Skip to main content
MMA Knockout

Meta AI UFC Rankings Add Several New Fighters Following UFC Baku Fight Card

Take a look at the latest updates to the UFC's Meta AI rankings.
Drew Beaupre|
(Zuffa LLC)

Following the conclusion of last weekend’s UFC Baku card, the promotion’s newly-introduced Meta AI rankings have been updated.

Preceding a rare off week that will give combat sports fans a brief respite from the UFC before Conor McGregor’s return fight at UFC 329 next weekend, last Saturday’s UFC Fight Night event saw the promotion return to Baku, Azerbaijan for the second time.

The 13-fight card featured plenty of notable results and some impressive finishes, including in the night’s headlining bout that saw Rafael Fiziev knock out Manuel Torres just 15 seconds into the second round.

Rafael Fiziev Joins Meta AI Rankings After UFC Baku Win

The win over Torres was a massive one for Fiziev, as he came into UFC Baku looking to rebound from a knockout-loss to Mauricio Ruffy that left him on a 1-4 run dating back to 2023.

“Ataman” was already included in the lightweight Top 15 for the UFC’s media panel rankings heading into the event, but the win over Torres also saw Fiziev break into the Meta AI lightweight rankings at #13.

Rafael Fiziev landed a wheel kick to kick off his finishing sequence at UFC Baku.
Rafael Fiziev landed a wheel kick to kick off his finishing sequence at UFC Baku. | (Zuffa LLC)

Torres carried the momentum of back-to-back wins into his first main event opportunity but saw his UFC record fall to 5-2 with the loss to Fiziev. Although the fight ended just 15 seconds into the second round, the UFC Baku main event did mark the first time Torres has gone past the opening round since joining the UFC off of Dana White’s Contender Series in 2021.

Ikram Aliskerov Breaks Into Meta AI Middleweight Top 10

The other major Meta AI rankings movement produced by UFC Baku came in the middleweight Top15, which experienced a significant shuffle after the event and now features one new name.

A win at UFC Baku failed to get Shara Magomedov back into the UFC rankings.
A win at UFC Baku failed to get Shara Magomedov back into the UFC rankings. | Chris Unger, Zuffa LLC

Shara Magomedov remains unranked after defeating Michel Pereira in the UFC Baku co-main event, but Abus Magomedov broke into the Meta AI rankings at #15 with his first-round submission of Michal Oleksiejczuk.

Ikram Aliskerov also moved up four places to #10 in the Meta AI middleweight rankings following his unanimous decision over Brunno Ferreira, which put Aliskerov on a three-fight winning streak following his lone UFC loss to Robert Whittaker in 2024.

The Russian’s move up to #10 dropped several fighters down one place each in the rankings. Joe Pyfer also swapped places with Brendan Allen and now sits at #4 after the latest update to the Meta UFC rankings.

Joseph Morales Makes Surprise Debut in Flyweight Rankings

There were also some minor changes in the flyweight rankings after UFC Baku, which only featured one flyweight bout out of the 13 scheduled fights.

That lone 125 lbs. matchup saw Asu Almabayev secure his third win in a row when he forced a tap from Charles Johnson with a rarely-seen suloev stretch in the third round. Almabayev moved up one spot to #6 in the Meta AI rankings and bumped Kyoji Horiguchi down to #7.

Unrelated to any of the results at UFC Baku, Joseph Morales also debuts in the Meta AI flyweight rankings at #15. Morales hasn’t competed yet this year, but he did stop Matt Schnell in the first round last November after he also submitted Alibi Idiris to become the flyweight winner of The Ultimate
Fighter Season 33.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
Drew Beaupre
DREW BEAUPRE

Drew is an MMA writer that regularly watches regional events in addition to major promotions such as the UFC, PFL, Bellator, and ONE Championship. He joined MMA Knockout when it was founded in 2023.

Home/News