Note due to inactivity Dominick Cruz and Anthony Pettis are ineligible for the rankings. Also previous rankings (8/5/14) in parenthesis:
1. Jon Jones (1)
Jon Jones is currently injured and won’t be fighting until January 3rd at UFC 182 and his opponent will be longtime rival Daniel Cormier. One might think that Cormier will also take the time to get his bad leg worked on but time will tell and the time will come.
2. Jose Aldo (4)
His title defense against Chad Mendes was delayed and cancelled UFC 176 but Jose Aldo will defend his title on October 25th at UFC 179.
3. Demetrious Johnson (2)
Demetrious Johnson is having a delayed title defense after his fight with Chris Cariaso was moved to UFC 178 to anchor the event.
4. Chris Weidman (5)
After his fight with Lyoto Machida, Chris Weidman will end the year with a title defense against Vitor Belfort at UFC 181 December 6th. It will be interesting to see if Belfort has truly adjusted to his lack of TRT or if over a year away from MMA has left some ring rust.
5. Cain Velasquez (3)
Cain Velasquez will be defending his title at UFC 180 on November 15th once the airing of The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America is done.
6. Ronda Rousey (6)
It looks like Ronda Rousey won’t be defending her title until at least January and candidates include Gina Carano and Cat Zingano. Judging from her one sided destruction of Alexis Davis both women would have a handful to deal with in the rowdy one.
7. Johny Hendricks (7)
Johny Hendricks is looking forward to defending his title for the first time but it won’t be happening until early next year sometime.
8. T.J. Dillashaw (9)
Though T.J. Dillashaw had more cuts on his face fighting Joe Soto then against Renan Barao he still dominated Soto to defend his title. Now that Dana White has said Barao needs to earn a title shot, Dillashaw may face Raphael Assuncao or another top contender.
9. Renan Barao (10)
Renan Barao blew an immediate title shot by not carefully cutting weight. Even though he said he’s done it before he may need to seriously consider adjusting his weight cutting methods so something like this doesn’t happen again. Next match is probably Dominick Cruz.
10. Daniel Cormier (N/A)
Though Alexander Gustafsson may complain, Daniel Cormier will still face Jon Jones for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.
Contenders
The following recieved votes and are considered contenders for the pound for pound rankings: Junior dos Santos and Anderson Silva.