Lightweight and above have been expanded from Top 25 to Top 30.

Since the early development of the rating system, bouts labeled as “no contests” have been completely ignored.  This could cause some fighters to be wrongly classified as inactive.  As it stands, after 360 days of inactivity, a fighter’s rating will begin a gradual decline due to inactivity penalties. Furthermore, fighters inactive for a full calendar year (365 days), are not displayed on the rankings.

Recently, I have come to the conclusion that completely ignoring no contests is fundamentally wrong. The purpose of the inactivity penalty is to reflect the assumption that the fighter is not practicing their craft on a competitive level. Even though these bouts did not have an official outcome, the fighters were still training, and did compete in a professional bout.

Due to this recent mental development, no contests are now considered bouts, albeit bouts without outcomes. This will affect the “last bout date” of a fighter, which may stave off inactivity penalties, and allow a fighter to be ranked as long as they had some official bout in the past 365 days. This will not affect the application of quality performance penalties, as no contests cannot be considered quality performances under any circumstances.

The only immediate effect on the rankings is that this change allows Takanori Gomi to be reinstated in the rankings as the #1 Lightweight, as he is no longer considered inactive.

We have expanded all of our rankings: 

Lightweight, and above, have been expanded to Top 25. 

Bantam, Feather, and Women rankings have been expanded to Top 15. 

Look for more expansion in the future!

Happy New Year everyone!

We just published a major ranks updates for all weight divisions.  We believe this is the most accurate and realistic rank to date.  Some notable changes were made:

1. More accurate bout database
2. The addition of Flyweight (under 126 lbs) division Top-10
3. Improved ranking software
4. Fighters who were not active in 2007 dropped from ranks for inactivity.  Most notably, Mark Hunt, Josh Barnett, and Takanori Gomi are no longer ranked.

Updated Rankings:

Heavyweight (206+ lbs)

Light Heavyweight (186-205 lbs)

Middleweight (171-185 lbs)

Welterweight (156-170 lbs)

Lightweight (146-155 lbs)

Featherweight (136-145 lbs)

Bantamweight (126-135 lbs)

Flyweight (under 126 lbs)

Women (Open Weight)

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.