In the aftermath of Dricus Du Plessis winning the UFC middleweight championship a year ago, his reign was not universally lauded. Some thought that his opponent, Sean Strickland, should have been awarded the belt after the split decision was announced in Du Plessis' favor.
Even after he went on to submit former champ Israel Adesanya seven months later in his first title defense, Du Plessis still had work to do to erase doubts that he was a better fighter than Strickland. He had that opportunity last weekend at UFC 312, and he succeeded in a dominant victory.
As a result, Du Plessis solidified his position atop the middleweight top 10 in the latest ESPN divisional rankings. Strickland dropped a spot to No. 3.
The only other division that saw change was strawweight, which saw Zhang Weili successfully defend her title at UFC 312. Zhang was already No. 1, but her challenger, Tatiana Suarez, enters the rankings at No. 5 despite being dominated in a unanimous decision loss. Suarez had been unranked previously because of inactivity, but the loss to Zhang was the first defeat of her career.