UFC rankings/MMA rankings featured in USA Today for June 2009

I agree, Diego left off the list is retarded

k these are the names that jump out 2 me Jorge Santiago,Andrei arlovski, babalu, cheal sonnen, paulo tiago….and i dont see how u can rank frankie edgar higher then gray maynard….and as much as i hate him u cant have aoki lower then alverez,,,,,usa today is B.s anyways they dont know anything bout mma there jsut sponcered by affliction so they thing they know mma

and where is bisping……..noway half those middleweights are better then him

And I suppose Shogun’s ranking is based largely off of his pride days because losing to Forrest, then beating two senior citizens doesn’t get you top 5 by itself….or, at least, it shouldn’t. I wish he wasn’t facing Machida next b/c losing to Machida still won’t make it clear where the guy stands in today’s UFC.

I’m more interested in what the rankings will look like at the end of August – the top 6 heavyweights are all fighting but unfortunately whatever the outcomes we are still going to see Fedor and Barnett the top 2 and Nog, Couture, Lesnar and Mir in 3,4,5 and 6.

Musasi might join the LHW top 10 with a win over Sobral (this would prove more than beating Soko, Hunt, the freak win over Jacre or big Melv) but not much other movement likely (unless Forrest beats Silva)

At middleweight I reckon Marquart stays in the #1 contender spot with a gnp win over a gassed out Maia mid way through the 3rd and we see Bisping enter the top 10 with a decision win over Henderson. Okami has been languishing in the top 3 for about 2 years now without a title shot and still has no fight booked, bum deal.

WW Hughes is lucky to be ranked so high after a lacklustre performance against Serra, Alves v GSP is so close to call but it wouldn’t be a huge upset to see a new #1. Thiago gets the fight of his life against Fitch but putting in a good performance and going to a decision would go some way to legitimising his win over Kos.

LW will have a hungry steamrolling Florian on top of an unmotivated Penn. Diego Sanchez should be in the mix there too at 3 or 4.

Yeah, how can Chael Sonnen be higher than Bisping? That’s total bullshit. And half the others.

Bisping’s win over MWs – Chainsaw McCarthy, Leben, Day

Chael’s – Filho (regardless of his downfall, he was consensus #2 while none of those guys are/were ranked except maybe leben but that was long long ago.)

Diego has two solid wins over top 15 opponents so why should he be top 5 LW?

Nick Diaz win over Shammy or smith are meaningless since neither is ranked even top 15.

I agree with ovaries about shogun but like a Big Nog the body of work in his resume is good enough to hold him up for a several more years to come even if he posts inconsistent results.

Paulo Thiago – will be top 5 after fitch decides to stand with him (he’s gonna be the Sok of 09 trust me, bandwagonners get a lead early now and bail before he implodes when they throw him in there with a swick or alves after this fight).

Bisping would destroy Sonnen. And Filho wasn’t exactly in a great condition when he fought Sonnen the last time.

Agree with Kobajack, Bisping would pick Sonnen apart and that Filho fight shouldn’t count, i could hav beaten him that night.

Bisping is top 10, Diego is top 5.. Keith Jardine should be nowhere near a 6th place on the ranking, he’s lost too many fights and Antonio Rogerio Nog in all glory but he’s done nothing to earn that spot either…
terrible ranks

Bizzzzbing certainly can’t be considered top 10, he hasn’t got any wins over top 20 opponents, let alone top 10 ones which seems to be the criteria for these rankings. Hence you have Brett Rogers and Paulo Thiago in the top 10. When bizzzzy beats old man dan at 100 then he can be considered for top 10.

attakdog, I hear what you’re saying, but it just doesn’t seem accurate to base the rankings ENTIRELY on a fighter’s opponents. There are holes in that system because, like the Bisping conundrum, it doesn’t look right to put Sonnen higher than Bisping.

The fact that he’s fighting Henderson should put him higher in the ranks because he’s fighting in that higher echelon, whether he wins or loses.

Not to forget form. Based on his form it’s easy to see that he’s got the potential to be in the top ten.

I suppose the argument to fix the holes is that if a fighter is good enough he will be matched up with the higher echelon of fighters eventually, so until that happens he should not be ‘officially’ ranked as higher than he is because he hasn’t proven it yet, despite whether we know he could or not.

But until the rankings at least have an appended explanation of how they’ve been calculated they’ll always be controversial. For instance, if a ranking system bases its system purely on who a fighter has fought, regardless of whether we are almost certain he would beat another fighter, then it should be explained.

Whereas a different ranking system could also append an explanation of its calculation criteria, such as previous opponents, fighter’s form (efficacy; how easily he beat his opponents or how hard it took for him to lose), the exact result or method by which they lost and won, etc. — anything really. Anything, that is, as long as its functional and realistic.

“The fact that he’s fighting Henderson should put him higher in the ranks because he’s fighting in that higher echelon, whether he wins or loses”.

Fighting somebody who’s good doesn’t make you good kobajack, you have to beat those people to be highly ranked and Bizzzzy hasn’t done that yet. If just being in the ring with someone was good enough to give you a high ranking then we’d have in the HW’s Zuluzinhio, Hong Man Choi, Mark Hunt and Mark Coleman all top 10 simply beacause they’ve fought the undisputed number one man Fedor!

I agree Bizzzzy would probably beat Sonnen, but at the end of the day controversial or not, Sonnen does have a win over Filhio under his belt which is a much bigger win than Bizzzzy has on his CV.

Hehe, pick ONE thing and disregard the WHOLE post, shame on you. I kid ;)

But I didn’t say it should put him in the top ten but it should be another contributing factor to add to the criteria. But even then, whether I was wrong on that or not, that wasn’t my main point and doesn’t alter my point either.

I agree with most else of what you said chief, that’s why I disregarded the rest. I just thought the point you made about merely facing top competition was good enough to elevate a fighters ranking was just plain wrong, and I think the examples I gave showed that.

You look at anyone in that top 10 and they’ve all got bigger wins on their CV than Bizzzzzbing has and that should be the main criteria. Showing “form” by beating three cans on the bounce shouldn’t be criteria enough to elevate an up and comer like Bizzzzbing over guys who have been there and done that.

As I said before though, when he beats decision dan and shows he belongs with the big boys, rather than just exhibiting “the potential” to hang, then I wont have an argument about him being there!

Yeah, you presented that point well, I agree, that particular point didn’t add anything to the argument nor take anything away from the main point, but I withdraw it because it’s counter-productive to my post. It’s a redundant point.

Your opinion is totally valid and makes sense (as I explained in the first post) but it still doesn’t sit well with me that Sonnen is higher than Bisping. It’s not right.

However, on a system which bases the criteria purely on a fighter’s resume, then it makes sense (once again, as I said before).

I dont think Sonnen should be higher either, but as we agree if you’re basing it on their resume, which is the main criteria, then yes it does. Only eight days left though and Bizzzzy will put that anomaly right.

Eight days? I thought it was July 11? I hope you’re right.

Sh!t yeah 15, it’s eight days till i fly out there, keep forgetting its another week after that.

Dustin should be and paulo should NOT be on that list . 1 win over a top 10 guy doesent make you top 10.

Yeah I was gonna say a similar thing. Have an official MMA Mania rankings roster based on the average of all our combined votes. But of course it would be fair to use some discretion, to sift through the shit, like if some idiot puts Kimbo in the top ten or something.

JG, I understand that I might have come off as “he beat him and he’s this so he should be higher” but I do not feel that way at all. True – Frankie Edgar has beat some better competition that Maynard, but I honestly feel that at Edgars bread and butter (wrestling) Maynard is far superior.

I think Diego vs Edgar for the #1 spot sounds about right – which I know could be viewed as nullifying my entire arguement but IMO even though Gray is better than Edgar neither of them are ready for BJ (or Florian for that matter).

no one is above fedor right now at hw. jj should look for a new brain

or watch! wwe just like zoobird

Fedor would have to lose a couple of fights in a row before even thinking about having a new #1

Yeah, your points are valid but I disagree with you because I’m confident he belongs there. But I don’t discredit your reasoning.

WTF? That’s two of my posts which have vanished. Two today that is. Not counting the several other times.

Exact and he’ll beat Hendo.