Last week Bellator announced the participants in what they are calling the Bellator Featherweight World Grand Prix Tournament. Despite obviously being the number-two MMA promotion, Scott Coker and company were able to put together quite the field. Headlining the tournament is reigning Bellator featherweight and lightweight champion #6 LW Patricio Freire. Also in the bracket are former Bellator champions #12 BW Darrion Caldwell, #38 FW Pat Curran and #128 LW Daniel Straus as well as former WSOF champion #39 FW Georgi Karakhanyan.

The following chart looks like the Fight Matrix ranking history of all participants since they were first ranked by the system. An interactive version is available via Tableau Public.

Other Notes:
Highest Ranking Point Total: Patricio Freire with 553 (7/1/2019)
Highest Ranking: Pat Curran at #2 Featherweight (7/1/2012 to 1/1/2013)
Earliest Rank Date: Daniel Weichel (1/1/2004)
Latest Rank Date: Tywan Claxton (1/1/2019)
Most Wins: Daniel Weichel with 39
Most Losses: Daniel Weichel with 11

Richard Mann is a regular contributor to @ESPNMMA, @FightMetric, @RotoWireMMA and @InterMat. You can follow him on Twitter at @richardamann.

Sabina Mazo is a Colombian fighter with a 6-0 record making her UFC debut vs. Maryna Moroz on April 30th, 2019. She has already fought the full 25 minutes twice in her career and her opponents have a combined record of 29-10. That is an unusually strong strength of competition for the still developing regional women’s MMA scene.

She first made headlines with back to back headkick knockouts:https://youtu.be/Vor6987oBO0 and has since become LFA Champion.

Quick stats:

On Sunday former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson will fight outside the Octagon for the first time since 2010 as he makes his debut for ONE Championship. The card, dubbed “A New Era” will feature the first round of a flyweight tournament. Johnson is a heavy favorite in the field, and he is the only fighter in the bracket who is currently ranked inside the top 10. It will be interesting to see how ONE progresses as a promotion with a few high level signings and a new U.S. television deal. In the past, high profile fighters, such as Ben Askren, have struggled to maintain their Fight Matrix ranking due to lack of competition. How will it effect Johnson’s legacy? Given the lack of depth of the flyweight and bantamweight divisions outside of the UFC, it will be hard to see how ONE will provide strong opponents for Johnson without co-promoting with another promotion like Bellator or Rizin. Even those two companies had to join forces to make a super fight for champions Kyoji Horiguchi and Darrion Caldwell.

The following chart shows the career ranking points for all competitors in the upcoming ONE Championship flyweight tournament. An interactive version is available via Tableau Public.

Richard Mann is a regular contributor to @espnmma, @FightMetric, @RotoWireMMA and @InterMat. You can follow him on Twitter at @richardamann.

photos of competitors

Date: APRIL 7 2019

10th Planet

• Elvira Karppinen (World Champ grappling)
• Liz Carmouche (UFC title challenger)
• Lila Smadja-Cruz (10th planet brown belt)
• Fabiana Jorge
• Grace Gundrum

BJJ Kunoichi / TEAM YUASA

This is only counting UFC rankings from Feb 5, 2013 when they began. I’m not going to include rankings before this time to keep it simple. This is an imperfect list since many fighters having big wins before the rankings were introduced, top fighters outside the UFC (Mousasi, Rory, Bader etc) and of course some controversial fights that require context. But it’s still an interesting look at the last 6 years.

I looked at fighters that have a lot of hype behind them due to activity and/or win streaks like Khabib, Holloway, Cerrone and Ferguson as well as listed the guys that had 5+ Top 10 wins like Werdum and Cormier.

Middleweight Championship (185)
[#1/#6DD/#8P4P] Robert Whittaker (20-4-0, -254) vs. [#4] Kelvin Gastelum (15-3-0, +203)
Robert Whittaker is the All-Time #12 ranked Middleweight fighter.
Kelvin Gastelum is the All-Time #46 ranked Middleweight fighter.

Last 3 Fights: Robert Whittaker (3-0-0)
2018-06-09: W vs. [#2MW] Yoel Romero (13-3-0) via SD (47-48, 48-47, 48-47)
2017-07-08: W vs. [#2MW] Yoel Romero (13-3-0) via UD (48-47, 48-47, 48-47)
2017-04-15: W vs. [#5MW] Ronaldo Souza (26-6-0) via TKO (Head Kick and Punches) in 3:28 of round 2

Last 3 Fights: Kelvin Gastelum (2-1-0)
2018-05-12: W vs. [#5MW] Ronaldo Souza (26-6-0) via SD (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
2017-11-25: W vs. [*] Michael Bisping (30-9-0) via KO (Punch) in 2:30 of round 1
2017-07-22: L vs. [#7MW] Chris Weidman (14-4-0) via Submission (Arm Triangle Choke) in 3:45 of round 3

Odds Favorite (Implied): Robert Whittaker – Win%: 68.49
Elo Favorite (Standard): Robert Whittaker (2327.23) [+161.48] – Win%: 67.65
Elo Favorite (Modified): Robert Whittaker (2255.13) [+134.21] – Win%: 64.28
Days Since Last Pro Fight: Robert Whittaker 245, Kelvin Gastelum 273
Previous Match-up Record: No previous match-ups.
Wins Against Common Opposition: Even: Both have 2 win(s) against common opposition.
.

Middleweight (185)
[#8] Israel Adesanya (15-0-0, -625) vs. [*] Anderson Silva (34-8-0, +435)
Anderson Silva is the All-Time #1 ranked Middleweight and #4 ranked Absolute fighter.

Last 3 Fights: Israel Adesanya (3-0-0)
2018-11-03: W vs. [#11MW] Derek Brunson (18-7-0) via TKO (Knees and Punches) in 4:51 of round 1
2018-07-06: W vs. [#16MW] Brad Tavares (17-5-0) via UD (50-45, 50-45, 49-46)
2018-04-14: W vs. [#72MW] Marvin Vettori (12-4-1) via SD (29-28, 29-28, 28-29)

Last 3 Fights: Anderson Silva (1-2-0)
2017-02-11: W vs. [#11MW] Derek Brunson (18-7-0) via UD (29-28, 30-27, 29-28)
2016-07-09: L vs. [#1HW+/#3DD/#2P4P] Daniel Cormier (22-1-0) via UD (30-26, 30-26, 30-26)
2016-02-27: L vs. [*] Michael Bisping (30-9-0) via UD (48-47, 48-47, 48-47)

Odds Favorite (Implied): Israel Adesanya – Win%: 82.18
Elo Favorite (Standard): Israel Adesanya (1990.72) [+3.22] – Win%: 50.37
Elo Favorite (Modified): Anderson Silva (2003.84) [+30.29] – Win%: 53.31
Days Since Last Pro Fight: Israel Adesanya 98, Anderson Silva 728
Previous Match-up Record: No previous match-ups.
Wins Against Common Opposition: Even: Both have 1 win(s) against common opposition.
.

Bantamweight (135)
[#17] Rani Yahya (26-9-0, +109) vs. [#24] Ricky Simon (15-1-0, -134)
Rani Yahya is the All-Time #26 ranked Bantamweight fighter.

Last 3 Fights: Rani Yahya (3-0-0)
2018-08-25: W vs. [#78BW] Luke Sanders (12-3-0) via Submission (Heel Hook) in 1:31 of round 1
2018-02-24: W vs. [#98BW] Russell Doane (15-8-0) via Submission (Arm Triangle Choke) in 2:32 of round 3
2017-08-05: W vs. [#473BW] Enrique Briones (16-8-1) via Submission (Kimura) in 2:01 of round 1

Last 3 Fights: Ricky Simon (3-0-0)
2018-08-04: W vs. [#16BW] Montel Jackson (7-1-0) via UD (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
2018-04-21: W vs. [#62BW] Merab Dvalishvili (8-4-0) via Technical Submission (Guillotine Choke) in 5:00 of round 3
2018-03-23: W vs. [#167BW] Vinicius Zani (11-5-0) via KO (Punches) in 0:59 of round 1

Odds Favorite (Implied): Ricky Simon – Win%: 54.47
Elo Favorite (Standard): Rani Yahya (1781.11) [+44.00] – Win%: 55.01
Elo Favorite (Modified): Rani Yahya (1803.67) [+92.13] – Win%: 59.95
Days Since Last Pro Fight: Rani Yahya 168, Ricky Simon 189
Previous Match-up Record: No previous match-ups.
Wins Against Common Opposition: No common opposition or both are winless against common opposition.
.

The Ultimate Guide to Online Boxing Betting

People have been betting on boxing for a long time. The sport has always inspired bettors and watchers since the early days of Jack Dempsey to the heydays of Mike Tyson and Mohammed Ali to present legends like Floyd Mayweather. There are many betting opportunities for bettors to bet on boxing.

Getting Started: How to Choose the Right Betting Site

If you are a beginner, the first step you need to take is finding a good betting site. With so many sites to choose from, you can be easily overwhelmed. But the rule of thumb is to choose a site that is safe and has a good reputation. You should also choose a site that has good odds. After finding a good site and signing up, you can go ahead and choose your bets.

On November 10, 2017, 18-year-old Australian fighter Jessica Lindsay wrote “weight cutting is sick” on her Instagram page while preparing for a Muay Thai fight. Six days later, she died of extreme dehydration, having collapsed while out running, 30 minutes before she was due to weigh in. Her organs, her sister said, had shut down “one by one”.

Acute weight loss is a growing concern in combat sports. The practice of sweating out vast amounts of water to reach the required weight limit for a fight started in wrestling and has become hugely common in MMA and boxing. It’s not unusual for a UFC fighter to lose 20 lbs – often more than 10 percent of their body weight – in the 48 hours before a weigh in. They will stop eating and drinking, and then use a combination of saunas, hot baths and cardiovascular exercise to force their bodies to excrete as much fluid as possible. While extreme dehydration is less prevalent in boxing, it is still an option that boxers sometimes take to meet limits that are far below their natural weight. The thinking is that by shedding water weight quickly, only to pile the pounds back on after weighing in, they can gain a size and weight advantage over their opponent. Being the bigger and heavier fighter clearly has its benefits. In May 2016, Amir Khan was knocked out cold with one punch by Canelo Alvarez, who is said to have weighed as much as 30 lbs more than the 155 lsb limit on fight night.

Speaking to Betway, Dr Mike Loosemore MBE – chief medical officer for GB Boxing – warns that fighters are playing a game of “Russian roulette” with their health by playing the weight cutting game.

“First, there’s the danger of actually losing the weight,” says Dr Loosemore. “Sweat isn’t pure water – the salts that are in your blood are required for running your heart nice and smoothly. When you get very dry, you lose a lot of electrolytes. Those electrolytes are very important for the nerves that make your heart beat regularly. If they start misfiring you put yourself at risk of heart arrhythmia, heart attacks and death.” GB Boxing have strict guidelines when it comes to weight cutting, with “a dehydration of two percent of their weight considered safe”.

“Greater percentages than that, we wouldn’t recommend,” says Dr Loosemore, “because it’s just dangerous. It’s Russian roulette.”

We’ve recently had to shut down our forum for technical reasons.  While the forum wasn’t exactly a budding MMA community – with closed registration and maybe at best a handful of active users – it did have one thread which I would like to have preserved and kept going. The thread was titled something like “Websites that mention Fightmatrix rankings” and if I remember correctly, was started by our long time contributor Ked Becker. And the purpose of the thread was self-explanatory: to list all websites and other media sources which mention FightMatrix.com.

I’ve created a ‘Links & Mentions‘ page, which we will be using for outbound links to our friends and affiliates, and other major websites in the MMA & combat sports communities. I will also be using the comments section of the page to link or mention every website, podcast, etc. which make a reference to FightMatrix rankings, and I invite our readers to do the same.

If you have an MMA or other related website that you feel should be include in this new Links page, please mention it in the comments or use the Contact Us form.