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BY PATRICK AUGER
JUL 12, 2019
In February 2013, after pressure from fans and media alike, the Ultimate Fighting Championship teamed up with Fightmetric (now called UFC Stats) to establish a formal rankings system. The idea was that Fightmetric would poll in the neighborhood of 90 mixed martial arts media members worldwide, and the rankings would list the Top 15 fighters in each division as well as a pound-for-pound ranking of the Top 15 in the organization. The rankings would be updated within 24 hours of an event and would be integrated into live broadcasts when applicable.
“UFC Fighter Rankings are a great tool for new and existing fans alike to learn and better keep up with the fast pace of the UFC,” said UFC President Dana White at the time of the announcement. “We always look for opportunities to engage fans and media, allowing them to connect and voice their opinions, and this just one more way of doing that.”
Had White known what was to follow, he most certainly would have chosen different words.
Fast forward to 2019 and the UFC rankings is a shell of what they were touted to be. A mere 14 media members cast their vote for fighter rankings, ranging from local radio station hosts to defunct MMA website administrators, with many of the bigger media outlets abstaining. Each Top 15 is also incredibly diverse, with one member ranking Adriano Martins as the No. 9 lightweight in the world as late as June of last year. The reason that’s a big deal is that Martins was released by the UFC in November of 2017.
This reduced sample size of opinions coupled with a wide variety of preferences can result in some strange shifts. Following UFC Greenville on June 22, No. 12 ranked Chan Sung Jung moved all the way up to 6 after a first-round knockout of the fifth-ranked Renato Carneiro. While that move in itself isn’t surprising, No. 11 Yair Rodriguez also shot up the rankings to No. 7, presumably based on the fact that Rodriguez had defeated Jung in a literal last-second knockout seven months earlier.
Read more at https://www.sherdog.com/news/articl...Do-and-Dont-Matter-158295#uMgBFpHQkbss8uxL.99
