In case you didn’t know, we feature career-long All-Time MMA Rankings. Using monthly snapshots as fuel (that we refresh every month), we derive Top 25s for each division, Women and Absolute. We also have a Peak Divisional Dominance list, but this is quite different as it looks at absolute peak, relative to the state of the division at that sliver of time.
We stop each list at Top 25, partially because every list has to stop somewhere, but mostly because we really don’t want to get into arguments as to why #74 is ranked higher than #76 — the list can get quite noisy once you get beyond the Top 25…. where things become really tight.
In any case, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the 5 highest-ranking Absolute fighters that never fought in the UFC or any organization that ZUFFA has acquired… and here we go.
Fighters are listed with their career records and all-time rankings:
5. Bibiano Fernandes (16-3 | Bantam: #8 | Feather: #23 | Absolute: #82)
Quite possibly the best fighter in recent history steering clear of the states along with Shinya Aoki, Fernandes has actually made the Top 25 in two divisions within our All-Time MMA Rankings. As these have traditionally been weaker divisions, he is far from the Top 25 within the Absolute list.
[#1 W145] 
[#5 FW] 
[#6 FW] 
[#1 W105] 
[#16 W105] 
