Ranking MMA Countries

[scm1]

Country Score is calculated based on the value of all fighters from each country.
Here are Current Top 30 MMA Countries:

• chng Rk 1Y - change of Country ranking compared to 1/1/2015
  
• Quantity Index - number that combines several quantity measures (based on different fighter counts)
  
• TopFtrs Index - describes the quality of best the fighters from that country
  
• Active 1 yr - number of ranked fighters that were active in the last 365 days.
  
• CS>200 - number of fighters with Current Score > 200
  
• rkP4P>1000 - number of fighters that are ranked in top 1000 P4P
  
• best CS - best fighter Current Score
  
• best RkCtg - best fighter ranking in any Weight Category
  

All fighters are assigned to at least one country.
If a fighter is associated with two counties, points that fighter carries are split between those two countries.

 

[scm1]

Japan overtook Russia for #3 because of following factors:

• some top Russian fighters dropped in rankings because of inactivity (Khabib Nurmagomedov, Alexey Oleinik, Mikhail Zayats)
• Bellator is not using Russian fighters as much as before (Vitaly Minakov, Alexander Shlemenko)
• Japan still have bigger fighter base (Quantity)
• Japan has much better female fighters

Recent UFC event in South Korea moved them up one spot.

Ireland also had UFC event and has one of the biggest 2015 climb in this ranking.
This is mostly because of McGregor, but also Duffy, Seery and Holohan.

Sweden also had a recent UFC event, but they dropped in rankings.
They were riding high on the back of Gustafsson. But he is not very active recently and he has some losses.
Sirwan Kakai lost, and Reza Madadi lost. Ilir Latifi is the only one with win.

Kazakhstan is a surprise winner in the latest MMA country ranking.
They have a lot of new good fighters but none in the big promotions. They are fighting in M-1, One FC, AC Berkut.
They also have a very active and successful MMA promotion - Alash Pride.

 

[scm1]

Previously we had Country ranking with Male fighters only.
Now we combined Male and Female fighters and created this new overall Country ranking.

We also have a separate gender MMA Country rankings.
Here is Female Country ranking (includes just Female fighters:

 

[sparkuri]

Japan overtook Russia for #3 because of following factors:

• some top Russian fighters dropped in rankings because of inactivity (Khabib Nurmagomedov, Alexey Oleinik, Mikhail Zayats)
• Bellator is not using Russian fighters as much as before (Vitaly Minakov, Alexander Shlemenko)
• Japan still have bigger fighter base (Quantity)
• Japan has much better female fighters

Recent UFC event in South Korea moved them up one spot.

Ireland also had UFC event and has one of the biggest 2015 climb in this ranking.
This is mostly because of McGregor, but also Duffy, Seery and Holohan.

Sweden also had a recent UFC event, but they dropped in rankings.
They were riding high on the back of Gustafsson. But he is not very active recently and he has some losses.
Sirwan Kakai lost, and Reza Madadi lost. Ilir Latifi is the only one with win.

Kazakhstan is a surprise winner in the latest MMA country ranking.
They have a lot of new good fighters but none in the big promotions. They are fighting in M-1, One FC, AC Berkut.
They also have a very active and successful MMA promotion - Alash Pride.

These are interesting.
I'm curious as to how "value" is defined?
Does this mean monetary value in relation to the United States Dollar?
I'm also curious as to the factors, such as the organizations used for these calculations.
Minakov, for instance, has been active, but not for Bellator.
So if the "Big 4"(UFC, ONE, WSOF, Bellator) are used, value might (relatively) be equated with cash money.

 

[scm1]

The main formula for calculating Country Score has 3 main components:
CountryScore = Quantity Index + Top Fighters Quality + Stacked Index

Here is how those 3 components look right now for the top 8 countries.

From that graph you can see that England has more fighters than Canada, but Canada is still ranked higher.


Difference between having just a few very good fighters and having a lot of lower ranked fighters,
is even more noticeable for some countries ranked from 6 -18:

Cuba is one of the extremes. They have a lot of boxers and wrestlers, but very few MMA fighters.
When some of those Cubans decided to switch to MMA, they turn out to be excellent fighters.

Example for the extreme on the other end is France. They are a big country with big MMA tradition and a lot of fighters. But very few are high quality.

 

[Zeph]

Disregard all that stats and information nonsense. England #1.

 

[scm1]

These are interesting.
I'm curious as to how "value" is defined?
Does this mean monetary value in relation to the United States Dollar?
I'm also curious as to the factors, such as the organizations used for these calculations.
Minakov, for instance, has been active, but not for Bellator.
So if the "Big 4"(UFC, ONE, WSOF, Bellator) are used, value might (relatively) be equated with cash money.

Fighter current value is defined by his Current Score, Current Category and P4P ranking. No monetary side.
Also Promotion association is just a reference. It is not used for any calculation. But strength of opponents is used in calculations and big organizations have bigger names.

 

[scm1]

Disregard all that stats and information nonsense. England #1.

Of course, England was never in the top 3, but England is one of the most important MMA countries.

You can see 7 most important MMA countries on the following graph.
This is how Country Score was changing from the beginning of MMA History (1993):

 

[sparkuri]

 

[scm1]

After top 5 or 6 MMA countries, we have a middle tier with several countries.

Here is how Country Score was changing for that middle tier of MMA Countries in the last 8 years:

For a long time England was on the top of the middle tier.
Now Poland is on that #6 spot.

Australia was always in top 10 MMA countries. Question is will Australia stay in top 10?
Australia is around #8 spot for a while. In 2013 they were threatened by Sweden and France.
Now Ukraine and Korea are getting close.
Maybe Ireland or even Mexico will be next to join that group.

 

[Wild]

Joanna carrying Poland thru the ranks.

 

[Team Bisping]

When Bisping wins the title next year, England will takes it place right beside USA.

 

[scm1]

Joanna carrying Poland thru the ranks.

You are right. Joanna is by far the best MMA fighter from Poland.
If only Polish guys can fight like Polish girls.

This is current Poland top 25:

Khalidov is shared between Poland and Russia.
Poland have some good MMA Promotions. Right now we have KSW ranked in top 10 MMA Promotions.

 

[scm1]

Following table is similar to the first table with current Top 30 MMA Countries. Here I included additional counts:

• Fighter count - shows how many fighters from each country we have ranked this week.
• Then we have count of fighters in UFC and in Bellator.
• Champ points are given for having a fighter in the championship bout.
• top 5 in Ctg - number of top 5 fighters in any Weight Category.
• rkP4P<200 - number of fighters that are ranked in top 200 P4P
• CS>400 - number of fighters with Current Score > 400

 

[BJTT-Rizzo]

Nice stats.

 

[sparkuri]

I'd like to see how the Pride era ranked, surely a more diverse bunch than their counterparts

 

[Jonny Quest]

 

[EyeAmYuki]

During Pride in Japan, on neutral ground. Brazil > USA.

 

[scm1]

I am trying to have a more rational/scientific kind of discussion here, so those posts with lighthearted pictures are kind of distraction.

We know what countries are ranked #1 and #2. That will not change any time soon.

So, let's look at the next tier of MMA Countries.

This is how Country Score was changing for Countries ranked from #3 to #8 (in the last 8 years):

There are number of conclusions that we can derive from this graph.
You can make your own conclusions.
Does this reflects how you see the things?

 

[scm1]

Let's look at the extended ranking lists for both USA and Brazil.

Current Top 50 USA fighters:

Current Top 50 Brazilian fighters:

90% of USA top 50 fighters are in UFC and 76% of top 50 Brazilians.

#50 American would be ranked at #21 in Brazil (looking at Current Score points).

 

[Greek777]

Interesting thread, thanks for taking the time to do this. Have you thought about including past eras like PRIDE as mentioned here before?

 

[scm1]

Interesting thread, thanks for taking the time to do this. Have you thought about including past eras like PRIDE as mentioned here before?

Yes we have all the rankings stored on the quarterly basis - going back to 1993 (first quarter is Q3 1993).

Here is one example from the beginning of PRIDE era:

And another example from the previous century:

 

[Zeph]

I'd be interested in the top 50 best Russians. @scm1

 

[member 1013]

What about the Ecuadorians?

 

[scm1]

I'd be interested in the top 50 best Russians. @scm1

Can you please give me your comments on this list.