Conor McGregor has moved up the UFC rankings in the welterweight & lightweight divisions as well as the pound-for-pound rankings.

The presence of McGregor in the rankings during his two big stints away from the sport between UFC 205 & UFC 229 and UFC 229 & UFC 246 certainly divided the opinion of fans, and now, it feels as if there’s going to be even more uproar than before in the wake of the rankings being released.

As we all know McGregor was able to defeat Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone via TKO inside 40 seconds at UFC 246 this past weekend, and as it turns out, that win has been much more profitable for him in the rankings than anyone could’ve imagined.

In terms of the pound-for-pound rankings, McGregor has actually been able to go up two spots from #13 to #11 – leapfrogging Valentina Shevchenko and Max Holloway in the process. The only non-champion to be ranked above McGregor now is Tony Ferguson who sits at #10.

Despite not actually winning a fight at lightweight since back at UFC 205 against Eddie Alvarez, “The Notorious” has gone above Justin Gaethje into #3 with “The Highlight” dropping to #4, with the two men being heavily linked with one another in the past few months.

McGregor has also made his presence known in the welterweight rankings thanks to his win over “Cowboy”, making himself comfortable at #14 with Neil Magny dropping to #15. By entering the welterweight rankings, McGregor forced fellow Paradigm fighter Li Jingliang out of the rankings. 

The nature of the ranking changes for Conor McGregor will undoubtedly lead to a lot of speculation amongst fans, as well as some criticism of the rankings system. Nonetheless, this just confirms that the Ultimate Fighting Championship is well and truly back in the Conor McGregor business in a big way in 2020.

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 1/22/2020.