Notable Info

• Donald Cerrone took our lineal Lightweight championship last night with his win over Eddie Alvarez.
• The Men’s Strawweight lineal championship as we recognize it, changed hands over the weekend with Yoshitaka Naito’s defeat of Shinya Murofushi.  Rambaa Somdet has not fought within the confines of this lineal division since October 2011 and it appears he’s done with the division, if not the sport.
• Although TUF fights are being counted, it has been our policy not to shift divisions for fighters competing in TUF as historically, many fighters have competed outside of their typical division and pro non-exhibition fights take precedence.  This explains why Penne & Ellis remain in the 105 division, as this is the division in which they competed prior to TUF.  However, due to the importance of this TUF as it pertains to the 115 landscape, we may re-visit this decision in the coming weeks.  We welcome feedback.

Aside from more fighters moving down from Bantamweight, which has been of great help recently, the UFC must move more quickly in building the talent pool for the UFC Flyweight division.

Although the Heavyweight division is arguably as weak, there is enough volatility with the fight results to ensure that the competition remains relatively fresh.  At Flyweight, with Demetrious Johnson being on such a quality run, the lack of depth is already apparent as his next opponent is sitting at #14 in the UFC Flyweight rankings.

The following fighters may be not-so-obvious options for additions to this division as they don’t have undefeated records and aren’t spending time in major or mid-major promotions, at least not in the states.

#15 –  Yuki Motoya  (24)  [12-4-0]

I’ll be the first to admit, the ratings are possibly being a little too kind to Motoya.  He’s got a unique combination of characteristics that always yield a friendly rating; he fights and wins often and he fights aging fighters who’ve recently dropped down in division, likely out of desperation.

However, he’s young and 9-1-0 in his last 10 (with the lone loss being a split decision that he since avenged).  I think you have to give him at least a glance.

#18 –  Czar Sklavos  (32)  [10-3-0]

I’m somewhat shocked that I hear nothing about Sklavos.  He got a late start to the game, debuting and losing to TJ Dillashaw back in 2010.  And although he’s recently lost two, one to #16 Sampo and the other to former top Flyweight Alexis Vila, he’s on quite a run.  His next fight sees him once again travel across the Pacific to fight #28 Ogikubo.  I wouldn’t be surprised if a win here yields a phone call from the UFC.  At the very least, he’s racking up frequent flyer miles.

#27 –  Giovanni da Silva Santos Jr  (27)  [15-1-0]

Having only lost his debut fight, “Soldado” is the top-rated Brazilian Flyweight that still remains undiscovered by a major promotion.  His last win over former #2 Strawweight Gilberto Dias launched him up near the top-half of the first page of the Flyweight rankings.  Due to a lack of data, there is a tendency to underrated these types of Brazilian fighters who never leave home.  As a result, he might be one to watch.

Honorable Mentions: #32 – Nildo Nascimento, #43 – Yuya Shibata

Notable Info

• Slight tweak to last week’s update regarding quality performance handling.

Notable Info

• Improved handling of quality performance decay in situations where a fighter is close to a quality performance.  Instead of decay ON/OFF, there is now a small zone of partial decay to ensure a gradual roll-off.

Notable Info

• Lightweight rankings expanded from 500 fighters to 600 — the most in any division.
• Bantamweight rankings expanded from 250 fighters to 300.
• Women’s Strawweight rankings expanded from 20 fighters to 25.