IGX

***UFC's official rankings are out!***
POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Anderson Silva
2 Jon Jones
3 Georges St-Pierre
4 Jose Aldo
5 Benson Henderson
6 Cain Velasquez
7 Dominick Cruz
8 Demetrious Johnson
9 Frankie Edgar
10 Dan Henderson

FLYWEIGHT
Champion : Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 John Dodson
3 Ian McCall
4 John Moraga
5 Jussier Da Silva
6 Louis Gaudinot
7 Chris Cariaso
8 John Lineker
9 Darren Uyenoyama
10 Ulysses Gomez

BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion : Dominick Cruz
1 Renan Barao (Interim Champion)
2 Michael McDonald
3 Urijah Faber
4 Eddie Wineland
5 Brad Pickett
6 Brian Bowles
7 Rafael Assuncao
8 Scott Jorgensen
9 Mike Easton
10 Ivan Menjivar

FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion : Jose Aldo
1 Chad Mendes
2 Ricardo Lamas
3 Chan Sung Jung
4 Frankie Edgar
5 Dennis Siver
6 Cub Swanson
7 Dustin Poirier
8 Nik Lentz
9 Erik Koch
10 Clay Guida

LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion : Benson Henderson
1 Gilbert Melendez
2 Anthony Pettis
3 Gray Maynard
4 Nate Diaz
5 Jim Miller
6 Donald Cerrone
7 TJ Grant
8 Rafael dos Anjos
9 Joe Lauzon
10 Khabib Nurmagomedov

WELTERWEIGHT
Champion : Georges St-Pierre
1 Johny Hendricks
2 Carlos Condit
3 Nick Diaz
4 Rory MacDonald
5 Demian Maia
6 Jake Ellenberger
7 Martin Kampmann
8 Josh Koscheck
9 Jon Fitch
10 Tarec Saffiedine

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion : Anderson Silva
1 Chris Weidman
2 Vitor Belfort
3 Michael Bisping
4 Yushin Okami
5 Mark Munoz
6 Constantinos Philippou
7 Luke Rockhold
8 Hector Lombard
9 Alan Belcher
10 Tim Boetsch

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion : Jon Jones
1 Dan Henderson
2 Lyoto Machida
3 Alexander Gustafsson
4 Glover Teixeira
5 Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
6 Rashad Evans
7 Mauricio Rua
8 Phil Davis
9 Ryan Bader
10 Gegard Mousasi

HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion : Cain Velasquez
1 Junior dos Santos
2 Fabricio Werdum
3 Daniel Cormier
4 Antonio Silva
5 Frank Mir
6 Alistair Overeem
7 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
8 Roy Nelson
9 Stefan Struve
10 Shane Carwin

http://www.ufc.com/rankings

Voting panelists: Neil Springer (Sun Media), Chris Palmquist (MixedMartialArts.com), James Koh (FOX 11 Los Angeles), Bob Emanuel (Scripps Howard News Service), Mark Daniels (Boston Herald), Steve Feiti (Asbury Park Press), Grant Gordan (Burbank Leader), Jeremy Botter (Houston Chronicle), Case Keefer (Las Vegas Sun), Ana Hissa (Mundo da Lut), Jeff Wagenheim (SI.com), Paulo Favero (O Estado de S Paulo), Anthony Springer Jr. (FightNews), Andreas Hale (FightNews), Marc Raimondi (NY Post), Joe Ferraro (Sportsnet), Marcelo Russio (Canal Combate), Brett Okamoto (ESPN.com), Franklin McNeil (ESPN.com), Guga Noblat (O Globo), Ken Pishna (MMAWeekly.com), Mike Johnston (Sportsnet), Marcelo Alonso (Portal do Vale-Tudo), John Silver (Chicago Sun-Times), Mario Filho (OSS TV), Claudia Lima (VIP), Damon Martin (MMAWeekly.com), Steve Cofield (ESPN Radio)

Each panelist's vote is detailed here (including who they voted for and at what rank):http://www.ufc.com/rankingsdetail

My first question is what do these official rankings actually mean? Does it mandate certain matches or is still Dana making the fights the fans want to see? Can you still have unranked fighters like Sonnen getting title shots? And how can Edgar still be top ten after dropping three fights?

Fat Cat wrote:My first question is what do these official rankings actually mean? Does it mandate certain matches or is still Dana making the fights the fans want to see? Can you still have unranked fighters like Sonnen getting title shots? And how can Edgar still be top ten after dropping three fights?

All rankings not derived from man on man matches is mental masturbation at best and a way for people who get paid to write and comment on the sport to play important at worse.

Fat Cat wrote:My first question is what do these official rankings actually mean? Does it mandate certain matches or is still Dana making the fights the fans want to see? Can you still have unranked fighters like Sonnen getting title shots? And how can Edgar still be top ten after dropping three fights?

I think they're doing this for three reasons:

They have it in boxing via Ring Magazine, so there's that.

There's a huge amount of variance in MMA relative to other sports (many champs getting 1 or 2 defenses before losing), so this gives something for people to follow besides who has the belt in a given weight class.

They have wanted to do this for a while, but only now have the less active weight classes fleshed out enough to do it.

I don't think it will do too much. Boxing has often done title fights that don't involve the #1 ranked contender

A lot of nonsense. One that really jumps out is Cormier being ranked the number 3 Heavyweight. I like Cormier and think he will do great, but how can you be ranked third by an organization you have never fought in?

They're ranked by the number of concussions and brain damage.

I did rankings for a couple different websites for years and my conclusion is that it's all bullshit for the most part. And any UFC rankings released by them could not possibly be accurate (Edgar, Guida, probably more).

Yeah, on one level I agree but then I question why they took this step in the first place.

Fat Cat wrote:Yeah, on one level I agree but then I question why they took this step in the first place.

It's something for the media to cover?

Is Cormier not going to drop down to LHW now?

Grandpa's Spells wrote:

Fat Cat wrote:Yeah, on one level I agree but then I question why they took this step in the first place.

It's something for the media to cover?

Could be, but it's more likely to haunt you than serve you well, right? Because now people will be harping on the dissonance between the rankings and the match ups, if they don't follow.

If I understood gambling more, which I don't, there might be a perceptible angle there. I know the Fertitas have a lot of interest in gambling, could there be angle there? By influencing odds or something?

Fat Cat wrote:

Grandpa's Spells wrote:

Fat Cat wrote:Yeah, on one level I agree but then I question why they took this step in the first place.

It's something for the media to cover?

Could be, but it's more likely to haunt you than serve you well, right? Because now people will be harping on the dissonance between the rankings and the match ups, if they don't follow.

I think getting the rabble stirred up and getting articles written about "underrated"/"overrated" fighters sells PPVs. I'm not endorsing it, but polarizing the fans and upping the word count on your sport is good for business.

If I understood gambling more, which I don't, there might be a perceptible angle there. I know the Fertitas have a lot of interest in gambling, could there be angle there? By influencing odds or something?

It might get more people betting...