Big fights generally lead to some movement in the UFC rankings, and UFC Fight Night 26 was no exception. Chael Sonnen's big win over Shogun Rua led Dana White to complain about his ranking, but it's tough to rank guys in two divisions if they're not very active in both. That being said, it happened. The fighter that did make the biggest gain doesn't have that problem though - he's a heavyweight.
You can check out the full rankings here, and use the dropdown menu to see the individual picks of the four BE contributors (myself, T.P. Grant, Fraser Coffeen, and Stephie Daniels).
By virtue of his comeback win over Alistair Overeem, Browne jumped three spots in the HW rankings from the number eight contender up to five. Overeem slipped two spots to seven with the loss. Roy Nelson also slipped one spot to eight.
Sonnen is now ranked in two divisions (I believe he's the first guy to achieve that in the short history of the rankings). He's still at number eight at middleweight, but entered light heavyweight at 10 on the heels of his win. Shogun dropped to nine at LHW, while Gegard Mousasi moved up one to eight. Ryan Bader was dropped from the list.
At welterweight, Matt Brown makes his first entry into the rankings in the 10 spot after his big win over Mike Pyle.
At bantamweight, Brad Pickett fell one spot to number six, with his five spot now occupied by Raphael Assuncao. In a move unrelated to Saturday's card, T.J. Dillashaw and Ivan Menjivar traded the nine and ten spots.
In other moves unrelated to Saturday's card, Cain Velasquez and Ben Henderson flip-flopped the five and six sport in the P4P rankings, while Chris Weidman and Dominick Cruz continue to bounce between nine and ten; Dustin Poirier took over the number six spot at featherweight, dropping Dennis Siver to seven; Josh Thomson and Gray Maynard switched spots for the third or fourth time in the last couple of months; and Rosi Sexton entered the women's bantamweight rankings in the 10 spot after the release of Sheila Gaff.
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