UFC Men’s Pound-for-Pound Rankings 2025

Every fight, every pay-per-view offering, every fist blown, every knee-side scrapped due to slicers, every blow-for-blow later, comes the rankings. The fight clique and culture call it the UFC ‘pound-for-pound’ athlete rankings. The Year 2025 saw UFC 319 in the books, and this season has had 161 Finishes: 105 T(KO)s, 56 Submissions, 180+ decisions on the cards, and so on.

After which, the weekly updates and subsequent athletes’ listings saw some changes. Here are the updated UFC UFC Pound-for-Pound Rankings 2025, as of before UFC 320: Ankalaev vs. Pereira 2 PPV card at the T-Mobile Arena.

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Men’s UFC Pound-for-Pound Rankings 2025

Men’s Pound-for-Pound Top Rank #1 Ilia Topuria

The latest UFC vacant title bout comes the courtesy of UFC 321 – October 2025, with Virna Jandiroba and Mackenzie Dern fighting for the vacant WMMA SW crown. Before that came the UFC 317: Topuria vs. Oliveira PPV main event, where Ilia Topuria fought and captured the vacant 155-pound gold.

It’s not just that he did it, but how he did it, with an R1 knockout at the 2:27 mark. ‘El Matador’ (17-0, 9-0 UFC) became the first undefeated two-weight champ to knock out a veteran like Charles Oliveira with crisp barrages and a perfect left-right. The fact that he called his shot and delivered against a submission specialist meant much for his all-around pound-for-pound ceiling.

This marks a third KO in his title campaign since UFC 298. Topuria naturally is the helm of the UFC lightweight rankings, awaiting his first title defense.

#2 Islam Makhachev

The former #1 P4P fighter, who held the spot for 600+ days, is still the No.1-ranked lightweight after champ Topuria. As soon as the first bell of the UFC 322 PPV headliner goes live, Islam Makhachev would have entered the welterweight competition, and his ranking would suffer at 155.

But his P4P worth is something Makhachev has set with dominant performances. He thwarted Alexander Vlokanovski’s kickboxing range and KOed him with a shin kick to the head. He outboxed a prime boxer, Dustin Poirier, to chain up singles and get him to a lower level and submit him.

Islam Makhachev also snagged the lightweight gold, submitting the submission specialist Oliveira. If he dominantly wins the UFC welterweight gold with a statement, there are thoughts that the Dagestani may yet again overtake Topuria in the rankings.

# 3 Merab Dvalishvili

Mean ‘Machine’ and Georgian pride Merab Dvalishvili did the impossible. He is 1/3 ballot fighters who got to be the undisputed champion despite a 0-2 slump when starting out in the promotion. Dvalishvili strung up a 10-fight streak to earn his title shot and never stopped.

He went up against Best ESPY honors winner and prime striker Sean O’Malley and stuffed him with superior scramble and cardio. Dvalishvili then made a defense of the bantamweight gold against Umar Nurmagomedov and broke his five-fight winning streak.

He then yet again made another defense against O’Malley at UFC 316 and kept the guard intact, as well as got a $50,000 post-fight bonus. With his long streak and dominance, there is a consensus belief that Dvalishvili might soon surpass big names on MMA Mt. Rushmore.

#4 Khamzat Chimaev

This one needs no introduction. The undefeated Khamzat Chimaev snagged the middleweight crown with a single-fight record striking, total control, and dominance at the August 16 PPV headliner. ‘Borz’ always had the kryptonite of gassing out in the championship rounds, but he proved otherwise and dominated Dricus Du Plessis.

With 21:40 control from top, side, and back, along with 517 total ground strikes/411 single-fight high head strikes, Chimaev proved a different beast. He even made the case that he should be ranked #1 in UFC Pound-for-Pound Rankings 2025, not Topuria.

#5 Alexandre Pantoja

If someone has showcased true title dominance, it’s Alexandre Pantoja. As of August 19th, he is ranked #5, and many peers have advocated that he warrants a Best ESPY Fighter consideration. The BJJ skills and bombastic striking speak for themselves.

Brandon Moreno, Brandon Royval, ex-RIZIN FF fame Kai Asakura, Steve Erceg, and even Kai-Kara France; Pantoja has beaten them all. With Islam Makhachev vacating his stakes as a champ [5 title fights], Pantoja is the next with the highest number of title defenses.

#6 Alexander Volkanovski

Once a great, always a great, and ‘The Great’ Volkanovski deserves his stripes and spot back in the UFC Pound-for-Pound Rankings 2025 list. Volk went 5-0 in his historic first reign before losing the coveted featherweight gold to Topuria.

The Aussie legend then faced breakout fighter Diego Lopes and won back the vacant gold at the UFC 314: Volkanovski vs. Lopes PPV headliner at Kaseya Center, Miami. Volk has shown that persistence is a great thing and means to make his second reign just as bloated.

#7 Magomed Ankalaev

Magomed Ankalaev did almost the impossible when he stopped Alex Pereira in his tracks to win the light heavyweight gold at UFC 313. Up until then, ‘Poatan’ has had multiple KOs and highlights that gave him the mark of being unstoppable.

Ankalaev was a ‘Master of Sport’ in Combat Sambo and the 2016 Akhmat FC Light Heavyweight Grand Prix champ, and it showed. He stuffed Pereira fence side, even outstruck him at points in a gold-winning performance.

#8 Jack Della Maddalena

It takes an all-around fighter with true pound-for-pound skills to thwart another all-around fighter. Jack Della Maddalena made that case, cementing his spot in the UFC Pound-for-Pound Rankings 2025.

Belal Muhammad has a hard chin and durability and is very tough to control for a 25-minute stretch. Hence, JDM had to be crisp with his body and straight shots, use his size and even have good anti-wrestling to answer “Bully Belal”. Della Maddalena ran the course with Muhammad at UFC 315 PPV main event in Montreal and won the welterweight gold in his first try.

#9 Tom Aspinall

Tom Aspinall is what happens when one packs true pound-for-pound skills in a large frame, gives it welterweight-like speed, and proper anti-wrestling. Aspinall won’t stay down, pack a punch, and get out of dodge with multiple first-round KOs. A former interim HW Champ with the most number of days holding the strap, he even made a rare defense and won. The current divisional king, with a name like Jon Jones spacing out, Apsinall, has almost taken care of everyone else.

#10 Alex Pereira

The quickest UFC two-weight champ once, Pereira, trotted the pound-for-pound top #3 lanes once for a reason. He packed power that took care of former prodigal champ Jamahal Hill and former champ/title challenger Jiri Prochazka (X2) with relative ease. Muay Thai specialist Khalil Rountree Jr. gave him some standing troubles, but he also met a similar fate with a late fourth-round TKO.

#11 Dricus Du Plessis

Although he recently lost his middleweight crown to Chimaev, Dricus Du Plessis was a striking specialist and tough to answer. He won gold and defended it from Sean Strickland’s shelled-up boxing, dominantly, in title fights. He also took care of ex-champ Israel Adesanya, a spatial management specialist/kickboxer, via a third-round rear-naked choke during his UFC 305 PPV title fight. His fighting style yet remains a puzzle for many.

#12 Max Holloway

While ‘The Diamond’ walked away from the sport, Max Holloway entrenched himself as the only fighter to make a successful defense of the UFC BMF silver in a title bout. He is also the only fighter to have held interim, undisputed gold, as well as the BMF.

The PPV headliner at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans marked a resurgent Holloway, going 2-1 in UFC lightweight competition. He now has two wins (UFC 300, UFC 318) over former top contenders at the 155-pound limit. Ranked #4 in the division, he makes a true mark of a top fighter.

#13 Belal Muhammad

Muhammad is what happens when undying resolve and hard scramble get mixed in a tube. The first Palestinian-American champ, the Southside “Wind City” native, struck gold at UFC 304. He tripped, spiked, bombed, outwrestled, chain-up and outboxed former champ Leon Edwards in a pure dominant showing.

Before that, the Team Valle Flow Striking wrestler strung up a resilient 9-fight streak to win his title shot, minus an eye-poke NC from Edwards at their 2021 UFC Fight Night: Edwards vs. Muhammad. His barrage of wins consists of standouts like Demian Maia, Stephen Thompson, Gilbert Burns, Vicente Luque, Sean Brady, and others. As of August 19, 2025, he has dropped to #13 in the updates.

#14 Arman Tsarukyan

#2 lightweight Arman Tsarukyan was a top contender not that long ago and had top seed treatment. He took care of veteran Beneil Dariush, then logged a decision on the judges’ cards over Oliveira at the milestone UFC 300 PPV main card lineup, to cement his top status. ‘Ahalkalakets’ is currently on a 4-fight streak.

#15 Shavkat Rakhmonov

The only other one not holding a belt or a former champion on the list, Shavkat Rakhmonov, is the undefeated UFC 170lbs boogeyman with a title shot promise. With a hundred percent finish rate (1-0 (T)KO/5-0 Submission wins) up until UFC 310, he is a clear title contender.

Even Makhachev’s side considers him a stiff test to his entry at welterweight. With the dominance he touts, the Kill Cliff FC fighter could easily stride into the UFC Pound-for-Pound Rankings top #10 if he fights again in 2025.