Sherdog’s Official Mixed Martial Arts Rankings

It wasn’t pretty, but Movsar Evloev kept his undefeated record intact at UFC 297.

The Russian improved to 18-0 with a unanimous decision triumph over fellow featherweight contender Arnold Allen in a featured bout at the Scotiabank Center in Toronto on Saturday night. While Evloev likely didn’t earn many new fans with the performance, he did improve to 8-0 in UFC competition while adding a significant notch to his belt. That allows the former M-1 Global champion to climb from 10th to sixth — one spot ahead of Allen — in Sherdog’s latest divisional rankings.

Elsewhere, Dricus Du Plessis claimed the middleweight throne with a hard-fought split-decision triumph against Sean Strickland in the UFC 297 headliner. That makes nine consecutive victories for the newly crowned South African champion, who takes over the No. 2 spot in the middleweight rankings — just behind Alex Pereira, who is currently entrenched as UFC light heavyweight champion but owns emphatic 185-pound victories over Strickland and Israel Adesanya.

Finally, Raquel Pennington’s determination paid off, as she captured the vacant women’s bantamweight title with a grinding victory over Mayra Bueno Silva in the UFC 297 co-main event. “Rocky” has won six straight in UFC competition and advances to No. 2 at 135 pounds, where a showdown with ex-champ Julianna Pena could loom large in the months to come.