Fighter rankings have been a key point of discussion, contention and scrutiny in the MMA community for several years, whether divisional or pound-for-pound.
In fact, it’s a literal science for just about any combat sport, as world rankings play a major part in tournament bookings, pay-per-view cards and title shots in various promotions.
Now, the UFC has announced that it’s teaming up with FightMetric to do its own, official, in-house rankings for every single one of its weight classes. Moreover, the MMA media will be a key contributing group, with 90 members submitting event-by-event votes.
But will that be a conflict of interest for fighters, managers, press and the UFC itself?
How will future fights and contract negotiations be affected if athletes know exactly where the UFC places them in the pecking order?
There are a lot of questions that have yet to be answered—but if this system is done right, it could benefit the sport in several important ways. Read on as we cover five key reasons why an official UFC rankings database could actually work.