Season 9’s ranking was pretty successful, and an interesting experiment.. at least for myself.

Here is how the Season 10 candidates stack up in terms of FightMatrix rating points.

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Leader of the Pack

1. Roy Nelson (#31 HW)

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The Next Best Thing

2. Darrill Schoonover (#57 HW)

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Solid Underdog Picks

3. Abe Wagner (#84 HW)

4. Jim York (#92 HW)

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The B-Squad

5. Justin Wren (#114 HW)

6. Kimbo Slice (#118 HW)

7. Tom Blackledge (#160 LHW)

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Longshots

8. Mike Wessel (#143 HW)

9. Zak Jensen (#145 HW)

10. Scott Junk (#157 HW)

11. Brendan Schaub (#172 HW)

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The Filler

12. Wes Sims (~#300 HW)

13. Marcus Jones (~#310 HW)

14. Jon Madsen (~#500 HW)

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Unranked

UR. Wes Shivers

UR. Matt Mitrione

Notable Info

• Added a few new shows to the database.
• Past change regarding barnstorming “rookie” fighters got reverted somehow.  Re-inserted this.
• Minor adjustment regarding past opposition strength and knockout losses to much higher-rated fighters.

Notable Info

• Database updated with recent results.
• Bantamweight expanded to Top 100.

Other Comments

• “Interesting” results fill the landscape this week.  Ray Mercer is treated as a debuting juggernaut and is elevated into the Top 20 with his 10 second win over Tim Sylvia.  Cain Velasquez joins him in the bottom quarter of the Top 20.
• Two of the three fighters we’ve covered in our “ranked fighters you’ve never heard of” posts faced off last week.  Jordan Smith and Richard Hale, two fighters who were within 1/10th of a rating point of one another faced off.  The system had them pegged, as the end result was a draw.
• Rich Franklin was involved in his second consecutive questionable decision at Light Heavyweight.  Say what you will, he’s deserving of the Top 10 position we’ve had him at since his move from Middleweight.
• Dan Hardy further cements his case as a top welterweight with his win over Marcus Davis, reclaiming the #10 spot.
• Nick Cottone re-enters the top 25 Flyweights.  His re-entry means 4 Americans in the Top 25, a good stateside foundation should WEC decide to include this division.

Late Addition: Obviously the Sylvia/Mercer situation is an oddly unique event, so we will be taking a look at how it was handled in terms of numbers.

Light Heavyweight (195lbs)
[#7] Wanderlei Silva vs. [#8] Rich Franklin

Heavyweight
[#10] Cheick Kongo vs. [#33] Cain Velasquez

Welterweight
[#8] Mike Swick vs. [#67] Ben Saunders

Welterweight
[#11] Dan Hardy vs. [#22] Marcus Davis

Lightweight
[#16] Caol Uno vs. [#28] Spencer Fisher

Heavyweight
[#14] Mirko Filipovic vs. [#92] Mostapha Al-Turk

Lightweight
[#34] Terry Etim vs. [#278] Justin Buchholz

Lightweight
[#175] Dennis Siver vs. [#280] Dale Hartt

Welterweight
[#90] Paul Taylor vs. [#500] Peter Sobotta

Lightweight
[#118 WW] Paul Kelly vs. [#233] Rolando Delgado

Heavyweight
[#51] Stefan Struve vs. [#153] Denis Stojnic

Welterweight
[#41] Ricky Story vs. [#129] John Hathaway

Ranking Notes: Dark green font represents an approximate ranking. An asterisk represents a fighter who is ranked, but too low for an approximation. These two scenarios will clear up slightly as we move forward. “NR” means the fighter is not ranked, due to inactivity, or due to a rating that is at or below the default starter rating.

Upon the next update, Bantamweight will be expanded to the Top 100.

Notable Info

• Aside from the recent shows, quite a few missing older bouts were added — more than the usual for the weekly update.
• We missed the 6/7 Shooto show (was also one on 6/6).  Daiji Takahashi and Fumihiro Kitahara will move into the Top 25 Flyweights, around #20.

Welterweight

8. James Wilks vs. 9B. Frank Lester*

The winner will face: 5. Damarques Johnson

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Lightweight

4. Andre Winner vs. 12. Cameron Dollar

1. Jason Dent vs. 3. Ross Pearson

Welterweight

5. Damarques Johnson beat 10. Nicholas Osipczak

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The higher seed is now 18-6.

More frequently than not, when a new fighter creeps into the rankings, I’ll take a close look at our reported professional W-L-D record for the fighter.  Verifying the records sounds straightforward, right? Wrong.

Depending on the fighter’s background, you have to know where to go in order to verify the numbers.  This is quite an art.  Let’s take a look at an example fighter.

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Example 1:  Olly Bradstreet

Olly Bradstreet is a fighter out of Utah, who built his career based on fights from the Ultimate Combat Experience.  Never heard of them?  I’m not surprised, but they have had dozens of shows in Utah, all of which are considered professionally sanctioned (I verified this with the state).  MixedMartialArts and CombatRec seem like the second-tier verification, with Sherdog being the first.

Database records as of 6/2/09 11:00AM EST for Bradstreet are as follows:

FightMatrix: 36-11

Sherdog: 34-9

MixedMartialArts: 18-11

CombatRec: 29-4

MMAUniverse: 3-1

In this example, MixedMartialArts seems to have all of his losses, but only half of his wins. There are quite a few professional bouts classified as amateur as well.  CombatRec and Sherdog are just missing bouts here and there, while MMAUniverse obviously doesn’t care much about the American scene.

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Example 2: Jesse Taitano

Jesse (or Jess, not sure) Taitano is a Flyweight from Guam.  Local news sources have his record at 7-4-2, but even I cannot locate a couple of those bouts.  Taitano recently burst into the World Flyweight scene with draws against Shinichi Kojima, and Yasuhiro Urushitani, while accumulating a 1-1 record between those two draws.  There’s no real good sources for Pacific Rim results, so fighters from places like Guam are lacking coverage.

Database records as of 6/2/09 11:00AM EST for Taitano are as follows:

Fightmatrix: 5-4-2

Sherdog: 4-3-2

MixedMartialArts: 3-1-1

CombatRec: 1-1-1

MMAUniverse: 1-1-3

OK, now this is pretty sad… considering Taitano is Top 10 in his division.  MMAUniverse actually has Taitano drawing twice against Kojima in the same night.  Interesting.

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Although we’re not perfect, we like to think our database is one of the best, if not the best out there.  However, the MMA scene as a whole has a lot of work to do on keeping track of professional fighters’ records.

This week, the focus is on Rory MacDonald.

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Notable Info

• Ranked #61 at Welterweight.
• 19 years old.
• Undefeated at 8-0.
• Has finished all of his opponents within the distance.
• Recently defeated respectable journeyman Clay French in late 2008 for the KOTC Lightweight title.

.I have heard rumors that the UFC is scouting MacDonald and he may end up fighting for the organization in the near future.  A name to look out for, and the guy is only 19 years old.