Notable Info

• Rating code updated to v1.17b.  Corrected bug related to transition between quality performance penalties and inactive penalties, in the event where a fighter qualifies for both.
• Database updated with recent shows.  Most notable changes result from the YAMMA show.  Note: Could not grab the Cage Rage 4/12 results as they were not readily available.  This happens pretty often, but just figured I’d mention it as we have some Cage Rage fans that visit.

When Zuffa – the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship – purchased and subsequently dismantled Pride Fighting Championship in 2007, MMA fans worldwide expected that majority of the best fighters in the world will be consolidated under the UFC banner.  So far, the results have been decidedly mixed.  While three out of five UFC title belts are held by former Pride FC fighters,  the heavyweight division is still as much in shambles as it was two years ago, and a number of middleweight (185 lbs) contenders are scattered throughout various organizations.  In the lightweight division, Marcus Aurelio is the only Pride competitor who has stepped inside the UFC Octagon to date.

The only place where Zuffa had an undeniable success of consolidating the top talent is MMA’s marquee division – the light heavyweights (205 lbs).  Not only is UFC the home to the undisputed champion of the world at 205, they also employ all of the Top 5, 9 of the Top 10, and 14 of the Top 20 LHW fighters, according to the latest Fightmatrix.com ranking.

This would be a great time for the UFC to hold a Gran Prix-style tournament.  Alas, Zuffa brass are staunchly opposed to the tournament format.  Fortunately for the fans, we get the next best thing to a tourney: except for Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua, all of the UFC’s top light heavyweights are slated to step into the Octagon over the course of the next few events.

Here is a closer look at what is coming up for the warriors of the light heavyweight division:

Keep Reading

There are several important changes to take into account before viewing this update.

Notable Info

• Rating code updated to v1.17.
• Code Change: Removal of quality performance exemptions for those who are stopped in recognized title bouts.
• Code Change: Acceleration of fighters who have early career trends of decisively beating higher-ranked fighters without quantifiable weakness in results.
• Ranking Page Change: Fighters are now ranked if they have a bout in the previous 450 days (was 1 calendar year).  Calculation-wise, this only has an impact on the division dominance list.  However, for this update, it had no impact whatsoever.
• Ranking Page Change: Those in the inactivity penalty stage will now have mauve colored last bout information.
• Bouts added to database.  Total count is now approximately 48,200 professional bouts.

The reason for the code changes was a result of some former champions hanging onto higher positions than they deserved, and proven fighters being beaten by barnstorming “up and comers”.  These were perceived problems and were able to be isolated via programming logic.

As a result, this stirred up two controversial results.  Tim Sylvia and Wanderlei Silva both dropped out of their respective Top 10 lists.  We would be happy to discuss these instances in our forum.

Notable Info

• Code update to 1.16.  Expanded on prediction-based launching.  Assisted the elevation of fighters who continually and decisively beat higher-rated fighters without quantifiable weakness in outcome.  This is a relatively minor change.
• Matt Serra and Ricardo Arona will have been inactive for more than one calendar year, and will be dropped from the rankings until they have another bout.
• Addition of a few minor shows.

Notable Info

• Ratings include effects from recent EliteXC, GCM Cage Force, Fatal Femmes, IFL, and other minor shows.

The next planned update is on Sunday, April 13.  However, there may be an intermediate release in the middle of the upcoming week if I decide to release a prediction-based code change that I am testing.

Notable Information

• Changes from recent UFC, KHAN, HEAT, and other shows.

Kenny Florian moves into the Lightweight Top 10, while Thiago Alves blasts his way into the Welterweight Top 5!  Check out all of the divisions to see the various changes caused by these recent shows.

The next update will be on Sunday, which will display the effects from the FatalFemmes and EliteXC shows, as well as others.

Notable Information

• Code updated to 1.15b.  Re-worked technical decision outcome consideration. Fixed bug in draws which could occur in fights w/ huge gap in points.  Reduced extreme upset protection, relying more on past results then prediction.
• Effects from shows in past week, as well as old shows recently added.

Rankings have been updated on March 27, 2008

Notable Info

• Rating code updated from 1.13c to 1.14b.  Changes related to situations in which fighters come back from inactivity.  Especially those who have had good performances in their 1st and 2nd bouts back.  This has caused moderate reshuffling throughout the divisions, but leaves the top 25s relatively untouched.
• Shows from the past week (WEC, Pancrase), as well as old bouts have been added to the database.

Expect the next update to come on Sunday.

Information

• WEC 33 results, as well as recently added bouts.
• Updated basic code for properly placing fighters coming back from inactivity.  This will cause minor effects throughout the divisions, especially for those who had recent instances of inactivity, as well as their recent opponents.

Rankings posted.  Data from March 23, 2008.

Notable Changes

• Ratings code updated to 1.13c. GTR modification, support for technical decisions/draws (rare), code cleanup.
• Rankings expanded to Top 100 for Lightweight through Heavyweight.
• Rankings expanded to Top 50 for Bantamweight, Featherweight, and Women’s.
• Rankings expanded to Top 25 for Flyweight.
• Fighter names are now hyper-linked and directed to the fighter’s Sherdog profile.
• Approximately 250 bouts added since last update for shows in March 2008.
• Approximately 160 bouts added since last update for shows prior to March 2008.

Now that the weight classes are expanded so far in the thinnest divisions (Women, Bantam, Fly), it is almost a certainty that we are mistakenly excluding fighters toward the bottom of the lists due to lack of division assignment.  If you feel there is a fighter that should be in one of the lists, please feel free to ask us for their current division assignment for verification.

Its a slow week… but we will be releasing an update on Sunday.

Expected Changes

• Expanding Lightweight through Heavyweight to Top 100.  There should be expansions for the smaller divisions as well.
• Fighter names will now be hyper-linked to their Sherdog profiles.
• Code updated to v1.13.  Only change is an update to the GTR initiative mentioned in the previous post.  The effects will be minor and limited to the lowest weight divisions.
• Approximately 250 old bouts added to the database.
• A few minor recent shows added to the database.

As you may or may not know, the PRIDE and UFC titles have been acknowledged by our rating system and have been given precedence, or “double verification” that a fighter has been a top fighter in a top brand of MMA.  We hand selected those organizations due to the quality title defenses, quality of reigns, and overall quality of fighters in general.  Its really a combination of a half dozen things.

Those participating in these title contests get very small boosts proportional to their performances, and extended exemptions from quality performance decays.  The downside to this is when they are no longer participating on the title level, they are subject to falling down the ranks more quickly.

Through my experiences in computerized rating/ranking systems, I have noticed that when there are different brands with sometimes vast, yet unquantifiable differences in talent pools, there needs to be a method for planting an artificial seed or subjective variable to represent that “little extra” to show that the lineage, prestige, and other intangibles that exist in the dominant brands.  Furthermore, this also acts as a defense against the smaller organizations pooling points within their fighters, hence the start of the GTR initiative.

After looking at the global MMA scene, its really split into two distinct markets where fighters don’t crossover THAT much.  Those two markets are Asia, and Europe/North America.  Our goal is to have a quality title, for each weight division in each market, at any given time.  If none exists, it will simply be vacant.  Currently, the GTR provisions are acknowledged for the following titles:

Fly – Euro/N.America: Vacant / Asia: Shooto

Bantam – Euro/N.America: WEC / Asia: Shooto

Feather – Euro/N.America: WEC / Asia: Shooto

Light through Heavy – Euro/N.America: UFC / Asia: Vacant (was PRIDE)

The effects of the GTR will be seen in the next update, but will only cause mild changes in the lower weight divisions.

MMA rankings have been updated to include results from this weekend’s DREAM & Icon events.

We also decided to make the Division Dominance List a permanent part of FightMatrix.com!  This list will be updated with every rankings release.

This tournament will without a doubt, reshape the Lightweight rankings.  The rankings below are current, with the latest code, which shouldn’t be much different than the live rankings.

Some of the fighters are matched much harder than others!  So much for seeding…

Lightweight GP

[#2] Gesias Calvancante vs. [#6] Shinya Aoki

[#10] Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. [#65] Kultar Gill

[#4] Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. [#225] Bu Kyung Jung

[#77] Kazuyuki Miyata vs. [NR] Luiz Firmino

[#31] Andre Amade vs. [#39] Eddie Alvarez – Projected LW ranking for Alvarez

[#50] Artur Oumakhanov vs. [#151] Katsuhiko Nagata

[#17] Joachim Hansen vs. [#34] Koutetsu Boku

Anyone know why there aren’t 8 bouts??

Ranking Note: Gray font represents an approximate ranking. An asterisk represents a fighter who is ranked, but too low for an approximation. These two scenarios will clear up slightly as we move forward. “NR” means the fighter is not ranked, due to inactivity, or due to a rating that is at or below the default starter rating.

Ok, so that quality performance thing I said I fixed… its not fixed 100%. Its way better than it used to be, but still not perfect. The update to 1.12 will have very minor effects and will be launched with the new update on Sunday. This update will also include results from the shows on Saturday which should result in huge changes!

There have been a few more updates than usual lately, but it is necessary as the rating system matures and evolves. These minor updates do not affect the rankings of those which are decided by more than a few points, only those who whose positions are “toss ups” and those who are affected by particular situations.

Furthermore, in the near future, we will be looking to expand the division rankings once more. We will be expanding Lightweight through Heavyweight out to 100! Featherweight and Women’s should be OK to span to 50. Flyweight will likely stay at 10 for now, and Bantamweight is still up in the air.