Kamaru Usman picked up right where he left off with a vintage performance at UFC Atlanta. So where does that leave him in the crowded welterweight rankings?
Alexander K. Lee is an editor for MMA Fighting who has been covering combat sports since 2014.
Though Usman knocked off top 10 contender Joaquin Buckley, it’s not as simple as just having the former UFC champion bump Buckley out of his spot. When Usman departed our rankings due to inactivity (before Saturday, it had been over two years since Usman made a welterweight appearance), he was No. 4 on the charts; since then, there has been plenty of activity in the division, with Buckley being part of a fresh crop of contenders that also includes Shavkat Rakhmonov, Sean Brady, Ian Machado Garry, and Michael Morales.
Is it fair for Usman to leapfrog these fighters that have been racking up big wins in his absence? Not to mention Leon Edwards, the man who holds a pair of wins over Usman in UFC championship bouts.
Long answer, short: Yes, Usman is back in the top 5, behind Rakhmonov and Brady, but ahead of Garry and the undefeated Morales. In the end, it was hard for our panel to ignore how good he was Saturday, not to mention his storied history at 170 pounds and how well he performed in his losses even as he fell into a three-fight slump. Usman is 38 years old, but the version of him we saw in Atlanta looks like he can still give anyone in the division a run for their money, including current champion Jack Della Maddalena.
Usman insists he’s waiting for the winner of Della Maddalena’s still-to-be-scheduled fight with MMA Fighting’s Pound-for-Pound king Islam Makhachev, but he should seriously consider booking that grudge match with Belal Muhammad. If he can do to Muhammad what he did to Buckley, few would argue that the all-time welterweight great is worthy of one more shot at the gold.
Check out MMA Fighting’s updated 170-pound rankings below.
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): Kamaru Usman def. No. 7 Joaquin Buckley, Thad Jean def. No. 10 Jason Jackson
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Carlos Prates (5), Stephen Thompson (3), Kevin Holland (2), Jason Jackson (2), Shamil Musaev (2), Rinat Fakhretdinov (1)
