UFC Pound-for-Pound Rankings: February 2025

We're still not even two full months in to 2025, but four UFC champions have already successfully defended their titles, and in the process, cemented themselves among the best fighters in MMA.

First up, at UFC 311 in January, bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili scored his first title defense with a dizzying decision victory over the formerly unbeaten Umar Nurmagomedov. Then, later that same night, lightweight champion Islam Makhachev picked up a quick submission win over Renato Moicano—his fourth title defense.

Two more fighters thwarted would-be usurpers at UFC 312 this past weekend. First, in the co-main event, strawweight champion Zhang Weili defended her belt for a third time with a decision win against the formerly undefeated Tatiana Suarez. Soon after, in the card's headliner, middleweight king Dricus Du Plessis picked up a lopsided decision of his own, defeating Sean Strickland to defend his belt a second time.

At this point, there's no denying Dvalishvili, Makhachev, Zhang and Du Plessis all rank among the sport's best fighters. Keep scrolling to see where we have in the pecking order as of February 2025.

Not many people envisioned Belal Muhammad becoming a UFC champion, but after nine straight wins in the Octagon, he finally got a title shot last year, and he shocked the world by dominating Leon Edwards to claim the welterweight title.

It was fun to see Muhammad prove so many people wrong, and he certainly might keep doing it, but the road ahead looks rocky, to say the least.

His first title defense should come against unbeaten Kazakh finisher Shavkat Rakhmonov sometime in the next few months—a fight he'll almost certainly be the underdog in. If he makes it through that challenge, he will have dangerous contenders like Jack Della Maddalena, Joaquin Buckley, and Ian Machado Garry to contend with.

Whatever the future holds, he's clearly one of the best fighters alive right now.

At this point, it's fair to say Alexandre Pantoja is the most impressive flyweight champion since the legendary reign of Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson.

The Brazilian claimed the belt in summer of 2023, defeating the highly regarded Brandon Moreno—who he had already beaten before—in a thrilling five-rounder. Since then, he has defended his belt with impressive wins over Brandon Royval, Steve Erceg and Kai Asakura, establishing himself as must-see TV in the process.

Pantoja is rumored to be lined up for a fourth title defense against New Zealand's Kai Kara-France at UFC 314, which is slated for April 12 in Miami. That's a very tough fight, but if the champ defends the belt again, he will most likely move up this list.

Valentina Shevchenko has long stood out as one of the best female fighters in the world. Her stock admittedly took a big hit in 2023 when, after seven defenses of her flyweight title, she was submitted by Alexa Grasso, but after battling Grasso to a draw in their immediate rematch, she finally reclaimed her belt with a decision win in their third meeting last September.

With the belt back around her waist, Shevchenko clearly still has quite a bit to give the sport, despite all she has accomplished already. The big question now is who she defends her belt against next. The top contender at flyweight is clearly streaking Frenchwoman Manon Fiorot, but strawweight champion Zhang Weili, who we will discuss soon, is also an option.

Whatever the case, Shevchenko has some tough fights on the horizon. Time will tell if she begins to show signs of decline, or if she continues to cement herself as an all-time great.

Dricus Du Plessis looked excellent in his UFC 312 decision win over Sean Strickland, which was far more decisive than the win he got in their first meeting early last year. However, beating a guy he'd already defeated once—and recently—didn't do a whole lot to boost his pound-for-pound standing. His position among the sport's best fighters is still primarily based on his victories over former champions Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya.

If he keeps winning he will definitely keep climbing this list, but that is certainly not a foregone conclusion. While he is clearly an incredible fighter, Du Plessis has some very scary challenges on the horizon, most notably undefeated juggernaut Khamzat Chimaev, who he will most likely fight next. Beyond that, he's also got Nassourdine Imavov and Caio Borralho to worry about.

Beating those three guys in succession is going to be incredibly difficult, but if anybody can pull it off, it's Du Plessis, who has evolved into one of the sport's greatest puzzles with a blend of raw strength, excellent cardio, and utterly bizarre technique. If he does pull it off, he will unquestionably rank among the top two or three best fighters in the world. This No. 7 ranking will be a distant memory.

Some people will probably take issue with Zhang Weili being ranked ahead of Valentina Shevchenko on this list, but hear us out.

Zhang, for starters, has gone much longer without losing. Shevchenko was submitted by Alexa Grasso in 2023, while Zhang's last loss occurred way back in 2021, when she lost a competitive decision to another great in Rose Namajunas.

Zhang has also been beating better opponents more decisively of late. Shevchenko, as you'll recall, barely scraped by Taila Santos in her last fight before her three-fight series with Grasso. Zhang, meanwhile, has rattled off decisive wins over Carla Esparza, Amanda Lemos, Yan Xiaonan, and most recently Tatiana Suarez in that span. The win over Suarez was particularly impressive, as the American was undefeated heading into the fight, and with a handful of wins at flyweight, had even been touted as a threat to Shevchenko.

For those reasons, we're putting Zhang ahead of Shevchenko for the moment. Thankfully, there's a great way to settle any lingering debate about who's really better. They're only separated by 10 pounds, so let them fight!

Merab Dvalishvili should arguably be much higher on this list than No. 5.

The bantamweight champion, who is fresh off an impressive decision victory over the formerly unbeaten Umar Nurmagomedov, is on one of the best streaks in all of MMA right now.

After losing his first two UFC fights—which suggested he wouldn't amount to much in the Octagon—Dvalishvili has now won 12 straight. That incredible streak includes victories over a host of former champions and title challengers in Sean O'Malley, Henry Cejudo, Petr Yan, Jose Aldo, Marlon Moraes, and John Dodson.

The Georgian is on a legendary tear right now, and the only reason we didn't rank him higher is that the same can be said for all the guys ranked above him. If he can defend his title even one more time against a high-level foe, don't be surprised to see him in the Top 3 at the expense of one of the living legends we've yet to mention.

UFC light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira is clearly one of the best mixed martial artists in the world right now—not bad at all for a former kickboxer that most expected to be exposed as a novice grappler.

Also a former middleweight champ in the Octagon, Pereira has now defended his light heavyweight belt three times, against a trio of dangerous knockout artists in Jamahal Hill, Jiri Prochazka, and Khalil Rountree Jr. Those victories, coupled with previous wins over the likes of Jan Blachowicz, Israel Adesanya, and Sean Strickland, have made his pound-for-pound standing undeniable.

The only question is how long he can keep competing at this level. While he's showed no sign of decline just yet, he's getting up there a bit, at 37. He's also scheduled for arguably the toughest stylistic challenge of his MMA career to date at UFC 313 next month, when he'll take on streaking Russian Magomed Ankalaev.

Jon Jones is very clearly one of the greatest fighters of all time—maybe even the GOAT, period. However, that is not the same as being the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world today. That's something else altogether, and Jones isn't it.

While the former light heavyweight champ and current heavyweight champ has still only lost once as a pro (via DQ), he has also only fought twice since 2020. First, he claimed the heavyweight belt with a submission win over a tailor-made opponent in Ciryl Gane, then, well over a year later, he defended his belt with a TKO win over the ghost of Stipe Miocic.

Those wins were impressive, but all they really did is prove that Jones is still very good. They did nothing to prove he is still the best fighter on earth. The only way he can do that is by fighting Tom Aspinall or Francis Ngannou, and we all know the ship has sailed on the latter option, so hopefully the Aspinall fight comes together.

If Jones doesn't fight and beat Aspinall, expect him to continue dropping down this list to make way for guys like Merab Dvalishvili—as unimpeachable as his GOAT status may be.

It's arguable that UFC featherweight champ Ilia Topuria is the best pound-for-pound fighter alive right now, and that argument hinges entirely on his last two victories: a pair of stunning knockouts against Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski—both living legends.

The only reason it's hard to rank Topuria No. 1 is that before beating Volkanovski and Holloway, he hadn't beaten anybody else near that level. Sure, he'd beaten guys like Josh Emmett and Bryce Mitchell, but those aren't the kinds of fighters you need to beat to become the pound-for-pound king.

Holloway and Volkanovski are, though, and if Topuria beats a few more fighters of their ilk—especially by stoppage—he'll be undeniable. He could also surge into the top spot by moving up to lightweight in pursuit of a second title, which is starting to look like an inevitability.

Which brings us to our No. 1 fighter...

Nobody is going to be surprised by this one.

While lightweight champ Islam Makhachev's recent short-notice win over Renato Moicano—who replaced the injured Arman Tsarukyan—did little to improve his standing, his status as the pound-for-pound king was already set in stone.

Just think about what he's accomplished in the last few years. A submission over lightweight legend Charles Oliveira, who holds the record for most submission wins in UFC history. Two wins over the great Alexander Volkanovski—one of them a first-round KO. A submission of Dustin Poirier, one of the toughest lightweights in MMA history. All that, and we haven't even mentioned the 24 other men he beat to claim his spot atop this list.

He hasn't beaten as many former champions as Jon Jones, sure, and he admittedly doesn't have quite the knack for knockouts as Ilia Topuria, but as of February 2025, Islam Makhachev is the man in MMA.