Alex Pereira is no longer the UFC light heavyweight champion, and his ranking in Dana White’s promotion has subsequently taken a hit.
The Brazilian is no longer one of the UFC’s top five pound-for-pound fighters.
This follows a major update to the UFC men’s pound-for-pound rankings after UFC 313, which saw Pereira drop his title to Magomed Ankalev in the main event.
The Las Vegas card also witnessed Justin Gaethje outpoint Rafael Fiziev in the co-main event, while Mauricio Ruffy scored one of the greatest knockouts of all time against King Green.
UFC’s pound-for-pound (P4P0) system ranks the best fighters in the promotion from first to 15th based on their ability and regardless of their weight class.
Pereira was third before UFC 313 behind fellow UFC champions Jon Jones and Islam Makhachev, but has now dropped down a whopping five spots into eighth.
Ankalaev, meanwhile, wasn’t part of the P4P rankings ahead of UFC 313, but debuted in sixth spot following his title win.
This meant that ex-UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland was thrown out of the top 15, with Charles Oliveira, Sean O’Malley, Max Holloway, Leon Edwards and Alexander Volkanovski making up the bottom five.
Tom Aspinall, the UFC interim heavyweight champion, holds the 10th spot behind UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja.
Alex Pereira is one of two non-titleholders in the top eight, with Belal Muhammad, Ankalaev, Dricus Du Plessis, Merab Dvalishvili placing from seventh to fourth.
Meanwhile, ex-featherweight champion Ilia Topuria has been bumped up to third while Jones and Makhachev keep their top two spots.
Fans had a mixed response to the rankings update in the immediate aftermath of UFC 313.
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One took to X and said: “Anyone else feel like there’s no way O’Malley should be in the top 15?”
While another added: “These rankings are a joke. How is Pantoja lower than a non-champion?”
A third commented: “Ankalaev at six is a joke right? Ahead of Aspinall?”
Pereira started well in his headline act with Ankalaev at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night, landing some damaging trademark calf kicks in the opening sequence.
However, ‘Poatan’ started to lose control of the bout during the middle rounds as Ankalaev asserted his dominance in the clinch.
Although Pereira was able to stop the Russian, stuffing all 12 of his takedowns during the fight, Ankalaev landed more significant strikes and did enough in the eyes of the judges to steal a unanimous decision victory.
One judge awarded the fight 49-46 to Ankalaev, while the other two scored the contest 48-47 in favour of the Russian.
Both men have confirmed that they are happy to do a rematch next following UFC President Dana White’s comments that a second fight would ‘probably’ be the most likely outcome.
“[I’m] gonna make some adjustments for the rematch and I’ll be back much better,” Pereira said on social media after the bout.
“You can count on it. All good, everyone. Never give up on your dreams. Chama.”
Ankalaev also welcomed a second fight with Pereira in his post-fight press conference.
“I’m happy for a rematch,” he said.
“Maybe in a rematch he can fight for real,” the 32-year-old added.
