Post-UFC 305 rankings update: Dricus du Plessis glides past Sean O'Malley in P4P rankings, Dan Hooker back in top-5 lightweight, and more
After last weekend's UFC 305 event in Perth, the promotion updated its official divisional rankings. The card was headlined by a middleweight championship bout between Dricus du Plessis and Israel Adesanya, with Kai Kara-France facing Steve Erceg in the co-main event.
The reigning middleweight champion defended his title successfully against Adesanya by submitting the Nigerian-born Kiwi in the fourth round. As a result, du Plessis shot up by five places to the No.6 spot on the pound-for-pound rankings, while 'The Last Stylebender' fell down to No.15. However, the middleweight divisional rankings saw no changes.
In the co-main event, Kara-France defeated Erceg via first-round knockout. While the Kiwi didn't see any movement in the flyweight rankings, Erceg fell from the No.7 to the No.8 spot, with Matheus Nicolau moving up to replace him. Kara-France currently occupies the No.4 spot in the flyweight rankings.
In the lightweight division, Dan Hooker moved up six places to the No.5 rank after defeating Mateusz Gamrot via split decision after a closely contested battle. On the other hand, Gamrot fell down three spots to No.8 rank.
The heavyweights also saw Jairzinho Rozenstruik move up two spots to the No.10 rank after defeating Tai Tuivasa via split decision. Meanwhile, 'Bam Bam' slid down three places to the No.13 spot.
Dan Hooker explains calling out Conor McGregor after UFC 305 win
After his impressive victory over Mateusz Gamrot at UFC 305 last weekend, Dan Hooker took the post-fight interview opportunity to call out Conor McGregor. Hooker recently explained that he chose to challenge the Irishman just to troll Michael Chandler, who's been left hanging for nearly two years.
After months of speculation, McGregor was booked to face Chandler at UFC 303. However, the former two-division UFC champion suffered a toe injury that forced him to withdraw from the fight. In the aftermath, many pointed out that Chandler had been inactive since November 2022 due to his insistence on waiting for his clash against McGregor.
During an interview with Oscar Willis, Hooker revealed that he was simply trolling his old rival Chandler and said:
"I didn’t necessarily call him out, I just said that because I am an absolute troll, so it’s like the biggest troll move you could do of all time is to snake that fight off [Michael] Chandler. Like, he waits all that time and then Conor just fights me anyway, like, that would be gold. Like, I would feel like the biggest snake troll of all time. I'll get my black belt in the troll Olympics."
Catch Dan Hooker's comments below (7:49):