Notable Info
- Rankings update display effects from recent WEC, Shooto, GCM, TFC, and other shows.
UFC 95 Review
In another installment of UK-based UFC events, UFC 95 was broadcast on Spike TV with several hours of tape delay. The event featured a mixed bag of fights spanning across all of UFC’s weight classes. In the main event, Ultimate Fighter Season 1 winner Diego Sanchez made his debut at 155 lbs, facing a fellow ‘TUF’ champion Joe Stevenson. UFC 95 also featured two bouts with title shot implications in the middleweight division as Chael Sonnen took on Demian Maia and Nate Marquardt faced off against Wilson Gouveia. There were also a number of fresh faces on the card as several fighters received an opportunity to impress the fans in their Octagon debut. Let’s see how it all turned out:
Josh Koscheck vs. Paulo Thiago (170 lbs)
The fighters circled and exchanged ineffective combinations for most of the first round. Koscheck was the aggressor until he walked into an uppercut-hook combination from Thiago that dropped Josh to his back. Koscheck appeared to have recovered instantly but the referee jumped on him and halted the bout before Josh had a chance to get up or Thiago had a chance to follow him to the ground. Awful, completely unjustified stoppage.
Fight Grade: 3 1/5 2 points deduction for the stoppage
Aftermath: With a little help from the ref, Paulo Thiago is launched right to the top with a first round TKO victory over a perennial UFC contender. A bad loss for Koscheck in a fight that he really should never have taken will drop him from title contention for the foreseable future. A rematch would be the most logical next fight in my opinion, to see if Thiago can repeat the feat without ref help involved.
Featured Upcoming Bouts (Outside of UFC)
| Friday, August 15th 2025: PFL World Tournament 9: 2025 Finals | |||
 [#9 W125] Liz Carmouche | [#13 W125] Jena Bishop | ||
|
| |||
| Last Fight Date: 6/20/2025 [Professional Fighters League] Last Opponent: [#23 W125] Elora Dana Last 5: W W L W W | Last Fight Date: 6/20/2025 [Professional Fighters League] Last Opponent: [#30 W125] Ekaterina Shakalova Last 5: W L L W W | ||
| Sunday, July 27th 2025: Super RIZIN 4 | |||
 [#1 W105] Seika Izawa |  [#27 W105] Yu Jin Shin | ||
|
| |||
| Last Fight Date: 12/31/2024 [Rizin Fighting Federation] Last Opponent: [#166 W115] Lucia Apdelgarim Last 5: W W W W W | Last Fight Date: 12/29/2024 [Road Fighting Championship] Last Opponent: [NR] Seo Young Park Last 5: W W W W NC | ||
| Friday, August 1st 2025: PFL World Tournament 8: 2025 Finals | |||
 [#8 FW] Jesus Pinedo |  [#26 FW] Movlid Khaybulaev | ||
|
| |||
| Last Fight Date: 6/12/2025 [Professional Fighters League] Last Opponent: [#23 FW] Gabriel Braga Last 5: W W W W W | Last Fight Date: 6/12/2025 [Professional Fighters League] Last Opponent: [#134 FW] Tae Kyun Kim Last 5: W W W W W | ||
Featured Fighters
| [#2 LW] |  Ilia Topuria | [#3 FLW] | Joshua Van | |
| [#4 LW] |  Charles Oliveira | [#1 LW] | Islam Makhachev | |
| [#12 LW] |  Paddy Pimblett | [NR] |  Conor McGregor | |
| [#1 FLW] | Alexandre Pantoja | [#26 BW] | Felipe Lima | |
| [NR] | Jon Jones | [NR] | Khabib Nurmagomedov |
MMA Rankings Updated: 2/22/08
Notable Info
- Most shows from this weekend have been added, including those from UFC, UWC, M-1, Ring of Combat, and others.
- We have also done some minor division re-alignment to better handle results from organizations using non-standard weights in their bouts.
| OLD | NEW | |
| HW | >209 | >210 |
| LHW | 191-209 | 191-210 |
| MW | 177-190 | 176-190 |
| WW | 163-176 | 163-175 |
| LW | 151-162 | 150-162 |
| FW | 141-150 | 139-149 |
| BW | 131-140 | 131-138 |
| FLY | 130 and under | |
As a result of the above changes, there will be fluctuations resulting in fighters moving divisions, especially in Featherweight and Bantamweight.
UFC 95: A/B/C Analysis
Diego Sanchez (A) beat Kenny Florian (B) on 4/9/2005
Kenny Florian (B) beat Joe Stevenson (C) on 11/15/2008
Diego Sanchez (A) ??? Joe Stevenson (C) on 2/21/2009
Rory Markham (A) beat Pat Healy (B) on 4/7/2007
Pat Healy (B) beat Dan Hardy (C) on 10/30/2004
Rory Markham (A) ??? Dan Hardy (C) on 2/21/2009
In both instances, the involved matches are not very close in terms of date. The Sanchez/Stevenson path agrees with the current ratings, while the Markham/Hardy path does not.
UFC 95: How they stack up
Lightweight
[#8 WW] Diego Sanchez vs. [#31] Joe Stevenson
Middleweight
[#7] Nate Marquardt vs. [#15] Wilson Gouveia
Middleweight
[#5] Chael Sonnen vs. [#10] Demian Maia
Welterweight
[#10] Dan Hardy vs. [#40] Rory Markham
Welterweight
[#5] Josh Koscheck vs. [#62] Paulo Thiago
Lightweight
[#42] Brian Cobb vs. [#49] Terry Etim
Heavyweight
[#8] Junior dos Santos vs. [#46] Stefan Struve
Heavyweight
[#45 LHW] Mike Ciesnolevicz vs. [#43] Neil Grove
Lightweight
[#75] Per Eklund vs. [#149] Evan Dunham
Welterweight
[#131] Paul Kelly vs. [#375] Troy Mandaloniz
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.
MMA Rankings Updated: 2/15/09
Notable Info
- Rankings updated with effects from minor shows in the prior week.
February Archive Updated
Fightmatrix.com Mixed Martial Arts Rankings Archive has been updated with the rankings as of February 1, 2009.
UFC Fight Night 17 Review
Ultimate Fight Night 17 marked the UFC’s first event in Tampa, FL. The card was plagued by injuries and had a late substitution in the main event after Hermes Franca pulled out with an ACL injury, leaving his training partner Jeremy Stephens to take on Joe Lauzon in the featured bout.
Luigi Fioravanti vs. Anthony Johnson (170 lbs)
In the opening matchup, Johnson successfully utilized his reach advantage to keep Fioravanti at bay with kicks and jabs. Fioravanti attempted to even things out by bringing the fight to the ground but Johnson defended the takedown. Fioravanti landed a knee to Johnson’s groin in the clinch; the action was restarted after a brief break then Johnson staggered Fioravanti with a glancing right hand. Johnson followed up with a series of hammerfists to his opponent and Luigi was not able to recover, forcing the referee to stop the fight.
Fight Grade: 3/5
Aftermath: Another impressive win for Johnson shows that he is ready for a step up in competition; he should be matched with another rising star like Ben Saunders or Mike Swick. Fioravanti will remain a gatekeeper and will most likely fight a UFC newcomer in his next bout.
MMA Rankings Updated: 2/8/09
Notable Info
* Rankings updated with effects from recent shows from PalaceFC, UFC, and others.
January Archive Updated
Fightmatrix.com Mixed Martial Arts Rankings Archive has been updated with the rankings as of January 4, 2009.
The rise and fall of Drew Fickett
We’ve seen fighters decline tremendously in recent years, but the bottom has really fallen out of Drew Fickett’s FightMatrix rating. Below, you’ll find a graph of how Fickett’s rating hit an all-time high in early 2008, and has since dropped into journeyman status. On January 30th, Fickett was knocked out by Ferrid Kheder to cap off a 1-3 record in his last four fights.
What makes this drop even worse, is that these values were not time adjusted. With FightMatrix ratings, the value of a point has gotten increasingly lower through time as competition thickens.
UFC Fight Night 17: How they stack up
Lightweight
[#42] Joe Lauzon vs. [#44] Jeremy Stephens
Heavyweight
[#28] Cain Velasquez vs. [#146] Denis Stojnic
Lightweight
[#34] Josh Neer vs. [#49] Mac Danzig
Welterweight
[#34] Anthony Johnson vs. [#41] Luigi Fioravanti
Lightweight
[#61] Kurt Pellegrino vs. [#65] Rob Emerson
Middleweight
[#21] Dan Miller vs. [#106] Jake Rosholt
Lightweight
[#99] Matt Veach vs. [NR] Matt Grice
Lightweight
[#38] Rich Clementi vs. [#92] Gleison Tibau
Middleweight
[#84] Derek Downey vs. [#125 WW] Nick Catone
Welterweight
[#77] Steve Bruno vs. [#196 MW] Matt Riddle
Ranking Notes: Gray 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.
UFC 94 Review
In the past, UFC has usually lined up a star-studded event for the Superbowl weekend. This year was no exception, with a mega-matchup between the welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre and the lightweight champion BJ Penn in the main event, and the undefeated lightheavyweight contenders Thiago Silva and Lyoto Machida meeting in the co-main.
The remainder of the card was so evenly matched that all eight undercard bouts went to a decision; five of them a split decision. It turned out that the close matchups for most part did not make for exciting fights.
Nate Diaz vs. Clay Guida (155 lbs)
In the opening bout of the broadcast, Guida’s wrestling made all the difference as he was able to control Diaz and maintain dominant position through most of the bout. Guida had Nate’s back very quickly in the first round, and alternated between back control and top guard for much of the fight, staying out of Diaz’s submissions though not inflicting much damage on his opponent. Diaz did a better job of keeping the fight on his feet in the third round, but outboxing Guida was not enough to win the fight for Nate. Guida took home the split decision victory.
Fight Grade: 2/5
Aftermath: The first loss on the record of the ‘Ultimate Fighter’ winner Nate Diaz shows that he needs to improve his wrestling to advance in the very deep decision. Guida earns a win but will not earn many fans with a grinding methodical style – a big change from Guida’s earlier UFC bouts where he was the exciting fan favorite who often walked away on the losing end of close decisions.
MMA Rankings Updated: 2/1/09 (Again)
Notable Info
- Rankings updated with effects from recent shows from Shooto, UFC, and others.
- Some older shows have been updated and/or added for increased accuracy.
- Slightly optimized the ranking pages. Should now load about 3% faster.
Update: O’Brien/Wellisch was not assigned to the proper division, plus I forgot about the Pancrase card so I re-ran the ratings.
UFC 94: How they stack up
Welterweight
[#1] Georges St. Pierre vs. [#1 LW] B.J. Penn
Light Heavyweight
[#4] Lyoto Machida vs. [#14] Thiago Silva
Light Heavyweight
[NR] Stephan Bonnar vs. [#57] Jon Jones
Welterweight
[#11] Karo Parisyan vs. [#45] Dong Hyun Kim
Lightweight
[#18] Clay Guida vs. [#28] Nathan Diaz
Welterweight
[#4] Jon Fitch vs. [#15] Akihiro Gono
Lightweight
[#102] Thiago Tavares vs. [#215] Manvel Gamburyan
Welterweight
[#20] Chris Wilson vs. [#130] John Howard
Heavyweight
[#43] Jake O’Brien vs. [#92] Christian Wellisch
Welterweight
[#500] Matt Arroyo vs. [NR] Dan Cramer
Ranking Notes: Gray 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.