Alice Pereira is ranked, and at 20 she’s younger than any woman who has made the UFC’s list before her. MMA Mania reported Tuesday that the updated UFC Meta Rankings slot Pereira in at No. 12 at women’s bantamweight following her retirement TKO of Darya Zheleznyakova at UFC Vegas 122 last weekend at the UFC APEX. Zheleznyakova drops off the list entirely.
The old record belonged to Maycee Barber, who cracked the rankings at 21 in December 2019. Barber has since moved to women’s flyweight, where she sits at No. 9 in the same update. One footnote matters here. The report also notes that the official media rankings hadn’t been refreshed at publishing time and are expected to be phased out in the coming weeks, so the Meta list is the one doing the talking now.
The win itself left a mark, literally. Pereira did her damage with ground-and-pound, and the report says it showed up on Zheleznyakova’s forehead before the fight ended in a retirement stoppage. A retirement means the fight was waved off between rounds rather than mid-exchange. For a 20-year-old, the ground work is what gets my attention, because staying heavy enough on top to make a veteran’s corner stop the fight is a skill people usually pick up in their late 20s.
The rest of the women’s bantamweight table shuffled to make room. Nora Cornolle slides from No. 12 to 13, Macy Chiasson dips one spot to 14, and Chelsea Chandler enters at No. 15. Kayla Harrison holds the belt, with Joselyne Edwards at No. 1.
Allen climbs at 185
The main event produced the other big mover. Brendan Allen found a late submission of Christian Leroy Duncan on Saturday, and that bumps him from No. 5 to No. 4 at middleweight. The only names left between Allen and champion Sean Strickland are Khamzat Chimaev, Dricus Du Plessis and Nassourdine Imavov. Duncan falls one spot to No. 11, and Ikram Aliskerov rises to No. 10.
Joe Pyfer is the one who pays for Allen’s climb, sliding to No. 5. He gets a chance to answer when he fights Bo Nickal (No. 12) in December.
The card’s biggest riser was Loopy Godinez, who jumped three places to No. 8 at women’s strawweight after a very close decision over Ketlen Souza. Piera Rodriguez, Yan Xiaonan and Mizuki Inoue each dropped a spot. I’ll leave the scorecards alone for once.
Pereira’s age is the headline, but the ground-and-pound is the part that should worry the women above her. Teenagers and near-teenagers who arrive in the UFC usually win on athleticism and fade once the opponents get smarter on the mat, and Pereira just won the top position battle against a ranked fighter. She now sits one spot behind Bia Mesquita at No. 11, which is a matchup I’d book the second both are healthy. The next shakeup in the rankings lands after UFC Edmonton on Oct. 17, when Joaquin Buckley and Mike Malott headline at Rogers Place with welterweight spots on the line.
