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

by Jesse Holland on Nov 19, 2009 1:19 PM EST Comment 19 comments

Our partners in crime over at BloodyElbow.com have once again published their divisional rankings for mixed martial arts in the nation’s largest daily newspaper, USA Today, for the month of November 2009.

For those of you unfamiliar with the process, here’s how it works:

"The rankings, which will offer a definitive perspective of top MMA fighters across all weight-classes, will be released monthly and published in the Sports section of USA TODAY, online at USATODAY.com and on SB Nation’s MMA commentary and community blog, BloodyElbow.com … The USA TODAY/SB Nation Consensus MMA Rankings are compiled each month by Nate Wilcox and Richard Wade of BloodyElbow.com. The rankings utilize each of the top MMA rankings from multiple unique sources. A weighted-formula is applied to normalize and distill the various rankings into one consensus ranking per weight class."

To check out the latest USAT/SBN rankings click here. We’ve also listed their top 10 in each class after the jump for your convenience.

What do you think? Share your ranking rants in the comments section below.

Heavyweight:

1. Fedor Emelianenko
2. Brock Lesnar
3. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
4. Frank Mir
5. Junior Dos Santos
6. Josh Barnett
7. Cain Velasquez
8. Brett Rogers
9. Shane Carwin
10. Fabricio Werdum

Light Heavyweight:

1. Lyoto Machida
2. Mauricio Rua
3. Rashad Evans
4. Quinton Jackson
5. Forrest Griffin
6. Gegard Mousasi
7. Thiago Silva
8. Anderson Silva
9. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
10. Luis Cane

Middleweight:

1. Anderson Silva
2. Nate Marquardt
3. Dan Henderson
4. Demian Maia
5. Vitor Belfort
6. Chael Sonnen
7. Jake Shields
8. Jorge Santiago
9. Yushin Okami
10. Yoshihiro Akiyama

Welterweight:

1. Georges St. Pierre
2. Jon Fitch
3. Thiago Alves
4. Josh Koscheck
5. Mike Swick
6. Matt Hughes
7. Paulo Thiago
8. Carlos Condit
9. Jake Shields
10. Paul Daley

Lightweight:

1. B.J. Penn
2. Shinya Aoki
3. Eddie Alvarez
4. Kenny Florian
5. Frank Edgar
6. Gray Maynard
7. Diego Sanchez
8. Sean Sherk
9. Tatsuya Kawajiri
10. Joachim Hansen

Featherweight:

1. Mike Brown
2. Urijah Faber
3. Jose Aldo
4. Bibiano Fernandes
5. Hatsu Hioki
6. Leonard Garcia
7. Rafael Assuncao
8. Marlon Sandro
9. Michihiro Omigawa
10. Mackens Semerzier

Expect a major shake-up in the featherweight rankings after Aldo's performance last night.

Of course, nothing brings MMA fans closer together than a list of divisional rankings. Let’s hear it: Who belongs and who doesn’t? And be sure to say why. "He sucks" is not a valid argument.

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Comments

Not bad consensus better than many before

by Puck Head on Nov 19, 2009 1:24 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

how do they have jacare #17?? That’s b.s. imo. Other than that it looks pretty good. They really need to update Aldo though, i hope these came out beforeee the fight last night. 2 out of the top 3 lightweights aren’t in the UFC which kind of sucks. I would like to see either of them fight B.J. especially Eddie, that would be a dirty scrap.

by Blunt n' Beer on Nov 19, 2009 1:33 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Shields shouldn’t be ranked that high in MW in my opinion, but then again everyone will find something different wrong with these rankings.

by MM_Eh on Nov 19, 2009 1:33 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I assume this was done before 105?

Swick still #5? Come on…

@fjbar75 on twitter...formerly El Mexicutioner

by _Felix_ on Nov 19, 2009 1:39 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

no doubt...and Forest at 5??? Forest would get KOed by 6 through 24, 25 on Saturday

by McArthur... on Nov 19, 2009 1:40 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I have issue with the Swick ranking

mainly because he hasn’t beaten a top 10 WW, but he is ranked 5th. IMO, that makes no sense whatsoever.

@fjbar75 on twitter...formerly El Mexicutioner

by _Felix_ on Nov 19, 2009 1:50 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

yeah

these rankings don’t reflect UFC 105 or WEC 44

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Nov 19, 2009 2:48 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

weirdness

Some really weird stuff for the weight-shifters if you look at the Top 25.

Franklin is ranked 25 at MW (dispite the fact that his ONLY MW losses were to the champ) but he’s ranked #12 at LHW though he’s only had 1 LHW fight in the last 5 years.

Couture is #12 at HW where he lost his last 2, and unlisted at LHW where he just won.

Belfort and Hendo are still ranked at LHW.

Tito ranked way below Babalu, Sokodjou, Hamill, and Jones???

by (shonuff) on Nov 19, 2009 1:42 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

wtffffff

I agree why the hell is Franklin 25th at MW when theres like 6 guys ahead of him he has beaten? He would destroy Bisbingand pretty much every1 else besides the champ. Why isnt Randy in LHW? Whoever makes these are terrible

by CoutureisKing on Nov 19, 2009 1:57 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

You are a stupid person

1.) Franklin hasn’t fought at MW in 17 months. And he sure didn’t destroy Belfort…
2.) Learn how to read. No one person MAKES these. They are a compilation of several different polls.
3.) Couture isn’t in LHW (yet) because he has one fight there, which was mere days ago. Future rankings will incorporate his one recent LHW fight.

by argyle on Nov 19, 2009 2:23 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Opinions are like assholes. They all stink.

by OJR on Nov 19, 2009 2:24 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

shifting weight classes is something

that our rankings don’t handle well at all.
Since we compile the rankings from 25 different sources and many of those sources only rank a fighter in a single division, fighters like Franklin that jump around are heavily penalized.
We haven’t figured out a great way to account for that.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Nov 19, 2009 2:49 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I don't understand

your compilation methods enough to know if this is a valid suggestion, but would it be possible to only average the rankings on which a fighter appears. IOW, when figuring the mean of Randy’s score at LHW, exclude those LHW lists on which he does not appear from the pool and adjust the divisor accordingly? So for a guy like Mir who only fights at one weight class, you might have 25 numbers to average. But for a weight-changer or someone coming back from retirement, you might only have 15 numbers to average. Forgive me if I am oversimplifying, but I hope you understand the basic principle I’m suggesting and may be able to adapt it to whatever compilation methods you currently use.

by (shonuff) on Nov 19, 2009 11:26 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Does this take into account how fights were won? A stoppage has to count for more than a UD which should count for more than a split dec., etc.

I'm kind of a big deal.

by P-Dub on Nov 19, 2009 1:57 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

nope

this is just an attempt to record the general consensus of MMA rankings for any given month. It only tracks the rankings the various rankers assign and they all seem to have their own criteria.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Nov 19, 2009 2:50 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

HARDY!?!?! Hellllooooo?!?!

Sorry But Dan Hardy IS in the top 10. And I dont even like the guy but that is crap!

by IrishMikey on Nov 19, 2009 3:40 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Lightweight

#’s 4-8 would tool Alvarez.

by Josh H. on Nov 19, 2009 4:09 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

how the f#ck is forest griifn infront of anderson silva after he just got embarrassed???

by d*locc on Nov 19, 2009 4:13 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Also, A. Silva should be above F. Griffin. And Shields still deserves to be the #3 welterweight even though he’s taken a couple of fights at middleweight. Also, Santiago is overrated. Besides that, not too shabby.

by Josh H. on Nov 19, 2009 4:14 PM EST reply actions 0 recs