Jorge Masvidal and Dustin Poirier agree on UFC’s No 1 P4P king as Justin Gaethje is snubbed from top three

Neither Jorge Masvidal nor Dustin Poirier included lightweight champion Justin Gaethje in their top three pound-for-pound UFC fighters right now.

Justin Gaethje finally captured the title that had eluded him since he first signed for Dana White’s MMA organization after he ascended to the top of the lightweight division.

The 37-year-old American MMA star produced a stunning performance at UFC Freedom 250 in June and Justin Gaethje stopped Ilia Topuria in their fight.

Ilia Topuria was undefeated going into his UFC lightweight title defense and was pulled out of the fight in the fourth round after being left a bloodied mess.

Arman Tsarukyan seems undeniable, but Ilia Topuria has recently ruffled feathers👀

Speaking on UFC on Paramount+, Jorge Masvidal and Dustin Poirier featured alongside Chris Weidman for the Deep Waters show’s pound-for-pound rankings.

The aforementioned MMA pundits made their individual rankings and all three agreed that UFC welterweight champion Islam Makhachev would be No 1.

Chris Weidman was the only one out of the trio to include Justin Gaethje in the top three, as the UFC lightweight champ placed at No 3 behind Alexander Volkanovski.

Poirier agreed with Weidman by putting Alexander Volkanovski at No 2 on his own list, while Masvidal’s second pick in the rankings was flyweight champ Joshua Van.

Masvidal picked UFC bantamweight champion Petr Yan at No 3 and Poirier had former MMA rival Max Holloway to round off his top three pound-for-pound fighters.

Poirier, who fought Gaethje twice during his UFC run, had the ‘Highlight’ narrowly miss out on the top three and instead had him at the No 4 spot in his rankings.

Masvidal, on the other hand, had Gaethje all the way down at the No 6 spot behind fourth-place Merab Dvalishvili and fifth-place Ilia Topuria in his pound-for-pound list.

Gaethje is recovering from knee and hand injuries that he has sustained over the course of 2026 and the lightweight champ is not expected to return until 2027.

Arman Tsarukyan has been tipped as a potential opponent for Gaethje’s first lightweight title defense in 2027, despite no official confirmation made so far.