What Rankings Sherdog.com Publishes and How to Read Them

Updated

Sherdog.com publishes editorial MMA rankings in two main families: divisional rankings by weight class and pound-for-pound rankings, which include a separate women's pound-for-pound Top 10. You reach them through the site's Rankings menu, which lists Divisional Rankings, Pound-for-Pound Rankings and Women's Pound-for-Pound Rankings as distinct pages. They are Sherdog's own editorial standings, not official athletic-commission results, so treat them as informed opinion rather than a governing body's ruling.

The ranking pages Sherdog organizes

The site's navigation groups rankings as a top-level section alongside News, Features, Fight Finder, Podcasts, Videos and Forum. Within that section, the published lists are:

Ranking list What it covers How to use it
Divisional Rankings Fighters ranked within their weight class Compare fighters who compete in the same division
Pound-for-Pound Rankings Fighters ranked across divisions, men's list Compare fighters regardless of weight class
Women's Pound-for-Pound Rankings Top 10 women's list across divisions Track the women's cross-divisional order

The women's list is explicitly framed as a Top 10, so expect a shorter, more selective table than a full divisional chart. The page evidence shows it being updated as a standalone item ("Sherdog's WMMA pound-for-pound Top 10: Jasudavicius enters"), which tells you the list is actively maintained rather than static.

How the rankings are updated

Rankings updates are published as news items alongside event coverage. On the homepage feed, a rankings update appears next to fight results and post-event analysis — for example, the WMMA pound-for-pound update sits beside "Matches to make after UFC Edmonton" and play-by-play results from the same card.

That placement is the practical takeaway: check the rankings pages after a major event, because Sherdog ties its updates to results. A fighter who wins on a weekend card may move on the divisional or pound-for-pound list in the following update. If you are tracking a specific fighter, read the update note (who entered, who moved) rather than assuming the whole table was rebuilt.

Reading the lists correctly

  • Divisional rankings answer "who is best at this weight?" Use them when comparing two fighters who could realistically be matched in the same division.
  • Pound-for-pound answers "who is best, period?" Use it for cross-division comparisons, but recognize it is a judgment call that weighs accomplishments across weight classes.
  • The women's Top 10 is its own list. Don't assume a fighter's position there maps onto a divisional ranking; they are separate editorial products.
  • These are not official standings. No athletic commission or sanctioning body issues them. Sherdog describes itself as an industry pioneer covering MMA since 1997, and the rankings reflect that editorial voice.

A concrete way to use them

Suppose you want to know where a fighter sits after a win. Start at the Rankings section, open the divisional page for that fighter's weight class, then check the pound-for-pound page if the fighter is a champion or top contender. Cross-check the latest rankings update in the news feed to see whether the change was noted and why. If the fighter competes in a women's division, check the women's pound-for-pound Top 10 as well, since that list is updated separately.

For context on results behind any movement, the site's Fight Finder and event calendar sit in the same navigation, so you can verify a fighter's recent record before drawing conclusions from a ranking position.