Rizin Fighting Federation has announced the signing of former UFC interim champion Shane Carwin. The 41-year-old fighter will return to action for the first time since 2011 in the second round of the Openweight Grand Prix on New Year’s Eve week. Carwin first earned a spot in the Quarterly Generated Historical Rankings 2006 and stayed there until his retirement. His peak ranking, #4 heavyweight, came in April 2010 after he defeated Frank Mir for the interim belt. Carwin was last ranked #6 heavyweight April 2011. Of the remaining fighters in the tournament, only Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Wanderlei Silva have higher peak rankings. However, Filipovic’s peak came in 2007 and Silva’s in 2005.

This past weekend Rizin Fighting Federation hosted their fourth event. The card featured several ranked fighters, and the results have made an impact on the Fight Matrix rankings. The following is a breakdown of some of the changes in the rankings after the event.

Rankings Return
Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic returned to the heavyweight rankings following his first round submission over Hyun Man Myung. He is now the #31 heavyweight. Myung was unranked headed into the event, but since “Cro Cop” had been dropped from the rankings due to inactivity a simple win was enough to put him back in the top 50.

Rankings Debut
Three fighters, Kron Gracie, Amir Aliakbari and Kanako Murata, made their rankings debut following the event.

Gracie defeated veteran Hideo Tokoro in the main event and now finds himself as the #293 featherweight.

Former two-time world champion Greco-Roman wrestler Amir Aliakbari easily dispatched the former #89 heavyweight Joao Almeida and makes his rankings debut at #116.

Finally, junior world champion wrestler Kanako Murata bested the former #7 atomweight Kyra Batara in order to debut at #39 strawweight.

Moving Up
On a weekend that included plenty of talk about the dearth of challengers for Cris “Cyborg” Justino‘s throne, there was another example in Japan. After going 3-0 against opponents with a combined 2-0 previous record, Gabi Garcia finds herself ranked #9 in the featherweight and over division. She jumped up five spots after defeating Destanie Yarbrough in the card’s opening bout.
Valentin Moldavsky defeated the former #54 heavyweight and moved up 129 spots in the rankings. He is now the #88 heavyweight.

Szymon Bajor went from #125 to #87 heavyweight following his victory over Teodoras Aukstuolis. The Lithuanian fighter had been ranked as the #105 heavyweight.

Dropped Out
Batara actually manged to drop from a top-10 spot to unranked. There are a few factors at play. First, her previous #7 ranking at atomweight was at least partially due to a lack of talent at 105 pounds. For this fight, she bumped up to strawweight and took the loss. So, not only did she lose, but she also reclassified at a much deeper weightclass. If she returns to Combate Americas and wins another atomweight fight, she will most likely return to the top 10.

Richard Mann currently runs the data-driven MMA blog StrikeScoreMMA.com

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.

Heavyweight
Christian Colombo #123 (52)
Denmark’s Colombo moved up 52 spots after fighting to a draw with Jarjis Danho in his UFC debut. He is now undefeated in seven-straight bouts since falling to current UFC fighter Viktor Pesta in 2012.

Middleweight
Mauricio Alonso #152 (97)
Alonso last fought in the main event of Dragon House 23. There, he scored a unanimous-decision victory over Justin Baseman. The Brazilian fighter holds a 12-7 record as a professional. In his only really big show experience, he fell to Nick Pica on the undercard of Bellator 142 – Dynamite last September.

Welterweight
Ismail Naurdiev #273 (285)
Austrian fighter Naurdiev is now riding a six-fight winning streak after defeating Daniel Skibinski at World Free Fight Challenge 20 on Aug. 27. The 20-year-old fighter trains with Thaiboxing MMA Salzburg.

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.

Heavyweight
Igor Sliusarchuk #159 (36)
It looks like the correction in the rankings system has rewarded Sliusarchuk with a 36 spot bump. The Ukrainian fighter last fought on Dec. 19 when he scored a 45-second knockout over Emil Zahariev. The 27-year-old fighter holds a 19-8 record as a professional.

Middleweight
Alessio Di Chirico #124 (94)
Di Chirico has quickly risen up the rankings. At UFC on Fox 21, he scored his first UFC victory over Garreth McLellan via split decision. The win improved his record to 10-1. Despite beginning his professional career in 2011, he was allowed to the 2014 IMMAF amateur world championships where he took first place.

Other Notables: Ken Hasegawa #59 (34)

Welterweight
Vuyisile Colossa #284 (134)
The One Championship veteran got back on the winning track with a third-round knockout victory over Marcelo Tenorio under the IMPI World Series Banner. Prior to that, he had lost to Elnur Agaev for Kunlun Fight in his only other bout of 2016. The South African kickboxer fought on the very first One Championship card and holds a 3-1 record in the promotion.

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.

Heavyweight
DJ Linderman #78 (116)
After dropping back-to-back fights, Linderman got back on track with a decision victory over Derrick Mehmen. Mehmen’s original opponent Jack May dropped out with an injury, so Linderman took the fight on short notice. The Bellator and World Series of Fighting veteran now holds a 20-11 record.

HM: Justin Ledet #137 (89)

Light Heavyweight
Ednaldo Oliveira #173 (60)
Since leaving the UFC in 2013, Oliveira has gone 2-1. After losing to Mikhail Mokhnatkin, he rebounded nicely with a decision victory over Khristhian da Silva Oliveira on July 30.

Middleweight
Markus Perez Echeimberg #157 (91)
Echeimberg moved up 91 spots in the middleweight rankings after receiving credit for his June 25 victory over UFC veteran Paulo Thiago. The prospect is now 7-0 after beginning his professional career in 2013.

HM:Trevor Smith #50 (23)

Welterweight
Thiago Oliveira #289 (133)
Oliveira earned credit for his May 14 victory over Sergio Mesquita and bumped up 133 spots. He is now riding a seven-fight winning streak that dates back to 2012. The Gracie Barra Bahia product now holds a 12-3 record as a professional.

The preceding graph shows the ranking points for the highest ranked fighter for the UFC, Bellator, World Series of Fighting and One Championship in the current rankings release. Ranking points are the result of the FightMatrix computerized rating system and used to determine ranking. In short, the higher number of points means a higher ranking.

As you can see, the UFC has the top ranked fighter in all of the listed divisions. #4 Phil Davis has the most points of anyone not in the UFC, and Bellator welterweight champion #9 Andrey Koreshkov is not far behind.

Fighters not in the UFC do not always have access to top competition. This can lead to a gradual decline in rankings. #33 Ben Askren has gone undefeated in One Championship, but his ranking points have fallen from 376, when he signed, all the way down to 169.

The following list shows the top ranked fighter to have last fought for each promotion. Ranking points are listed in parenthesis.

Heavyweight
UFC: #1 Stipe Miocic (1046)
Bellator: #12 Quinton Jackson (196)
WSOF: #22 Blagoy Ivanov (137)
One: #37 Roger Gracie (82)

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.

Heavyweight
Anthony Hamilton #40 (39)
Hamilton had the best striking performance of UFC career and finished Damian Grabowski in only 14 seconds. At #40 he has nearly returned to his Highest Quarterly Ranking which was #35 in 2014.

Light Heavyweight
Leonardo Silva de Oliveira #157 (59)
Oliveira last fought on June 25 when he scored a second-round knockout over Alexandre Nunes Brandao The Brazilian prospect is not 6-0 with five knockouts and one submission.

Middleweight
Trevin Giles #163 (70)
On Last Friday’s Resurrection Fighting Alliance show, Giles made his promotional debut and took home a submission victory over Josh Clark. The victory improved his professional record to 7-0 including four submissions and three knockouts. Giles is scheduled to return at Legacy FC 59 on Sept. 16 against Bellator veteran Isaac Villanueva.

Welterweight
Wendell de Oliveira Marques #215 (184)
Marques jumped up 184 spots in the rankings after receiving credit for his victory over Gilmar Dutra Lima at Imortal FC 5 “Road to Pancrase.” The X-Gym product has been competing professionally since 2006 and has built a 26-10 record. He has gone 2-1 since being released from the UFC in 2015 following losses to Santiago Ponzinibbio and Darren Till.

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.

Heavyweight
Francis Ngannou #50 (15)
After three UFC fights, Ngannou has made his way into the top 50. Last Saturday, he scored his third knockout in the promotion in only 94 seconds against debuting Bojan Mihajlovic. It will be interesting to see how the UFC matches him going forward since he is already 29 years old and still somewhat raw.

Middleweight
Chris Harris #163 (24)
Harris scored a first-round rear-naked-choke submission over Matt Foster on the undercard of Bellator 159. With the victory, he improved his professional record to 7-0. The Kansas native is now also 2-0 on Bellator undercards. He previously defeated Julian Marquez at Bellator 150.

Welterweight
Mike Perry #107 (101)
On May 14, Perry scored a second-round knockout over David Mundell in the main event of a Battleground show. The Team Sparta member holds a 6-0 record with all of his wins coming via knockout.

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.

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.

Heavyweight
Brock Lesnar #6
Technically Lesnar does not qualify for this list since he was not ranked going into last week. However, he returned from an extended layoff and scored a victory over Mark Hunt at UFC 200. The win earned him the 6th spot in the heavyweight rankings. Lesnar was last ranked #7 in 2013. Besides Lesnar, there was no major movement in the heavyweight division.

Light Heavyweight
Darren Stewart #82 (24)
Stewart scored a third-round knockout over Boubacar Balde at Cage Warriors FC 77 this past weekend. With the victory, Stewart improved his career record to 7-0 and moved up 24 spots in the light heavyweight rankings. The fight and the entire event is available on UFC Fight Pass.

Middleweight
Tim Williams #82 (50)
Since dropping a pair of bouts against UFC fighter Anthony Smith last year, Williams has picked up three wins in a row. In his last outing, he scored an upset over Nah-Shon Burrell at CFFC 59. He also holds victories over UFC veterans Andre Gusmao and Ron Stallings.