Bloody Elbow August MMA Meta-Rankings: Heavyweight

by Kid Nate on Aug 25, 2008 12:15 PM EDT in Rankings Comment 24 comments

Fighter	Points	Promotion	Last Rank
1. Fedor Emelianenko	475	Affliction	1
2. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera	455	UFC	2
3. Randy Couture	421	***	3
4. Andrei Arlovski	410	Affliction	4
5. Josh Barnett	405	Affliction/WVR	5
6. Fabricio Werdum	376	UFC	6
7. Tim Sylvia	369	Affliction/Adrenaline	7
8. Gabriel Gonzaga	319	UFC	8
9. Mirko Filipovic	269	DREAM	9
10. Ben Rothwell	197	Affliction/Adrenaline	10
11. Aleksander Emelianenko	194	Affliction	11
12. Frank Mir	145	UFC	15
13. Heath Herring	132	UFC	12
14. Cheick Kongo	129	UFC	14
15. Sergei Kharitonov	119	???	16
16. Alistair Overeem	118	DREAM/Strikeforce	13
17. Cain Velasquez	106	UFC	18
18. Brock Lesnar	102	UFC	NR
19. Roy Nelson	95	IFL(?)	17
20. Antonio Silva	88	EliteXC	21
21. Jake O'Brien	82	UFC	19
21. Pedro Rizzo	82	Affliction	20
23. Marcio Cruz	78	WVR	25
24. Jeff Monson	73	WVR(?)	22
25. Mark Hunt	69	DREAM	23

Not a lot of commentary to add to this month's installment of the heavyweight meta-rankings.

Explanations of the methodology are in the full entry. The main thing to know is that the Meta-rankings are not the opinions of the BloodyElbow staff, rather they're a compilation of the rankings of 19 leading MMA web sites. The goal is not to tell you who we think are the best fighters, but rather to inform you how the MMA blogosphere rates the top fighters.

Affliction has seven of the top twenty-five fighters, but more importantly, they've got five of the top ten under contract. The only compelling matchup they have scheduled is also the only interesting heavyweight fight scheduled for the rest of the year -- Arlovski/Barnett should be a good fight and the winner will certainly have earned a shot at Fedor. We'll see if Affliction can book it.

The UFC has nine of twenty-five, Brock Lesnar's entry into the meta-rankings certainly doesn't hurt. Expect Shane Carwin to climb into the top 25 soon. DREAM has three of the top guys. WVR/Sengoku sort of has three as well, but Monson probably won't be fighting for them again and Marcio Cruz is just feeble.

Based on the premise that opinions are like assholes, everybody has one and they all stink. instead of putting up our own subjective fighter rankings, we compile and average the rankings of every source we could find online.

The goal is to show how the MMA community rates the fighters, not to bore you with our opinions.

Be sure and look at the points, they're a much more telling number than the ranking. There's clearly a huge gulf between the top 9 fighters and those that follow.

A total of 39 fighters were ranked in the top 25 by one source or another, for reasons of sanity I only track the top 25 (26 due to a tie) most highly rated fighters.

25 points are awarded for a first place ranking, 16 for a 10th place ranking, 1 for a 25th place ranking. A formula is used to "normalize" the data so all fighters are awarded points from those lists that do not include a full 25 fighters. Fuller explanation below.

Rankings were compiled from the following sites: TAGG Radio, Sherdog, Cage Potato, MMA On Tap, Five Ounces of Pain, Houston Chronicle's Brawl Sports, WAMMA, MMA Fighting, MMA-ELO, FCFighter, 411 Mania, FightMatrix, MMA Playground, HDNet/Inside MMA, MMAVT (Japan), Figure 4 Online, Fighters.com, MMA Weekly, and Total MMA. MMA News and MMA Madness hadn't updated their rankings for August.

The normalization scheme as explained by JCS of FightMatrix is here:

The “normalization number” (new name) would be:

120
divided by
(Total Fighters Found in Any List minus 10)

Every fighter found somewhere else, but on a Top 10 list would be assigned this number.

The “normalization” number would not apply to a fighter not found on a Top 25 list. They would simply get 0.

So the process would be:

Do all of the Top 25 lists first, #1 = 25, #2 = 24…. #24 = 2, #25 = 1
Do all of the Top 10 lists, same scoring structure.. stops at #10 = 16

Figure out that normalization variable.

Fill in the normalization variable to all fighters not found in the Top 10 lists, but found elsewhere.

Do your totals and rank.

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Comments

I completely understand how BE comes up with these meta rankings and I enjoy reading them…however, I posted a piece yesterday in regards to how these OTHER sites come up with their rankings..because some of them are attrocious.

http://mma4real.net/

by Tha Realness on Aug 25, 2008 12:21 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Hunt?!

How is Mark Hunt still getting points from any of these sites? He’s lost his last 3 fights (putting him at 5-4 career), and has only fought once since ’06.

Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.

by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 25, 2008 12:42 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

No worries – he’ll be out of there next month after Shane Carwin demolishes Neil Wain.

by Chris Nelson on Aug 25, 2008 12:51 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

its mostly a function of this division

being incredibly thin and Hunt having a bit of a name still from fighting for PRIDE back in the day. I guarantee if we’d had these a few years back that Tank Abbott would have hung on long after it was obvious he was washed up.

by Kid Nate on Aug 25, 2008 1:20 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Help me out with something here Nate. Last time you guys did one of these there was a switch between Tim and Andrei. I pointed out how they didn’t deserve their positions and I was informed that ‘I didn’t understand how these systems work’ and this is how they are ranked. About a month later, without either fighter fighting to change his ranking, they’ve switched. Don’t get me wrong, I completely agree with the ratings from this chart (for the most part that is, I think Couture should be 5’th or 6’th and I’m not sure why Brock is way behind Herring) I’m just wondering as to what affected the change?

by Tommy7 on Aug 25, 2008 1:05 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I think the part...

that you need to understand is that we can’t tell you why things are changing. This is a compilation of where other sites are ranking fighters. If…say…5 oz decides to move someone up or down in their rankings we only report that…we can’t tell you WHY anyone else thinks the way they do.

That is the point of these rankings..to provide insight into where people are ranking fighters without any bias of our own.

Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.

by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 25, 2008 1:11 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

keep in mind

that we’re just compiling how others sites rank fighters so Brent’s explanation is perfect.
But I do believe that it took a while for Sylvia’s ass-whipping by Fedor to sink in and people are gradually forgetting Arlovsky’s losses to Big Tim and his lackluster last year or so in the UFC.

by Kid Nate on Aug 25, 2008 1:22 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

When are you guys going to put up a personal ranking chart? I know you guys do this one and the other graph looking one, but neither of them are personal statements of belief. I’m curious as to what you guys think, taking out all the compiled lists and this guy beat that guy charts. Just as an informed spectator, where does BE stand as far as HW rankings?

by Tommy7 on Aug 25, 2008 1:44 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

me personally

I think rankings are subjective and pretty pointless. They’re fun but I don’t have any interest in adding to the clutter with more crap. The Meta-rankings speak for BE — I can’t imagine that we’d do a better job of ranking fighters.

by Kid Nate on Aug 25, 2008 2:23 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Have you guys considered doing your own rankings just for the sake of incorporating them into the Meta-Rankings?

Intentional Blog on Balls

by Richard Wade on Aug 25, 2008 3:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I would certainly participate in such a thing.

by Mike Fagan on Aug 25, 2008 8:42 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Firstly,

How is Randy still up there? He hasn’t fought in a long long time and he’ll probably never fight again.

Cro Cop hasn’t fought a decent opponent in almost 2 years… yet hes in the top 10?

Finally, Sylvia over Gonzaga?

by flyingknees on Aug 25, 2008 1:12 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Like the guys already said….ask the people who ranked them that way. This is just a compilation of rankings, not BE’s personal one.

by Tonley on Aug 25, 2008 2:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

you'll have to ask all the sites that rank the fighters

but I can speculate a bit on your comments:
1) Randy Couture won two very impressive wins that shot him to the top of the HW ranks in 2007. Even though he hasn’t been fighting his contract disputes, movie roles and book releases have kept his profile very high. No one’s likely to forget Couture. I expect if nothing can be worked out that he’ll eventually fade away but not in 2008.
2) Cro Cop benefits from his very successful 2006 when he rolled through the PRIDE tournament and was widely considered the #2 heavyweight in the world. His wins over Josh Barnett especially still benefit him. Mostly though, Cro Cop is hanging on because this is a damn thin division.
3) Most rankers seem to value Sylvia’s wins over Andrei Arlovski much higher than Gonzaga’s win over Cro Cop. Sylvia was UFC champ for a decent period of time. Contrast that with Gonzaga’s very brief run as a contender. Most rankers were willing to chalk up Gabe’s loss to Couture to Randy being that good but his loss to Werdum was seen more as an indication that Gonzaga doesn’t have the heart to hang as a top fighter.

by Kid Nate on Aug 25, 2008 2:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I know you are only speculating KN…but those two wins shouldn’t have shot him up that high to begin with IMO…and when did contract disputes, and movie roles help determine how good of a fighter you are? If folk are really using those variables in determining a fighters ranking….smh.

http://mma4real.net/

by Tha Realness on Aug 25, 2008 3:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

well

I think the “fault” lies with the UFC for giving him a title shot first thing on his return to the division. But once he dominated Sylvia and demolished Gonzaga (who was fresh off KO’ing Cro Cop), it was hard to argue that Randy wasn’t a top heavyweight.
I don’t think people are conciously using Randy’s media appearances as part of their rankings, I’m just saying he’s very good at reminding people that he’s still around.

by Kid Nate on Aug 25, 2008 4:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

It's human nature...

if you think about someone…you tend to have an extreme opinion of them…one way or the other.

This is also how Frank Trigg tends to remain higher in the rankings than he should. You see his shiny dome all over the place and it tends to leave him a bit higher in the rankings regardless of in cage/ring results.

Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.

by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 25, 2008 8:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Trigg

also demolished Mayhem Miller and Misaki in back to back fights.

by Kid Nate on Aug 26, 2008 7:36 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

right...

I’m not saying that Trigg isn’t a good fighter with some good wins under his belt. But I think that he manages to stay higher up in rankings due to his constant exposure through radio shows, TV shows..etc.

Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.

by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 26, 2008 10:45 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

oh no doubt

by Kid Nate on Aug 26, 2008 11:25 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Fear the elbow drop!

No Johnathan Ivey? So am I to assume that Gan McGee’s top 10 didn’t make the Meta-Rankings cut?

by Estrada on Aug 25, 2008 1:35 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I think we need to keep a close eye on Velasquez, Lesnar and Shane Carwin. (who isn’t on the list) That is also one of the things that sets the UFC aside. They not only have a good amount of today’s stars but also have their hand into tomorrows. All three of these are possible future contenders for the title and top ten rankings. By the way, does anyone else think Overeem really looks pumped as of late? I don’t know about that guy myself. And as much as I hate to say it, I think CroCop remains in the top ten due to lack of competition right now, more then what he’s done lately.

by Tommy7 on Aug 25, 2008 2:05 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I actually thought Lesner would hit the top 10. Not because I do or don’t believe he belongs there, but due to the beating he put on Herring and how recent performances influence the rankings.

The biggest thing in my mind, is Rothwell at 10. Am I the only person that thinks he is tough, but very overrated?

I could also live without Couture at 3, Hunt in the 25, but that is as much a testament to the HW division as anything. Also, suspended fighters should not be ranked.

"The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin'"

by BJJDenver on Aug 25, 2008 2:39 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Dave Herman and Brett Rogers probably aren’t far out of the top 25, but they’re gonna have a hell of a time getting the exposure they need while in EliteXC.

by Michaelthebox on Aug 25, 2008 5:51 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs