Fight Matrix updates the Current MMA Rankings once a week. As the deepest and most inclusive ranking system in the sport, fights all over the globe can have a major impact on the rankings. Let’s take a look at the biggest risers in the divisional rankings. The number in parenthesis is the number of spots that the fighter moved up from the last issued rankings. For the purpose of this article, fighters who were unranked in the previous ranking iteration are excluded unless otherwise noted.
Heavyweight
Michal Andryszak #76 (48)
Andryszak finds himself with his highest ranking ever after defeating UFC veteran Tim Hague at ACB 41. “Longer” sports a 17-6 record and has won three-fights in a row since falling to Salimgirey Rasulov last year. The entire ACB 41 event is available for free on YouTube.
Light Heavyweight
Cassio Lisboa #143 (20)
Light Heavyweight always seems to be the most stagnant division. This week’s biggest mover is a 3-0 fighter from Brazil. In his last outing, Lisboa scored a third-round toe-hold-submission victory over Hugo Lezama Inurreta at Xtreme Kombat 32.
Middleweight
Nills van Noord #168 (111)
In his last fight, Van Noord scored a submission victory over Janis Novicks last May. The Bob Schrijber protege has gone undefeated in five bouts since falling to Lee Chadwick in 2014. Van Noord is 15-6-2 since making his MMA debut in 2007.
Welterweight
Luiz Cado Simon #214 (218)
Simon moved up 218 spots in the rankings after receiving credit for his victory over Rodrigo Cavalheiro Correia last month. His previous high ranking was #302 in 2014. Early in his career, Simon faced off against current Bellator middleweight champion Rafael Carvalho but he failed to make the final bell and was knocked out.
Lightweight
Dave Mazany #158 (102)
Mazany made the trip to South African and scored a submission victory over Leon Mynhardt at EFC 51. The well traveled Xtreme Couture representative holds victories over Vik Grujic, Steve Kennedy and Shane Campbell.
Featherweight
Andrey Lezhnev #186 (96)
Lezhnev defeated Lee Morrison at last weekend’s M-1 Challenge 69 show. The Ukrainian fighter now holds 9-6 and has been competing exclusively under the M-1 banner for his last five fights.
Bantamweight
Kazuma Sone #147 (157)
Sone scored a pretty big upset at last weekend’s Shooto show. He defeated Taiki Tsuchiya and moved up 157 spots in the rankings. For his career, Sone is 20-13-1 and has spent the majority of his career in Heat.
Flyweight
Tateki Matsuda #70 (14)
Since being released from the UFC last year, Matsuda has picked up a pair of victories. In his last fight, he scored a first-round knockout over Joe Pearson at Legacy Fighting Championship 51. It will likely only take a few more wins to get back to the Octagon as both of his UFC losses were close decisions.
Strawweight
Ryohei “Ken Asuka” Kurosawa #6 (Previously Unranked)
After being dropped due to inactivity Ken Asuka returned to the strawweight rankings at #6. He scored a victory over Ryuto Sawada for Shooto. The 23-year-old fighter is now 10-1 with his only loss coming against veteran Junji Ito.
This week there was not any major movement in the women’s featherweight, women’s bantamweight, women’s flyweight, women’s strawweight or women’s atomweight divisions.
Richard Mann currently runs the data-driven MMA blog StrikeScoreMMA.com