Korean Zombie doubles down on frustration with UFC rankings

The Korean Zombie has dived deeper into why the UFC rankings don’t make sense.

Zombie is coming off an impressive first-round victory over Frankie Edgar at UFC Busan last month. It moved him up to #4 in the featherweight rankings as he targets a title shot against Alexander Volkanovski next.

However, he recently expressed his frustration at the rankings in an Instagram post.

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Zombie notably feels he should be ranked higher than Brian Ortega and Zabit Magomedsharipov, and explained further in a recent video.

“I was shocked that Brian Ortega came in second place,” Zombie said. “The last time Ortega won a fight was 20 months ago. Ortega last won 20 months ago when he defeated Frankie Edgar and he lost to Holloway about 13 months ago. That was the last fight Ortega competed in. It doesn’t make sense how he still remains as second place when his last win was so long ago.

“Third place is Zabit Magomedsharipov. So he beat someone [Calvin Kattar] who is in 11th place. I remember he beat [Jeremy] Stephens, but even then, Stephens was only ranked at 6th place. It is hard to understand how he is still in 3rd place.”

Zombie then pointed to his four fights since returning to action in 2017, with his last two outings being wins over opponents ranked in the top five.

“Ever since my return in 2017, I have fought four fighters,” Zombie added. “I defeated [Dennis] Bermudez. My fight with him [Yair Rodriguez] was my biggest setback. I have nothing to say. … Moicano was in 5th place when I defeated him last year. I even defeated Edgar who was in 4th place at the time during the same year.

“I won against two fighters that ranked pretty high and I still ended in 4th place. My opponents were ranked high while Zabit’s was ranked 6th, 7th or 8th, and 11th, so how he is still ranked #3 just doesn’t make sense to me. So that is why I threw a little fit. I was hoping that maybe the ranking would change but sadly it didn’t.”

Regardless of the rankings, Zombie looks to be in prime position to get the next title shot. That is, assuming Max Holloway doesn’t get an instant rematch.