UFC fighter rankings: 170-pound division sees some changes

After every UFC event, the official rankings panel submits their newest rundown of where each fighter should be. After UFC Fight Night 29, it was the welterweight division that unsurprisingly saw the most change. With an upset in the main event, and a big knockout in the co-main, it was expected by some that there would be two new men gracing the top 10 at 170 pounds. Alas, only one of them pushed their way in.

You can check out the full rankings here and use the dropdown menu to see the individual picks of the five BE contributors (myself, T.P. Grant, Chris Hall, Fraser Coffeen, and Stephie Daniels).

On the heels of his big win over Demian Maia, Jake Shields enters the welterweight rankings in the eight spot. Despite the loss, Maia only fell one spot from four to five This caused Jake Ellenberger to move up one spot to four. Nick Diaz moved up one spot to five despite not competing very much lately, while Martin Kampmann dropped one spot to sixth. Robbie Lawler also dropped one spot to nine. Despite his knockout victory over Erick Silva at UFN 29, Dong Hyun Kim wasn't able to unseat Matt Brown for the 10 spot.

Another division that saw some changes directly related to UFN 29 came in the bantamweight division, where Raphael Assuncao's close win over T.J. Dillashaw caused them both to move up. Assuncao moved up to number three, bumping Eddie Wineland down to four. And Dillashaw moved up to 8, passing Mike Easton.

Other minor changes came about in the middleweight division due to the release of Yushin Okami. Luke Rockhold, Francis Carmont, and Costa Philippou all moved up a spot (to 6, 7, and 8 respectively). Tim Boetsch re-entered the rankings at number 9, while Chael Sonnen retained his spot at number 10.

There were two other minor developments as well - Darren Elkins entered the featherweight rankings at number 10, and Anderson Silva and Jose Aldo flip-flopped the three and four spots on the P4P list.

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