The official UFC rankings have been a point of contention in the MMA world since their introduction. As their importance increases with the rankings determining pay in relation to the Reebok sponsorship deal, those who vote on the UFC rankings are likely to see even more heat coming their way.
While the rankings panel has made some questionable calls, their decisions are a matter of opinion at the end of the day. One way the UFC can ensure fighters are compensated fairly according to the official rankings would be to update the policy to exclude certain individuals from the Top 15 lists.
All situations aren’t created equal, but clear lines need to be drawn with regard to when competitors are removed from the rankings. In particular, there are two cases in which fighters should invariably be eliminated from rankings consideration.
Cheating Fighters
Fighters are usually penalized in the form of a suspension when they fail a drug test, but those individuals have not been uniformly punished in the rankings.
The obvious answer would be to completely remove cheaters from the rankings until they return to competition. When a fighter fails a drug test, all their past accomplishments come into question, so the logical move would be to take away their position in the rankings until they prove themselves while also testing clean.
Even if these fighters have won legitimately in the past, it doesn’t seem fair for them to be taking up spots in the rankings and essentially stealing money from clean fighters when they have been caught cheating. It was one thing when the rankings were trivial lists, but rule violators must be punished harshly when the rankings start determining people’s salaries in July.
Of course, there is an appeal process in place for drug test failures. Should any competitor have their drug test failure overturned, it would be necessary for that fighter to be immediately reinserted into the position they had held prior to their removal from the rankings.
That said, starting as soon as possible, those who fail drug tests for performance enhancing drugs should be removed from the official UFC rankings until they serve their suspensions and return to competition. Right now, that would result in the following fighters being scratched from the rankings.
Inactive Fighters
This can overlap with drug test failures in many cases, but all fighters who are inactive for more than 12 months should also be removed from the UFC rankings until they have another bout booked.
When a fighter hasn’t stepped into the Octagon for more than one year, it’s impossible to know how much they have improved or declined since their last outing. So, positioning a fighter in that situation would be almost complete guesswork on the part of the voting media.
Exact details on the UFC sponsorship deal with Reebok have not been released. However, an inactive fighter holding a spot in the Top 15 would prevent active competitors from making more money. When there are cases where the inactive individual may not even be guaranteed to return to the Octagon at any point, that is a problem.
A case could be made to lengthen or shorten the exact time period, but a line needs to be drawn across the board. One year of inactivity makes sense as a point where fighters should be removed from the rankings until they are scheduled to return.
If the UFC were to adopt that policy in their rankings, the above competitors would be removed from the official rankings.
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