Sherdog recently released a Top 10 (Actually 11) Ranking for the 1990s. How do we compare to them?
I took our All-Time Ranking process and ran it against only bouts prior to 2000. It wasn’t coded with this purpose in mind, but why not?
In the light blue is the Sherdog rank, followed by our rank of those fighters. In the far right column, is our Top 11.
For the most part, we are in rough agreement. But the ones we disagree on, we vary pretty widely.
I think all can agree that both Shamrocks, Royce Gracie, Mark Coleman, Bas Rutten and Dan Severn belong in this list. And they are in both. Miletich made both lists and although the Welterweight talent pool was not vast in the 90s, I think he deserves inclusion. 7 out of 11 isn’t bad at all and each of the 7 don’t vary by more than 4 spots. When you consider the divisional differences, it is actually great.
So, that does leave 8 fighters who are on only one list.. First, we’ll discuss the big problems.
Maurice Smith (Sherdog #8) and Rickson Gracie (#10), don’t have any business on this list IMO. On the flip side, not having Masakatsu Funaki (Fight Matrix #5) in the Sherdog list is a HUGE oversight and I think you could potentially argue him into the Top 3, but I like him at #5. Yuki Kondo (Fight Matrix #7) also seems like a tough one to ignore, going 25-8-3 in the 1990s, fighting and prevailing over many bigger, proven fighters, like Frank Shamrock, Semmy Schilt, Masakatsu Funaki and others.
I’ve seen Igor Vovchanchyn‘s (Sherdog #11) record vary a bit, but in our data, he amassed an extremely impressive 42-2 record in the 1990s. The problem is that 90% or so, of those wins, came against extremely inexperienced fighters with records like 0-0, 1-0, 1-1, 2-0, but those records may be lacking in data coverage, so while I do believe #37 is probably a bit harsh. I do not think he is a shoe-in for this list.
Semmy Schilt (Fight Matrix #8), Don Frye (Sherdog #9) and Dave Menne (Fight Matrix #10) are all near the bottom of the list and I think we’ll just need to agree to disagree on those. I can accept Frye making the list and though I can understand omitting Menne, I’m not so sure you can leave Schilt out.
What are your thoughts?
Oh, and in case you’re curious… Rumina Sato, Jason DeLucia, Minoru Suzuki, and Don Frye round out the Top 15 for us.