In response to this article posted at Sherdog today, I thought I’d show All-Time MMA Rankings for the Lightweight division in detail and how it has trended in the past 3 years (using current version):

Everyone that stayed steady or increased slightly only saw fluctuations based on changes in ratings of key opposition or additional points earned between then and the end of their Lightweight runs.

Gomi got hit hard, because the system thought he was basically done three years ago.  On today’s run, it re-considered and suggested he was still at or near his prime when it saw him under-perform once hitting the UFC; essentially proving that he wasn’t all he was cracked up to be at one time.  Note: I try to disqualify post-prime failures, but it is not completely preventable.

In the past month, we’ve worked on some tweaks for the All-Time Rankings.  As fighter careers last longer (time-wise) we’ve seen the need to put more weight on quality and less weight on quantity.  Honestly, this is pretty subjective, but there’s no great way to do All-Time Rankings unless you look at sums or peaks and neither works great on its own.  Nevertheless, the same version was used in both sets provided above.

EDIT: Re-posted and re-explained.  Today values were incorrect.

The Most Underrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 1 | #25 – #15
The Most Underrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 2 | #14 – #10
The Most Underrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 3 | #9 – #5
The Most Underrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 4 | #4 – #3
The Most Underrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 5 | #2

If you missed the first parts, you can visit w/ the links above.

#1…

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#25 – #15: The Most Underrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 1
#14 – #10: The Most Underrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 2
#9 – #5: The Most Underrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 3
#4 – #3: The Most Underrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 4

If you missed the first parts, you can visit w/ the links above.

#2…

Keep Reading

#25 – #15: The Most Underrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 1
#14 – #10: The Most Underrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 2
#9 – #5: The Most Underrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 3

If you missed the first parts, you can visit w/ the links above.

#4 – Chad Mendes (Rep Avg: #121.3 | Fight Matrix: #48)

Mendes is taking the Jon Fitch road, but at 145.  Practically glued to the Top 5, tons of top-quality fights and wins while fighting for the UFC, but just can’t get over the hump to win the gold.  Having him outside of the Top 100 is absolutely ridiculous.

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#25 – #15: The Most Underrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 1
#14 – #10: The Most Underrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 2

If you missed the first parts, you can visit w/ the links above.

#9 – #5

#9 – Mamoru Yamaguchi (Rep Avg: #120 | Fight Matrix: #70)

Small man bias in full effect here — Yamaguchi is a part of the three-headed Japanese dragon that has ruled the All-Time MMA Rankings at Flyweight, here on Fight Matrix.  For us, DJ is set to high jump over this tandem in the near future, but he apparently already had sometime ago for mostly everyone else.  The “pick and choose” process is very strange when it comes to acknowledging MMA success in the early years.

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#25 – #15: The Most Underrated 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.

As I complete the list, I can’t help but think of how great this series could have been and how sad it is that reasonable lists like this are practically non-existent.  If you come across any, please let me know.

#14 – #10

#14 – Miguel Torres (Rep Avg: #65 | Fight Matrix: #39)

Torres is still our Top Bantamweight of All-Time.  With Barao recently losing and Cruz taking all the time off, Torres should hold this position for a little longer.

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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 an effort to mix it up heading into the new year, I’ve decided to compare our All-Time Absolute list to an average of a few other lists that I’ve found on the Internet, in order to bring attention to fighters who I believe are the most underrated in the history of MMA.

I feel an analysis of underrated fighters is more objective than an analysis of overrated fighters, as many fighters are given lofty positions in subjective lists due to an over-friendliness bestowed upon pioneer fighters, especially those who were under-sized.  As you probably know, our lists are based on actual results and it goes without saying that being the #1 Welterweight in 2014 means much more than being the #1 Welterweight in 2004 (for example).

Not surprisingly, it was tough to find (seemingly) reputable lists:

Crowd-sourcing Representative: Tapology Top 100 (2014-12-18)

“Peak” Mathematical Representative: MMA-ELO Top 25 (2014-11-01)

“Cumulative” Mathematical Representative: Sports-Ratings Top 250 (2014-03-31)

I would have loved to have added an “Expert” representative, but I could not find one readily available.

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