- We’re adding the years 1990-1993 to the Generated Historical Rankings. Although this period was mainly dominated by Shooto, it is a valid part of MMA history. As a result, the rankings will be updating over the next several hours.
Current MMA Rankings Updated (10-11-2015)
Notable Info
- The infamous Kalib Starnes fought this past week and returned to the rankings — at Heavyweight.
- On a slightly more belated note, Ryota Matsune returned last Sunday at Flyweight with his first win since 2006. In case you didn’t know, he is ranked #8 All-Time at Bantamweight.
- Oh and in case you didn’t see, we’re now offering non-obnoxious in-page sponsorships/advertisements. Help support your favorite ranking site as we enter our 9th year.
Fight Matrix: 8 Years and Counting… The Site, Sponsorships and More
Last November, I made a post about the rating system and how it works. This is a quasi-followup and focuses more on the non-technical aspects and the site itself.
1. We’ve been around since late 2007.
We’re right around 8 years of being online and in this time, have posted over 450 ‘official’ updates to the current rankings. If you count screw-ups and tests, we’re probably closer to 500.
2. Not all of the data is online.
What you see on FightMatrix.com as it relates to data is the “thin” version or the essentials if you will. It is much more efficient to keep the guts offline, using technologies I’m familiar with and then propagate the results to the web site’s online database. We’ve often been asked if we’ll post a bout history like Sherdog’s Fight Finder, but that’s not in the cards at this time. However, this does not mean that we will not continue to add to the available content. I love good ideas and field them whenever presented.
3. This thing is a lot of work.
Although much of the bout recording is automated, it is manually triggered and almost all of the time, supporting information like weight division and scorecards are input manually. Sometimes this information is not readily available, so it requires quite a bit of research. Needless to say, this is very time-consuming, though I consider it a labor of love.
I estimate that the bout recording process, adding the supplementary info and the ranking update process alone has accounted for about 2,000 hours of supervision or actual work in the site’s history. This may not sound like much over 8 years, but I work fast and this does not include the server administration, site maintenance or the coding related to the rankings/ratings themselves.
4. I don’t like ads.
Being honest and realistic, this site does cost money to keep online and it takes quite a bit of resources to keep running. I’m not talking about “keeping the lights on”, but to fuel the motivation to keep putting in all of the hours to try and make this site the foremost professional MMA ranking site in existence. Like I stated earlier, it is a labor of love, with the keyword being “labor”.
Given that, we’ve unfortunately had to resort to (at times) annoying advertisements to gain some monetary compensation. Outside of the occasional MMA-related sponsored post, this is our sole source of income for the site. Add to that, we’ve yet to have a “big money” advertising deal although we’ve come close once. Without this “big money” deal, we are essentially topped out on advertising income as our traffic, although respectable, has seen better days.
5. So I’ve got an idea…
OK, so I said I don’t like ads… BUT, as a way to give people an opportunity to “give” back, we’re going to offer 1-year ad/sponsorships to particular pages on the site which will allow for a text-only advertisement at the top or bottom of any page (except the main page). It will probably look something like this:
| Thanks for all the hard work over the years. FEDOR!!! – John S. |
There will be some limitations: character limits, nothing obscene, etc., but you can use this space to do whatever you want — advertise your own site, say we rock, promote your favorite fighter, etc. You can stay anonymous if you want as well. We’ll manually inject this into the page, so I’m hopeful they won’t get blocked by ad-blocking software. The price will vary depending on which page and which location you select (top or bottom or both), but it will span between $10 and $150 per location. The actual location will be in the page, below the heading and any accompanying description or at the bottom, somewhere above the comments.
If you are interested, Email us at advertise@fightmatrix.com. Link the page(s) and position(s) — “top”, “bottom”, or “both” and we’ll get back with more info.
The Most Overrated MMA Fighter of All-Time
#26 – #16: The Most Overrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 1
#15 – #11: The Most Overrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 2
#10 – #6: The Most Overrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 3
#5 – #4: The Most Overrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 4
#3 – #2: The Most Overrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 5
If you missed the previous parts, you can visit w/ the links above.
#1
#1 – Kazushi Sakuraba (Rep Avg: #96.7 | Fight Matrix: #269)
But.. he beat Rampage Jackson! Yes, at a point when he was supposed to. But he beat Vitor Belfort.. true, although he was only 6-1. But he beat Ken Shamrock.. when he was over the hill. He beat lots of Gracies — most of which, get him props for the name and not necessarily the MMA value. I could go on forever. How many times did he not have the home advantage? Yes, Sakuraba was often out-sized and yes, his record is full of name power… most of whom are in the win column against him. In hindsight, the first half of his career (other than the ass kickings) was probably one of the best managed portions of a fighter career in history.
The Most Overrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 5
#26 – #16: The Most Overrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 1
#15 – #11: The Most Overrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 2
#10 – #6: The Most Overrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 3
#5 – #4: The Most Overrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 4
If you missed the previous parts, you can visit w/ the links above.
#3 – #2
#3 – Renato Sobral (Rep Avg: #83.3 | Fight Matrix: #139)
As we hit Babalu, I am surprised the gap is quite as wide as it is. He does have some solid wins, but in the end, no major titles is an unfortunate stain on a very solid career.
EDIT: Sobral got inserted too high into the list. He should actually be in the bottom of the Top 10.
The Most Overrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 4
#26 – #16: The Most Overrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 1
#15 – #11: The Most Overrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 2
#10 – #6: The Most Overrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 3
If you missed the previous parts, you can visit w/ the links above.
#5 – #4
#5 – Dan Severn (Rep Avg: #63.3 | Fight Matrix: #120)
Nostalgia is respectable, but it doesn’t necessarily equate to super stardom. While 101 wins is nothing to downplay, the last 90 wins or so were of far lesser quality than the first 10. In some ways it is like Severn gave up the high profile fights and was then OK with mediocrity.
The Most Overrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 3
#26 – #16: The Most Overrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 1
#15 – #11: The Most Overrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 2
If you missed the previous parts, you can visit w/ the links above.
#10 – #6
#10 – Mark Kerr (Rep Avg: #103.7 | Fight Matrix: #169)
Kerr, undoubtedly a credible heavyweight for a short period, simply doesn’t have the substance to justify a ranking at the threshold of the Top 100.
The Most Overrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 2
#26 – #16: The Most Overrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 1
If you missed the first part, you can visit it w/ the link above. It has all of the details about how this list came to be.
#15 – #11
#15 – Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (Rep Avg: #80.0 | Fight Matrix: #117)
Not a huge leap from #117 to #80. To be at the 14 spot in this list and to only see this kind of gap, either speaks volumes about how representative our all-time rankings are, or vice versa. The area around #100 is REALLY crowded with “almost greats”.
The Most Overrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 1
For those of you who do not know, in addition to our Current MMA Rankings, we also feature an All-Time MMA Rankings that is updated every month (usually on the 2nd).
In a previous post, I took a look at the most underrated fighters of all-time. At the time, I said I wouldn’t look at the most underrated — but what the hell? This list required some additional thought and rules to make sure fighters listed are notable, but here it is…
Not surprisingly, it is still tough to find (seemingly) reputable lists:
Crowd-sourcing Representative: Tapology Top 150 (2015-09-09)
“Peak” Mathematical Representative: MMA-ELO Top 100 (2015-09-09)
“Cumulative” Mathematical Representative: Sports-Ratings Top 250 (2015-01-03)
I would have loved to have added an “Expert” representative, but I could not find one readily available.
When compared to the last series, all of the lists above have since been updated — although the “Sports Ratings” list is still out of date. Furthermore, I went deeper on the Top X for two of the three sites and the All-Time Rankings here has seen (at least) two relatively major updates in order to increase the precision of some calculations.
Methodology & Notes
- I am taking the average of a fighter’s ranks in the above three lists. If a fighter is not in one of the lists, that rank is the list maximum + 1.
- I am then subtracting the above average from the Fight Matrix ranking as of the last run. A negative result = overrated.
- Finally, I am valuing “higher” ranks more than “lower” ranks. Example: A fighter with a representative average of #15 that we rank at #40, is a slightly more overrated fighter than one with a representative average of #90 that we rank at #230. The break-even point is close to this though.
- I removed women from the lists — men and women don’t belong in the same list.
- Sports-Ratings has a fighter named Jesper Hallberg at #217. Sherdog has him as having zero professional fights, so he is removed from contention.
- Fighters must be in the Top 250 at Fight Matrix and be in at least two representative lists to be considered.
Value Formula (How they are ranked): (502 / SumOf3RepRanks) * DiffOf3RepRanksAvgFromFM
502 = Max Sum of 3 Rep Positions seen in all fighters considered
An honorable mention…. well two.
Due to the minimum qualifications of the list, Rickson Gracie was left off. I felt it necessary to list him, as he easily would’ve made the top spot. Ironically, #2 would’ve been Renzo Gracie. Says a lot for name power, doesn’t it?
#26 – #15
#26 – Norifumi Yamamoto (Rep Avg: #118.7 | Fight Matrix: #152)
I had every intention of starting out the list with #25, but with Yamamoto at #26, I had to include him. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard gripes about him not being listed in one of our All-Time Top 25s. The answer is simple; the guy never accumulated much worth at a single division. Instead he bounced between 3 of them and didn’t do enough in any one.
MMA Rankings Updated (09-06-2015)
Notable Info
- Current Rankings updated as usual — note: I “retired” the wrong Nogueira, oops!
- All-Time Rankings updated with UFC 191 results and with an improvement to a calculation (increased precision) that shows the effects of head-to-head results of neighboring fighters (by ranking).