The fighter choked out his opponent inside two minutes to claim the heavyweight title.

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And an emphatic win in his return after three years out of the octagon has earned Jones top place in the UFC Men’s pound-for-pound rankings.

Jones, 35, has jumped nine places and overtakes the likes of Kamaru Usman, Israel Adesanya and Brit Leon Edwards.

Jones has spent much of his career at or near the top of the pound-for-pound rankings list, and he could look to re-establish his dominance in the sport by taking on Stipe Miocic next.

Previous P4P king Alexander Volkanovski gained top place after winning the Featherweight Championship and defending it four times between 2020-2022.

He took the title off Max Holloway, ranked 15, before losing to Islam Makhachev last time out.

Makhachev won via unanimous decision but it was not enough to overtake Volkanovski in the P4P rankings – he sits one place behind the Australian in third.

There are several other big names on the list including powerhouses Usman and Adesanya.

They rank fifth and sixth respectively with recent losses for both preventing them from ranking higher.

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Usman’s incredible 19-fight winning streak was ended by Edwards in August after the Birmingham-based fighter landed an amazing head kick to KO the former welterweight champion.

Edwards now ranks above the Nigerian in fourth place while Alex Pereira, Aljamain Sterling, Charles Oliveira and Brandon Moreno round up the top ten.

Dustin Poirier ranks 12 after defeating Michael Chandler in a contest that won fight of the night at UFC 281.

Prior to that he lost to Oliveira but back-to-back wins over Conor McGregor saw his pedigree rise.

As for The Notorious, he is unsurprisingly omitted from the pound-for-pound rankings having been out of the game since August 2021.

He broke his leg during a defeat to Poirier and has been recovering ever since, though he could return to face Chandler this year.