How to Fix the UFC Fighter Rankings | The Province
"If the UFC is going to have published rankings and envisions using them as a means to determine what percentage of the sponsorship pie fighters are going to be eligible for in the not-too-distant future, than a major overhaul is in order.
For the sake of this conversation, let’s set aside the Pound-for-Pound rankings because they’re completely subjective and carry no real value. It’s a fun topic of debate among friends and fight fans, but as far as a potential tool for the organization, they’re about as useful as a chocolate teapot.
But the divisional rankings, they have value or at least they could if they were done correctly.
Here’s the explanation of how the rankings are generated from the official UFC Fighter Rankings page, which was updated Monday in the wake of UFC 185:
Rankings were generated by a voting panel made up of media members. The media members were asked to vote for who they feel are the top fighters in the UFC by weight-class and pound-for-pound. A fighter is only eligible to be voted on if they are in active status in the UFC. A fighter can appear in more than one weight division at a time. The champion and interim champion are considered to be in the top positions of their respective divisions and therefore are not eligible for voting by weight-class. However, the champions can be voted on for the pound-for-pound rankings. Rankings will be updated approximately 36 hours after each event.
According to the drop-down menu you can access to check out individual submissions, the voting panel consists of 40 media members, but most of them are people hardcore fight fans that know the names of media members have never heard of before because none of the major industry websites participate, save for MMA Weekly.
While the final rankings don’t look that bad overall, there are little blips on the radar each week that make you question what the hell the voting panel was thinking when they submitted their ballots. There are 10 cases this week where fighters that did not compete on the weekend and have not competed recently have changed positions.
Josh Thomson dropped two spots in the lightweight division, falling to No. 9, presumably because he withdrew from his scheduled fight with Gilbert Burns. What caused Jussier Formiga and John Moraga to flip-flop positions in the flyweight rankings is a mystery. Some of the moves are corrective – Kelvin Gastelum rightfully moving ahead of Jake Ellenberger, whom he beat back in November – but then Alistair Overeem lands one spot ahead of Ben Rothwell, who starched the former Strikeforce champion back in September, and it seems like panel members don’t remember anything that happened more than 90 days ago.
So how do you fix it? Glad you asked......."
"If the UFC is going to have published rankings and envisions using them as a means to determine what percentage of the sponsorship pie fighters are going to be eligible for in the not-too-distant future, than a major overhaul is in order.
For the sake of this conversation, let’s set aside the Pound-for-Pound rankings because they’re completely subjective and carry no real value. It’s a fun topic of debate among friends and fight fans, but as far as a potential tool for the organization, they’re about as useful as a chocolate teapot.
But the divisional rankings, they have value or at least they could if they were done correctly.
Here’s the explanation of how the rankings are generated from the official UFC Fighter Rankings page, which was updated Monday in the wake of UFC 185:
Rankings were generated by a voting panel made up of media members. The media members were asked to vote for who they feel are the top fighters in the UFC by weight-class and pound-for-pound. A fighter is only eligible to be voted on if they are in active status in the UFC. A fighter can appear in more than one weight division at a time. The champion and interim champion are considered to be in the top positions of their respective divisions and therefore are not eligible for voting by weight-class. However, the champions can be voted on for the pound-for-pound rankings. Rankings will be updated approximately 36 hours after each event.
According to the drop-down menu you can access to check out individual submissions, the voting panel consists of 40 media members, but most of them are people hardcore fight fans that know the names of media members have never heard of before because none of the major industry websites participate, save for MMA Weekly.
While the final rankings don’t look that bad overall, there are little blips on the radar each week that make you question what the hell the voting panel was thinking when they submitted their ballots. There are 10 cases this week where fighters that did not compete on the weekend and have not competed recently have changed positions.
Josh Thomson dropped two spots in the lightweight division, falling to No. 9, presumably because he withdrew from his scheduled fight with Gilbert Burns. What caused Jussier Formiga and John Moraga to flip-flop positions in the flyweight rankings is a mystery. Some of the moves are corrective – Kelvin Gastelum rightfully moving ahead of Jake Ellenberger, whom he beat back in November – but then Alistair Overeem lands one spot ahead of Ben Rothwell, who starched the former Strikeforce champion back in September, and it seems like panel members don’t remember anything that happened more than 90 days ago.
So how do you fix it? Glad you asked......."
