Notable Info
- Bouts added to database w/ recent shows from UFC, KOTC, Pancrase, DEEP, Shooto, Superior Challenge, RAW Combat, and some minor organizations.
- Added some old bouts from minor organizations.
UFC 90: How they stack up
UFC Middleweight Championship
[#1] Anderson Silva vs. [#16] Patrick Cote
Welterweight
[#2] Thiago Alves vs. [#6] Josh Koscheck
Heavyweight
[#4] Fabricio Werdum vs. [#225] Junior dos Santos
Lightweight
[#8] Tyson Griffin vs. [#12] Sean Sherk
Lightweight
[#20] Gray Maynard vs. [#31] Rich Clementi
Middleweight
[#14] Thales Leites vs. [#51] Drew McFedries
Lightweight
[#29] Spencer Fisher vs. [#116] Shannon Gugerty
Middleweight
[#32] Dan Miller vs. [#46] Matt Horwich
Lightweight
[#33] Marcus Aurelio vs. [#39] Hermes Franca
Welterweight
[#29] Josh Burkman vs. [#300] Pete Sell
Ranking Note: 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.
Featured Upcoming Bouts (Outside of UFC)
| Friday, August 15th 2025: PFL World Tournament 9: 2025 Finals | |||
 [#9 W125] Liz Carmouche | [#13 W125] Jena Bishop | ||
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| 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 | ||
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| 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 | ||
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| 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 | |
| [#1 LW] | Islam Makhachev | [#4 LW] |  Charles Oliveira | |
| [#12 LW] |  Paddy Pimblett | [NR] |  Conor McGregor | |
| [#1 FLW] | Alexandre Pantoja | [NR] | Jon Jones | |
| [#26 BW] | Felipe Lima | [NR] | Khabib Nurmagomedov |
Tracking the progress of The Ultimate Fighter 4 contestants – Part II
Last week, I examined the progress of the middleweight fighters who participated in The Ultimate Fighter 4. Lets now take a look at the welterweights of Season 4.
The welterweights were a very experienced group of fighters, with a combined record of 139-62-13 prior to the show. Two of the welterweights – Matt Serra and Rich Clementi – took charge of their respective teams, becoming the unofficial team captains. Even though Serra ended up winning the entire Season 4 tournament while Clementi was eliminated in the first round, today they are still the highest ranked fighters of the Season 4 welterweight group.
MMA Rankings Updated: 10/20/08
Notable Info
- Bouts added to database w/ recent shows from UFC, KOTC, and some minor organizations.
- Added some old bouts from minor organizations.
UFC 89 Review
UFC 89 took place in Birmingham, England, marking the third UFC event in England for 2008. The event was broadcast on Spike TV with a tape delay. The main event was a middleweight bout between Michael Bisping and Chris Leben – the fight that was originally scheduled to take place at UFC 85 but was scratched from that card as Leben was serving a brief jail sentence stemming from a probation violation. The remainder of the televised portion of the card was split up between the welterweight and lightheavyweight divisions, with two matchups in both weight classes.
Marcus Davis vs. Paul Kelly (170 lbs)
The broadcast began with a welterweight matchup between undefeated Paul Kelly and ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ alumnus Marcus Davis, fresh off his first loss in twelve bouts. Davis controlled the action in the first round with superb footwork, staying out of Kelly’s range while landing punches and kicks from the outside. Davis took Kelly down late in the round, and was briefly caught in a guillotine before working out of it and pounding Kelly on the ground. Kelly got back to his feet but still lost the round.
In second round Kelly tried to unload on Davis but once again had a hard time dealing with Marcus’ footwork and finding his target. Kelly slammed Davis with an explosive takedown; Davis responded with a guillotine of his own and Paul Kelly was forced to tap out.
Aftermath: Back on the winning track, Marcus Davis asked to fight on UFC’s upcoming event in Dublin, Ireland in his post-fight interview. Considering how frequently Davis appears on UFC’s European events, his request is virtually a given, and Chris Lytle will be his likely opponent. Paul Kelly was dealt his first professional loss; he too will likely appear on the Dublin card and should face David Baron, who was choked out by Jim Miller on the same night in an untelevised preliminary bout.
Fight grade: 3/5
Tracking the progress of The Ultimate Fighter 4 contestants – Part I
After the third season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ reality series showed a significant drop-off in talent level from the previous two seasons, UFC decided to switch things up for Season 4. Instead of having sixteen up-and-coming MMA fighters compete for a chance to fight in the UFC, Season 4 featured sixteen veterans of the sport competing at a shot at the UFC title in the middleweight and welterweight divisions. Though all of the featured fighters have competed in the Octagon in the past, most of them had below .500 records in the UFC and have never come close to winning a title. Season 4 offered these fighters another chance to earn the gold, and was dubbed ‘the comeback season’.
Season 4 did not focus as heavily on the coaches as the previous seasons: instead of having two coaches mentoring the opposing teams, the show featured a number of UFC fighters and trainers who were made available to all contenders. Though the fight teams did not have an official leader, welterweights Matt Serra and Rich Clementi emerged as de-facto captains of their teams. I will take a look at the middleweights first, and examine the welterweights next week.
October Archives Updated
Fightmatrix.com MMA rankings archive has been updated with the rankings as of October 6, 2008.
MMA Rankings Updated: 10/13/08
Notable Info
- Bouts added to database w/ recent shows from EliteXC, Warriors Collide, UWC, SuperFights, and some other minor promotions.
- Added some old bouts from minor circuits.
MMA Rankings Updated: 10/06/08
Notable Info
- Bouts added to database w/ recent shows from EliteXC, Shooto, Cage Gladiators, TKO, Freestyle Cage, and others.
- Approximately 850 “old” bouts added to the database!
Elite XC Review
The latest installment of Elite XC’s ‘Saturday Night Fights’ on CBS was scheduled to feature the abysmal main event of Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock. In a bizarre turn of events, Shamrock received a cut to his eyebrow while sparring in preparation for the bout. The laceration required stitches, and the Florida Athletic Commission barred Shamrock from participating in the event. This left EXC scrambling for a last minute replacement to salvage the main event; they ended up pitting Kimbo against Seth Petruzelli, a lightheavyweight who was scheduled to face Aaron Rosa on the untelevised undercard.
Murillo Rua vs Benji Radach (185 lbs bout)
The televised portion of the event began with a #1 contender bout for the Elite XC’s middleweight title, which will be defended by Robbie Lawler against Joey Villasenor on November 8th. Radach came out of the gates swinging, throwing relentless hooks that staggered Rua and dropped him to his knees. Rua recovered and fired back, and twice in the first round both fighters found themselves knocked down simultaneously for a moment. Rua secured a takedown late in the round and worked for a leg lock, but Radach resisted and survived the round.
In the second, Rua seemingly figured out Radach’s stand up game, and was landing flying knees to the body of Benji, backing him up against the fence. Rua threw another flying knee; Radach countered with a jab which knocked Rua off-balance and dropped him. Rua was slow to cover up, and Radach landed several huge punches to his downed opponent, knocking ‘Ninja’ out cold. A great brawl to start off the evening.
Aftermath: Radach will go on to face the winner of the Lawler-Villasenor for the title – that is if the Elite XC organization survives beyond the November event. Rua suffers a very brutal knockout, another setback to his rollercoaster of a career.
Fight Grade: 5/5
EliteXC 10/4/08: How they stack up?
Up until this point, we’ve only taken a look at UFC cards. However, I wanted to do a bit of a competitiveness study while outlining the EliteXC card.
When averaging the pre-fight ranking of the favorite and underdog for each match, we get these average match-ups for the past two UFC cards and the 10/4 EliteXC card:
UFC 88: [#27] vs. [#65]
UFC Fight Night 9/17: [#43] vs. [#107]
EliteXC 10/4: [#166] vs. [#254]
While calculating, it was going well for EliteXC, especially since they have women’s matches, where its harder to draw abysmally ranked competitors. Same goes for the lightest male divisions. However, I hadn’t noticed that there are debuting fighters on the card, which absolutely trashed the average rankings, since I had to use the lowest rank possible to average with.
If you only take the top 7 matches (by average ranking) of each card, you get the following results:
UFC 88: [#26] vs. [#47]
UFC Fight Night 9/17: [#39] vs. [#81]
EliteXC 10/4: [#45] vs. [#90]
By using only the 7 most competitive matches (just enough to exclude the debuting fighters), you get a more accurate picture… or do you? It’s awful sad that the EliteXC “main event” falls well below this adjusted average.
Elite XC 10/4
Heavyweight
[#67] Kimbo Slice vs. [#205] Ken Shamrock
Welterweight
[#5] Jake Shields vs. [#23] Paul Daley
Heavyweight
[#5] Andrei Arlovski vs. [#18] Roy Nelson
Women (Open)
[#9] Gina Carano vs. [#43] Kelly Kobald
Middleweight
[#19] Murilo Rua vs. [#54] Benji Radach
Women (Open)
[#17] Cristiane Santos vs. [#39] Yoko Takahashi
Lightweight
[#157] James Edson Berto vs. [#260] Conor Heun
Light Heavyweight
[#79] Aaron Rosa vs. [#80] Seth Petruzelli
Welterweight
[#290] Lorenzo Borgomeo vs. [NR] Mickey Gomez
Welterweight
[NR] Jorge Bouchat vs. [NR] Nicolae Cury
Bantamweight
[NR] David Gomez vs. [NR] Brett Jackowski
Ranking Note: 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.
MMA Rankings Updated: 9/29/08
Notable Info
- Bouts added to database from recent shows such as EliteXC, Shooto, GCM, M-1, PalaceFC, Sengoku, and some minor organizations.
- Approximately 400 “old” bouts added to the database. (Where do these things keep hiding?)
There were quite a few changes of the guard this week, especially within the lightest divisions.
Featherweight sees two GCM fighters enter the Top 10, while Wilson Reis established himself as a Top 5 Bantamweight. At Flyweight, former Top 3 stalwart Yasuhiro Urushitani was finally defeated and sees himself dropped to #5.
MMA Rankings Updated: 9/23/08
Notable Info
- Rankings updated with effects from shows in the past week including DREAM, WCF, ECC, Strike Force, NAAFS, Cage Rage, SportFight, Caged Combat, and others.
- Historical shows added to database.
- Improved handling (bugfix) of losses in early career.
For the past month or so, Sherdog has added a ton of historical bouts, especially those from midwest circuits. This has caused some fluctuations from week to week. However, they look to have completed this project, so look for the “random” fluctuations to be reduced.
Top Heavyweights outside of UFC
Last week, I examined the state of the UFC’s heavyweight division. Now, lets take a look at the state of the heavyweights in the rest of the world.
Once upon a time, Pride FC was home to the deepest heavyweight division in the sport. When Zuffa bought out Pride, they failed to pick up many of the pieces, resulting in a very scattered division. To date, no organization has been able to gather the majority of the heavyweights under one banner. Affliction’s first event featured the top four fighters on this list (three of them former UFC champions), but the subsequent cancellation of their upcoming event put the future of Affliction in question . And so the heavyweights remain spread out among several organizations, with Dream being the biggest player in the division outside of UFC and Affliction.
[#1] Fedor Emelianenko
MMA Record: 28-1, 1 NC (14-0 Pride FC, 1 NC)
Last bout: Defeated Tim Sylvia by submission (rear naked choke) at Affliction: Banned
Current affiliation: Affliction/M-1 Global
Sambo and Judo master Fedor Emelianenko has been indisputably the top heavyweight in the world for most of this decade, and considered by many to be the best fighter in the world in any weight class. The last Pride HW champion holds an almost perfect professional record, his only loss a controversial cut stoppage to Tsuyoshi Kohsaka that was later avenged with a brutal beating. After Pride’s demise, Fedor was not able to come to a deal with the UFC, and fought very infrequently and against questionable competition – until a first round stoppage of former UFC champion Tim Sylvia in his most recent bout. Rumors of a Emelianenko – Couture dream bout have been circulating for over a year, but with Couture back in the UFC this fight doesn’t look likely to happen any time soon, leaving Andrei Arlovski and Josh Barnett as the best possible opposition for Emelianenko.
UFC Fight Night Review
A brief review of last night’s uneventful Fight Night:
Houston Alexander vs. Eric Schaefer (205 lbs)
The night began with a matchup of opposing styles, as Eric ‘Red’ Schaefer desperately tried to take down Houston Alexander for the first half of the first round, while getting battered by knees and uppercuts from within Alexander’s clinch. Once Schaefer finally got the fight to the ground, Alexander had no defense for Eric’s grappling, as Schaefer mounted Houston and applied an arm triangle choke. Alexander tapped out with only seconds remaining in the round.
Fight grade: 3.5/5