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FIGHT! Rankings: UFC 110
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Sunday, February 21st, 2010 at 10:09 am
by Neal Taflinger
At FIGHT! Magazine, we believe there is a need for a completely objective and unbiased ranking system for fighters to replace the myriad of subjective rankings that have become skewed, in many instances, by fighter popularity. In an effort to address this issue FIGHT! Magazine brings you its computerized rankings system which takes into account a fighters strength of opponent, strength of performance, and frequency of activity. Last night’s fights had a surprising affect on the rankings so let’s see how things shook out after UFC UFC 110: Nogueira vs. Velaszquez.
Cain Velasquez smashed Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in the main event of the evening, moving from #3 to #2 in FIGHT!’s Heavyweight Rankings and swapping spots with current UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar. This is likely due to the fact that Velasquez has been more active recently and has dominant wins over high-ranking fighters since Lesnar last fought. Nogueira dropped from #5 to #12 with the knockout loss.
George Sotiropolous catapulted himself into title contention talks with his dominant win over Joe “Daddy” Stevenson, moving from #14 to #3 in our Lightweight Rankings. Stevenson dropped from #3 to #21.
In the co-main event, Wanderlei Silva scored a decision win over Michael Bisping, jumping from #20 to #10 while Bisping dropped from #16 to #39 at Middleweight. Ryan Bader improved his standing at Light Heavyweight with a KO of Keith Jardine, moving from #18 to #14. Jardine dropped from #25 to #37. Mirko “Cro Cop” could do little to improve his standing at Heavyweight (#28) with a win over unheralded and unranked Anthony Perosh.
On the preliminary card, C.B. Dollaway jumped from #52 to #27 in our Middleweight Rankings with his win over unranked Goran Reljic. Stephan Bonnar slipped from #31 to #44 with his loss to Krzystof Soszynski, who jumped from #32 to #20 in the Light Heavyweight Rankings. Veteran welterweight Chris Lytle got a nudge from #20 to #19 with his kneebar finish of Brian Foster, who dropped just one spot, from #62 to #63 with the loss. In the first fight of the evening, neither James Te Huna nor Igor Pokrajac had enough qualifying fights to be ranked at this time.
FIGHT! Fans: What do you think? Is our computer crazy?
10 Responses to “FIGHT! Rankings: UFC 110”
Very impressive performances from Velasquez and Sotiropolous. Both guys proves that they are legit – not convinced they both top 3 fighters in their weight classes, however.
should’t Barnett be dropped from the rankings he has not been active in over a year??? Also how is Aldo fighter of the year, but not #1 in the featherweight rankings??
I can’t wait until Velasquez completely rounds out as a fighter. What an amazing show last night.
Your rankings make Sherdog’s rankings seem like a work of genius. Jeff Monson as a top five heavy weight?? C’mon man!
Chael Sonnen ranked higher than A.Silva? Really?
speaking of dropping fighters from rankings, shouldn’t diego sanchez be dropped from lightweight? or is that until after his first fight at welterweight?
i really liked the card overall, but i’m not sure either Bonnar or Soszynski should move 10 spots based on a cut stoppage based on an illegal/accidental headbutt. when Soszynski was announced as the winner, Bonnar was visibly upset, probably because, like myself, he was lead to believe it would be ruled a no contest. maybe Sydney’s athletic commission is more receptive to reviewing these types of incidents than the NSAC.
There are a handful of anomalies in our rankings to be sure, but most of them get worked out pretty quickly. Thanks for reading!
Unlike most every other poll, our rankings aren’t based on what we think about a fighter or how we think a fighter can/should perform, they are based simply on what that fighter has done. If Barnett is still highly ranked it’s because our calculations determined that more active heavies haven’t done enough to displace him in that time. Like Monson, an admitted anomaly, if Barnett fights in the near future the rankings, if incorrect, will sort itself out.
On the subject of Aldo – being named Fighter of the Year and being ranked number one in a division are completely unrelated. One is subjective, one is objective. Bantam/featherweight rankings suffer from the relatively shallow pool of world-class fighters and their relatively recent rise to prominence. If Aldo continues to perform the way he has he will likely attain #1 status. Thanks for reading!
Really. Sonnen’s fought, and beaten, better 185ers in the last year. That’s not Silva’s fault, it’s just the way it is.
Fighters moving up and down in weight is tricky – we sometimes wait a fight or two to determine if a weight change is ‘permanent,’ like we thought Diego’s drop to 155 was.
With regards to Bonnar vs. Soszynski, our rankings do not currently account for context, just results, so a legit cut stoppage and an illegal cut stoppage are weighed the same. It’s not perfect but no rankings are, they are just the best projections we can create based on the information we have. Thanks for reading!