“I have to get rid of these CLOWNS!” Dana White has often lashed out at the committee that puts up the pound-for-pound rankings for the UFC. In the UFC head honcho’s opinion, Jon Jones should have been the one on the top of the list. Instead, it was Islam Makhachev who has been ruling the list since November 2023. But towards the end of 2024, the fighting community witnessed one more move that sent shockwaves through the internet. 

As the year neared its end, UFC shared the top 5 pound-for-pound list in the YouTube community. Of course, the first spot was claimed by the lightweight champion, with a trophy emoji beside his name. Jones claimed the 2nd spot with a bone emoji on his side. Alex Pereira was the 3rd name on the list, and Ilia Topuria covered the 4th position. However, it was Belal Muhammad in the 5th place who caused chaos in the fighting community. 

How did Belal Muhammad get the #5 P4P spot?

‘Remember The Name’ ascended to the 5th spot following his victory over Leon Edwards at UFC 304 via a unanimous decision. This feat made him the very first Palestinian champion in the UFC. And that made him a target for every single fighter who aspired to become the welterweight champion. 

Henry Cejudo, Anthony Pettis, and many others commended Belal Muhammad for his victory. The entire Palestinian crowd celebrated the big win. However, becoming a champion doesn’t really mean that the fighter could step into the top 5 list of pound-for-pound fighters. Well, he is indeed one of the most consistent fighters in the welterweight division with a 10-fight win streak. But is that enough to get him a spot in the P4P top 5? Well, the fans certainly don’t think so.

Muhammad has won 15 fights in his UFC career and secured a finish in only 3 of the said bouts. On top of that, he is yet to defend his championship title. Fighters like Jon Jones and Alex Pereira have asserted their dominance in multiple weight categories. That’s what getting a spot in the pound-for-pound list should mean, according to the netizens.

The UFC ended the post by asking, “How does the top 5 look in 2025?” As soon as the post went live, the fight fans took to the comments section to express themselves. A majority of them were unhappy regarding the list. And it was none other than the Palestinian champ who caught the number of strays. 

MMA fans side don’t agree with the controversial rankings

The netizens have already begun siding with Dana White in his quest to overthrow the committee that decides the rankings. One of the fans claimed, “At this point you can’t even take p4p serious.” Another fan joined in the rage and quoted, “Must have been a casual fan who put this list together.”

Needless to say, the shocker was Muhammad’s presence on the list. Many fans rooted for Alexandre Pantoja and Dricus Du Plessis to replace the welterweight champ. One fan wrote, “Belal with 0 finishes in the UFC being over pantoja is absolutely criminal.” Another fan commented, “How is Belal in the top 5 without a single defense over DDP who already beat 3 champions and Pantoja.” Meanwhile, another fan added, “Belal over Dricus is crazy.” 

A few fans even took to sarcastic comedy to disapprove of the P4P list. And the most prominent comment was based on Muhammad’s moniker. One fan wrote, “Who is the 5th guy? I forgot his name (again).” Another comment read, “What’s that guy called at no.5? Security won’t let him in.” It was indeed a comment that reflected on the events of UFC 310 when the security didn’t allow Muhammad to have a face-off against Shavkat Rakhmonov following the latter’s victory. 

But one of the fans looked at the bigger picture, asking the officials for the details of the P4P list. After all, even the UFC CEO was left in total confusion regarding the list. The comment went, “Here we go again.. everytime the UFC posts this they should give a detailed explanation of what PFP means because 90% of MMA fans have no clue..”

No doubt, White isn’t someone who gives up easily. He has decided to bring about a change in the process of anointing the P4P kings. Let’s take a look at what the UFC head honcho has planned. 

Does Dana White have a plan to standardize the P4P list?

The present scenario has made it pretty clear that White needs to fix the UFC athlete rankings. After Jon Jones defeated Stipe Miocic with a beautiful spinning back kick and punches and still didn’t get to the top of the P4P list, White took to Instagram and lashed out at the ranking committee. He even tagged the Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in the post and wrote, “Let’s get this AI deal done ASAP!” 

Later on, during a conversation on UFC on TNT, the UFC CEO declared, “We literally had meetings this week to work on it and I actually talked to Mark Zuckerberg too, about AI. I’m totally gonna fix the rankings and we’re going to make a lot of strong moves here coming into ’25.”

Now the question that remained was- ‘Is bringing AI into the picture the only move?’ Well, Michael Bisping shared a few words regarding this. He pointed out that the idea behind using artificial intelligence was to remove the bias that has haunted the rankings for ages. He said, “It seems more like there have been some questionable decisions being made.” According to ‘The Count’ and many others, bringing in AI could result in something valuable for the UFC. 

What are your thoughts about the pound-for-pound rankings? Do you think AI can actually make things better for the UFC athlete ranking system? Drop down to the comments below and let us know your views.