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He was top 4, Johnson top 5 and RDA top 5.
There is no such thing as since the champion doesn't count so he's top 6. That's how they do their rankings so if they put him as top 5 he's top 5, period.
If you look at the source I posted earlier -- the UFC moved RDA up from #6 to #5 before he fought Khabib (and Nate Diaz down to #6), despite Nate coming off a more recent win. They did this just to market RDA as a "top 5" fighter to hype the fight -- regardless of what happened afterwards, RDA was not a legit top 5 fighter at the time, and UFC.com rankings are meaningless.
Barboza only got top 5 because literally 4 fighters above him left the division, which is unprecedented (Diaz, Conor, RDA, and Cerrone). He's the top 5 equivalent of a paper champion, and he got exposed once he fought true top 5 talent (Khabib, Kevin Lee).
Neither of those fighters were at the level of a true top 5 fighter. Imagine the top LW's got injured, and Al Iquinta became the champion. Would you call him a truly championship level fighter, or a paper champion? OBVIOUSLY you would consider him a paper champion.
RDA got much better after he fought Khabib, and Barboza was never at that "top 5" level. Khabib has never been tested.