On paper, UFC 79 looked like one of the top MMA events of 2007. Featuring the final installment in the Matt Hughes – Georges St. Pierre trilogy, a long awaited meeting between Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva, as well as the collision between two of the fastest rising light heavyweight stars in Lyoto Machida and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, this event had a lot of hype to live up to. Let’s take a look at how it turned out.
UFC 79: How they stack up
Interim Welterweight Championship
[#2] Georges St. Pierre vs. [#3] Matt Hughes
Light Heavyweights
[#4] Chuck Liddell vs. [#10] Wanderlei Silva
Light Heavyweights
[#3] Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou vs. [#8] Lyoto Machida
Lightweights
[#41] Rich Clementi vs. [#69] Melvin Guillard
Heavyweights+
[#45] Eddie Sanchez vs. [#80] Soa Palelei
Featured Upcoming Bouts (Outside of UFC)
| Friday, October 16th 2026: Professional Fighters League PFL Chicago 2: Carmouche vs. Bishop 2 | |||
 [#6 W125] Liz Carmouche | [#14 W125] Jena Bishop | ||
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| Last Fight Date: 6/27/2026 [PFL] Last Opponent: [#15 W125] Viviane Araujo Last 5: L W W W W | Last Fight Date: 6/27/2026 [PFL] Last Opponent: [#37 W125] Ariane Lipski da Silva Last 5: W W L W W | ||
| Thursday, December 31st 2026: Rizin FF New Years Eve Event | |||
 [#5 FW] Rajabali Shaidullaev |  [#16 FW] Kyoma Akimoto | ||
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| Last Fight Date: 9/10/2026 [Rizin Fighting Federation] Last Opponent: [#7 FW] A.J. McKee Last 5: W W W W W | Last Fight Date: 8/11/2026 [Rizin Fighting Federation] Last Opponent: [#25 FW] Kleber Koike Erbst Last 5: W W W W W | ||
| Saturday, November 14th 2026: Professional Fighters League PFL Returns to Dubai: Nemkov vs. Bilostenniy | |||
 [#6 HW] Vadim Nemkov | [#16 HW] Sergey Bilostenniy | ||
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| Last Fight Date: 12/13/2025 [PFL] Last Opponent: [#20 HW] Renan Ferreira Last 5: W W W W W | Last Fight Date: 5/02/2026 [PFL] Last Opponent: [#20 HW] Renan Ferreira Last 5: W W L W W | ||
Featured Fighters
| [#5 FW] | Rajabali Shaidullaev | [#49 LW] | Mikuru Asakura | |
| [#1 FW] |  Alexander Volkanovski | [#7 FW] | A.J. McKee | |
| [#29 FW] | Ren Hiramoto | [#1 WW] | Islam Makhachev | |
| [#96 FW] | Tommy McMillen | [#4 FW] | Movsar Evloev | |
| [#16 FW] | Kyoma Akimoto | [#2 LW] |  Ilia Topuria |
Our bout source has changed.
We rely on external sites to provide bout history for our rating system. It has recently been brought to my attention that there has been a lack of updates from our current provider, especially in the lower weights and for women altogether.
While our source has the best past history, a complete ledger of recent results are most important in providing an accurate current ranking system. If you noticed our ratings went haywire, it is simply because we switched providers.
New Feature: UFC Records
Since it’s inception, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has been the standard-bearer of the highest level of competition in the sport that eventually came to be known as Mixed Martial Arts.
We’ve compiled a list of some of the most impressive accomplishments in UFC history. While the record holders in each category are a who-is-who of MMA legends, you might be surprised at some of the names that appear further down.
Most Consecutive Wins in the UFC
Most Consecutive UFC Title Defenses
We’ve set out to publish a Top-10 for each category, but ended up with more than 10 in some spots, because of ties.
Only bouts that took place in the UFC octagon are considered. This includes all the numbered events from UFC 1 through present, Ultimate Ultimate events, Ultimate Fight Nights and TUF Finale events.
For title matches, only the modern UFC titles & any interim title matches are considered. Tournaments and Superfight titles are not included.
Minor Rating Code Update
Revision 1 will debut with all ratings updates. The first change involves draws and is very minor. Simply put, the effect of a draw has been amplified and its change can best be described with an example scenario using the lower-rated fighter.
Fighter A (150 pts) DRAW Fighter B (60 pts)
- Old Method for Fighter B > ((60*1.2) + ((150+60)/2)) / 2.2 = 80.45
- New Method of Fighter B > ((60*.6) + ((150+60)/2)) / 1.6 = 88.13
The calculation for the higher rated fighter experienced similar changes, but they are not as pronounced due to other factors involved.
The second change involves the quality performance decay, which requires fighters to have a quality performance in the past 12 months or else their rating begins to gradually decline. The criteria for triggering of this decay were slightly modified in order to lighten the requirements for maintaining one’s rating. This was also a very minor change.
Women’s MMA Top 10
FightMatrix.com now features a women’s mixed martial arts ranking.
Due to very sporadic competition in the women’s division, we are currently only able to generate an all-inclusive Top-10 list that covers all the women’s weight classes.
| Rank | Fighter | Points | |
| 1 |  Tara LaRosaLast Fight: 7/14/2007 [Bodog] |
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| 2 |  Megumi FujiiLast Fight: 11/8/2007 [Shooto] |
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| 3 | Amanda Buckner Last Fight: 4/14/2007 [Bodog] |
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| 4 | Gina Carano Last Fight: 9/15/2007 [EliteXC] |
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| 5 | Seo Heui Ham Last Fight: 2/16/2007 [Deep] |
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| 6 | Naoko Ohmuro Last Fight: 8/19/2007 [GCM] |
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| 7 | Julie Kedzie Last Fight: 9/29/2007 [Hook N Shoot] |
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| 8 |  Rosi SextonLast Fight: 8/24/2007 [Bodog] |
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| 9 | Roxanne Modafferi Last Fight: 2/17/2007 [Fatal Femmes] |
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| 10 | Hitomi Akano Last Fight: 4/14/2007 [Bodog] |
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Introducing Featherweight & Bantamweight Ranks
By popular demand, FightMatrix.com now features Bantamweight (126-135 lbs) and Featherweight (136-145 lbs) mixed martial arts fighter ranks.
Due to limited competition at the lighter weight classes, we felt it best to only display a Top 10, rather than a Top 20.
How the ranks work
Featherweight (136-145 lbs) Top 10
| Rank | Fighter | Points | |
| 1 | Urijah Faber |
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| 2 | Norifumi Yamamoto |
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| 3 | Hiroyuki Takaya |
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| 4 | Masakazu Imanari |
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| 5 | Jong Man Kim |
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| 6 | Jens Pulver |
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| 7 | Akitoshi Tamura |
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| 8 | Mark Hominick |
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| 9 | Hatsu Hioki |
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| 10 | Raphael Assuncao |
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Bantamweight (126-135 lbs) Top 10
| Rank | Fighter | Points | |
| 1 | Chase Beebe |
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| 2 | Miguel Angel Torres |
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| 3 | Rani Yahya |
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| 4 | Eduardo Dantas |
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| 5 | Brian Bowles |
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| 6 | Antonio Banuelos |
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| 7 | Manny Tapia |
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| 8 | Koetsu Okazaki |
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| 9 | Charlie Valencia |
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| 10 | Daniel Lima |
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Ranks Update
WEC 31 did not have a big impact on our ranks, as we do not yet rank the 135 and 145 weighclasses and most of the heavier WEC fighters are not in the top 20. The only weight class with significant changes was Middleweight (185 lbs), as Paulo Filho retains his title and the #2 spot in the ranks. Chael Sonnen drops to #20 with the loss.
| Rank | Last | MMA Fighter | Points |
| 1 | – | Anderson Silva | 347 |
| 2 | – | Paulo Filho | 246 |
| 3 | – | Robbie Lawler | 205 |
| 4 | – | Rich Franklin | 176 |
| 5 | – | Kazuo Misaki | 165 |
| 6 | – | Matt Lindland | 155 |
| 7 | – | Jorge Santiago | 143 |
| 8 | – | Yushin Okami | 139 |
| 9 | – | Frank Trigg | 137 |
| 10 | – | Yoshihiro Akiyama | 134 |
| 11 | – | Nathan Marquardt | 120 |
| 12 | – | Akihiro Gono | 113 |
| 13 | – | Denis Kang | 104 |
| 14 | 15 ↑ | Patrick Cote | 101 |
| 15 | 16 ↑ | Murilo Bustamante | 100 |
| 16 | 17 ↑ | Murilo Rua | 99 |
| 17 | 18 ↑ | Chris Leben | 91 |
| 18 | 19 ↑ | Mike Swick | 90 |
| 19 | 20 ↑ | Martin Kampmann | 89 |
| 20 | 14 ↓ | Chael Sonnen | 89 |
Updated Top 20 Ranks:
Rank Archive: December 9, 2007 – December 13, 2007
Historical ranks from December 9, 2007 through December 13, 2007 Keep Reading
WEC 31 Review
WEC 31 marked a year since Zuffa purchased and revamped World Extreme Cagefighting. In that year, they’ve put on very solid events and this one looked promising as well. The card featured three title defenses (at 145, 185, and 205 lbs) as well as the WEC debut of the former UFC champion Jens Pulver. Another former UFC champ, Frank Mir is calling the fights along with the play-by-play man Todd Harris – more on them later.