Outside Source
Dana White will have no room to complain about the UFC’s new rankings system. | Getty/UFC
The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s new rankings system is now live.
The Las Vegas-based promotion, in partnership with Meta, officially introduced its Meta UFC rankings on Monday. The rankings are described as “a new athlete evaluation system transforming how fighters are assessed; offering fans, athletes and media, an objective, data-driven view of the sport’s competitive landscape.”
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These polls, which are supposedly “determined entirely by fight data,” mark a departure from the previous rankings that were voted on by members of the media. UFC CEO Dana White has consistently voiced his displeasure with the previous rankings, a sentiment he echoed in Monday’s press release. UFC.com visitors can still toggle between Meta and media-based rankings.
“I’ve been unhappy with the rankings and always believed there had to be a better way,” White stated. “We’ve always been a company that runs toward technology and innovation, and now we’ve worked with Meta to integrate it directly into our rankings system. I’m excited to see how this innovation can help change the sport for both the fans and the athletes.”
The UFC ranking will be updated every Monday following the most recent event. According to the release, “the system combines statistical modeling and machine learning with the deep domain expertise of the UFC. It evaluates a comprehensive set of objective metrics, including outcome probability, win type, fighter trajectory, and weight-class sensitivities.”
Some of the new metrics seem like common sense. For example, a victory over a higher-ranked opponent will carry more weight than a victory against a lower-ranked adversary. Fighters are penalized for inactivity, and more recent bouts have greater impact on the latest rankings. As a result, the release claims that an athlete’s placement in the rankings “accurately reflects their true competitive performance inside the Octagon — nothing else.”
“I’m excited to work with Dana and the UFC to build a system that analyzes fighter performance at a much deeper level, helping create more transparent and accurate rankings,” said Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Up for Debate
As with any rankings, there are some interesting choices. This includes Alex Pereira debuting at No. 4 in the heavyweight poll despite not having a victory to his name in the big man’s division. “Poatan” suffered a second-round TKO loss to Ciryl Gane in his heavyweight debut at UFC White House on June 14. Meanwhile, Kevin Borjas, who is 2-4 in the UFC, checks in at No. 10 at flyweight following his upset unanimous decision victory over Andre Lima at UFC Fight Night 279 this past Saturday.
At light heavyweight, Jamahal Hill, who hasn’t won since January 2023, is ranked fifth — one spot ahead of Khalil Rountree, who defeated Hill in his most recent Octagon appearance last June. Meanwhile, the emphasis on recency is especially evident at women’s bantamweight, where Joseyne Edwards checks in at No. 1 ahead of former champs like Julianna Pena (fourth) and Raquel Pennington (15th).
The latest UFC rankings can be viewed here. For rankings that everyone can be sure to agree upon, take a look at Sherdog.com’s latest divisional update.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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