UFC Needs to evolve to a RANKING system.

[gripssl]

The belt need to matter more and be put up for grabs as much as a normal fighter fights which is 3 times a year.

My system will put actual meaningful weight on the belts themselves and those who hold them at the moment. Like a true king of the hill contest should be. No interim belts here, if you are okay with those your not gonna like this system. Injuries and medical suspensions are taken into account and affect the fighters who are injured/medically suspended but do not hold up or hinder the progress of other fighters. Fighters jumping weight classes can do so and feel confident the system will rank them accordingly. Every fighter ranked will know exactly how they stand and how they can climb or fall. The most intriguing factor of this system for me is that guys will not know who their opponent is until very soon to the fight. Which is what makes the martial arts an art to me. I want guys to be faced with an element of unknown to some degree and be ready for anything.

Here goes:

The UFC should employ a panel of educated fight analysts, retired fighters, whatever. Now that we have our panel they will then proceed to rank the top 25 fighters of each division so there is a possibility of a good amount of ranked match ups available. If there are not enough guys in a weight class then fine rank them all. in fact i think they should all be ranked anyways but 25 would be similar to college football and most people can relate to that. The panel will adjust rankings when guys (and gals hopefully) are newly signed, cut, or injured/medically suspended.

An important part of this system relies on having all fighters fight within 4 to 6 weeks of each other in their respective division. Obviously this is to allow for adjustments when injuries occur and maintain the ladder integrity. Injuries are part of the sport and should be accounted for, whether someone is unlucky or not doesn't matter because the ladder is what does matter. You should not hold a belt or your ranking simply because you were hurt. This is about performance as well and if you can't perform you take the hit.

Okay, now that we have 25 guys ranked the ladder system takes over. We have the Champion of each division who always fights the top ranked fighter available at the time. From there everyone fights the next best available opponent. After the results of all the fights the panel will rank everyone based on outcome and performance. More than likely if you win you are gonna move up but how you win matters as well. Say your ranked #10 and you beat #9 by a Split D and the #12 guys TKOs the #11 guy and was never in trouble at all. he will probably jump you in the ranks. Again that is where the panels expertise and experience will come into play.

Say the Champ is injured....TFB (to Fing bad)...he cannot defend the belt. The #1 and #2 guy fight for the belt. The champ isn't gonna drop far though, in fact I am sure he would fight for the title once healthy. However, a year is really to long in this sport that is missing 3 fights. So say if he returns within a year then immediate title bout otherwise he should fall a little and probably need a tune up fight anyway.

This would be the foundation of my system and it would work if allowed to. Every ranked fight would be interesting disregarding the match ups because you know someone will climb or fall. All ranked fights would matter. We would get a shit ton of title fights.

Any idea to improve upon or alter this idea is greatly welcomed. To bad it will never happen.

 

[Elysianwing]

lol

So...basically...the "ranking" system you propose is completely arbitrary; being totally reliant on the collective (subjective) opinions of a panel of random analysts?

 

[TKimble]

Your ranking system is arbitrary, trite, inflexible to the point of stupidity, and would diminish the sport in a way that the current system does not.

 

[gripssl]

lol

So...basically...the "ranking" system you propose is completely arbitrary; being totally reliant on the collective (subjective) opinions of a panel of random analysts?

If you cast it aside with that sentiment you don't understand what you read. You win you move up would primarily happen. The panel would come in to play for injuries, new additions to the roster, and losses.

 

[jalisco1]

The belt need to matter more and be put up for grabs as much as a normal fighter fights which is 3 times a year.

My system will put actual meaningful weight on the belts themselves and those who hold them at the moment. Like a true king of the hill contest should be. No interim belts here, if you are okay with those your not gonna like this system. Injuries and medical suspensions are taken into account and affect the fighters who are injured/medically suspended but do not hold up or hinder the progress of other fighters. Fighters jumping weight classes can do so and feel confident the system will rank them accordingly. Every fighter ranked will know exactly how they stand and how they can climb or fall. The most intriguing factor of this system for me is that guys will not know who their opponent is until very soon to the fight. Which is what makes the martial arts an art to me. I want guys to be faced with an element of unknown to some degree and be ready for anything.

Here goes:

The UFC should employ a panel of educated fight analysts, retired fighters, whatever. Now that we have our panel they will then proceed to rank the top 25 fighters of each division so there is a possibility of a good amount of ranked match ups available. If there are not enough guys in a weight class then fine rank them all. in fact i think they should all be ranked anyways but 25 would be similar to college football and most people can relate to that. The panel will adjust rankings when guys (and gals hopefully) are newly signed, cut, or injured/medically suspended.

An important part of this system relies on having all fighters fight within 4 to 6 weeks of each other in their respective division. Obviously this is to allow for adjustments when injuries occur and maintain the ladder integrity. Injuries are part of the sport and should be accounted for, whether someone is unlucky or not doesn't matter because the ladder is what does matter. You should not hold a belt or your ranking simply because you were hurt. This is about performance as well and if you can't perform you take the hit.

Okay, now that we have 25 guys ranked the ladder system takes over. We have the Champion of each division who always fights the top ranked fighter available at the time. From there everyone fights the next best available opponent. After the results of all the fights the panel will rank everyone based on outcome and performance. More than likely if you win you are gonna move up but how you win matters as well. Say your ranked #10 and you beat #9 by a Split D and the #12 guys TKOs the #11 guy and was never in trouble at all. he will probably jump you in the ranks. Again that is where the panels expertise and experience will come into play.

Say the Champ is injured....TFB (to Fing bad)...he cannot defend the belt. The #1 and #2 guy fight for the belt. The champ isn't gonna drop far though, in fact I am sure he would fight for the title once healthy. However, a year is really to long in this sport that is missing 3 fights. So say if he returns within a year then immediate title bout otherwise he should fall a little and probably need a tune up fight anyway.

This would be the foundation of my system and it would work if allowed to. Every ranked fight would be interesting disregarding the match ups because you know someone will climb or fall. All ranked fights would matter. We would get a shit ton of title fights.

Any idea to improve upon or alter this idea is greatly welcomed. To bad it will never happen.

This would work if we didnt have the promoter also be the belt organization. If we had a fully sanctioned MMA worldwide organization that distributed belts, it would work. Unfortunately in the relatively young MMA sport the promoter also gives the belt.

I remember WAMMA was fixing this issue but it folded around the same time Affliction MMA did. I do agree we need an individual MMA organization like the WBC, WBA etc. The problem with this is Dana and his Monopoly on the MMA Scene. having an individual belt sanctioning body would only invite competition and he would dump all the money he could to stop it from happening. Eventually it will happen but we are years away from it. Dana likes his grip on the MMA mountain

 

[Niten Ichi Ryu]

The UFC doesnt want one. There's only one type of ranking system they care about, and it's not based on the quality of your wins.

 

[gripssl]

Your ranking system is arbitrary, trite, inflexible to the point of stupidity, and would diminish the sport in a way that the current system does not.

current system picks and chooses who they want to promote and causes fighters to be hindered due to champs not fighting. Rashad should have had a title shot before he finally fought bones but due to the champs injury he waited almost a year.

You people are not comprehending what I have laid out and merely focus on the panel who would rank and that isn't the core value in this system.

 

[gripssl]

The UFC doesnt want one. There's only one type of ranking system they care about, and it's not based on the quality of your wins.

I know...it is sad to me because I do not believe they give us the best against the best on a regular enough basis.

 

[van1ty]

Horrible thread.

 

[van1ty]

I know...it is sad to me because I do not believe they give us the best against the best on a regular enough basis.

Henderson vs Diaz, Cain vs Dos Santos, Aldo vs Edgar... it's like they're feeding us garbage!

 

[Elysianwing]

If you cast it aside with that sentiment you don't understand what you read. You win you move up would primarily happen. The panel would come in to play for injuries, new additions to the roster, and losses.

:icon_neut

I understood it just fine, perhaps you don't understand what you wrote?

More than likely if you win you are gonna move up but how you win matters as well. Say your ranked #10 and you beat #9 by a Split D and the #12 guys TKOs the #11 guy and was never in trouble at all. he will probably jump you in the ranks. Again that is where the panels expertise and experience will come into play.

That is a completely fucked system, as it ultimately strips away any inherent value to the actual 'win' and puts more emphasis on perceived difficulty(and or lack thereof) on route to a win.

Rankings do not, can not, should not, and will not work like that; in any sport, ever.

Your system is a glorified forum-poll for rankings, you just tried to jazz it up by pretending the subjective opinions of ex-fighters/trainers/analysts/whatever have more value than the subjective opinion of anybody else who happens to watch the fight.

 

[gripssl]

This would work if we didnt have the promoter also be the belt organization. If we had a fully sanctioned MMA worldwide organization that distributed belts, it would work. Unfortunately in the relatively young MMA sport the promoter also gives the belt.

I remember WAMMA was fixing this issue but it folded around the same time Affliction MMA did. I do agree we need an individual MMA organization like the WBC, WBA etc. The problem with this is Dana and his Monopoly on the MMA Scene. having an individual belt sanctioning body would only invite competition and he would dump all the money he could to stop it from happening. Eventually it will happen but we are years away from it. Dana likes his grip on the MMA mountain

I honestly think the UFC has the clout to implement this internally without the need of a world organization. I would not want a world organization because what would keep it from being as messy as Boxing and all their belts? The UFC is the NFL of MMA, the UFC belt would be the br all end all of champs.

 

[Merman]

You forget the BIGGEST issue with ranking....MONEY! You don't want the #1 vs #2 when the #32 guy is a loudmouth and would make the bosses a lot more $$ fighting #1!

 

[ZuffaExecutive]

I personally like the random title shots,like Frankie vs Aldo will be a great fight,though Frankie just lost twice,Diaz does he deserve his shot ?Nope but i dont think hendricks can beat Gsp,im not impressed by him knocking out Kampmann he nearly gets stopped everyfight,and well Diaz match wil be more entertaining.

Plus how does your ranking system work number 3 loses to number 2,number 5 beat number 4,so does that mean number 5 is now number 3 ?and techincally number 2 as the current number 2 would fight the champ.What happens when some1 enters the division from a different org how are they ranked etc.

 

[Go2BATTLE83]

If the matchups in the UFC weren't decided by the people running the organization (ie if an outside organization were deciding the rankings like a group seperate from the UFC) then that could work.

 

[van1ty]

You forget the BIGGEST issue with ranking....MONEY! You don't want the #1 vs #2 when the #32 guy is a loudmouth and would make the bosses a lot more $$ fighting #1!

except chael is ranked #2, just in a different weight class.

 

[flanellograf]

The UFC doesnt want one. There's only one type of ranking system they care about, and it's not based on the quality of your wins.

You are right. It's also based on injuries, scheduling, contract negotiations and promotional power. Yeah, it's not always as clear cut as it would seem.
The fact remains, MOST of the time, fans get to see relevant fights AND the fights they want to see. These do not always coincide, but mostly they do.

 

[gripssl]

:icon_neut

I understood it just fine, perhaps you don't understand what you wrote?



That is a completely fucked system, as it ultimately strips away any inherent value to the actual 'win' and puts more emphasis on perceived difficulty(and or lack thereof) on route to a win.

Rankings do not, can not, should not, and will not work like that; in any sport, ever.

Your system is a glorified forum-poll for rankings, you just tried to jazz it up by pretending the subjective opinions of ex-fighters/trainers/analysts/whatever have more value than the subjective opinion of anybody else who happens to watch the fight.

So winning moves you up strips the value of a win? There is barely any value in winning in the current format. Guys get title shots off of loses all the damn time. You just don't like the idea and that is fine but at least give a better example or reasons that make sense. All you have done so far is just nay-say.

 

[Dman4Life8017]

This would work if we didnt have the promoter also be the belt organization. If we had a fully sanctioned MMA worldwide organization that distributed belts, it would work. Unfortunately in the relatively young MMA sport the promoter also gives the belt.

I remember WAMMA was fixing this issue but it folded around the same time Affliction MMA did. I do agree we need an individual MMA organization like the WBC, WBA etc. The problem with this is Dana and his Monopoly on the MMA Scene. having an individual belt sanctioning body would only invite competition and he would dump all the money he could to stop it from happening. Eventually it will happen but we are years away from it. Dana likes his grip on the MMA mountain

I would not want to see an MMA sanctioning body presiding over the sport. It is one of the reasons why championships in boxing do not matter. It is because there are so many people in the same weight class who can legitimately call themselves "champion". The WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO, The Ring, etc... are all on equal footing with each other, so no one belt is considered "more prestiegeous" than the others.

Even though there are a bunch of MMA promotions in existence, the general consensus among anyone with even 1/4th of a brain is that The UFC is THE top promotion, and to be a champion in the UFC means you are THE best in your weight class because you are fighting THE top competition.

 

[gripssl]

I personally like the random title shots,like Frankie vs Aldo will be a great fight,though Frankie just lost twice,Diaz does he deserve his shot ?Nope but i dont think hendricks can beat Gsp,im not impressed by him knocking out Kampmann he nearly gets stopped everyfight,and well Diaz match wil be more entertaining.

Plus how does your ranking system work number 3 loses to number 2,number 5 beat number 4,so does that mean number 5 is now number 3 ?and techincally number 2 as the current number 2 would fight the champ.What happens when some1 enters the division from a different org how are they ranked etc.

I explained all that in the original post. But if you win your most likely moving up the ladder, unless you got destroyed for 2 rounds and your opponent got DQed by an illegal blow in the 3rd. Like I said when someone new enters the UFC they would be assessed and ranked accordingly by the panel.