​Listen, if Conor McGregor had smoked Max Holloway in his return fight, here’s guessing at least one of our Uncrowned MMA Pound-for-Pound voters would’ve slotted him in the top 10 of this month’s list.(We’re mostly kidding.)AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementYet given the anticlimactic nature of the ending of Saturday’s UFC 329 main event, the more realistic question was whether Max Holloway would break back into the top 10 space on the men’s side of the ledger, and the answer is … no. Holloway got the 69-second victory, but he didn’t need to do much in Las Vegas to secure it.So as we enter the dog days of summer, the MMA pound-for-pound list stays steady with Islam Makhachev and Valentina Shevchenko holding down the top spots.Maybe next time, Max. (Esther Lin, Uncrowned)(Esther Lin)The panel of Ben Fowlkes, Chuck Mindenhall, Shaheen Al-Shatti, Petesy Carroll, Drake Riggs, Eric Jackman and Conner Burks have ranked both the men’s and women’s pound-for-pound best, one through 10, using a weighted points system to determine the final rankings (being voted No. 1 equals 10 points, No. 2 equals nine points, down to No. 10 equaling one point).AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementOur only criterion for these monthly rankings is that a fighter has competed within at least a calendar year of the publication date or has at least had a fight booked within that window. If a fighter hasn’t competed in a year and books a fight after that time, he or she is once again eligible to be voted back in. Fighters who retire are no longer eligible for the rankings.Though most of the best fighters are currently in the UFC, these rankings are not UFC exclusive. We take into consideration all the major promotions, from PFL to RIZIN to ONE Championship and beyond.Without further ado, here are Uncrowned’s MMA pound-for-pound rankings for July 2026!Islam Makhachev defends his pound-for-pound perch against Ian Machado Garry on Aug. 15 at UFC 330.(Jeff Bottari via Getty Images)The game within the game is to see what Makhachev posts on X after a big event, and this time he came right down to the point. “Conor beat Conor congrats Max,” he wrote after UFC 329. In a weird way, Makhachev is the last of the UFC’s “invincibles” — and the biggest attraction going — with McGregor, Ilia Topuria, Alex Pereira and Khamzat Chimaev all losing this summer. At UFC 330 in August, Ian Machado Garry awaits.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe countdown is on for Pantoja’s return, as it’s now been a half-year since he lost his title to Joshua Van in the flukiest of ways. Watching Van’s extended victory lap, which took the champ to Vegas this past International Fight Week where he did a meet-and-greet with fans, must feel like a lemon being squeezed on the wound.The more you see champions get into big spots and lose, the more you appreciate a guy like Volkanovski, whose longevity as one of the best is nearly unparalleled. It looks like Movsar Evloev is next, and there are maybe a