Conor McGregor: Just how overrated is he?
I realize the UFC has to hype fights, but from a Fight Matrix rankings perspective, Conor McGregor may be one of the most overhyped fighters in MMA history.
He is basically even money with Jose Aldo for their fight.
From an All-Time perspective, McGregor ranks as the #49 Featherweight in history, sandwiched between Josh Grispi and Robbie Peralta. If you think this is harsh, please consider that approximately half of McGregor’s fights have taken place at Lightweight.
Despite having beaten the currently ranked #5 Featherweight, McGregor finds himself at #6 — you can argue that we should be performing adjustments based on events since two fighters matched up, but we don’t. Even if we did, he would probably find himself no higher than #5.
Recently, he got his poster hung from the ceiling at the TUF gym. While some may consider this a mecca of sorts for the UFC, it is certainly one or both of two things; foreshadowing, absurd.
Your thoughts?
All-Time Rankings: The Black Holes at #3 – Part 2: Middleweights
Middleweight
1 – Anderson Silva (23-5-0, 11*, 26)
2 – Chris Weidman (12-0-0, 3*, 6)
I know what you’re thinking… it is not a sure thing and perhaps way too premature to put Weidman at #2. Our All-Time Rankings suggest otherwise and even if you disagree, Weidman is the only fighter in the vicinity with a claim that is on the ascent.
Our #3 and #4 are tied. Nate Marquardt (25-8-2, 0*, 3) saw early and lengthy success, while Rich Franklin (6-3-0, 3*, 4) saw larger success later but spent much, much less time there. Dan Henderson (7-5-0, 1*, 2) is another popular choice, but he’s on a similar wavelength as Franklin. Some great performances, but not a lengthy tenure. Like Franklin, Henderson couldn’t quite decide on a division.
Fight Matrix #3 (tie) – Nate Marquardt, Rich Franklin
[poll id=”21″]
Record/Status Legend
(W-L, A*, B)
W-L = Division Record
A = Major Title/Tourney Wins in Division
B = Quarterly #1 Rankings in Division
All-Time Rankings: The Black Holes at #3 – Part 1: Heavyweights
A short time ago, Sherdog put an article out debating the Top Lightweights of All-Time and today, put another article out debating the same for Welterweights.
Granted, this is an interesting debate now that we’re getting close to two decades where weight classes actually started being acknowledged, but in plenty of divisions, the top fighter is obvious. Furthermore, in many and perhaps more cases, the top 2 is obvious even if the 1-2 order is arguable. In my opinion, the #3 position is completely up for grabs in every division. In a sport where rankings mean so much, it seems unusual for this rift so close to the top. Certainly, arguments like this have to start somewhere, but #3 is where the questions start to arise.
Heavyweight
#1 – Fedor Emelianenko (34-4, 5*, 29)
#2 – Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (34-9-1, 3*, 8)
Here at #3, we’ve got several possibilities. Certainly, Cain Velasquez (13-1, 4*, 8) is a great choice, but his constant inactivity may yield to another current top fighter, Junior dos Santos (17-3, 2*, 7). Though Velasquez has the 2-1 lead in their series, dos Santos remains a little more active and somehow, Velasquez has fought only two different fighters in his past five fights. This kind of repetition isn’t great for a career retrospective.
If you want to go back in time, you’ve got Josh Barnett (33-7, 1*, 0) and Randy Couture (13-7, 7*, 0) who are also reasonable choices.
Fight Matrix #3 – Cain Velasquez
[poll id=”20″]
(X-Y, A*, B)
X-Y = Division Record
A = Major Title/Tourney Wins in Division
B = Quarterly #1 Rankings in Division
The Best Lightweights in MMA History: All-Time Rankings (Updated)
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):
| 3 Years Ago | Today | Diff | |
| BJ Penn | 2790 | 2944 | 5.5% |
| Frankie Edgar | 2300 | 2845 | 23.7% |
| Takanori Gomi | 3249 | 2714 | -16.5% |
| Ben Henderson | 263 | 2709 | 930.0% |
| Gilbert Melendez | 1470 | 2141 | 45.6% |
| Shinya Aoki | 2061 | 2136 | 3.6% |
| Anthony Pettis | 48 | 1795 | 3639.6% |
| Joachim Hansen | 1509 | 1521 | 0.8% |
| Vitor Ribeiro | 1463 | 1460 | -0.2% |
| Eddie Alvarez | 860 | 1340 | 55.8% |
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 Rise and Fall of Tim Sylvia
With the news that Tim Sylvia was unable to fight this weekend, because he failed his medicals — weighing in at 371 pounds probably didn’t help matters — I decided to use our Generated Historical Rankings to show the rise and fall of Tim Sylvia using his rank in the Heavyweight division through time.
The format of the horizontal series labels is Year – Fights – Age, as of the first and midpoint of the year (no contests excluded). The major gridlines represent the first and midpoints of the year.
The Most Underrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 6 (Final)
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…
The Most Underrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 5
#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…
The Most Underrated MMA Fighters of All-Time: Part 4
#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.