Heavyweights dominate MMA p4p like 20+ years ago

Looking at this month's pound-for-pound rankings, we note that it's dominated by heavyweights. Four of the top six spots.

June Rank	July Rank	Fighter	WC	Rating	Rated Record	Org	June 2026 Results
1	1	Islam Makhachev	WW	98.03	18-1-0	UFC
2	2	Francis Ngannou	HW	64.92	13-2-0	MVP
4	3	Sean Strickland	MW	58.68	25-7-0	UFC
5	4	Vadim Nemkov	HW	58.48	14-2-0	PFL
7	5	Jon Jones	HW	54.79	22-1-0	UFC	--last rated win -19 months.
50	6	Ciryl Gane	HW	52.57	12-2-0	UFC	Beat #3 Alex Pereira

This is pretty unusual; ever since weight classes became standardized, the HW grip on the top of the charts has eased, as dominance within a division is the most important factor, and then number of total competitors tends to add up to points within that weight class. So even if HW fighters have an advantage, that advantage dissipates when fights are largely within weight classes. And with fewer and fewer heavyweight fighters, the HW weight class doesn't dominate like it did.

But here we see Francis Ngannou at #2, Vadim Nemkov at #4, Jon Jones at #5, and entering from #50, Ciryl Gane at #6.

We have to go back about 20 years to see a more dominant HW division, where 5 of the top 10 spots are occupied by heavyweights:

Nov 2006	Dec 2006	Fighter	WC	Rating	Rated Record	Org	November 2006 results
1	1	Fedor Emelianenko	HW	104.54	19-1-0	Pride
2	2	Chuck Liddell	LH	46.70	19-3-0	UFC
3	3	Mirko Filipovic	HW	43.65	20-4-2	Pride
6	4	Georges St. Pierre	WW	38.05	11-1-0	UFC	Beat #4 Matt Hughes
5	5	Lyoto Machida	LH	26.70	7-0-0	WFA
7	6	Josh Barnett	HW	21.89	23-4-0	Pride
12	7	Paulo Filho	MW	21.82	14-0-0	Pride	Beat #27 Kazuo Misaki
10	8	Tim Sylvia	HW	21.67	19-3-0	UFC	Beat #29 Jeff Monson
14	9	Takanori Gomi	LW	20.31	23-3-0	Pride	Beat #25 Marcus Aurelio
8	10	Mark Hunt	HW	20.03	4-1-0	Pride

Back then Pride had only a few weight classes and lots of great heavyweights, and four of them were in the top 10, along with the UFC's Tim Sylvia.

So many "points" were sopped up by heavyweights in the OpenWeight era that the HW class dominated the p4p rankings through the early 2000s. The demise of Pride and adoption of more weight classes by the UFC spread things out among the weight classes until it was common to see 6 or 7 classes represented in the top 10.

This months results are an anomaly and there's an easy explanation: These aren't "pure" heavyweights for the most part. Vadim Nemkov and Jon Jones built most of their success at Light Heavyweight; Jones has 2 wins at the highest weight class and Nemkov has 3 wins.

Ciryl Gane is a true heavyweight but he gained most of his points with a win over Alex Pereira, the #1 at Light Heavyweight who was himself moving up.

So the majority of the "Heavyweight points" in the top 10 come from wins at Light Heavyweight.

And it's not like the Heavyweight division is seeing a renaissance beyond the very top fighters. There are only 7 fighters in positions #7 to #100. The division is extremely top heavy and shallow.

That could change if the top fighters get beat and their points distributed around to the up-and-comers. But that might not happen. Ngannou has been less than active over the last several years; Nemkov is fighting about once a year; and Jon Jones might be retired. Only Gane seems guaranteed to continue fighting at a normal clip.