On an official UFC fight card, most names come with a small tag. A "C" marks the champion, and a number from 1 to 15 shows where the fighter sits in the division's rankings. UFC.com's card for UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi on October 24, 2026 lists its featherweight title fight as Alexander Volkanovski, C, against Movsar Evloev, #1. Since June 2026 those numbers have come from two different systems, which explains why a fighter's rank can look different depending on where you check it.
What the C, the numbers and NR mean
The C is the division's champion. UFC.com's rankings page puts the champion above the numbered list, and the same goes for an interim champion when a division has one. The notes on that page treat both as holding the top positions in their division, so neither is voted on in the weight-class rankings.
Below the champion come 15 numbered places. #1 is the top contender, #15 the last ranked fighter. A small arrow beside a name shows how many places the fighter moved since the last update, and NR means the fighter was not ranked before, which marks someone new to the top 15. Fighters outside the top 15 have no number, and on a fight card they appear without a tag.
There are also pound-for-pound lists, one for men and one for women. These compare fighters across divisions, and unlike the weight-class lists they can include champions. On September 22, 2026, Islam Makhachev, the welterweight champion, was first on the men's list and Valentina Shevchenko, who gave up the women's flyweight title through injury earlier in September, was first on the women's. A fighter can also be ranked in more than one division at the same time.
The media panel
The older of the two systems is a vote. UFC.com says these rankings are produced by a voting panel of media members, who are asked to vote for the fighters they think are the best in each weight class and pound for pound. Only fighters with active status in the UFC can be voted on. On September 22, 2026 the page named 22 outlets on the panel, from the Wrestling Observer and MMA Weekly to Brazil's Gazeta Esportiva, Sweden's Kimura.se and KHON, a TV station in Honolulu. UFC.com does not publish the individual ballots or explain how the votes are combined.
The Meta UFC Rankings
On June 22, 2026, UFC and Meta, the UFC's official fan technology partner, announced the Meta UFC Rankings. From that date, the UFC said, it would begin moving its official rankings away from the media panel and toward the new system, which is based entirely on fight data. UFC president Dana White said he had "always believed there had to be a better way".
According to the announcement, the Meta rankings are calculated automatically and updated by the Monday after every UFC event. The system combines statistical modeling and machine learning with input from the UFC, and it looks at outcome probability, how a fight was won, a fighter's trajectory and differences between weight classes. Beating a higher-ranked opponent counts for more than beating a lower-ranked one, and a dominant finish over a top-five contender counts for more than a close decision over an unranked fighter. Recent fights weigh more than old ones, and fighters who go a long time without competing lose ground.
The Meta lists cover the same 11 divisions as the panel: eight for men, plus women's strawweight, flyweight and bantamweight. They do not include pound-for-pound lists, so the P4P rankings on UFC.com still come from the media panel.
Why the two lists can disagree
For now UFC.com shows both, the panel's lists under "All Rankings" and the new ones under "All Meta Rankings", and they do not always match. On September 22, 2026, both had Islam Makhachev as welterweight champion, but the panel had Ian Machado Garry at #1 and Carlos Prates at #2, while the Meta list had Prates first and Machado Garry second. Neil Magny was #15 on the panel's list and missing from the Meta top 15, where Kevin Holland was #14.
A panel voter can weigh a fighter's reputation, the quality of a performance or an injury layoff however they see fit. The Meta formula works only from fight data such as results, opponents and dates, and it treats every fighter by the same rules. Either way, the numbers can shift after every event, so a rank quoted in a preview from a few weeks ago may already be out of date.
What a ranking does and does not decide
Rankings are a guide to who is near a title fight, and the biggest fights often follow them. At UFC 331 on September 19, 2026, flyweight champion Joshua Van defended against Alexandre Pantoja, who was #1 on the card, and UFC 333's title fight is a champion against the #1 contender. But neither UFC.com's rankings page nor the Meta announcement says a number guarantees a title shot. In Nevada, for example, the commission's rules say bouts are arranged by the promoter or a licensed matchmaker, and each bout still needs the commission's approval.
To see where the ranked fighters are on upcoming cards, check our UFC schedule. The divisions themselves are explained in our guide to UFC weight classes, and what the judges score in a close fight is in how MMA judging works.
