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.”
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.