The First-Ever Sporting News MMA Rankings

We've been waiting for what seems like forever now, but The Sporting News still refuses to publish a set of rankings for the sport of mixed martial arts, or to even cover it adequately. So the three MMA bloggers on SN decided collectively that we would put together our own set of rankings (we could do a better job anyway). What follows is a preview of the 3 part first edition of our rankings. I would like to thank wilcoxon and ModMind for being such great fans and such great people to work with.

1. Criteria There is a weighted order to the criteria as well; meaning that the last 2 years are the most relevant while finishing fights has a little influence but is not of major importance to these rankings. These rankings are to try and capture a snapshot in time of standings and are not intended to determine the Greatest of All Time. But the criteria were not solid, concrete ways that we had to view and rank the fighters. That was left up to each individual.
-Recent History/last 2 years – record and competition level
-Overall Skill
-Legacy/Career history – record and competition level
-Potential
-Fight finishes

2. Points system After originally starting out with another concept, we decided to use a points system to rank the fighters.
-10 points for a first-place vote
-9 points for a second-place vote, etc
-0 points if a fighter is not ranked on a list

3. Posting The blog will be posted in 3 parts on the 3 different blogs.
-ohiostate1016 will post the heavyweight and light heavyweight rankings
-wilxcoxon will post the featherweight and lightweight rankings
-ModMind will post the welterweight and middleweight rankings

HEAVYWEIGHT AND LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
MIDDLEWEIGHT AND WELTERWEIGHT
LIGHTWEIGHT AND FEATHERWEIGHT

the only thing i disagree with is hendo being so low in MW but besides that im fine with them oh and fihlo being 2 yeah not right

Nothing really new about these rankings. its just averaging out the rankings of 3 fans. I didnt agree with half the things that were written about the fighters either and the rankings as well.


Also, IMO potential should never be involved in rankings what so ever. Kevin Randleman had massive potential and didnt go anywhere. Potential is nothing more than saying he COULD be the best but he is NOT.

Ranking Fedor behind Big Nog is a travesty.

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Posted by rabbit915

Ranking Fedor behind Big Nog is a travesty.

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I'm sure he anticipated that...which is why he listed the criteria.

ohiostate1016 (6): The former UFC champ is down on this list simply because he can’t beat Anderson Silva. Give him anybody else, and he’ll take him to the woodshed.


yet YOU ranked him 6? None of this makes sense the more i read


Lawler above Henderson, and why the hell is Henderson so low?

props for taking the time and making the effort - i like the rankings and the opinions-

your going to get flack just because its only peoples opinions.


Nice job...

@ the list having Minotauro above Fedor. There wasn't much question about who was better in their second fight, Fedor dominated most of the fight. Fedor steamrolled Sylvia quite easily while Big NOG was getting his ass kicked for rounds before getting a submission. Fedor is without question the number 1 heavyweight in the world.

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Posted by Cdellorso

props for taking the time and making the effort - i like the rankings and the opinions-

your going to get flack just because its only peoples opinions.


Nice job...

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I agree nice job.

At least there is some subjective reasoning behind the decisions and not mindless nuthugging.

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Posted by coldchillin

@ the list having Minotauro above Fedor. There wasn't much question about who was better in their second fight, Fedor dominated most of the fight. Fedor steamrolled Sylvia quite easily while Big NOG was getting his ass kicked for rounds before getting a submission. Fedor is without question the number 1 heavyweight in the world.

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Please note that the thread starter did vote for Fedor at #1.

I never understood why people get their panties in a bunch over rankings. It's an opinion, folks. They're like buttholes. Everyone has one and sometimes they stink.

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Posted by Darnok

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Posted by coldchillin

@ the list having Minotauro above Fedor. There wasn't much question about who was better in their second fight, Fedor dominated most of the fight. Fedor steamrolled Sylvia quite easily while Big NOG was getting his ass kicked for rounds before getting a submission. Fedor is without question the number 1 heavyweight in the world.

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Please note that the thread starter did vote for Fedor at #1.

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I was commenting on the list, how it was compiled doesn't matter to me as the final result does but when the first thing I read is Minotauro being ranked over Fedor leads me to seriously question the credibility of the heavyweight list. Fedor's showing against Sylvia should have been enough for his detractrors who were saying he wasn't fighting enough top competition to put him back on the top of the heavyweight list.

The only real question with Fedor right now is if he is P4P or if Anderson Silva is.

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Posted by emfleek

I never understood why people get their panties in a bunch over rankings. It's an opinion, folks. They're like buttholes. Everyone has one and sometimes they stink.

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relax, it's a discussion. I love MMA and I'm sure the ones who compiled the list do as well and as fans we like to discuss this type of stuff.

*sarcasm* I don't understand why anybody would want to discuss anything MMA related on a MMA forum.

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Posted by coldchillin

*sarcasm* I don't understand why anybody would want to discuss anything MMA related on a MMA forum.

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Are you seriously arguing the fact that people don't get upset with others because they don't agree with their rankings?

If so, you haven't been paying attention.

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Posted by emfleek

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Posted by coldchillin

*sarcasm* I don't understand why anybody would want to discuss anything MMA related on a MMA forum.

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Are you seriously arguing the fact that people don't get upset with others because they don't agree with their rankings?

If so, you haven't been paying attention.

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relax, I seriously doubt anybody is really getting upset here.

But Fedor is the top heavyweight in the world right now and there shouldn't be much of a question about it. Just my opinion but of course it's the correct one

Jens isn't even ranked for the Featherweights... I don't think so. Kenny Florian above Sean Sherk who mauled him, stil thinking no on that.

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Posted by emfleek

I never understood why people get their panties in a bunch over rankings. It's an opinion, folks. They're like buttholes. Everyone has one and sometimes they stink.

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A few things:

-First of all, please read the criteria. Our rankings are BASED MAINLY ON THE PAST TWO YEARS.

-With that being said, there are reasons why guys are ranked where they are. Fedor is behind Nog on 2 of the 3 lists (I ranked Fedor ahead of Nog, but that's beside the point). Nog is the UFC champ, and Fedor has faced mainly cans the past 2 years. Nobody is saying that Nog is better than Fedor, or even that Nog would beat Fedor. We're just saying that, as of right now, Nog is the number one heavyweight in the world. You might also note that this was the only division where the number 1 position wasn't a unanimous vote. That's why we included the points - it shows just how solid a fighter is in whatever position they are ranked in.

-I ranked Rich at #6 in MW for two reasons. First, he has lost to Anderson twice in the past two years (again with the criteria). Second, he noticeably struggled with both Okami (went to a decision) and Lutter (he's lucky Lutter gassed or he would've been tapped easily).

-These rankings are by no means the best out there. But we are 3 fans that have been blogging on SportingNews.com for a couple of years now, and we were a little upset that the site has failed to produce meaningful coverage of MMA. So we took things into our own hands.

-Again, these are just the rankings of 3 hardcore MMA fans. There is no need for bashing. Throwing out your opinion that Fedor should be ranked ahead of Nog without any backup proves nothing. We all commented to back up our opinions. Why don't you do the same? We took a lot of time to put these together, and I think we did a damn good job. I was just trying to share with some fellow MMA fans (or people who call themselves MMA fans) the work that I was up to. I think that you'd like to know that the other two bloggers are also members devoted members of this site (although neither is active on the forum).

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I like the rankings on MMAplayground because its the same system just with more voices. Some will play favs but so do sports writers. So it all evens out and you end up with a fair ranking system.

my main problem with the rankings is at featherweight where is KID... also wheres pulver...

otherwise i disagree alot with these rankings but then again i disagree with almost all rankings even my own...