Khabib Nurmagomedov Ranked Higher Than Jon Jones In MMA Pound-For-Pound Ratings

Khabib Nurmagomedov has been named as the number one pound-for-pound fighter in mixed martial arts, beating UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones to the top spot.

The Russian has won 12 fights in a row since joining UFC in January 2012 to take his overall MMA record to 25-0 and won the UFC lightweight title in April 2018, since defending it on two occasions.

Despite that run he hasn't been able to move 'Bones' Jones from the number one ranking according to the UFC's pound-for-pound list.

However the Eagle is number one across all MMA according to MMAJunkie, who have released their updated list:

MMAJunkie's top 10 pound-for-pound. Image: MMAJunkie

Khabib has only fought once in 2019, thanks in part to his suspension because of what happened following his win over Conor McGregor, but he reasserted his dominance over the lightweight division when he beat Dustin Poirier.

Going into the fight Poirier was the interim champion but he was totally dominated by Khabib before the Russian won by a submission.

Next up for 'the Eagle' is a fight against Tony Ferguson. The two men have been scheduled to face each other on four previous occasions and on every occasion one of the two has had to back out for differing reasons.

Now they'll finally get to face at UFC 249 in April and it'll be difficult to find someone to face Khabib should he win.

Jones fought twice this year against Anthony Smith and Thiago Santos and both proved harder title defences than some might have thought.

Smith could have won by DQ after a controversial knee from Jones when his opponent looked down whilst Santos put up a great fight and might have been able to win had it not been for picking up an injury during the fight.

The 32-year-old's next title defence will be on an ESPN+ PPV on February 8th against Dominick Reyes.

Max Holloway dropped out of the top 10 after his loss to Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 245 last week, which saw the Australian take the featherweight title.

Conor McGregor currently doesn't appear in the top 15 after more than a year out of the octagon but the Irishman will return in January to face Donald Cerrone.

Does Khabib deserve to be number one?

Topics: Khabib Nurmagomedov, Jon Jones, Pound for pound, Stipe Miocic, Daniel Cormier, UFC News, MMA News, Henry Cejudo, UFC, MMA, Israel Adesanya

Ryan Sidle

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