Former UFC featherweight kingpin, Jose Aldo has shot up the official bantamweight rankings this evening amid the updated standings — leapfrogging recent interim title challenger, Cory Sandhagen into the #3 slot in the division.
Manaus favorite, Aldo headlined UFC Vegas 44 on Saturday at the UFC Apex facility, lodging his third consecutive unanimous decision victory with an impressive judging win against New England Cartel staple, Rob Font.
The Brazilian started relatively slow against the Massachusetts native — who stuck behind a lightning-fast jab, however, toward the end of the first round, Aldo dropped Font with a jab-straight combination, almost forcing a late-round finish.
Throughout the remainder of the main event tilt, Aldo would go on to wobble and drop Font on two more separate occasions, and when following the streaking striker to the canvas, managed to amass some significant control time on top. Riding out the remainder of the fifth clasped on the back of Font, Aldo scored a unanimous decision win (50-45, 50-45, 49-46), as well as embarking on a three-fight winning streak for the first time since his infamous featherweight title loss to Conor McGregor back in December 2015.
The victory follows prior unanimous decision wins for Aldo over his compatriot, Pedro Munhoz back in August, as well as a UFC Vegas 17 judging win over Marlon Vera in December last year.
Upon the release of the updated official rankingsthis Tuesday evening, Aldo has leapfrogged both opponent, Font and the aforenoted, Sandhagen into the bantamweight top-3 — coming in at #3, one-slot behind former two-time division kingpin, T.J. Dillashaw — who he has continuously called to action in a potential bantamweight title-eliminator.
Also in the bantamweight division, former champion, Dominick Cruz climbs above Marlon Moraes into the #9 rank ahead of this weekend’s UFC 269 return against the #8 rated, Munhoz.
Off the back of his incredible wheel kick knockout win over Brad Riddell in the co-headliner of UFC Vegas 44, Rafael Fiziev now sits at #11 in the lightweight pile.
In a random shuffle at middleweight, former champion, Chris Weidman moves to #13 while incoming welterweight returner, Kevin Holland slides to #14.
Returning to the winner’s enclosure with a first round knockout win over Jimmy Crute, Illinois native, Jamahal Hill moves to #12 at light heavyweight — moving past Crute and recent headliner, Ryan Spann.
In another random shuffle, promotional-perfect striker, Giga Chikadze moves to #7 at featherweight ahead of next months’ headliner against the returning, Calvin Kattar.
Despite his first round knockout win over Zhalgas Zhumagulov, former Rizin FF bantamweight championship holder, Manel Kape remains unmoved at flyweight, with Amir Albazi moving to #12 at 125lbs.
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