There is a lot of movement on 185LB after the return of the UFC to Saudi Arabia last weekend.
The UFC Fight Night Card on Saturday evening in Riyadh contained two High Stakes Middleweight matches at the top of the bill. As a result, there have been some important changes to the Top 15 rankings in the division prior to the middleweight title fight on UFC 312 this weekend.
The Co-Main event of the evening saw Shara 'Bullet' Magomedov suffer the first loss of his career against Michael 'Venom'. Magomedov was convincingly beaten over three rounds with him to claim that he was in the fight, heavily compromised.
He now seems to do some work to recapture the hype that surrounded him on the way to the game and that is reflected in the new middleweight ranking.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
Shara Magomedov makes way for Bo Nickal in new middleweight ranks
As a result of his loss for the 'Venom' page by Michael, Shara Magomedov stopped from the top 15 rankings after his four-fight winway has come to an end. Jack Hermansson, who did not fight Joe Pyfer a year ago since his victory, also made way for two new names in Bo Nickal and Roman Kopylov.
Kopylov, who arrived at #14, recently stopped Chris Curtis on the first UFC card of 2025 on the first UFC card to win his sixth victory in the Octagon.
Where an undefeated competition has fallen the pecking order, the other has taken his place with the 7-0 Nickal who takes the #15 place after his victory over Paul Craig at UFC 309 in November.
The very first top of the division has also seen a big shift with the former double champion Israel Adesanya who dropped in two places, while Nassourdine Imavov, who ended 'The Last Stylebender' in the main event, climbs three places to become the #2 – Ranked Competer on 185 pounds.
New options for both Shara Magomedov and Bo Nickal
The Rankings update shows what the next one can be for Shara Magomedov and Bo Nickal after their recent versions in the Octagon. For 'bullet' it seems the best option to take a light step back for the time being after his momentum has been brought back to earth by an elite striker in 'MVP'.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Although Nickal's performance against Paul Craig did not deserve many compliments, he has made it clear that he wants to aim the 10-15 part of the next rankings, which would be much logical for him.
The undefeated wrestling specialist even spoke about the prospect of preventing Magomedov in the past, although he described the matchup as “no tough fight”, and doubted doubts that the UFC would put it together.
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