Ariel Helwani is a Canadian born combat sports journalist. In his two decades of experience he’s covered promotions like UFC, Bellator, Pride, and many more. His large popularity in the sport is due to his hard hitting questions, and professionalism he brings to every interview. He is without a doubt the face of combat sports journalism.

Last weekend pound for pound #1 fighter in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Alexander Volkanovski took on pound for pound #2 fighter in the UFC Islam Makhachev.

The fight was a super close one and went to a judges decision that saw Islam Makhachev win by unanimous decision.

Half of UFC fans were outraged by this outcome as they thought Volkanovski won. The other half thought Islam won. The question on everyone’s mind though was who is the new #1 pound for pound fighter in the UFC. Islam officially won the fight but Volkanovski was the one who moved up in weight, and made the fight Islam’s closest to date.

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Ariel Helwani decided to share his input on the situation. He says that going into the fight his opinion was that Volkanovski was #1 and Islam was only #3. Now he has Islam at #2 and Volkanovski stays the pound for pound king.

I tend to agree with this opinion. Volkanovski moved up a weight class and showed that if he was the same size he would have won the fight. That’s what the pound for pound rankings are all about. If all the fighters were at the same weight who would win? In my opinion I don’t think theirs a fighter in the world who could beat Volkanovski at the same weight, and that’s why he remains the pound for pound king.