needs to now move on without him.Ok that sounds bad let me put it this way — there are very few competitive fights left for Cormier at 205 so he should let the underlings duke it out for his title.
If Cormier is smart he would force Jon Jones to come up to Heavyweight and try his hand at him (IF HE CAN BEAT STIPE FIRST).
Cormier lost his KO power when he dropped to 205. The law of diminishing returns.
It would be interesting to see a fully hydrated Cormier fight at his natural weight class unencumbered with a weight cut that almost kills him at 205, which was never his natural weight class and he has suffered for it in my opinion in not having the same explosive power and dominance which he displayed as a heavyweight.
It is still unclear when Weidman will return to competition and that said it would appear that Kelvin Gastelum may very well be next in line for a title shot after his performance at UFC224 after Whittaker x Romero 2
If Gastelum can pull off a win against the champ at middleweight(sometime in the near future) I hope he would consider dropping back down to challenge Woodley again at welterweight which would be the only weight cut worth doing to see if he can dethrone Woodley whom he nearly beat. (let’s also remember he fought Woodley 10lb’s overweight).
The Dragon Machida moves up 3 places but all eyes are on Paulo Costa currently ranked 14# (11–0) and (3–0 UFC) who faces Uriah Hall ranked #11 in July at UFC 226.
This man is going to be a tough cookie to deal with and it will be interesting to see where he will be ranked after July.
Fights this weekend:
One Championship:Unstoppable Dreams was live on their mobile app via YouTube
