Rankings Shakeup: Francis Ngannou is back, but is he MMA’s No. 1 heavyweight again?

Francis Ngannou was the undisputed finest heavyweight on the planet when he left the UFC. Now that he’s formally a PFL champion, does he regain the highest spot?

That’s the query posed to the MMA Preventing rankings panel following Ngannou’s emotional knockout of Renan Ferreira within the Battle of the Giants major occasion, which marked Ngannou’s first MMA battle since January 2022. “The Predator” made probably the most of his time away from the cage, reserving profitable boxing matches towards Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, however he wasn’t energetic in MMA and that meant an computerized removing from our heavyweight listing.

In his absence, Jon Jones bulldozed Ciryl Gane to assert the belt vacated by Ngannou, and a surge of contenders made their mark, most notably present interim UFC champion Tom Aspinall. Jones—additionally presently out of the rankings resulting from inactivity—is about to battle Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 in November, however Aspinall already has one up on “Bones” as he has already recorded a profitable heavyweight title protection, one thing Jones is but to do.

Due to that, Aspinall is our No. 1 for now, although two panelists noticed match to shift their allegiance to the returning Ngannou. Not solely that, he positioned excessive sufficient on the opposite ballots to leap all the way in which to the No. 2 spot, forward of a number of notable names. It goes to indicate that Ngannou’s mystique stays as sturdy as ever and so long as he continues to ship on battle night time, his place within the heavyweight hierarchy is safe.

Take a look at the newest version of the MMA Preventing heavyweight rankings and tell us the place you rank Ngannou within the ballot beneath.