Conor McGregor removed from UFC pound-for-pound rankings

Irishman has lost two of his last three fights, having been knocked out by Dustin Poirier in January

Conor McGregor after his defeat by Khabib Nurmagomedov in October 2018 (Getty Images)

Former UFC champion Conor McGregor has been removed from the promotion’s men’s pound-for-pound rankings.

McGregor captured the UFC featherweight title in December 2015 with a 13-second win over Jose Aldo and became the company’s first ever dual-weight titleholder in November 2016 by finishing Eddie Alvarez in the second round of the pair’s lightweight contest.

As such, he was one of the top fighters in the UFC’s men’s pound-for-pound list, which contains 15 names – as do the rankings for every division in the promotion.

READ MORE: What’s next for Conor McGregor? • Fights to make in aftermath of UFC 259

But with three defeats in his last six bouts, the Irishman slipped down to the bottom spot in the pound-for-pound rankings.

‘Notorious’ was submitted by Khabib Nurmagomedov in the rivals’ infamous lightweight clash in October 2018, won his next outing in January 2020 by stopping Donald Cerrone inside 40 seconds at welterweight, then suffered a second-round knockout loss toDustin Poirier two months ago.

And following UFC 259 last weekend, McGregor has fallen out of the pound-for-pound rankings entirely. The 32-year-old, who has also slipped to sixth in the lightweight rankings, was replaced by new bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling in the pound-for-pound list this week.

Sterling dethroned Petr Yan in controversial fashion in Las Vegas, as a UFC title changed hands via disqualification for the first time ever. Russian Yan landed an illegal knee on his Jamaican-American challenger in the fourth round of their five-round contest, losing his belt in his first defence and falling from 12th to 14th on the pound-for-pound list.

Elsewhere in those rankings, light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz surged from 14th to eighth following his successful first defence of his title, having outpointed middleweight titleholder Israel Adesanya in UFC 259’s main event to end ‘The Last Stylebender’s quest for champ-champ status.

As a result, Adesanya fell from third to sixth in the pound-for-pound list.

UFC men’s pound-for-pound rankings

1. Khabib Nurmagomedov (lightweight champion)

2. Jon Jones

3. Kamaru Usman (welterweight champion)

4. Stipe Miocic (heavyweight champion)

5. Alexander Volkanovski (featherweight champion)

6. Israel Adesanya (middleweight champion)

7. Dustin Poirier

8. Jan Blachowicz (light heavyweight champion)

9. Max Holloway

10. Deiveson Figueiredo (flyweight champion)

11. Justin Gaethje

12. Petr Yan

13. Robert Whittaker

14. Francis Ngannou

15. Aljamain Sterling (bantamweight champion)