Merab Dvalishvili & Kayla Harrison jump up pound-for-pound rankings after UFC 316

Some huge wins at UFC 316 last Saturday unsurprisingly caused some significant movement in the UFC rankings this week.

Topped by a bantamweight double feature for the promotion’s men’s and women’s 135 lbs. belts, UFC 316 saw Merab Dvalishvili defend his men’s title for the second time when he closed out the night by submitting Sean O’Malley in a rematch of their first meeting at UFC 306.

The co-main event between defending women’s titleholder Julianna Peña and Kayla Harrison also ended via submission, with Harrison locking up a kimura in the second round to claim UFC gold as a massive pre-fight favorite over Peña.

Merab Dvalishvili & Kayla Harrison Get P4P Boost

Harrison now sits atop the women’s bantamweight rankings after winning UFC gold, and the two-time Olympic gold medalist also moved up four places in the women’s pound-for-pound rankings to the #3 spot.

Kayla Harrison (blue gloves) reacts after defeating Julianna Pena (not pictured) in a bantamweight title bout during UFC 316. — Kayla Harrison (blue gloves) reacts after defeating Julianna Pena (not pictured) in a bantamweight title bout during UFC 316 at Prudential Center. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Peña previously held the #3 ranking and dropped down two places to #5, and now the only two fighters ahead of Harrison on the women’s pound-for-pound list are Flyweight Champion Valentina Shevchenko and Strawweight Champion Weili Zhang.

Dvalishvili’s second title defense also earned him a bump in the men’s pound-for-pound rankings, as “The Machine” passed both Ilia Topuria and Jon Jones and now holds the #2 spot below Islam Makhachev.

Merab Dvalishvili (red gloves) reacts after defeating Sean O’Malley (not pictured) in a bantamweight title fight. — Merab Dvalishvili (red gloves) reacts after defeating Sean O’Malley (not pictured) in a bantamweight title fight during UFC 316 at Prudential Center. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Kevin Holland Rejoins Rankings, Joshua Van Cracks Top 10

Outside of the UFC 316 title fights, other major winners from the event included Joshua Van and Kevin Holland, who rejoined the UFC rankings as the promotion’s #14 welterweight thanks to his submission-win over Vicente Luque.

Bruno Silva (red gloves) fights Joshua Van (blue gloves) during UFC 316 at Prudential Center. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Van came into his featured prelim matchup with Bruno Silva as the UFC’s #14-ranked flyweight, and after stopping Silva with strikes for his fourth-straight win the 23-year-old jumped up four places to crack the flyweight Top 10.

Waldo Cortes-Acosta also jumped up three places to #8 in the heavyweight Top 15 thanks to a narrow win over Serghei Spivac, plus Cong Wang broke into the women’s flyweight rankings at #14 after scoring her second win in a row against longtime UFC veteran Ariane da Silva.

Mario Bautista (red gloves) fights Patchy Mix (blue gloves) during UFC 316 at Prudential Center. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Undefeated light heavyweight Azamat Murzakanov now sits on the cusp of the division’s Top 10 after moving up to #11 with a first-round finish of Brendson Ribeiro, and Mario Bautista moved up to #9 in the bantamweight rankings after spoiling Patchy Mix’s Octagon debut to give Bautista an incredible eight wins in a row.

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