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Three former champions removed from UFC rankings

Published Nov. 15, 2016 2:15 p.m. ET

Jonathan Bradley

Three of the UFC’s biggest names have been pulled from the UFC rankings while they deal with potential sanctions from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

Former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, Lyoto Machida and former heavyweight king Brock Lesnar were all nowhere to be found in the latest release of the UFC rankings, and they can thank their brush-ups with USADA for that.

Machida sat in the eighth spot in the middleweight rankings before he was removed four months after he admitted to taking a banned substance that he was unaware was banned before his fight with Dan Henderson at UFC Tampa. It’s unclear why Machida remained in the rankings for so long after his admission.

Jones was removed after his highly publicized failed drug test just days before UFC 200. Jones was previously listed as interim champion, but after reportedly testing positive for two estrogen blockers, he’ll have to deal with USADA before challenging for UFC gold again.

And lastly, Brock Lesnar lost his ranking as the world’s eighth best heavyweight after reportedly failing two tests, one in the lead-up to UFC 200 and one on fight night, for the same estrogen blocker Jones was popped for. Unlike Machida and Jones, whose tests results were revealed before their fights, Lesnar may also have to forfeit his victory against Mark Hunt and any money made at UFC 200 since the results were not discovered until days after the event.

Any potential violation of the UFC Anti-Doping Policy calls for “forfeiture of any title, ranking, purse or other compensation, according to USADA, and it looks like they’ve already got the rankings portion of that punishment out of the way for these three big names.

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