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
Christian Colombo #123 (52)
Denmark’s Colombo moved up 52 spots after fighting to a draw with Jarjis Danho in his UFC debut. He is now undefeated in seven-straight bouts since falling to current UFC fighter Viktor Pesta in 2012.

Middleweight
Mauricio Alonso #152 (97)
Alonso last fought in the main event of Dragon House 23. There, he scored a unanimous-decision victory over Justin Baseman. The Brazilian fighter holds a 12-7 record as a professional. In his only really big show experience, he fell to Nick Pica on the undercard of Bellator 142 – Dynamite last September.

Welterweight
Ismail Naurdiev #273 (285)
Austrian fighter Naurdiev is now riding a six-fight winning streak after defeating Daniel Skibinski at World Free Fight Challenge 20 on Aug. 27. The 20-year-old fighter trains with Thaiboxing MMA Salzburg.
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Brock Lesnar tested positive for a banned substance by USADA right before his fight at UFC 200.

It appears obvious that Lesnar knew exactly what he was doing.  He did not test positive in any of the tests that the results of which came back long enough before the fight for the fight to get canceled, in which case he wouldn’t have gotten the money for the fight.  Instead, he took the banned substances for which he tested positive only when he knew that the results of the tests would come back after the fight, fought and got the money for the fight.

The question is, what should be done in order for that not to happen again in the future.

The situation now is that fighters who test positive for banned substances get suspended from fighting. This is, of course, a good solution for most fighters, for whom fighting is their main career.  By suspending them from fighting, they don’t get to pursue their goal of an MMA career (at least for a while); they don’t get the opportunity to continue being involved in competition and their livelihood is taken away from them for a period of time.

But for some fighters, an MMA career is not their goal anyway.  They are in for one big payday.  It happened before (James Toney), and it has never been more clear than this time with Brock Lesnar.

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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
Anthony Hamilton #40 (39)
Hamilton had the best striking performance of UFC career and finished Damian Grabowski in only 14 seconds. At #40 he has nearly returned to his Highest Quarterly Ranking which was #35 in 2014.

Light Heavyweight
Leonardo Silva de Oliveira #157 (59)
Oliveira last fought on June 25 when he scored a second-round knockout over Alexandre Nunes Brandao The Brazilian prospect is not 6-0 with five knockouts and one submission.

Middleweight
Trevin Giles #163 (70)
On Last Friday’s Resurrection Fighting Alliance show, Giles made his promotional debut and took home a submission victory over Josh Clark. The victory improved his professional record to 7-0 including four submissions and three knockouts. Giles is scheduled to return at Legacy FC 59 on Sept. 16 against Bellator veteran Isaac Villanueva.

Welterweight
Wendell de Oliveira Marques #215 (184)
Marques jumped up 184 spots in the rankings after receiving credit for his victory over Gilmar Dutra Lima at Imortal FC 5 “Road to Pancrase.” The X-Gym product has been competing professionally since 2006 and has built a 26-10 record. He has gone 2-1 since being released from the UFC in 2015 following losses to Santiago Ponzinibbio and Darren Till.
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This weekend there was a bout between two heavyweight prospects: Francis Ngannou and Bojan Mihajlovic. Ngannou had two fights in the UFC prior to this one, while for Mihajlovic this was his Octagon debut. Both were coming off of impressive win streaks outside of the Octagon, but as we know the real test is when they come to the UFC.

So basically, the UFC paired two unknowns with impressive win streaks who are in their initial stages of their UFC careers against each other. This is not the first time UFC has done this; they actually tend to do that quite often.

I don’t understand why they do that.  Of course, these fights have the potential of being fun fights, but that’s true for many fights. There is a lot of reason why not to do that, in my opinion.  I am not addressing specifically the Ngannou – Mihajlovic fight, but the recurring match making of two UFC newcomers on winning streaks.

First of all, these kind of fights don’t really tell us a whole lot, at the end of the day. I mean, those are two fighters who were successful outside of the UFC against mediocre or weak competition. They come to the UFC, where they can fight better competition, fighters that are known to be good or decent, at least. Instead the UFC pits them against one another. Well, what do we learn when one fighter who beat nobodys beats another fighter who beat nobodys? Not much. We don’t really know what any of them is worth. They might be the two best guys in the world, so the fact that one of them lost to the other guy who will be champion one day, doesn’t mean he is not good. And vice versa, they might both be really weak compared to UFC caliber competition, so the fact that one of them beat the other doesn’t mean they deserve to stay in the UFC.

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This weekend two high level promotions will put on shows in China. Road FC 32 takes place Saturday in Hunan, while on the same day One Championship hosts “Dynasty of Champions 6” in Anhui.

Several combat sports promotions have tried to make a big push into the county with limited success. Even the UFC tried with their regular trojan horse that is “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show and also promoted three events in Macau. The effort appears to have stalled with the release of the UFC’s Managing Director of Asia, Mark Fischer

Of course, one of the biggest issues with international expansion is finding a homegrown star who can both connect with fans and stay relevant in the non-predetermined world of MMA. Currently there are only 14 Chinese fighters in the Fight Matrix rankings, so finding that star will be difficult. Road FC and One Championship have taken different approaches to this task.

The undercard of Road FC includes a pair of UFC veterans with Chinese heritage, Jumabieke Tuerxun and Albert Cheng. The two combined to go 0-4 in the UFC. In the main event Aori Gele, a 320-pound Chinese Sanda fighter with a 1-2 MMA record, faces Bob Sapp.

During their trips to China, One Championship has appeared to focus on developing local talent. The cards often include tournaments of fighters with only a few professional fights. Assuming the plan is that the cream will eventually rise to the top, fans and promoters better be prepared to wait. Of the nine Chinese fighters on the card only two have more than one professional win.

List of Chinese Fighters in Fight Matrix Rankings

The main idea behind weight classes is, of course, setting a level playing field for the different fighters. Another result of the weight classes is for fans to know how much the fighters weigh, making the sport a little more understandable and relatable. If I know that a fighter weighs approximately the same as me, I can compare myself to him.

Boxing, where weigh-ins started, was never a very institutionalized sport. It was always a sport in which fights were made ad-hoc, and in which the different promoters had to go through a lot of negotiations to be able to make these fights. There was never a very orderly, rank driven kind of management for matchmaking. So the treatment the weigh-ins always got was similarly not very professional. Fighters could do pretty much whatever they wanted, as long as they stand on that scale and make weight once, usually the day before the fight.

MMA adopted this amateurish attitude, because for a long time, MMA was also a sport without some central organization which could organize it all in a more professional, safe fashion.  Now finally (and after ONE championship has declared its implementation of similar measures a few months ago) the UFC has announced new weigh-in rules, for the safety of the fighters.

I agree that the safety of the fighters is the most important thing. but there is another factor to consider, and that is the the effect on the fans.

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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.

Welterweight
Emil Weber Meek #9 (205)
In the most astounding upset of the weekend, Meek scored a first-round finish over Rousimar Palhares. Palhares came into the bout as the highest ranked fighter not signed to the UFC or Bellator. On the other hand, Meek was ranked 214th. With the victory, Meek moves all the way up to ninth, while Palhares fell to 11th.

Heavyweight
Adam Wieczorek #131 (74)
Wieczorek moved up 74 ranking spots with a victory over Zoumana Cisse under the Professional MMA League banner. With the victory, the Polish fighter’s record improved to 7-1. He has not lost since falling to recent UFC signee Marcin Tybura in his second professional fight in 2011.

Light Heavyweight
Przemyslaw Mysiala #96 (92)
You might remember Mysiala from his one-fight stint in Bellator back in 2013. He was Muhammed Lawal’s first opponent in the promotion and lost via knockout in the first round. Since then, Mysiala has gone 3-1-1 including back-to-back victories over Ryan White and Marcin Zontek. Following his victory over Zontek at last weekend’s Fight Exclusive Night 12 “Feel the Force” Mysiala moved up 92 spots and into the light heavyweight top 100.
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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
Daniil Arepyev #182 (38)
Lukasz Parobiec #203 (38)

Arepyev moved up 38 spots after earning credit for his April 30 victory over Denis Komkin. The Russian fighter is now 5-0 with five stoppage wins.

Parobiec earned his new ranking in somewhat unusual fashion. He earned a disqualification victory over Tom Aspinall on the BAMMA 25 undercard after receiving illegal downward elbows. The Berserkers Team representative is now 12-5 and 2-0 under the BAMMA banner.

Light Heavyweight
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira #15 (13)
There was not a lot of activity in the light heavyweight division. However, Nogueira made the most of his opportunity. On the same night that the promotion announced his brother’s entry into the UFC Hall of Fame, he scored a first-round knockout over Patrick Cummins. Per BestFightOdds.com, Nogueira had gotten as high as a +186 underdog in the lead up to the fight, and he had not tasted a victory in over three years.
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The 23rd season of “The Ultimate Fighter” debuts tonight on Fox Sports 1. The following tables show the current and quarterly high ranking for all members of the cast. Of the 32 contestants, only 9 are currently ranked and 16 were ranked at some point during their careers.

*Rank at Middleweight
**Rank at Heavyweight
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Earlier this week, news broke that Rousimar Palhares had signed with Venator FC. Per the announcement, he will make his promotional debut on May 21. Lost in the ostentatiousness of Venator president Frank Merenda is a reminder that one of the world’s best welterweights is practically banished from the highest levels of the sport due to his inability or refusal to release submissions in a timely manner.

In this day and age, it is rare for a fighter as accomplished as Palhares to remain outside the UFC or Bellator. In fact, only one other fighter not signed to the big two, One bantamweight champion Bibiano Fernandes, currently ranks as high. The following table shows the highest ranked fighters per weight outside the UFC and Bellator.

Interestingly enough, Palhares’ #5 ranking ties him with the highest ranked fighters in Bellator. Currently Phil Davis, Will Brooks and Daniel Straus are all also ranked #5 in their respective divisions.

Unlike someone like Wanderlei Silva who is currently serving an athletic commission suspension, Palhares finds himself suspended while he seems to be entering his prime. On top of that, welterweight is one of the few divisions with a relatively deep talent pool outside the UFC with fighters such as Douglas Lima, Ben Askren and Ben Henderson. Considering the unavailability of high level competition, his ranking will likely decline.

Of course, if you believe the accusations against Palhares, he does not really have anyone to blame other than himself.

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