Notable Info
- Welterweight and Lightweight expanded to an unprecedented Top 500.
- New stat added to the “Records & Stats” page — Best (T)KO/Win ratio.
This Weekend: Fights of Note
Friday – Fresquez Promotions
Women’s Bantamweight
[#17] Christina Domke L-(TKO2) [*] Holly Holm
Holm’s debut. She is the #1 current Women’s P4P boxer and likely Top 5 in women’s boxing history.
Light Heavyweight
[#26] Keith Jardine W-(TKO1) [#252] Aron Lofton
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Saturday – Strikeforce
Light Heavyweight
[#7] Dan Henderson vs. [#10] Rafael Cavalcante
Henderson recently moved to #9 in our All-Time Absolute list.
Women’s Bantamweight
[#1] Marloes Coenen vs. [#4] Liz Carmouche
Carmouche was our 2010 Women’s Rookie of the Year.
Middleweight
[#20] Tim Kennedy vs. [#29 LHW] Melvin Manhoef
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Saturday – BellatorFC 35
Welterweight
[#21] Jay Hieron vs. [#74 MW] Anthony Lapsley
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Saturday – Chicago Cagefighting Championship
Featherweight (140lb)
[#56] Chase Beebe vs. [#274 LW] Steve Kinnisen
Featherweight
[#263] Jens Pulver vs. [#285 BW] Wade Choate
Thoughts on UFC 127 results vs. ratings
This year has been a relatively poor year in using the FightMatrix rating system for predictability when it comes to the UFC. Out of the 11 non-draw matches in UFC 127, the higher-rated fighter won in 5. We’re batting a tiny bit better on the year, but as it stands we are hovering around 50%.
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Granted, the UFC does a fairly good job at matchmaking and the rating system here only has some elements of predictability. Still, I would expect the system to be closer to 60%, and hopefully we get there by the end of this year. In general, we are closer to 70%.
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The Good
With the pre-bout ratings in mind, the “correct” bouts show a pretty good reflection of not only which fighters won, but by how they won. I’m particularly impressed with the system in regards to Quan/Reinhardt, a bout that would likely have caused a pure ELO system to fail. Even though I don’t like talking about fights in which one fighter was inactive — in this case, both were, and Quan had nearly triple the rating points of Reinhardt.
UFC Live (Sanchez/Kampmann): How they stack up
Welterweight
[#9] Martin Kampmann vs. [#12] Diego Sanchez
Middleweight
[#24] Mark Munoz vs. [#30] CB Dollaway
Middleweight
[#15] Alessio Sakara vs. [#123] Chris Weidman
Bantamweight
[#4] Brian Bowles vs. [#64] Damacio Page
Lightweight
[#50] Joe Stevenson vs. [#78] Danny Castillo
Light Heavyweight
[#35] Cyrille Diabate vs. [*] Steve Cantwell
Lightweight
[#49] Shane Roller vs. [#80] Thiago Tavares
Bantamweight
[#15] Takeya Mizugaki vs. [#49] Reuban Duran
Middleweight
[#126] Dong Yi Yang vs. [#178] Rob Kimmons
Middleweight
[#22] Rousimar Palhares vs. [#38] Dave Branch
Light Heavyweight
[#99] Igor Pokrajac vs. [#130] Todd Brown
Sherdog vs. FightMatrix Rankings
Top 5 Highest Ranked FightMatrix Fighters not on Sherdog Rankings
(#6 FW) Kazuyuki Miyata
(#6 LW) Clay Guida
(#8 WW) Paul Daley
(#8 LHW) Randy Couture
(#8 BW) Zach Makovsky
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Top 5 Largest Rank Difference between Sherdog Ranked and FightMatrix
(-16 HW) Roy Nelson
(-10 FW) Dustin Poirier
(-10 BW) Brad Pickett
(-10 LW) Sean Sherk
(-9 BW) Demetrious Johnson
We decided to exclude Rambaa Somdet, as he is technically a Mini-Flyweight fighter, Dan Henderson, who we rank in different divisions, and Wanderlei Silva, who was recently dropped off of Sherdog’s list for inactivity.
Please share your thoughts in the Comments. If we missed someone, please let us know.
MMA Rankings Updated: 2/27/2011
Notable Info
- Welterweight and Lightweight expanded to Top 400.
This Weekend: Other Fights of Note
Friday – DEEP 52 Impact
DEEP Bantamweight Championship
[#16] Hiroshi Nakamura UD(3) [#6] Masakazu Imanari (C)
Women’s Flyweight
[#8] Seo Hee Ham UD(3) [#9] Saori Ishioka
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Friday – MFC 28 (HDNet)
Light Heavyweight
[#28] Ryan Jimmo vs. [#51] Dwayne Lewis
Light Heavyweight
[#48] Emanuel Newton vs. [#50] Rodney Wallace
Lightweight (160lb)
[#50] Drew Fickett vs. [#89] Matt Veach
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Saturday – BAMMA 5
Heavyweight (215lb Catch)
[#33] Ricco Rodriguez vs. [#161 LHW] James McSweeney
Rodriguez missed weight by 2 pounds.
Welterweight
[#8] Paul Daley vs. [#41] Yuyi Shirai
Daley missed weight by 0.4 pound.
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Saturday – G-Force Fights
Lightweight
[#6 FW] Luis Palomino vs. [*] John Robles
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Saturday – Cage Warriors FC 40
Women’s Super Flyweight
[#4 BW] Roxanne Modafferi vs. [#6] Rosi Sexton
Modafferi’s first fight below 130 lbs.
UFC 127: How they stack up
Welterweight
[#3] Jon Fitch vs. [#4] B.J. Penn
Middleweight
[#10] Michael Bisping vs. [#32] Jorge Rivera
Lightweight
[#8] George Sotiropoulos vs. [#41] Dennis Siver
Welterweight
[#11] Chris Lytle vs. [#82] Brian Ebersole
Middleweight
[#49] Kyle Noke vs. [#92] Chris Camozzi
Lightweight
[#68] Spencer Fisher vs. [#94] Ross Pearson
Light Heavyweight
[#26] Alexander Gustafsson vs. [#54] James Te Huna
Middleweight
[#21] Riki Fukuda vs. [*] Nick Ring
Light Heavyweight
[#191 HW] Anthony Perosh vs. [*] Tom Blackledge
Featherweight
[*] Zhang Tie Quan vs. [*] Jason Reinhardt
Heavyweight
[#67] Chris Tuchscherer vs. [#159] Mark Hunt
Lightweight
[#82] Maciej Jewtuszko vs. [#451] Curt Warburton
More Divisional Expansion Ahead
In our next release, we will be expanding the Welterweight and Lightweight divisions to the Top 400. After this expansion, we will re-evaluate the current limits of all divisions and possibly expand another time or two. However, this upcoming expansion may be the final one for the foreseeable future. We apologize for non-uniform expansions, but we are attempting to expand based on divisional strength alone, within the confines of the rating system’s optimal performance zone.
The Week In Rankings
It’s been a mostly uneventful week, with only one significant occurence in the rankings: former #1 ranked flyweight Jussier da Silva suffered the first defeat of his career when he lost a unanimous decision to the WEC veteran Ian McCall. McCall was formerly ranked at #95 bantamweight, and landed at #4 in the flyweight division, with Jussier falling to #6 and Yasuhiro Urushitani and Mamoru Yamaguchi in a virtual tie for the newly vacated #1.
Here’s what the flyweight Top 50 looks like after this weekend: Flyweight (Under 131 lbs) fighter ranks.
Ranking Expansion
Once again, we expanded our lightweight, welterweight, and middleweight rankings by 50. See who is in the Top 350’s:
MMA Rankings Updated: 2/20/2011
Notable Info
- Middleweight, Welterweight, and Lightweight expanded to Top 350.
- Slight modification to blocking routine which forgives those who lose to aggressively placed early career fighters.
Anderson Silva moves up to #2 on our All-Time Absolute Rankings
He is now only one spot away from taking the Absolute crown away from Fedor. With Fedor’s sudden sharp decline, this changing of the guard appears to be inevitable.
The Week In Rankings: Heavyweight Shake-Up
This week, the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament kicked off in New Jersey, causing fluctuations in the heavyweight rankings.
In the main event, one of the sport’s great careers may have come to an end. After a very close first round, which took place mainly on the feet, Antonio ‘Big Foot’ Silva took down Fedor Emelianenko early in the second, and proceeded to lay a brutal beating on the former Pride FC champion. Though Fedor survived the round, Silva’s ground-and-pound left Fedor’s face bloody and his right eye swollen completely shut, which caused the officials to stop the fight between the rounds.
Silva moves up 6 spots to #5 HW, and will face the winner of the upcoming bout between Fabricio Werdum and Alistair Overeem in the Grand Prix semi-finals. Fedor falls 4 spots to #8. He has been stopped in back-to-back bouts for the first time in his career, and admitted that it may be high time to retire in the post-fight interview. However, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker mentioned that Fedor’s decision is not final and he may still take place in an alternate bout if he chooses to continue fighting.
In the other tournament bout, Sergei Kharitonov made a strong bid to revive his floundering career, with a first round knockout of former UFC champion Andrei Arlovski. While Arlovski seemed to be the quicker of the two fighters, Sergei managed to back him into a corner and unload, at which point Andrei’s chin let him down once again. This is the fourth consecutive loss for Alrovski, three of which left him unconscious. He falls to #23 in the rankings; and it’s time to call it a career. Kharitonov rises to #14 and will face Josh Barnett or Brett Rogers in the semi-finals.
In the reserve bouts, Shane Del Rosario and Chad Griggs both entered the heavyweight Top 50 with first-round stoppages of their respective opponents Lavar Johnson and Gian Villante. They should face off in the next round of the tourney. Lavar Johnson falls to #101 with the loss and Villante, previously ranked at #140 LHW, re-enters the heavyweight division at #166.
Finally, Valentijn Overeem – the journeyman older brother of Strikeforce heavyweight champ Alistair – rose to #95 with a neck crank sumbission of kickboxer Ray Sefo in a meaningless fight that was also billed as a tournament reserve. If Fedor Emelianenko does decide to re-enter the tourney as an alternate, Valentijn would make for acceptable Fedor fodder.
Ranking Expansion
In this week’s update, we expanded our lightweight, welterweight, and middleweight rankings from 250 to 300 fighters. Check out who made the cut into the Top 300’s:
MMA Rankings Updated: 02/13/2011
Notable Info
- Lightweight, Welterweight, Middleweight expanded to Top 300.
- Ratings update to give special consideration to wildly varied split and majority decisions.
- Mild blocking routine implemented – see details in previous post.
The Week in Rankings: UFC 126
Every year on the Saturday prior to Superbowl, UFC traditionally puts on one of the bigger cards of the year. Last year’s UFC 109 was a notable exception to the usually stacked line-up of the pre-Superbowl event. This year, Zuffa did not disappoint with UFC 126: headlined by a long-awaited middleweight title bout between champion Anderson Silva and challenger Vitor Belfort, and bolstered by a couple of high-profile light heavyweight bouts, one featuring two former champions and the other two top prospects.
Anderson Silva defends
It started out slow, as many of Anderson’s fights tend to, and ended with a flash of brutality in the first round as Silva knocked Vitor Belfort down with a front kick to the face and finished him with two quick punches on the ground. Silva retains his UFC title, and his #1 spot on both the middleweight ranking and the Division Dominance list. If the UFC welterweight champion and the #2 on our Division Dominance list George St. Pierre is successful in the upcoming defense against Jake Shields, a super-fight between Silva and St. Pierre seems inevitable. If GSP falters, Anderson’s next title defense will likely come against Yushin Okami – unless Silva decided to move up to 205 lbs.
Previously unranked for inactivity, Vitor Belfort returns to the middleweight ranking at #8. A rematch with Wanderlei Silva at the upcoming UFC in Brazil would be a great scrap.
Notable
Rising head and shoulders ahead of competition, Anderson Silva holds the records for most consecutive wins in the UFC at 13, and most consecutive title defenses (8). He is also only 1 title win away from also holding the record for most wins in title bouts (currently held by Randy Couture at 10).
Light-Heavyweight picture shifts
I expected the two featured light-heavyweight bouts to be fairly competitive, but this turned out not to be the case. Jon ‘Bones’ Jones took down Ryan Bader at will, finishing him with a modified guillotine choke in the second round. After the fight it was announced that the top contender and Jones’ training partner Rashad Evans suffered a knee injury, and Jones was offered to take Rashad’s spot in challenging Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua for the UFC title. Jones of course accepted, and after moving up 10 spots to #5 on the rankings he will now have the chance to become #1. Bader falls to #12; Stephan Bonnar has been rumored as his next opponent.
Though the Rich Franklin – Forrest Griffin bout was not as lopsided, Griffin used his noticeable size advantage to out-work Franklin in every aspect of the game, winning a unanimous decision. Franklin was able to steal a round on all three scorecards due to Griffin slowing down as the fight went on – likely a side effect of his long layoff from the Octagon. Griffin regains the three ranking spots he lost due to inactivity, and is now back at #6 LHW. He should next face the winner of the upcoming bout between Randy Couture and Lyoto Machida. Rich Franklin, who falls to #13, should take on the Couture-Machida loser.
Meanwhile, rumors are swirling about Thiago Silva having to withdraw from his planned bout with Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, and Rashad Evans taking Thiago’s place. Nothing has been made official yet in this regard. However all the fluctuations in the division forced Evans to drop a spot to #9 on the Division Dominance list, trading places with Jake Shields.
Further down the rankings, Kyle Kingsbury rose 26 spots to enter the light-heavyweight Top 50 at #43 after making quick work of Ricardo Romero. Kyle improves to 1-3 in the UFC and is on a three-win streak, while Romero falls to #84 with the first-round TKO loss.