Ngannou, Gane, Miocic: UFC heavyweights ranked as Tom Aspinall prepares to face Alexander Volkov

Tom Aspinall knows a win over Alexander Volkov will push him up the official UFC rankings.

The two top contenders, aged 28 and 33 respectively, will meet in the heavyweight main event of UFC Fight Night 204 in London on March 19.

Aspinall takes on the former Bellator MMA champion at the O2 Arena on Saturday.

Volkov’s No6 ranking is on the line and Aspinall is confident he can use the Russian as the ideal platform to catapult him into the title picture.

Here, GiveMeSport runs down the top 15 from the latest official rankings.

Francis Ngannou, 35, is the king of the heavyweights having successfully defended his belt against Ciryl Gane at UFC 270.

The UFC heavyweight champion is expected to sit out the rest of the year on the sidelines after undergoing knee surgery.

And Ngannou’s former teammate Gane has kept his place as No1 in the rankings list, ahead of Stipe Miocic and Tai Tuivasa.

Curtis Blaydes, 30, is fourth placed on the list, with Derrick Lewis, 37, fifth.

That is despite Blaydes being knocked out by Lewis back in February 2021 while he hasn’t fought since his win over Jairzinho Rozenstruik in September of last year.

Speaking of Rozenstruik, he slots in at No7 behind Volkov.

The likes of Chris Daukaus, Marcin Tybura and Shamil Abdurakhimov make up the rest of the UFC’s top ten.

Moving further down the list, Aspinall occupies eleventh spot as mentioned previously.

Bulgarian MMA fighter Blagoy Ivanov, 35, meanwhile somehow sneaks in at No14, even though he has not fought since dropping a split decision to Augusto Sakai in May 2020.

Walt Harris (No13) and Serghei Spivac (No15) complete the list.

There is of course no room for Jon Jones who is currently piling on the pounds in anticipation of a move up to