Remake the UFC Rankings System

[m9]

The task is simple: How the UFC do their rankings sucks. Is there a better system and what is it?

Click to read more...

 

[m9]

My thought is simple - only the past 3 years of results should matter. Anything previous to that isn't really relevant anymore other than you get the benefit of you getting bigger fights from being in that position.

Guys are squatting on positions and not fighting which holds back more deserving fighters who are active and winning fights. Jorge Masvidal is going to be pushing for a title fight in 2023 despite not winning a fight since 2019.

Darren Till is the #9 middleweight in the UFC despite being 1-4 in the last 4 years with that only win being a split decision over Kelvin Gastelum.

 

[MMC]

Remove anyone who goes more than a year and a half without fighting

 

[MD thaivuN]

There is a fundamental issue where the media people doing the rankings may not know or care much about the sport and the people, that do care, do not want to be involved with the rankings.

The official UFC rankings and its questionable media panel

The UFC updated its official rankings on Monday. At the bottom of the rankings page, the following is stated under “How Are Rankings Determined:”

www.bloodyelbow.com

Just yeet the rankings

 

[m9]

There is a fundamental issue where the media people doing the rankings may not know or care much about the sport and the people, that do care, do not want to be involved with the rankings.

The official UFC rankings and its questionable media panel

The UFC updated its official rankings on Monday. At the bottom of the rankings page, the following is stated under “How Are Rankings Determined:”

www.bloodyelbow.com

Just yeet the rankings

Yeah, it's insane (if it's true) that this is how the rankings are done are at least were done. I have heard that many real MMA journalists/reporters refused to participate because they thought it might negatively impact their relationship with the fighters which is understandable. But yeah, they have to do better than this.

 

[16Skippy]

My thought is simple - only the past 3 years of results should matter. Anything previous to that isn't really relevant anymore other than you get the benefit of you getting bigger fights from being in that position.

Guys are squatting on positions and not fighting which holds back more deserving fighters who are active and winning fights. Jorge Masvidal is going to be pushing for a title fight in 2023 despite not winning a fight since 2019.

Darren Till is the #9 middleweight in the UFC despite being 1-4 in the last 4 years with that only win being a split decision over Kelvin Gastelum.

I think the idea of voting is good since the rankings will always be little subjective. But 1) They should really vet and be transparent about who is voting, and how they're voting. A lot of those sites mentioned in the article above are still included
.

2) They should set clear criteria about how to vote, things like your idea in bold. There will always by disagreements but having a clear criteria would at least eliminate some of the subjectivity.

 

[Taytro]

I have no suggestions, I just wanted to say the way that they do it now is absolute garbage and tailored to pushing the UFCs motives rather than based in any type of fairness or logic. Some of the ideas you guys have mentioned are great.

One thing that I'd like to see (which will absolutely not be possible to do fairly) is to take the actual fight into consideration not just the result. For example if a top 5 fighter wins a close split decision against a top 15 guy, the rankings should show that those two guys are closer in skill sets. If the number 2 guy absolutely runs over the number 3 guy, the rankings should show that there's a significant gap between those two fighters. Again, no way to do this without heavy bias, but not all wins are equal you know?