UFC 322 produced an enormous night time of fights in “The Massive Apple” as a number of fighters delivered attention-grabbing performances on combat night time in New York Metropolis.
UFC 322 Energy Rankings
RDX Sports‘ Editor-in-Chief and veteran MMA author Simon Head casts his eye over the principle card winners, and presents his Energy Rankings for UFC 322.
1. Michael Morales
In a crowded welterweight division, we’ve seen loads of proof to recommend that Ecuador’s Michael Morales might problem the 170-pound elite. And on Saturday night time, we noticed that he isn’t only a contender for the title – he may simply be the decide of the bunch.
Confronted with a Sean Brady who completely dominated former champ Leon Edwards final outing, Morales operated out of a low, crouching putting stance and proceeded to select Brady aside with strikes.
With the Philadelphia native unable to make an impression on Morales, due to the Ecuadorian’s putting offense, and wrestling protection, Morales began to load up, and it didn’t take him lengthy to finally end Brady with strikes as he claimed a statement win to place himself entrance and heart as a transparent and current hazard to newly-crowned welterweight champion Islam Makhachev.
2. Valentina Shevchenko
Valentina Shevchenko’s flyweight title protection towards former strawweight champion Zhang Weili pitted the UFC’s high two feminine pound-for-pound fighters face to face, however in a direct comparability between the pair, Shevchenko confirmed that she’s working on a special stage to the remaining as she claimed a shutout victory on the scorecards.
When she opted to strike with Zhang, Shevchenko’s kickboxing seemed crisp, sharp and fast. However, maybe in a present of respect for Zhang’s personal pace and putting capability, Shevchenko opted to take “Magnum” off her ft and dominate her on the bottom.
Shevchenko landed 5 of six takedown makes an attempt through the combat as she registered 13 minutes, 24 seconds of management time of their 25-minute title conflict.
The massive query now could be what’s going to Shevchenko do subsequent? Natalia Silva might be her subsequent take a look at at 125 kilos, however a transfer again as much as 135 to go for bantamweight gold might effectively be on the playing cards…
3. Carlos Prates
Earlier than his welterweight bout with former champion Leon Edwards, Brazilian contender Carlos Prates said that the followers pay to look at knockouts and violence, and he delivered that on combat night time, and the way.
Prates handled Edwards’ grinding clinch recreation towards the fence, and even had time to change feedback with the previous champ through the motion earlier than finally getting separation and letting his arms go within the open.
And early within the second spherical, Prates backed up his pre-fight promise as he related with a monster of a straight left to knock Edwards out clean. It was the primary time “Rocky” had been KO’d in his profession, and it introduced Prates as a harmful, thrilling wild card within the welterweight title sweepstakes.
4. Islam Makhachev
The massive query on everybody’s lips forward of UFC 322’s important occasion was how would Islam Makhachev fare at welterweight? Because it turned out, he fared fairly darned effectively.
Makhachev utterly dominated Jack Della Maddalena, who seemed out of concepts, and out of his depth towards the Russian, who took him down nearly at will and floor his technique to a shutout victory on the scorecards as he captured the undisputed welterweight title.
It wasn’t the prettiest technique to win for Makhachev, however whereas his grinding strategy may not produce too many clips for the UFC’s spotlight reels, the onus is on the remainder of the welterweight division to discover a technique to beat him.
Della Maddalana definitely couldn’t, however with a protracted line of contenders seeking to problem for the title, Makhachev gained’t have any drawback discovering viable challenges to his title in 2026.
5. Benoit Saint Denis
Such had been the extent of performances at UFC 322, Benoit Saint Denis’s 16-second knockout of Beneil Dariush solely makes it to fifth in our UFC 322 Energy Rankings. That’s to not detract from “The God of Battle’s” good efficiency – he did every thing you might presumably hope for in a combat to get am emphatic, quickfire win. However the impression of that win on his weight class maybe gained’t be as large as a few of the wins listed above him right here.
Saint Denis has rebounded brilliantly since his back-to-back losses to Dustin Poirier and Renato Moicano in 2024, and he heads into 2026 on a three-fight win streak, together with his victories over Kyle Prepolec, Mauricio Ruffy and Dariush all coming through end.
Simon Head is Editor-in-Chief with famend fight sports activities gear firm RDX Sports activities. Take a look at their newest vary of MMA fightwear immediately.
