The UFC rankings are formed by a voting panel made up of several media members and were first released in February 2013. The media representatives are asked to vote for the UFC fighters they believe to be the best in each weight class and pound-for-pound comparison in order to rank them.
They also vote on fighter rankings based on their performance regardless of weight class to determine who the top fighters are. Following the collection of all the votes, the UFC adjusts the rankings based on the final results. This is what? The members of the voting panel are not required to vote according to any particular guidelines.
To determine who is the better fighter relative to their weight in combat sports like boxing, wrestling, and mixed martial arts, a ranking system called “pound for pound” (i.e., adjusted to account for weight class) is used.
| Rank | Fighter | Record | Win Streak | Weight class | Status | |
| 1 | Alexander Volkanovski | 25–1 | 22 | Featherweight | Featherweight Champion | |
| 2 | Islam Makhachev | 23–1 | 11 | Lightweight | Lightweight Champion | |
| 3 | Leon Edwards | 20–3 (1 NC) | 2 | Welterweight | Welterweight Champion | |
| 4 | Kamaru Usman | 20–2 | 0 | Welterweight | #1 in welterweight rankings | |
| 5 | Francis Ngannou | 17–3 | 6 | Heavyweight | Heavyweight Champion | |
| 6 | Israel Adesanya | 23–2 | 0 | Middleweight | #1 in middleweight rankings | |
| 7 | Charles Oliveira | 33–9 (1 NC) | 0 | Lightweight | #1 in lightweight rankings | |
| 8 | Alex Pereira | 7-1-0 (W-L-D) | 7 | Middleweight | ||
| 9 | Aljamain Sterling | 22–3 | 8 | Bantamweight | Bantamweight Champion | |
| 10 | Jiří Procházka | 29–3–1 | 13 | Light heavyweight | Light Heavyweight Champion | |
| 11 | Dustin Poirier | 29–7 (1 NC) | 1 | Lightweight | #2 in lightweight rankings | |
| 12 | Deiveson Figueiredo | 21–2–1 | 1 | Flyweight | Flyweight Champion | |
| 13 | Jon Jones | 26–1 (1 NC) | 4 | Light heavyweight | ||
| 14 | Brandon Moreno | 20–6–2 | 1 | Flyweight | Interim Flyweight Champion | |
| 15 | Brandon Moreno | 20–6–2 | 1 | Flyweight | Interim Flyweight Champion |
