Sherdog’s Official Mixed Martial Arts Rankings

The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Sept. 2 headlined in Rotterdam, Netherlands, with a combined 13 feet and seven inches of Alexander Volkov and Stefan Struve. However, in this update of the official Sherdog.com rankings, our latest movement is happening anywhere but with giant men.

While Volkov's third-round knockout of Struve in the UFC Fight Night 115 headliner was impressive, it was not enough for the former Bellator MMA champion to make the jump from our bubble list to our heavyweight top 10, given his recent losses to Cheick Kongo and Tony Johnson and a head-to-head defeat to the 9th-ranked Vitaly Minakov. In fact, the only fighter in our rankings scheduled to compete on Sept. 2 was former UFC women's featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie, whose return to bantamweight was delayed by a lingering hand injury. In the meantime, “The Iron Lady” has been jumped at 145 pounds.

Bellator 182 on Aug. 25 in Verona, New York, has given us a shakeup: Australia's Arlene Blencowe topped Ireland's Sinead Kavanagh to move to 8-2 in her last 10 bouts and move up two spots to No. 4, over Charmaine Tweet and the inactive de Randamie. Meanwhile, Talita Nogueira finally made her Bellator MMA debut after two and a half years of waiting. Though “Treta” expected to meet Gabrielle Holloway, the undefeated Brazilian instead faced a woman who recently beat Holloway, Amanda Bell, and choked her out in the first round. Now 7-0, Nogueira fittingly debuts at No. 7 in our rankings.

A flurry of activity at 105 pounds has also reconfigured the tail end of our women's atomweight rankings. At Deep Jewels 17 on Aug. 26 in Tokyo, Emi Tomimatsu upset previously ninth-ranked Satomi Takano, while 19-year-old Kanna Asakura netted her bigger career win over veteran Saori Ishioka. Five days later at Invicta Fighting Championships 25 in Lemoore, California, previously eighth-ranked atomweight Janaisa Morandin moved up to 115 pounds after her recent troubles on the scale and suffered her first career loss to former Invicta strawweight champ Livia Renata Souza via unanimous decision

With these recent outcomes, inactive but undefeated Julia Jones rises to No. 8 at 105 pounds; Sheila Padilla rejoins the top 10 in the nine spot; and the teenager Kanna Asakura makes her top 10 debut.

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