UFC fighter rankings: Bethe Correia magically moves up two spots before Rousey fight

There were plenty of changes to the UFC's rankings after last weekend's FOX card in Chicago, most notably Bryan Caraway skyrocketing from outside the top 10 to just short of the top 5, courtesy of his upset win over Eddie Wineland. But he's not the main focus of this post, because three other substantial changes were made:

1.) Bethe Correia literally hasn't fought in almost a year but moved up two spots in the rankings.

2.) ILIR LATIFI IS A RANKED LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT! THIS IS CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION!

3.) Josh Thomson is no longer ranked at lightweight, which is notable because the Tony Ferguson loss was the last on his UFC contract.

Click here for the full UFC rankings. Bloody Elbow does not have any staff members on the rankings panel, otherwise Latifi would've been #1 P4P.

Pound-for-Pound: T.J. Dillashaw goes up to 5th on the P4P list over Fabricio Werdum. Anderson Silva, Conor McGregor, and Frankie Edgar improve to 12th-14th, with Johny Hendricks rounding out the list.

Women's Strawweight: Claudia Gadelha overtook Carla Esparza for the #1 contender spot, almost like magic. Rose Namajunas went above Jessica Penne for 3rd, which ... yeah. Jessica Aguilar makes her rankings debut at #15, as she preps for her fight with new #1 contender Gadelha. Valerie Letourneau is now unranked, but with a fight coming up on the 23rd of August I'm willing to bet she'll return to the rankings soon.

Flyweight: No changes

Bantamweight: Bryan Caraway catapults from 12th to 6th, moving into a tie with Aljamain Sterling, who also went up a spot. Eddie Wineland fell four places to 10th, while Francisco Rivera dipped two spots to 12th.

Women's Bantamweight: Miesha Tate is back atop the contender's list at #1, with Cat Zingano now at 2. Jessica Eye and Sarah Kaufman fell to 6th and 7th respectively, while Bethe Correia has somehow managed to get a top 5 ranking. By the way, the combined UFC record of the three opponents she's beaten is 1-7. Julianna Pena is ranked 11th, one spot ahead of Marion Reneau.

Featherweight: No changes

Lightweight: With Josh Thomson out of the rankings, Al Iaquinta, Beneil Dariush, Nate Diaz, and Dustin Poirier all were bumped to 11th-14th. Jorge Masvidal returns to the list at 15, even though he's a welterweight now.

Welterweight: Jake Ellenberger climbed above Neil Magny for 12th for some reason. Kelvin Gastelum also replaced Ryan LaFlare in the top 15 even though Gastelum's foreseeable future at at 185. Whatever.

Middleweight: No changes

Light Heavyweight: Gian Villante is out of the rankings, Ilir Latifi is ranked. He is on his way to being the greatest LHW of all-time.

Heavyweight: No changes