Honorable Mention

Umar Nurmagomedov

Promotion: UFC

Umar Nurmagomedov is another up-and-coming Fighter, who deserves an honorable mention. He is undefeated with a record of 15-0 and is ranked #13 by the UFC.

Dominick Cruz

Promotion: UFC

Dominick Cruz is widely regarded as the best bantamweight of all time. He is an American MMA fighter with a record of 24 wins and 3 losses. 

He is the former WEC and UFC Bantamweight champion. However, he has had a lot of trouble with injuries over his career. Cruz has notable wins over Demetrious Johnson, Takeya Mizugaki, TJ Dillashaw, Urijah Faber, and Pedro Munhoz

In his most recent fight, Cruz lost to Marlon Vera, and his next fight has not been announced yet.

Ricky Simon

Promotion: UFC

Ricky Simon is a professional MMA fighter from the USA, and he has a record of 20 wins and 3 losses. 

Simon is currently on a 5-fight winning streak and has notable wins over Raphael Assunção, and Brian Kelleher. 

In his most recent fight, Simon defeated Jack Shore and his next fight has not been announced yet.

 

Top 10 MMA Bantamweight Rankings

10. Song Yadong

Promotion: UFC

Song Yadong is a young MMA fighter from China, and he has a professional record of 20 wins, 6 losses, 1 draw, and 1 no-contest. 

He has notable wins over Marlon Vera, Casey Kenney, and Marlon Moraes. After a loss against Cory Sandhagan, he came back in his most recent fight and defeated Ricky Simón via TKO, and there is no official announcement about his next fight yet.

 

 

 

9. Sergio Pettis

Promotion: Bellator

Title: Bellator Bantamweight Champion

Sergio Pettis is a former UFC fighter with a record of 22-5, who now fights in Bellator. He is on an impressive five-fight win streak and is the current Bellator bantamweight world champion.

In his most recent fight, he defended the title against Kyoji Horiguchi, and as of now, there is no official announcement about his next fight.

8. Rob Font

Promotion: UFC

Rob Font is an American professional MMA fighter with a record of 20 wins and 6 losses. 

Font has been fighting in the UFC for quite a while now, and has many impressive wins over fighters like Thomas Almeida, Sergio Pettis, Marlon Moraes, and Cody Garbrandt. 

In his most recent fight, he defeated Adrian Yanez via 1st round TKO and his next fight has not been announced yet.

Rob Font really had some absolute bricks in his hands this past weekend against Yanez 😮‍💨
pic.twitter.com/4NSAeEWIQU

— 𝙼𝙼𝙰 𝙼𝚊𝚛𝚌𝚞𝚜 🏝 (@mmamarcuss) April 12, 2023

 

 

 

7. Petr Yan

Promotion: UFC

Petr Yan is a Russian MMA fighter, with a Professional record of 15 wins and 5 losses. 

He is the former UFC 135-pound champion and briefly held the Interim title as well. Yan has impressive wins over Jimmie Rivera, Urijah Faber, Jose Aldo, and Cory Sandhagan. 

At UFC 280, Petr Yan fought Sean O'Malley. He lost the fight via controversial split decision, as many people believed he had actually done enough to win the fight, having scored multiple takedowns. However, O’Malley did have bigger moments on the feet and cut Yan quite badly with a Knee in the last round.

Now he has lost three fights in a row, and in his most recent fight, he lost to Merab Merab Dvalishvili via unanimous decision. His next fight has not been announced yet.

 

 

 

6. Marlon Vera

Promotion: UFC

Marlon Vera is an MMA fighter from Ecuador. He has a professional record of 20 wins and 8 losses.

Marlon Vera has multiple impressive wins over fighters like Brad Pickett, Sean O'Malley, Frankie Edgar, and Rob Font. Vera also defeated former Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz via knockout. 

In his most recent fight, he lost to Cory Sandhagan via Split Decision, and his next fight has not been announced yet.

 

 

5. Cory Sandhagen

Promotion: UFC

Cory Sandhagen is an American MMA fighter, with a Professional record of 16 wins and 4 losses. 

Sandhagan has multiple impressive wins in the division, over fighters like John Lineker, Raphael Assunção, Marlon Moraes, Frankie Edgar and Song Yadong.

In his most recent fight, he had an impressive win against Marlon Vera, and there is no official announcement about who he will fight next.

"How to control the centerline by Cory Sandhagen"
The key is actually how Sandhagen is using just enough distance and slight offbeats to read the engagements.
1) The handfight keeps Vera's attention/reactive and lets Cory constantly employ other tools first. pic.twitter.com/8OV3zBMbc2

— Dan A. (@TypewritingDA) March 26, 2023

 

 

 

4. Henry Cejudo

Promotion: UFC

Henry Cejudo is a professional MMA fighter from the USA, and he has an MMA Record of 16 wins and 3 losses. 

Cejudo is a former Olympic Gold Medalist in Wrestling, and he held both the Flyweight and bantamweight titles in the UFC. Cejudo has several impressive wins over big names like Demetierious Johnson, TJ Dillashaw, and Dominick Cruz.

Last weekend, he came out of retirement after 3 years to fight for the Bantamweight title. However, he lost the fight via Split Decision, and his next fight has not been announced yet.

 

 

 

3. Sean O’Malley

Promotion: UFC

Sean O’Malley is an American Professional MMA fighter, with a record of 16 wins, 1 loss, and 1 no-contest. 

O’Malley has won 7 out of 9 UFC fights and won post-fight bonuses in all 7 fights. Most of his wins have come against unranked opponents, however, in his most recent fight, he defeated Petr Yan in a controversial Split Decision

As of now, there is no announcement about O’Malley’s next fight.

A thread on the biggest shots in Petr Yan vs Sean O'Malley:

O'Malley starts off playing with the hand fight from orthodox, but pulls his hand back and feints a jab, but Yan doesn't bite.

Sean goes to southpaw, feints again but follows through with a gigantic shifting left.

1/5 pic.twitter.com/aTNGqqWDxL

— Miguel Class (@MigClass) October 23, 2022

 

 

 

2. Merab Dvalishvili

Promotion: UFC

Merab Dvalishvili is a professional MMA fighter from Georgia, and he has a record of 16 wins and 4 losses. 

Dvalishvili is ranked #1 in the official UFC rankings and is currently on a 9-fight winning streak in the UFC. He has wins over fighters like Casey Kenney, John Dodson, Marlon Moraes, and Jose Aldo. 

In his most recent fight, he defeated former bantamweight champion Petr Yan, and there is no official announcement about his next fight.

All succesful takedowns and reversals from Merab Dvalishvili on Petr Yan

im actually impressed with both guys upon rewatching this. crazy paced fight pic.twitter.com/S6qI9FlyGQ

— schwick (@schwick6) March 14, 2023

1. Aljamain Sterling

Promotion: UFC

Title: UFC Bantamweight World Champion

Aljamain Sterling is an American MMA fighter, with a record of 23 wins and 3 losses. 

He is the current UFC bantamweight champion, and as of last weekend, is the only champion at bantamweight to make three simultaneous title defenses.

Sterling won the title last year by disqualification when his opponent Petr Yan threw an illegal knee, however, at UFC 273, Sterling defeated Yan via Split Decision, and retained the title. 

At UFC 280, Aljamain Sterling fought TJ Dillashaw. However, Dillashaw came in with a bad shoulder injury, which caused his shoulder to pop out in the first round. Sterling won in the second round via TKO. Last weekend, at UFC 288, Sterling won a split decision against Henry Cejudo, after a very competitive 5 rounds.

All takedowns from Aljamain Sterling vs Henry Cejudo pic.twitter.com/90MyxOl8kZ

— schwick (@schwick6) May 7, 2023

 

 

Where do you rank these Contenders and Champions? Rank below to be added in the Mixed Martial Arts Rankings 

Related Links:

• Top 10 MMA Bantamweight Rankings
• Top 10 MMA Middleweight Rankings
• Top 10 MMA Light Heavyweight Rankings
• Top 10 MMA Flyweight Rankings
• Top 10 MMA Lightweight Rankings
• Top 10 MMA Featherweight Rankings
• Top 10 MMA Heavyweight Rankings
• Top 10 MMA Women’s Flyweight Rankings
• Top 10 MMA Women’s Strawweight Rankings