The first official UFC rankings update after UFC 332 put Amir Albazi back above Brandon Moreno at flyweight, and the reaction has been loud. A widely shared r/MMA post laid out the case against the move: Moreno is coming off a win at UFC Noche, while Albazi is 0-2 since 2023. One of those two losses was a one-sided decision against Moreno himself. The same post noted that Albazi’s most recent win was a controversial split decision over Kai Kara-France, a fighter Moreno had finished the year before.
The post also said Albazi has moved above Moreno again, which means this isn’t the first time the panel has made this call. Moreno, a former two-time flyweight champion, has the head-to-head result and the more recent activity. Albazi has the higher number next to his name.
The flyweight movement didn’t stop there. Bloody Elbow reported that Imanol Rodriguez entered the top 15 at No. 13 after dropping Alden Coria with a body kick in Round 1 in Salt Lake City. That was one of a record 11 finishes from 14 fights on the card, the most on a single UFC event, which is a fun stat for a card that took heat before fight night.
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Up at heavyweight, Bloody Elbow reported that undefeated Anthony Wint slid in at No. 15 after picking up just his second win in the promotion. Johnny Walker joined him in the top 15 at No. 12 after knocking out Mick Parkin, a training partner of Tom Aspinall. That leaves Walker one spot behind his brother, Valter Walker, and Johnny has said openly that he’d fight him in the Octagon if it came to that.
In the main event, Natalia Silva beat Wang Cong in the women’s flyweight title fight and took the top spot at 125 pounds. Bloody Elbow reported that Wang dropped two places to No. 8. An r/MMA post also flagged that Silva now sits above Zhang Weili on the pound-for-pound list.
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The Payton Talbott numbers are messier. Bloody Elbow reported him debuting at No. 11 at bantamweight. Championship Rounds posted on X that he’s at No. 7, and MMA Mania reported that he took Deiveson Figueiredo’s spot after knocking out the former champ in 129 seconds. That was Talbott’s second straight win over a former UFC champion. At lightweight, Esteban Ribovics knocked out King Green and took the 40-year-old’s spot at No. 15.
My take: Talbott’s jump and the two heavyweight entries are the panel doing its job, rewarding people who won fights on Saturday. The Albazi call is harder to defend. Rankings should answer one basic question, which is who would you favor if these two fought tomorrow. These two already fought, and Moreno won it clearly. Since then Moreno has won again and Albazi hasn’t won at all. If a split decision over Kara-France outweighs a clean head-to-head win plus fresher results, I’d love to see the ballots, because Moreno’s résumé already holds the finish over Kara-France and the win over Albazi.
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