This past weekend Rizin Fighting Federation hosted their fourth event. The card featured several ranked fighters, and the results have made an impact on the Fight Matrix rankings. The following is a breakdown of some of the changes in the rankings after the event.

Rankings Return
Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic returned to the heavyweight rankings following his first round submission over Hyun Man Myung. He is now the #31 heavyweight. Myung was unranked headed into the event, but since “Cro Cop” had been dropped from the rankings due to inactivity a simple win was enough to put him back in the top 50.

Rankings Debut
Three fighters, Kron Gracie, Amir Aliakbari and Kanako Murata, made their rankings debut following the event.

Gracie defeated veteran Hideo Tokoro in the main event and now finds himself as the #293 featherweight.

Former two-time world champion Greco-Roman wrestler Amir Aliakbari easily dispatched the former #89 heavyweight Joao Almeida and makes his rankings debut at #116.

Finally, junior world champion wrestler Kanako Murata bested the former #7 atomweight Kyra Batara in order to debut at #39 strawweight.

Moving Up
On a weekend that included plenty of talk about the dearth of challengers for Cris “Cyborg” Justino‘s throne, there was another example in Japan. After going 3-0 against opponents with a combined 2-0 previous record, Gabi Garcia finds herself ranked #9 in the featherweight and over division. She jumped up five spots after defeating Destanie Yarbrough in the card’s opening bout.
Valentin Moldavsky defeated the former #54 heavyweight and moved up 129 spots in the rankings. He is now the #88 heavyweight.

Szymon Bajor went from #125 to #87 heavyweight following his victory over Teodoras Aukstuolis. The Lithuanian fighter had been ranked as the #105 heavyweight.

Dropped Out
Batara actually manged to drop from a top-10 spot to unranked. There are a few factors at play. First, her previous #7 ranking at atomweight was at least partially due to a lack of talent at 105 pounds. For this fight, she bumped up to strawweight and took the loss. So, not only did she lose, but she also reclassified at a much deeper weightclass. If she returns to Combate Americas and wins another atomweight fight, she will most likely return to the top 10.

Richard Mann currently runs the data-driven MMA blog StrikeScoreMMA.com

Sherdog recently released a list of their Top 10 Canadian MMA Fighters of All-Time

Let’s compare…

Sherdog Top 10

1. Georges St. Pierre
2. Rory MacDonald
3. Patrick Cote
4. Carlos Newton
5. Mark Hominick
6. Sarah Kaufman
7. Denis Kang
8. Gary Goodridge
9. Sam Stout
10. TJ Grant

FightMatrix fighters missing from Sherdog list: Carvalho, Doerksen (HM), Davis (HM), Loiseau (HM)

FightMatrix Top 10 (Absolute All-Time Rating)

1. Georges St. Pierre
2. Rory MacDonald
3. Mark Hominick
4. Carlos Newton
5. Sarah Kaufman
6. Antonio Carvalho
7. Joe Doerksen
8. Denis Kang
9. Alexis Davis
10. David Loiseau

Sherdog fighters missing from our list: Grant (#11), Goodridge (#13), Cote (#15), Stout (#16)

Fight Matrix updates the Current MMA Rankings once a week. As the deepest and most inclusive ranking system in the sport, fights all over the globe can have a major impact on the rankings. Let’s take a look at the biggest risers in the divisional rankings. The number in parenthesis is the number of spots that the fighter moved up from the last issued rankings. For the purpose of this article, fighters who were unranked in the previous ranking iteration are excluded.

Heavyweight
Igor Sliusarchuk #159 (36)
It looks like the correction in the rankings system has rewarded Sliusarchuk with a 36 spot bump. The Ukrainian fighter last fought on Dec. 19 when he scored a 45-second knockout over Emil Zahariev. The 27-year-old fighter holds a 19-8 record as a professional.

Middleweight
Alessio Di Chirico #124 (94)
Di Chirico has quickly risen up the rankings. At UFC on Fox 21, he scored his first UFC victory over Garreth McLellan via split decision. The win improved his record to 10-1. Despite beginning his professional career in 2011, he was allowed to the 2014 IMMAF amateur world championships where he took first place.

Other Notables: Ken Hasegawa #59 (34)

Welterweight
Vuyisile Colossa #284 (134)
The One Championship veteran got back on the winning track with a third-round knockout victory over Marcelo Tenorio under the IMPI World Series Banner. Prior to that, he had lost to Elnur Agaev for Kunlun Fight in his only other bout of 2016. The South African kickboxer fought on the very first One Championship card and holds a 3-1 record in the promotion.
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