AJ McKee is now Bellator's top pound-for-pound male fighter after scoring one of the biggest wins in promotion history this past Saturday. McKee stopped Bellator's Greatest of All-Time in the main event of Bellator 263, submitting Patricio Pitbull to win the featherweight championship and take home the $1 million prize for winning the Featherweight World Grand Prix.
In addition to moving to the top of the pound-for-pound rankings, McKee now stands atop the featherweight rankings, where he may reign for years as he has improved with every outing in his Bellator career.
As for Pitbull, he dropped from No. 1 at pound-for-pound to No. 2 and now sits at the No. 1 contender spot at featherweight. He is still the promotion's top lightweight, holding that title since a knockout victory over Michael Chandler in May 2019.
Below are the top-10 pound-for-pound rankings for both the men and women. The full top-10 rankings for each division within the promotion can be found here. The rankings are voted on by 17 members of the media.
Editor's note: CBS Sports insider Brian Campbell is a member of the 17-person voting panel. Bellator and CBS Sports are both owned by ViacomCBS.
Bellator Rankings (Aug. 3)
Men's pound-for-pound
| Fighter | Record |
|---|---|
1. AJ McKee | 18-0 |
2. Patricio Pitbull | 32-5 |
3. Vadim Nemkov | 12-2 |
4. Gegard Mousasi | 47-7-2 |
5. Ryan Bader | 27-6 |
6. Yaroslav Amosov | 26-0 |
7. Sergio Pettis | 21-5 |
8. Douglas Lima | 32-9 |
9. Corey Anderson | 15-5 |
10. Juan Archuleta | 25-3 |
Women's pound-for-pound
| Fighter | Record |
|---|---|
1. Cris Cyborg | 23-2 |
2. Juliana Velasquez | 11-0 |
3. Ilima-Lei Macfarlane | 11-1 |
4. Julia Budd | 15-3 |
5. Liz Carmouche | 15-7 |
6. Denise Kielholtz | 13-8 6-3 |
7. Arlene Blencowe | 14-8 |
8. Cat Zingano | 12-4 |
9. Kana Watanabe | 10-0-1 |
10. Leslie Smith | 12-8-1 |
Other notable results
- Featherweight: Mads Burnell defeated Emmanuel Sanchez in a hard-fought bout, taking a unanimous decision victory. Burnell jumped six spots in the featherweight rankings to No. 2. Sanchez fell from No. 2 to No. 4 in defeat.
- Lightweight: Usman Nurmagomedov picked up a first-round TKO of Manny Muro, a more impressive showing for Nurmagomedov than in his debut. Nurmagomedov debuts in the rankings at No. 7.
- Lightweight: Islam Mamedov also cracked the rankings this week, coming off a Bellator 263 win over Brent Primus by split decision. Mamedov checked in at No. 8.
