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The UFC bantamweight rankings had a significant change in the top five after UFC San Antonio.
On March 25, elite 135-pounders Cory Sandhagen and Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera met in the main event. Although a title shot was not guaranteed to the winner, the highly-anticipated matchup offered the opportunity to continue climbing the stacked division.
After five rounds of action, Sandhagen had his raised by split decision. Once the UFC bantamweight rankings were updated, he replaced ‘Chito’ in the number three spot, with the Ecuadorian-born fighter dropping to number five.
Sandhagen is now ranked behind Sean O’Malley (#2) and Merab Dvalishvili (#1). O’Malley previously held the number one ranking after defeating Petr Yan (#4) in October 2022. Dvalisvhili has recently jumped ‘Sugar’ with an impressive win against Yan on March 11.
The UFC bantamweight division is arguably the most intriguing in the promotion. When looking at the current rankings, several potential future title contenders are outside the top 10, including Umar Nurmagomedov, Adrian Yanez, and Jonathan Martinez. The question is, what’s next for the division?
What’s next for UFC bantamweight division?
After retiring in May 2020, former two-division UFC champion Henry Cejudo will return on May 6, hoping to dethrone the reigning bantamweight king Aljamain Sterling. The intriguing championship fight takes place in the main event of UFC 288, which goes down inside the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
The next title challenger after Cejudo is somewhat unclear. The expectation is for Sean O’Malley to utilize his star power to secure a fight against the winner of the UFC 288 main event. With that said, nothing has been confirmed by Dana White or the UFC.
In the meantime, the bantamweight top five will be matched up to keep the division moving. After winning at UFC San Antonio, Cory Sandhagen called out Merab Dvalishvili, with the latter accepting on social media. Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera vs. Petr Yan could also be next, considering they are coming off losses.
Regardless of the matchmaking, the UFC bantamweight division is stacked with elite fighters to make entertaining matchups. It’ll be intriguing to see how the division plays out moving forward.
