Dricus du Plessis climbs in UFC P4P rankings, Tom Aspinall demolishes Jon Jones, Chael Sonnen on Conor McGregor: MMA News Roundup
Post-UFC 305 rankings updates saw some significant changes in the list. Meanwhile, Tom Aspinall went on another verbal attack at Jon Jones for not fighting him.
Catch up with today's top combat sports updates with Sportskeeda MMA.
Dricus du Plessis is now No. 6 on the UFC P4P list, Dan Hooker back in top-5 lightweight
The ufc.com/rankings" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-is-sponsored="false">latest rankings after UFC 305 are out and there are significant movements in the lists across the roster. At heavyweight, Jairzinho Rozenstruik moved up two spots to No. 10 after beating Tai Tuivasa, who went down three spots to No. 13.
Dan Hooker, whose resurgence in the lightweight division has been quite fairytale-like, is back in the top five and currently placed ahead of the likes of Michael Chandler and Beneil Dariush. Mateusz Gamrot, the man he beat, dropped to No. 8.
Despite beating Steve Erceg impressively, Kai Kara-France remains at No. 4 in the flyweight rankings. Erceg, meanwhile, dropped to No. 8, allowing Matheus Nicolau to move up to No. 7.
Dricus du Plessis, the man of the hour and the reigning middleweight champion, climbed five spots to be placed at No. 6 on the UFC pound-for-pound rankings, ahead of Sean O'Malley, Leon Edwards, and Alexander Volkanovski. Israel Adesanya, who was once among the upper echelons of the list, fell to No. 15.
"Jon Jones isn't the best human being in the world" - Tom Aspinall
Tom Aspinall is leaving no stone unturned to get Jon Jones to fight him with the undisputed UFC heavyweight title on the line. In a recent appearance on Michael Bisping and Anthony Smith's Believe You Me podcast, he went off on 'Bones' ducking him and even dragged the latter's personal life into the matter.
The Brit said:
"Since I won that [Curtis Blaydes] fight, he's gone completely quiet. There's no way on earth he's going to fight me. Not a chance. I will retire Jon Jones without even fighting him."
Aspinall also made fun of how Dana White has been talking about Jones' pound-for-pound contendership in interviews.
"He's loving the fact that Dana White's getting on every interview possible; he's talking about bantamweights and Dana White flips it back and starts talking about how good Jon Jones is. I'm like 'Mate, if he's that good, let's fight.' There's plenty of ammo that people know about Jon Jones' personal life... It's well documented that Jon Jones isn't the best person in the world, isn't the best human being in the world."
Chael Sonnen believes the media is interpreting Conor McGregor wrong
The commonly believed narrative surrounding Conor McGregor is that he is dangling the big-money UFC fight in front of Michael Chandler and deliberately delaying the contest. It was already scheduled once - for UFC 303 - and got canceled because of the Irishman's toe injury.
However, Chael Sonnen believes that the media has got it wrong. During the latest episode of the Good Guy/Bad Guy podcast with Daniel Cormier, Sonnen said that Dana White revealing how McGregor was blowing up his phone for a date made him see things differently.
"That hope is alive to a degree. I am hearing the organization would like him to fight in California in January. I can't confirm that for you... I think the story of Conor is being a little bit mistold. I believe him. I believe that he wants to fight... I believe he has humbled himself to say 'I need the organization to sign off on this.'... The story's being told that Conor is dangling this. I don't think so."
Listen to Chael Sonnen's comments below (29:04):