For fun, I transformed the ratings of all currently ranked male fighters into the Heavyweight+ counterpart — in other words, what it’d be if they moved up to the division without yet having a fight. Then, I seeded them based on ordering in a tournament style.
Who’s got the best chance for an upset? What’s the lowest seed that makes it to the 3rd round?
Unless you’ve been living under a stone or in a cave, you probably know that SI recognized Ronda Rousey as the most dominant athlete today. Let’s keep other sports out of it and focus just on MMA.
“Dominant” is quite subjective, as are most adjectives. However, we -can- use the “Division Point Dominance” rankings to see where she fits if we mixed the men and women lists. As they are based on proportional differences, they can be mixed together with the disclaimer that by volume alone, the men’s portion of MMA is much deeper.
Top 10 Divisional Point Dominance – Mixed Gender
| Rank | Name | DD Pts | Gender |
| 1 | Chris Weidman | 586 | M |
| 2 | Jon Jones | 510 | M |
| 3 | Jose Aldo | 396 | M |
| 4 | Ronda Rousey | 353 | F |
| 5 | Rafael dos Anjos | 349 | M |
| 6 | Demetrious Johnson | 344 | M |
| 7 | Frankie Edgar | 269 | M |
| 8 | Robbie Lawler | 240 | M |
| 9 | Luke Rockhold | 222 | M |
| 10 | Rory MacDonald | 215 | M |
If you follow our site, you’ll understand that the points above are as much about the fighter as they are about the division in which they fight. For example: Demetrious Johnson has had a longer tenure at the very top of a division than Rafael dos Anjos, but Lightweight is a much stronger division than Flyweight.
Our “P4P” ratings value the more cumulative aspect and remove the divisional aspect, but can be more influenced by the volume of history.
Top 10 Pound for Pound – Mixed Gender
| Rank | Name | P4P Pts | Gender |
| 1 | Jon Jones | 460 | M |
| 2 | Jose Aldo | 294 | M |
| 3 | Chris Weidman | 280 | M |
| 4 | Demetrious Johnson | 244 | M |
| 5 | Rafael dos Anjos | 171 | M |
| 6 | Fabricio Werdum | 137 | M |
| 7 | Anthony Johnson | 135 | M |
| 8 | Ronda Rousey | 130 | F |
| 9 | Robbie Lawler | 125 | M |
| 10 | Johny Hendricks | 125 | M |
Given the two lists above, Rousey is not the most dominant in MMA, but she’s in the conversation once you get past Jones, Aldo and Weidman.
It’s always taken for granted that the heavier fighters are the more dangerous fighters. Every champion is the best in his or her division, he or she may be the best pound for pound fighter in the world, but only one fighter is “The Baddest Fighter on the Planet”, and that’s the Heavyweight champion. He is the only fighter who would probably beat everybody else if there were no weight limits, and that stands to reason. We implemented the weight system because we know size matters.
For some reason this does not apply to Ronda Rousey. She is considered a lot of times as the most dangerous woman fighter in the world, who supposedly can beat 50% of men fighters and beat Floyd Mayweather in an MMA fight. While all this time there is a whole division of women fighters who are heavier than her, which nobody says any of these things about. We don’t really know how Rousey would fare against those women since she never fought any of them or at that weight – yet she is the one talked about as the most formidable woman fighter.
This situation is even more ridiculous considering that this heavier division has its own undefeated undisputed champion who smashes everyone she is facing and in fact has been doing so for a very long time, since before Rousey has even started MMA. Cristiane Justino has been considered the undisputed woman champion for a long time before Ronda Rousey got to be, and rightfully so. Ronda Rousey has taken her spot because she is American, more beautiful, more marketable and, most importantly, fights in the UFC.
Apart from the huge deal surrounding the failed drug tests, there’s another, much smaller issue in UFC 183, the weight missing by two of the fighters, and quite big names at that, Kelvin Gastelum and John Lineker.
For a long time I’ve wondered why fighters are fighting at a lower weight than the one that they walk around with, and how did it come to be.
The answer to the first question, of course, is that everybody has better chances when fighting smaller guys, and so, everybody tries to pass as small as they can themselves. The reason they can do this is because they have 24 hours before the fight starts to rehydrate and recuperate from the weakened state they are in at the time of the weigh ins.
I don’t know why fighters are weighed in more than 24 hours before the fight, though. I guess that in the beginning (of Boxing) it had something to do with the option of finding a replacement for the fighter or for canceling the show before the crowd got there. But nowadays neither of these is the case. Fights are still made even if one or both fighters do miss weight.
So why is it still going on? Is it a health issue? These days, fighters lose so much weight for fights that their body is very weak at the time of the weigh ins. If they would try to fight at this weakened state it would probably prove to be very dangerous for them. Looking at it this way, it might make sense not to let them fight right after a weigh in, when they are particularly weak.
But I don’t believe that this is right way of looking at it. Fighters lose all this weight and fight at weight classes smaller than their regular weight because they know they have those 24 hours to recuperate. The situation now is the dangerous one, since fighters are dehydrating themselves to extreme levels, sometimes to the point where their bodies just shut down. We see it time and time again, and there is no reason to think we’ll ever stop seeing that. Fighters will always try to fight in as small a weight class as possible and will always continue to hurt themselves in the process of trying to make that weight, counting on the 24 hour period after the weigh in for recuperation.
If, on the other hand, weigh ins would be held minutes (yes, minutes) before a fight, so fighters would have no time to recuperate from a weight loss, fighters would know that they can’t fight at a weight class lighter than their natural weight since if they do they will be weak during the fight, which is the most important time to be as strong as possible. fighters would, then, try to keep the weight pretty even, at the weight they would fight in, throughout the entire training camp because they wouldn’t want to need to lose almost any weight right before the fight which would make them weak.
This way fighters would fight at a weight much closer to their walk-around weight and there would, practically, be no health dangers surrounding the weight cut, and, of course much less weight misses.
I thought I’d take the latest drug test failures as an excuse for taking a foray into the subjective side of MMA mixed with some opinion and philosophy, something we don’t commonly do here.
When I think of PEDs in sports, the first thing that comes to mind (chronologically) is a group gathering I had with some friends circa-2001. Realize, this was before “the cream” and “the clear”, before BALCO made the headlines and before Lance Armstrong taught us that cycling is a “dirty” sport. At this point, we had just gotten past the discovery of those pills with the really long name that Mark McGwire had in his locker. As we watched whatever sport we were watching, I turn to the room and say something to the effect of: “I bet most of these guys are juicing.” After saying this, I almost got laughed out of the room. OK, it wasn’t that bad, it was more like, “Yeah right, you just wish you were that big.”
Sometimes fights are stopped too early and sometimes too late. In a perfect world, of course, all fights would have been stopped exactly on time. But realistically judges usually have to decide (in a split second) between stopping the fight or letting it continue when the fighter seem to be really hurt but might still be able to continue.
The upside of stopping the fight at that point is that of the protecting the safety of the fighters, while the down side is that of stopping a potentially intriguing and important fight, robbing the fans of it’s entertainment value and maybe changing the rightful outcome of the fight, thus disrupting the whole true rankings and future fight schedule.
When should a judge, then, err on the side of caution and should he let the fight continue to a more definitive outcome?
The answer, in my opinion, primarily depends on the significance of the fight.
Yes, we all think that all fights should be judged exactly the same, like we think all fighters should be treated the same. But this is not the reality. Top fighters earn differently and get different treatment from promoters and athletic commissions, and main events get 5 rounds even when they are not title fights. The point is that top fights are much more important than all other fights. These are the fights that the fans care about the most by far, these are the fights that are most important for the sport and these are the fights that are most important for the fighters.
As a recap, most “Fighter of the Year” awards on other sites are really “Breakout Fighter of the Year” awards in that fighters who win, were usually not top fighters in the beginning of the year, but became so by the end of the year.
A fighter like this can and has won our FotY awards, but our award is more about maintaining a high standing during the award year by performing well a sufficient number of times and against sufficient quality of opponents. It is more comparable to a season MVP, not a playoffs/surprise MVP.
Winner: Jose Aldo
It was a quiet year for elite fighters, but Aldo held steady, again, defending his UFC title twice in the same year. As low as twice sounds, try finding better in 2014.
Runner-Up: Demetrious Johnson
After winning the award in 2013, Aldo edges him out for 2014. Like Aldo, he defended his UFC title twice but against lesser competition.
3rd Place: Robbie Lawler
Surely the pick for FotY from a “breakthrough” perspective, Lawler finally made it to the top of the Welterweight mountain just before the year ended. After going 3-1 in 2014, it will be interesting to see if Lawler can stay at the top of the heap.
As a recap, most “Fighter of the Year” awards on other sites are really “Breakout Fighter of the Year” awards in that fighters who win, were usually not top fighters in the beginning of the year, but became so by the end of the year.
A fighter like this can and has won our FotY awards, but our award is more about maintaining a high standing during the award year by performing well a sufficient number of times and against sufficient quality of opponents. It is more comparable to a season MVP, not a playoffs/surprise MVP.
Winner: Ronda Rousey
This is the 3rd straight win for Rousey, who maintains “status quo” as the best female fighter in the sport. She again, remained #1 all year, beating two quality opponents within the first round to further cement her dominance within the sport.
Runner-Up: Jessica Aguilar
Those dubbing Carla Esparza as the top Strawweight, may have forgotten about Aguilar. In 2014, she defended her lesser regarded WSOF championship three times against respectable, but not elite competition. She has not lost a fight in over 4 years.
3rd Place: Herica Tiburcio
In her first fight away from Brazil, she found success in her first fight at 105,which is probably the best weight class for her. She throttled the “Karate Hottie” in 2014 to gain the only 105lb title belt that really matters. Her options in this division are limited, with a rematch against Waterson and a fight against Hamasaki as the only two fights that make sense unless a ranked Strawweight drops down.
The winner of the fight between Rory McDonald and Tarec Saffiedine might get a title shot.
Rory McDonald is the #2 welterweight, so this is almost the biggest fight anyone can get in the division. On the other hand, Tarec Saffiedine has fought only one time this year and one time last year. He didn’t beat anyone significant (Nate Marquardt has been unimpressive at welterweight) and his last 7 fights went to decision, which proves he is not the most exciting of fighters.
Dana White is generally very vocal about how he wants fighters to be exciting (Jon Fitch, Jake Shields) and active (Fabricio Werdum was forced to take a fight though he wanted to wait for the title shot).
And now another such fight was announced: Hector Lombard, who just beat Jake Shields and might very well deserve a title shot himself, against Josh Burkman, who just returns to the UFC after losing a fight outside of it (to Steve Carl).
Wouldn’t it make more sense to pit Hector Lombard against Rory McDonald, a fight I think everybody would like to see and let those upcoming guys prove they deserve those high-profile fights instead of booking fights which seem pretty one-sided?
There have undoubtedly been thousands and thousands of articles and posts on the Internet regarding the 10-point must system and how it should be abolished from combat sports, MMA in particular. Partly, because it has produced so many questionable decisions, perhaps mostly because it was developed with the sport of boxing in mind — most MMA fans like to distance themselves from the cousin sport.
However, introducing a more complicated scoring system for judges who can’t seem to utilize the 10-point must system properly would most definitely produce more variability and more chance for corruption.
Take the typical 3-round UFC fight for example, where there are no “obvious” 10-8 rounds, no even rounds and no point deductions. Without caring about the round-by-round particulars, each card can be scored 4 different ways (30-27,27-30,29-28,28-29). Looking at that and other popular proposed scenarios.
| Scoring Method | Potential Totals Per Card |
| 10-pt must (as is) | 4 |
| 10-pt must w/ 10-10 rounds | 8 |
| 10-pt must w/ half-points | 8 |
| 10-pt must w/ half-points & 8.5 rounds | 14 |
| Rounds vary from 10-9 to 10-5 (no half points) | 26 |
| Rounds vary from 10-9 to 10-0 (no half points) | 56 |
There seem to be a consensus that Jon Jones should fight Alexander Gustafsson next, as they had a very close fight and it was the first and only time Jon Jones was in some danger. That’s why there is such a strong reaction to Jon’s’ reluctance to take on this fight.
I don’t share this enthusiasm for this fight. As a rule, I watch MMA to see different guys fight. It’s always interesting to see how different fighters will do against each other, who is better, and what will happen. And this is especially true for the champion. I want to see him fight as many fighters as possible, see how he deals with all of them and what they can bring against him. We’ve seen Jones vs. Gustafsson already, and it was a great fight. Nobody won that fight and there is a good chance that nobody would win their next fight too. Of course it would be fun to see them match up again, but there is a good chance we would just see a repeat of the first fight.
And besides, should Gustafsson really be the champion? Let’s say that they fight and the judges give him 3 rounds. Does he really deserve to be the champion? Whom has he beat in the Top 10? He went to close decisions with Rua and Jones, while Jones finished almost everybody he faced through TKOs and submissions. Of course it would exciting and it would shake up the LHW division but that’s true for any loss of Jones, and personally I think this time Jones would come prepared and win more decisively.
So it would either end in a close decision for Jones which just be a repeat of last time, a decisive victory for Jones, which would just leave us with the feeling this fight was expendable, or a close decision for Gustafsson which would give him an undeserving title (no way Gustafsson finishes Jones, IMO).
I’d much rather see Jones face someone he hasn’t faced, and there is someone who would make a very interesting opponent: Daniel Cormier, who looks amazing again and again. If, for some reason, Jones would never fight again after his next fight, I would be very sorry to have missed Jones vs. Cormier, while I wouldn’t feel I’ve missed Jones vs. Gustafsson.
Some rematches are definitely a must: when Cain Velasquez lost to Junior Dos Santos one minute into the fight it felt like it was a lucky punch, and he should be given another chance. When Anderson Silva got knocked out by Chris Weidman, it felt like he could do a lot better if he wouldn’t play around as much. But this is not the same situation. We saw the fight; it was good, but it doesn’t mean we have to see an immediate rematch. There are other worthy opponents for Jones. Gustafsson can get his rematch later, maybe after beating (and finishing) a Top 10 guy or two.
Having said that, this is just my personal opinion, and the reality is that there is quite a demand among fans to see this rematch (at least that’s the feeling I’m getting). By trying to avoid it, Jones does make it look like he is afraid. I don’t think he is, but that’s not the issue. If there is really such a demand for that fight (which is a good question – is there really?) then he should accept it, and beat Gustaffson decisively like I think he would.
A video of young boys wrestling a bear surfaced in December. One of the boys was rumored to be the undefeated UFC lightweight contender Khabib Nurmagomedov. Recently, Khabib confirmed that he is the boy in the video:
This is just awesome. Confirms my feelings that Nurmagomedov is the next lightweight champion.
Here’s a hilarious review of his bear-wrestling technique (before it was confirmed to be Khabib): My Outrage Over Video of Young Boy Wrestling Bear
It’s become customary for MMA news sites to report fighter payouts after major events. Unfortunately, only a handful of US state athletic commissions publish the salary info. For international events, or in US states which do not report fighter payouts, the salary info is not available. This doesn’t stop folks from still reporting fighter payouts – except since they lack the actual info for the event, they report the last known payout for each fighter.
This can be fairly accurate in some cases, and extremely outdated in others. While the websites that publish this info typically include a disclaimer stating that the payouts are estimated (see http://mma-manifesto.com/root/ufc-fighter-salary-database-root/tuf-nations-finale-bisping-vs-kennedy-fighter-purses-attendance-gate.html), what they do not mention is how recent the last reported salary info is for each fighter.
This of course is an important factor – a UFC fighter whose last payout was officially reported two years and several fights ago is not likely to be still on the same salary. For example, MMA-Manifesto is reporting a payout of $8,000 for Kyle Noke. This is based on his last reported payout at TUF 11 Finale – almost 4 years ago! The base salary of 8K to show, 8K to win has been the standard for entry level TUF contestants in their first UFC fight; however Noke has amassed a record of 4-2 in the Octagon prior to fighting Cote. UFC contracts are typically structured so that fighter pay goes up with wins, and Noke almost certainly received a new – and more lucrative – contract when he was picked to be a coach on TUF Nations. So it’s very likely that his actual purse for this fight was far above 8K.
For other fighters, it’s impossible to find any official payout info. Take Ryan Jimmo: with a 2-2 record in the UFC, all four of his previous fights took place in jurisdictions which do not report salary info. Again, it’s highly unlikely that he is still at the 8K base pay level, four fights and two wins into his contract.
Keeping this in mind, I thought it would be interesting to compile a list of payouts for the TUF Nations Finale card, while including the source of last officially reported payout for each fighter:
A while ago I wrote about the uselessness of accusing the fighters of not fighting in an exciting way or not trying to finish fights. I said that the rules encourage safe fighting and that as long as the rules would not change safe fighting will continue to be a significant part of the sport.
The UFC wants to be sanctioned and that’s why they accept the Unified Rules of MMA, with their 10-point must system. I believe the UFC are now big enough and strong enough to be able to influence these rules if they wanted to, but that’s another matter. The important thing now is that they are bound by these rules and must follow them.
The problem that they now face is how to avoid the slow but steady decline of fighters to point-fighting while adhering to the same set of rules and without influencing the judges. The way Dana White has chosen to do this is by cutting any fighter who seems to be fighting safely, even when they are considered among the best in the world.
It started with the surprising release of Jon Fitch, followed by that of Yushin Okami, the lack of interest in signing Ben Askren, and now the release of Jake Shields.
The UFC cannot affect the rules but they can control the fighters, and they try to make them fight excitingly by keeping only those who bring the action, and threatening to cut those who don’t.
There is a lot of criticism surrounding this strategy. It is said that MMA is a sport, while the UFC is becoming a spectacle. Instead of trying to find who the best fighters in the world are, they are just trying to put on crowd-pleasing fights and make money.
Gegard Mousasi, born in Tehran to an Armenian family, grew up in the Netherlands from the age of 4. He began his professional MMA career at 2003 at the age of 17, and fought in various organizations including M-1, Rings and DEEP at middleweight before debuting in Pride in 2006 at 20 years old.
After a win and a loss (the second one of his career at that point, both by armbars) he was matched with then #78 ranked Middleweight Hector Lombard, and showed superior grappling, controlling Lombard’s back for most of the fight.
In 2008 he beat then #68 LHW Evangelina Santos in a middleweight match to reach #23 ranking, but his jump into the spotlight was his debut in Dream against #14 Dennis Kang, on whom he was able to slap a triangle, catapulting him to #8 in the world. He then continued in the Dream tournament beating #20 Melvin Manhoef and #25 Ronaldo Souza on the night of September 23, 2008. Both fights were short. Gegard had no problem controlling Manhoef on the ground for another triangle submission win, while he got lucky against Souza sending a precise head kick just as Souza was diving in for some ground control. It was an exciting finish but it’s not one that proved Mousasi’s superiority, so a rematch between the two today would be a very viable and interesting option.
Winning the Dream Middleweight title has made Mousasi one of the best middleweight in the world, as he rose to #3 in the Middleweight rankings. Mousasi has shown himself to be a very well-rounded fighter, with world-championship level kickboxing and an excellent ground game which awarded him his most impressive wins to that point.
On 2009 He took on the massive challenge of Mark Hunt, who didn’t look good at the time, ranking at #31 Heavyweight after 4 fight losing streak. Mousasi controlled him on the ground, leading to an easy armbar.
He then signed a deal with StrikeForce which allowed him to continue fighting in Dream at the same time. He beat Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral, who was the StrikeForce LHW champion and ranked #10 LHW, in less than a minute with his signature lightning fast ground & pound, reaching the pinnacle of his career by becoming the StrikeForce LHW champion and ranking at #4 at LHW.
