Stipe Miocic earned his title shot Saturday night with a 54-second finish of Andrei Arlovski, UFC president Dana White said after UFC 195. And his new position behind champion Fabricio Werdum and challenger Cain Velasquez was confirmed in Monday’s official UFC rankings release.
Miocic moved up one spot to No. 2 in the heavyweight rankings and Arlovski dropped a spot into a deadlock with Alistair Overeem, who moved up two spots to No. 3 on the heels of his win against Junior Dos Santos at Fight Night Orlando. “Cigano” fell another spot to No. 5, making for an entirely new picture atop the heavyweight division.
More from UFC 195: Miss the fights? Order the UFC 195 replay | UFC 195 Talking Points | Dana White’s UFC 195 verdict | Final results | Post-fight bonus recap | Lawler defends title | Miocic wins quickly, Tumenov and Ortega take longer in main card | ’Mayday’ triumphant in return | Poirier, Tanaka go distance for wins | Watch Backstage interviews: Robbie Lawler, Carlos Condit: ‘I might be done’, Stipe Miocic, Albert Tumenov, Brian Ortega, Abel Trujillo, Michael McDonald | Watch Octagon interviews: Robbie Lawler and Carlos Condit, Stipe Miocic, Dustin Poirier | Watch: Post-fight press conference highlights | Picture perfect: Best snaps from UFC 195
Immediately after Miocic landed a flurry of shots to finish Arlovski, he turned and made a beeline for White, shouting for his title opportunity. White said it was hard to turn him down.
“Who the hell was going to say no to him? He was like a psycho. I wasn’t going to say no,” White said.
Miocic screamed at White, “Are we on the same page now?”
White assured Miocic that they were. “We are on the same page,” White said.
In other big rankings movement, former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones finally recaptured his place at the top of the pound-for-pound list, passing flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson. Jones’ next fight hasn’t been announced yet.
Robbie Lawler, fresh off his championship victory over Carlos Condit at UFC 195, moved up one spot in the pound-for-pound rankings to No. 5. Rafael dos Anjos also made a move to No. 6, two spots up from last week.
Michael McDonald returned in impressive fashion at UFC 195, submitting Masanori Kanehara in the second round of the FOX Sports 1 prelim main event. McDonald moved up two spots to No. 6 in the bantamweight division.
Brian Ortega also pulled off a sick submission at UFC 195 and he was rewarded for his efforts. Ortega was elevated to No. 15 at featherweight in his debut in the rankings.
Matt Parrino is a digital producer and writer for UFC.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MattParrinoUFC
