The newest UFC rankings have been released following UFC 312, and one winner from the main card might feel a little snubbed.
Despite destroying Justin Tafa in his main roster debut, Tallison Teixeira didn’t land in the Top 15. Normally, I wouldn’t suggest that a fighter with eight professional fights and one main-roster win is worthy of a ranking.
However, the UFC’s heavyweight division is in shambles. It is arguably the worst division in the promotion, with women’s bantamweight being the only other division with such an obvious depth issue.
Teixeira might be favored against a good portion of the weight class in a head-to-head meeting
In the new rankings, we saw an idle Kennedy Nzechukwu enter the scene at No. 14, while an idle Jhonata Diniz dropped out of the Top 15. Don’Tale Mayes, whose presence in the rankings baffles me, dropped from No. 14 to No. 15.
In my opinion, Teixeira should have checked in at No. 15 after his 35-second demolition of Tafa at UFC 312. Mayes has an 11-7 record and is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Shamil Gaziev in August 2024.
I understand Teixeira has only had eight fights, but he has a perfect finish rate, and none of his opponents have made it out of the first round. Even without him facing top competition, that’s already a better résumé than Mayes whose only wins in his last five came against Caio Machado and Andrei Arlovski–both of whom have been released.
As it stands, Teixeira will likely need another win before he can grab a ranking.
Mayes is in action at UFC Vegas 102 on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, where he faces Valter Walker. If Mayes wins, he will solidify his spot in the rankings and temporarily quiet critics like me.
If he loses, Walker will probably take his spot, and that’ll still leave Teixeira on the outside looking in. However, because he only worked 35 seconds on Saturday in his demolition of Tafa, Teixeira should be ready for a quick turnaround.
It wouldn’t be a shock to see Teixeira and Diniz matched up on a card in March or April. Diniz was set to take on Vitor Petrino on March 8 at UFC 313, but Petrino suffered an elbow injury and was forced to withdraw.
Diniz hasn’t been rescheduled. The 33-year-old Brazilian is coming off his first career loss to Marcin Tybura in November 2024 in a fight that represented a major step up in competition.
Facing Teixeira would be another tough test for him, but a very interesting scrap that could land on the UFC 313 card, which currently has just 10 fights.
In any case, here is a look at Saturday’s UFC Vegas 102 card featuring Mayes vs. Walker and more, including the main event, a middleweight fight between Jared Cannonier and Gregory Rodrigues.
UFC Vegas 102 – Fight Card
- No. 7 – Jared Cannonier vs. Gregory Rodrigues – Middleweight (185 lbs)
- No. 12 – Calvin Kattar vs. Youssef Zalal – Featherweight (145 lbs)
- Ismael Bonfim vs. Nazim Sadykhov – Lightweight (155 lbs)
- Jose Delgado vs. Connor Matthews – Featherweight (145 lbs)
- Edmen Shahbazyan vs. Dylan Budka – Middleweight (185 lbs)
- Rodolfo Vieira vs. Andre Petroski – Middleweight (185 lbs)
- No. 12 – Julia Avila vs. No. 13 – Jacqueline Cavalcanti – Bantamweight (135 lbs)
- Vince Morales vs. Elijah Smith – Bantamweight (135 lbs)
- Valter Walker vs. No. 15 – Don’Tale Mayes – Heavyweight (265 lbs)
- Rafael Estevam vs. Jesus Aguilar – Flyweight (125 lbs)
- No. 13 – Angela Hill vs. Ketlen Souza – Strawweight (115 lbs)
- Gabriel Bonfim vs. Khaos Williams – Welterweight (170 lbs)
