UFC 322 produced a big night of fights in “The Big Apple” as a host of fighters delivered attention-grabbing performances on fight night in New York City.
UFC 322 Power Rankings
RDX Sports‘ Editor-in-Chief and veteran MMA writer Simon Head casts his eye over the main card winners, and presents his Power Rankings for UFC 322.
1. Michael Morales
In a crowded welterweight division, we have seen plenty of evidence to suggest that Ecuador’s Michael Morales could challenge the 170-pound elite. And on Saturday night, we saw that he isn’t just a contender for the title – he might just be the pick of the bunch.
Faced with a Sean Brady who totally dominated former champ Leon Edwards last time out, Morales operated out of a low, crouching striking stance and proceeded to pick Brady apart with strikes.
With the Philadelphia native unable to make an impression on Morales, thanks to the Ecuadorian’s striking offense, and wrestling defense, Morales started to load up, and it didn’t take him long to eventually finish Brady with strikes as he claimed a statement win to put himself front and center as a clear and present danger to newly-crowned welterweight champion Islam Makhachev.
2. Valentina Shevchenko
Valentina Shevchenko’s flyweight title defense against former strawweight champion Zhang Weili pitted the UFC’s top two female pound-for-pound fighters head to head, but in a direct comparison between the pair, Shevchenko showed that she’s operating on a different level to the rest as she claimed a shutout victory on the scorecards.
When she opted to strike with Zhang, Shevchenko’s kickboxing looked crisp, sharp and quick. But, perhaps in a show of respect for Zhang’s own speed and striking ability, Shevchenko opted to take “Magnum” off her feet and dominate her on the ground.
Shevchenko landed five of six takedown attempts during the fight as she registered 13 minutes, 24 seconds of control time in their 25-minute title clash.
The big question now is what will Shevchenko do next? Natalia Silva could be her next test at 125 pounds, but a move back up to 135 to go for bantamweight gold could well be on the cards…
3. Carlos Prates
Before his welterweight bout with former champion Leon Edwards, Brazilian contender Carlos Prates stated that the fans pay to watch knockouts and violence, and he delivered that on fight night, and how.
Prates dealt with Edwards’ grinding clinch game against the fence, and even had time to exchange comments with the former champ during the action before eventually getting separation and letting his hands go in the open.
And early in the second round, Prates backed up his pre-fight promise as he connected with a monster of a straight left to knock Edwards out clean. It was the first time “Rocky” had been KO’d in his career, and it announced Prates as a dangerous, exciting wild card in the welterweight title sweepstakes.
4. Islam Makhachev
The big question on everyone’s lips ahead of UFC 322’s main event was how would Islam Makhachev fare at welterweight? As it turned out, he fared pretty darned well.
Makhachev completely dominated Jack Della Maddalena, who looked out of ideas, and out of his depth against the Russian, who took him down almost at will and ground his way to a shutout victory on the scorecards as he captured the undisputed welterweight title.
It wasn’t the prettiest way to win for Makhachev, but while his grinding approach might not produce too many clips for the UFC’s highlight reels, the onus is on the rest of the welterweight division to find a way to beat him.
Della Maddalana certainly couldn’t, but with a long line of contenders looking to challenge for the title, Makhachev won’t have any problem finding viable challenges to his title in 2026.
5. Benoit Saint Denis
Such were the level of performances at UFC 322, Benoit Saint Denis’s 16-second knockout of Beneil Dariush only makes it to fifth in our UFC 322 Power Rankings. That’s not to detract from “The God of War’s” brilliant performance – he did everything you could possibly hope for in a fight to get am emphatic, quickfire win. But the impact of that win on his weight class perhaps won’t be as big as some of the wins listed above him 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, with his victories over Kyle Prepolec, Mauricio Ruffy and Dariush all coming via finish.
Simon Head is Editor-in-Chief with renowned combat sports equipment company RDX Sports. Check out their latest range of MMA fightwear today.
