Rankings Show: Who Are The Least Compelling UFC Champions Right Now?

MMA Fighting

Vox Media Podcast Network

Sports News, Sports, News

4.6 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 14 March 2025

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Magomed Ankalaev has conquered the light heavyweight division, dethroning one of the UFC's most popular and exciting champions in Alex Pereira. There's no questioning Ankalaev's championship accolades, but is he a tougher sell to the casual fan and possibly emblematic of the growing malaise fans are experiencing with the UFC product? Who are the most must-see UFC champions right now? And who are the ones fans are least willing to shell out their hard-earned money for? Join the MMA Fighting rankings panel of Alexander K. Lee, Mike Heck, Jed Meshew, and E. Casey Leydon as we take stock of the UFC through it's first three pay-per-views of 2025, grading how well fans are being served, as well as breaking down Pereira's precipitous fall from the No. 2 spot in the MMA Fighting Pound-for-Pound Rankings. And then, we give our picks for the most and least compelling active champions. This could get ugly. Follow Alexander K. Lee @AlexanderKLee Follow Mike Heck @MikeHeck Follow Jed Meshew @JedKMeshew Follow E. Casey Leydon @ekc Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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1:45.6	All right. Hello, everyone. Welcome to a new edition of the M.A. Fighting Rankings Podcast. You're probably wondering, it's been a while. Yes, it's been a while since you've heard my voice. This is your host, of course, Alexander K. Lee. We haven't done a rankings podcast in a while. We haven't done a full up and down division rankings update in a while. If you guys check the website, we have our ranking section.
1:47.3	We've done a bit of pound for pound stuff.
1:48.8	There's been a shake up here and there.
1:56.1	But not a full breakdown since the end of 2024, where we did kind of a look at, you know, all the divisions, who was champions at the end of 2023.
1:58.8	And that was a fun exercise.
2:03.4	Pardon me, guys. who was champions at the end of 2023 and that was a fun exercise pardon me guys and seem very relevant given that we had so many title fights coming up and many that we thought would see
2:08.8	a changing of the guard we thought we'd see new champions we thought we'd have ton to talk about
2:12.6	on podcasts and in articles and truthfully that hasn't been case. That's not to say the cars in bad,
2:18.0	that's not to say the champs that we have aren't great.
	...

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