WAMMA's Inaugural Women Rankings
by MMASuPreMaCy on Mar 5, 2009 1:27 PM EST
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WAMMA release's the first ever women rankings:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -
Carano, Santos, LaRosa, and Fuji all Debut as Number One Ranked Fighters in WAMMA's Inaugural Female Rankings Poll
Orlando, Florida - The World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts (WAMMA) made history on Thursday morning when it released the first-ever major rankings poll for female mixed martial artists.
The rankings, currently available in their entirety at Go Wamma - Home Page, consist of top ten rankings in the bantamweight (115.1-125 pounds), super bantamweight (125.1-135 pounds), and featherweight (135.1-145 pounds) weight classes.
"Female MMA has experienced tremendous growth in recent years but many of the sport's top women athletes are still being overlooked," said WAMMA Rankings Committee Chair Sam Caplan. "With these rankings, WAMMA hopes to help bring greater awareness to the depth that exists in female MMA. We also hope that these rankings are used to create championships in multiple weight classes, which will in turn create bigger opportunities for female fighters."
Leading the pack in the featherweight class are two of the most recognizable fighters in all of female MMA, Gina Carano and Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos. Both Carano and Santos finished tied for the top spot at 145 pounds, adding intrigue to a long-rumored showdown between the two fighters.
"I had a strong feeling that Gina Carano and Cris Cyborg would be ranked in the top two spots in the 145 pound weight classes in WAMMA's debut rankings," WAMMA Chief Operating Officer Mike Lynch began. "However, I was very surprised to see that WAMMA's pollsters were collectively torn when it came time to determine a number one ranked fighter. I think it goes without saying that female MMA would gain a tremendous boost if a match was signed to determine the clear cut number one female featherweight fighter in the world."
At super bantamweight, former BodogFIGHT women's champion Tara LaRosa is at the top of the 135 pound top ten, which features established fighters such as Roxanne Modafferi, Shayna Baszler, and Amanda Buckner. LaRosa, one of the true pioneers of female MMA and one of its most respected competitors, received votes from pollsters in every eligible weight class.
Ranked as the WAMMA number seven super bantamweight is former SmackGirl champion Hitomi Akano, who was just recently announced by the Strikeforce promotion as having signed to fight Santos. The two will meet in a 145 pound encounter during the promotion's April 11 event in San Jose that will be televised on Showtime. The fight is currently slated to be the first-ever fight between two ranked WAMMA female fighters.
With some of the world's top female athletes competing on a regular basis in Japan, it was little surprise to see that Megumi Fuji took the top spot in the bantamweight division by an overwhelming margin. Ranked in the top spot on every ballot submitted by WAMMA pollsters, Fuji's reputation amongst industry insiders as one of the sport's top pound-for-pound fighters -- female or male - can no longer be ignored.
The public can currently see the first-ever WAMMA rankings poll in its entirety at Go Wamma - Home Page. WAMMA's female rankings committee, which is an industry poll that consists of writers, promoters, trainers, and fighters voting outside of their respective weight class, will next convene on Wednesday, April 1. A complete list of WAMMA's female rankings pollsters can also be accessed via its official web site.
WAMMA WOMEN's RANKINGS
Released March 5, 2009
Featherweight|
1 (tie) |
Gina Carano |
|
1 (tie) |
Christiane Santos |
| 3 | Kelly Kobold |
| 4 | Megumi Yabushita |
| 5 | Marloes Coenen |
| 6 | Erin Toughill |
| 7 | Karen Williams |
| 8 | Emily Thompson |
| 9 | Elaina Maxwell |
| 10 | Tonya Evinger |
| Also Receiving Votes |
Meisha Tate Yoko Takahashi Tanya Peery Tara LaRosa Keiko Tamai Yuko Yamanaka Christine Taetsche Avery Vilche Cindy Dandois Julie Kedzie Jesssica Bednark Jen Case Marguax La Trobe Michelle Maher Tamara Parks Kaitlin Young |
Super Bantamweight
|
1 |
Tara LaRosa |
|
2 |
Roxanne Modafferi |
| 3 | Takayo Hashi |
| 4 | Amanda Buckner |
| 5 | Shayna Baszler |
| 6 | Vanessa Porto |
| 7 | Hitomi Akano |
| 8 | Sarah Kaufman |
| 9 | Rosie Sexton |
| 10 | Tonya Evinger |
| Also Receiving Votes |
Julie Kedzie Kaitlin Young Ginele Marquez Molly Helsel Jennifer Tata Meisha Tate Adrianna Jenkins |
Bantamweight
|
1 |
Megumi Fuji |
|
2 |
Carina Damm |
| 3 | Rosie Sexton |
| 4 | Lisa Ward |
| 5 | Rin Nakai |
| 6 | Aisling Daly |
| 7 | Yuka Tsuji |
| 8 | Takayo Hashi |
| 9 | Windy Tomini |
| 10 | Ana Michelle Tavarez |
| Also Receiving Votes |
Tara LaRosa Kanako Takashita Miku Matsumoto Emi Fujino Jessica Aguilar Kazue Matake Sally Krumdiak Sophie Bagherdai Hitomi Akano Satoko Sinashi Angela Magana Jessica Pene Yasuko Tamada Vanesssa Porto Kinuka Saski Seo See Ham Lynn Alvarez Nicdali Colonac Hisae Watanabe |
The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.
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Comments
You beat me to it. Wake me up when WAMMA’s dead.
by Derek Suboticki on Mar 5, 2009 2:04 PM EST up reply actions
How so? It is the first major publishing of Womens Rankings.
If you have better rankings or disagree with them, then point that out rather than just stating that it is a joke.
People would see this as a joke, as all this does is position WAMMA to put on a title fight between Carano and Cyborg. We all know you are not objective in the least, so I don’t think anyone would expect you to see that.
As for your entirely too long list of people who come up with the rankings. Who cares? Other sports have whole writer associations vote on award winners and such things. Does the fact that they write a paragraph about people on their committee validate it somehow? Give me a break.
Why wouldn’t they be?
I mean WAMMA doesn’t compensate their champions in any way.
Why should any fighter be expected to promote WAMMA so they can make money without any compensation?
Exactly. WAMMA stands to benefit from their success. WAMMA isn’t some huge org that commands the best ad and sponsorships for their fighters. What have they done for Fedor? Or Aoki? All they stand to do is make money for themselves based on top fighters having big matches, now within established brands like Strikeforce. Should be interesting to see how willing Coker is to work with them now.
Strikeforce is friendly towards WAMMA, I believe, and even lists them on the WAMMA site. So at this point, you would think yes.
Strikeforce...
gave them a polite “sure! why not?” back in the day. I know this much to be fact based on sources on both sides of that situation. I’d be shocked if they ever allowed a (advertised) WAMMA title fight on one of their shows
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 4:08 PM EST up reply actions
If people stop promoting this garbage, eventually it will go away.
I mean, when two members of the WAMMA voting committe come out and say that the rankings are bullshit, maybe it’s time to ignore them. Of course, since they did that months and months ago, some folks seem to be behind schedule.
"BJ on the BE" - Kierkegaard
Same comment to you as for Cannon Jacques
If you have better rankings or disagree with them, then point that out rather than just stating that it is a joke or garbage.
by MMASuPreMaCy on Mar 5, 2009 2:53 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
What do you even mean by “better rankings?”
I pointed out that PEOPLE WHO VOTE FOR THESE RANKINGS THINK THEY ARE BULL SHIT. This, to me, is different from saying “this is a joke,” and leaving it at that.
The people who said this, who did so on their radio show (which I’m not really interested in searching through the archives of to find that particular episode), are Oliver Copp and Mike Sawyer. If anyone is so inclined, they can find their show, Tough Talk, on www.f4wonline.com. You will need a subscription to listen to their program (and the rest of the site’s contents), which is money well spent as far as I’m concerned.
Again, they said this months ago, which is vague, but it’s a better starting point than nothing.
"BJ on the BE" - Kierkegaard
Not that I know of. The ranking panel, at least when last I saw the complete ranking panel (which is not easy to find on the WAMMA web site these days) was pretty large.
But, while looking for their ranking committee, I did manage to find another gem.
Bill Goldberg
Vice-President of Public Relations
I figured perhaps it was a happy coincidence, but nope, it’s that Goldberg. And why not? After all, Bill Goldberg has proved time and time again that he is an eloquent and competent spokesperson for any subject relating to Mixed Martial Arts.
"BJ on the BE" - Kierkegaard
Dude, it’s VP of Public Relations for a job that doesn’t pay anything.
What do expect, Tony Snow? You can find clowns any organization.
Yeah, Goldberg is not on the rankings commitee, but that doesn’t make it ok for them to have him on staff. I am more qualified.
I’m sure if you can show a resume with some MMA background and you are willing to help they would give you a look.
I have a real job, so they would have to pay me. I mean there would be a ton of moving expenses. I would have to go from reality to the land of make believe.
He’s been an MMA commentator. VP of Public Relations isn’t exactly a reach.
You want to exclude Dana White because his background in boxing?
Boxing isn’t make believe and Dana bought his way onto the scene. Goldberg is a fan of MMA, not an expert that should be doing color.
Hell, I even like Goldberg, just not for MMA. He should be hosting shows on random cable networks. We even share a common hatred of Mauro “I measure my parts in metric” Ranallo. He is just not qualified for the work he had done in MMA, just because he has done poor work in MMA doesn’t mean he is now qualified to do more work.
I think he hosts some car show or something, I keep seeing previews for it, mostly when I’m watching stuff on SPEED…
Would you guys mind not acting like children. That’d be swell.
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
Richard, if you stop them, what will I have left to entertain me???
If you're not submitting, you're just rolling around with another guy.
Porn?
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
by Richard Wade on Mar 5, 2009 10:21 PM EST up reply actions
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
would have been a great spot for a “rickroll”
If you're not submitting, you're just rolling around with another guy.
At Bloody Elbow...
Rick Roll = Insta-Ban
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
by Richard Wade on Mar 5, 2009 10:21 PM EST up reply actions
Now we know how you feel about women participating in MMA
No women’s division is the best women’s division, huh?
"I hit [Evensen], and you could just see it in his head. He went, 'Oh, man. We don't have to do this anymore. I'm good. Thanks for having me. I'm going to go home now." -Pat "The Real Techno Viking" Berry
by Blackout612 on Mar 5, 2009 4:49 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Please differentiate between the Rankings Being A Joke or WAMMA
If you guys get the hate of WAMMA out of the way, maybe you can start discussing the rankings and see that they have Carano and Cyborg as the #1’s for FW, LaRosa as the #1 for SBW, and Mega Megu as the #1 BW fighters.
Here is the committee of the people who came up with the women’s rankings.
Sam Caplan
Ranking Committee Chair
Sam Caplan is a veteran sportswriter who has covered the NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball in the past. His work has been featured on sites such as CBS Sportsline, SI.com, and AOL.com.
Caplan currently covers mixed martial arts on a full-time basis as the publisher of FiveOuncesOfPain.com and as a contributing writer for CBSSports.com and FIGHT! magazine.
He has made radio and television appearances on such shows as HDNet’s “Inside MMA” and on Sirius Satellite Radio on such programs as “The Scott Ferrall Show,” “Fight Network Radio” with Mauro Ranallo, and “Sirius Fight Club” with hosts Randy Gordon and Chris Thomas.
Caplan has also trained in several different forms of martial arts, most recently MMA.
David Andrest
Member
David Andrest is a senior editor for FiveOuncesofPain.com. A graduate of the University of Buffalo, Andrest has made a living as a developer of multimedia and websites, and has worked with many of his field’s leading properties. An obsessive follower of the sport since the very early part of 1992, his work has previously appeard on MMAJunkie.com, Yahoo! Sports, and The Ledger— a central Florida newspaper.
Adam Baker
Member
Adam Baker is the Creator and Senior Editor of DreamFighters.com and contributes to three other MMA and Sports websites. Being a amateur MMA fighter and winning a Gold Medal in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and a gold medal in Submission Wrestling at the Canadian Grappling Grand Prix, Adam became a Graduate of Ashton Business School with his CSC and CPHC while still training MMA. Adam was a licensed Investment Advisor in Canada before he moved over to Website Developement and MMA publishing world. Adam’s previous fighting background created unique oppertunites to network with all the Pro MMA fighters in the world and provide interviews with some the industries biggest names.
Josh Barnett
Member
Shayna Baszler
Member
Amanda Buckner
Member
Brent Colflesh
Member
Brent Colflesh is a Developer for Nxtbook Media. Brent attended Indiana University and Paris American Academy studying art. He has studied BJJ and Muay Thai at Brad Daddis’ Philly MMA Academy in South Jersey. Brent became an amateur official for the USKBA and judged the first amateur events in New Jersey and Delaware. He is looking forward to becoming credentialed in Pennsylvania.
Jaime Fletcher
Member
Jaime Fletcher is an active light heavyweight and middleweight competitor who trains and fights out of Combat Submission Wrestling. A veteran of EliteXC, Fletcher also is a trainer to world class fighters.
Yael Grauer
Member
Yael Grauer has interviewed top-tier mixed martial artists for a widevariety of publications, including the Tucson Weekly, FighterGirls.com and the Performance Menu: Journal of Health and Athletic Excellence. Her non-MMA writing has been featured in Sacred Fire, Clamor and the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest. Yael has proofread both books and magazines and spent two years serving as a National Correspondent for the now-defunct Blue Jean Magazine. She teaches Language Arts and Reading in the public school system. Yael currently resides in Tucson, and trains at the Tucson Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Academy. Check out her website (www.dirttime.org) or e-mail her at yael@dirttime.org.
Joe Gruber
Member
Joe Gruber has followed the sport of MMA since the late 90’s. Gruber contributes to an MMA blog called AtTheTableWithMMA.com where he writes columns about the latest happenings in MMA.
Tara LaRosa
Member
Roxanne Modafferi
Member
Roxanne Modafferi is a professional female fighter who fights at 135 pounds/60 kilos. She currently lives in Japan and teaches English at the language institution “Berlitz.” She has tried a variety of martial arts since middle school, from karate to Judo to BJJ, and debuted professionally in “Smack Girl” in 2001. Since then, the 26-year old has accumulated a record of 13 wins and 4 losses. Her website is www.63fight.com.
John Morgan
Member
John Morgan is the lead staff reporter for MMAjunkie.com and covers day-to-day breaking news, fight bookings, fighter features and general business dealings. He also travels to cover most major MMA events for MMAjunkie.com and its partner site, Yahoo! Sports. Morgan began his MMA career as a writer for TAGG Radio and occasionally guest-hosts the daily radio program.
Laura Ortiz
Member
Laura Ortiz is an amateur fighter who also is an instructor at Ephrata Martial Arts in Pennsylvania. She travels to schools to teach children self defense skills. In addition, Laura founded Female Fighters Against Domestic Violence at www.ffadv.org, a non-profit group that raises funds for domestic violence shelters.
Jeff Osborne
Member
Tim Peters
Member
Mike Reilly
Member
Rosi Sexton
Member
Ariel Shnerer
Member
A major of broadcast journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, Shnerer is the editorial ticker manager and editor of TheFightNetwork.com. Shnerer coordinates combat sports news content at The Fight Network for both web and television. He runs the world’s first-ever 24/7 combat sports news ticker, which can be seen on Canadian TV channel The Fight Network. In addition, he works alongside former PRIDE F.C. play-by-play announcer Mauro Ranallo, Fight Network Radio producer John Pollock and MMA analyst John Ramdeen to write television scripts, supervise boards and build original programming.
Shnerer worked at Rogers Sportsnet as a script coordinator before committing himself full-time to North America’s only combat sports television network. His work appears on FOX Sports, FiveOuncesOfPain.com, as well as The National Post, Canada’s renowned national newspaper.
Gary Wimsett
Member
Gary Wimsett is an attorney in private practice and focuses on complex transactions and appellate advocacy with the Wimsett Law Firm in Florida. He also is engaged in brand development/marketing and the promotion of elite athletes and entertainment professionals. With over a decade of legal experience, Mr. Wimsett is recognized as an expert in contract negotiation & risk assessment. He is a Florida licensed health care risk manager. Gary brings a fresh new voice to the MMA world as a contributor to the popular Sports Agent Blog where he writes on MMA news and trends with an emphasis on the business side of this growing sport. Gary received his law degree from the University of Florida in 1997 and was an editor of the Florida Law Review. He received his undergraduate degree in English Literature from the University of South Florida in 1993.
WAMMA's mission is a joke...
and to be completely up front on my feelings about Caplan…he has deleted any comment on his site questioning WAMMA (even ones phrased very respectfully by me)..etc.
The rankings are all fine and good…but when the best thing you can say about WAMMA is “hey, at least they have good…seemingly unbiased women’s rankings!” there is a lot to question.
When you can then add on top that they are liars and dishonest about their intentions in the sport…it makes pretty much all of their actions a joke.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 3:36 PM EST up reply actions
But the women rankings are good?
Well, thats good for women’s MMA isn’t it?
I understand the hate for WAMMA, but this is a good thing for Womens MMA as well and this will help setup belt matches and highlight them in a way were they are not in the dark.
Womens Association of Mixed Martial Arts
Would make me respect them a whole lot more.
I don’t think these rankings are a joke and they are, right now, the best thing about WAMMA because you can’t get them anywhere else (from a large group of people who know what they’re doing anyway)
I was just clarifying my position on them as a whole
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 3:41 PM EST up reply actions
To go further...
it says a lot about WAMMA that anything they try to do is immediately filed under “joke” in most people’s minds. That is the real problem. Even if these Women’s rankings are legitimate…they immediately have a cloud cast over them because they are involved with the WAMMA “brand.”
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 3:46 PM EST up reply actions
Yes – they can do no good in my eyes. To others (cough supremacy cough) they can do no wrong
by Derek Suboticki on Mar 5, 2009 4:42 PM EST up reply actions
No wrong? Hahaha…
I like your over dramatic statement Subo.
My whole point of this thread was not to discuss whether WAMMA was a joke or not, but rather the significance of recognized Womens Rankings.
Brent said it better than I did. Agree with all that and haven’t even gone to 5 oz for months because my comments all got deleted because Caplan loved EXC when I was saying it was a joke and anything I said about how the promotion of Kimbo was bad for the sport he would delete. Then he hated (hates?) DREAM for some reason saying and I set him straight on Japan MMA since he obviously knew nothing about it, my posts got deleted. Then he said something about the NFL and I corrected him nicely and he flipped out and deleted my posts and all of his that made him look like an idiot, I may or may not have been banned but who knows, I didn’t go back to the site. Should have known better anyways because I knew (of) him when he was a Fantasy Football writer and he was by far the worst. ever.
Well...
I’ve written about it at length in the past. But rather than make you read the entire thing…here are the quotes that best sum up my problems with WAMMA:
Claiming to be about crowning a champion without promotional boundries while refusing to accept the best fighters as their champion BECAUSE of their promotion:
They claim that they are working to crown "one true undisputed champion without promotional boundaries" in each weight class but they do not appear willing to go out and make this happen. They have all but admitted that they simply are not willing to crown the best fighter in each weight class as their champion. Instead they focus on only promoting the fights that are in their best interest and allow for maximum exposure of their brand. This is the exact model they claim to be moving away from and fits almost exactly into the boxing sanctioning body model to which they claim to be different. There is no truth to moving away from the type of "club championships" that you see with the UFC, EliteXC, DREAM..etc. It is not "one true champion beyond promotional boundaries" when you are refusing to acknowledge the best fighters in a weight class as your champion because their promotion is not willing to work with you.
Willingness to state that they want undisputed champions while pushing for fights that would only possibly result IN A DISPUTE over the champion’s legitimacy:
In their responses to twenty questions put forth by BloodyElbow readers WAMMA executives said the following:
“we here at WAMMA do believe that a match between Robbie Lawler vs. Matt Lindland would make the cut for a legitimate WAMMA Championship match.”
This would be in the middleweight division…home to Anderson Silva, a man who received over 100 more "points" than Robbie Lawler in the September BloodyElbow Meta Rankings. Why would they consider Lawler/Lindland be a legitimate undisputed title fight? Because it’s the best fight they can find that doesn’t involve the UFC. NOT because the winner would be the clear-cut best fighter in the world at 185 lbs. What they are saying is more or less "yeah, we know that Anderson Silva is the best middleweight in the world, but Lawler or Lindland can be a legitimate undisputed champion because they’ll at least make us a buck." There is a slight flaw in this argument, no?
And some other points I made:
Furthermore, why bother with a fancy ranking board if their rankings are pointless? How valuable are these rankings to the organization if they are willing to disregard the information contained therein. If Robbie Lawler were to win the title in this fantasy matchup against Lindland, would a single voter on their board put him above Anderson Silva? If not, then for their executives to say that we have to "agree to disagree" that this would be a legitimate title fight is ludicrous. For all the boasting about the impartial members of the ranking board. Why should we care?
WAMMA officials claim that they simply can’t get behind a Zuffa fighter as their champion because it would put that fighter in a compromised position within their organization. But, lets be truthful here. The UFC would not punish a fighter because an independent organization crowned them their champion. Am I to believe that the UFC would punish one of their best (Anderson Silva) or most "gate friendly" (Georges St. Pierre) fighters because some random independent group has decided that they are in fact the best fighters in the world at their weight class? That is pure nonsense.
So the only question that matters for WAMMA is this…How do you gain respect and recognition as the gold standard for rankings and championships when you display such a willingness to overlook what every MMA fan considers the gold standard in fighters?
You can’t have it both ways WAMMA. You’re either a for-profit organization that is exclusively recognizing bouts that can provide you with monetary gains, or you are recognizing the best fighters regardless of promotion for their accomplishments. Right now your organization falls firmly into the former and this is not the kind of transparent and honest behavior that you claim to stand for.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 4:04 PM EST up reply actions
Its sad when women rankings are the main topic of the post and it resorts back to whether WAMMA is a joke or not thread.
Someone asked...
about their intentions for the sport. I gave my take.
The truth is…the rankings are close to pointless if people don’t give a shit about the people who are putting them out…so it is a relevant aspect of this discussion in my eyes.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 4:09 PM EST up reply actions
It's like..
if Jim Bob Wilson put out his “inaugural women’s rankings” there is no validity to those rankings because he is just some dude with no credibility.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 4:10 PM EST up reply actions
But the people that actually composed the rankings do have credibility and are not the people running WAMMA.
Involvement with WAMMA = lack of credibility
by Derek Suboticki on Mar 5, 2009 4:44 PM EST up reply actions
Brent’s work “with” WAMMA was some of the best MMA related blogging I’ve ever seen, if not the best, my favorite to read by far.
Yeah, it’s one of the best piece I’ve ever seen on this site.
"I see him beating Anderson Silva. I see him picking him apart. Him at a 131 years old...(trails off)." - Tito on Belfort at Affliction:DOR
How do you want them to respond the UFC issue? If UFC would scantly recognize their belts they would be around the waist of Anderson Silva and GSP.
It’s not WAMMA choosing to shun UFC fighters, it’s still UFC choosing to shun to WAMMA. There is no belt around Robbie Lawler, in essence they are doing exactly what you asking them to do which is only recognize the top fighter with a belt.
No...
they claim to want to crown the best fighter in the division regardless of promotion as their champion. When GSP beat Fitch…that removed every shred of doubt in the world as to who the undisputed champion at 170 is. The #1 beat the #2.
I’m not the one saying their goal is to do things without promotional boundaries THEY are. And then THEY are putting promotional boundaries in place saying Well…this guy is the best in the world…but we’d be willing to crown someone else as an UNDISPUTED champion because his promotion is friendly.
They claim to be one thing while acting like another. They claim to be above punishing fighters for WHERE they fight but they will only sanction fights where they can make money. Which is FINE as a business model…but you don’t get to pretend that you’re not following that type of business model when it is exactly what you’re doing
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 4:16 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Fedor and Aoki could both be recognized as legitimate champions.. You can argue BJ Penn is better than Aoki but there is a legitimate. minority argument for Aoki.
The Undisputed champion hurdle is setting the bar a little high. UFC cannot resolve a champion in their own weight classes. Add in that WAMMA has deal with multiple promotions who are protective of their own pond and it makes crossing the undisputed hurdle even harder. This is the problem WAMMA is trying to resolve . . . hate the problem, not the organization.
What does Fedor/Aoki...
have to do with anything? They are both legitimate enough champions…yes. But the truth is that the WW, LHW and MW pictures are clear. The champions are in the UFC…if WAMMA had the integrity that they claimed to have they would say “WAMMA recognizes Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre and Rashad Evans as champions, the UFC is not under a working agreement with us so you will not see our belts on their broadcast. But in keeping with our mission statement they are our champions.”
How they can claim that they could have have Lawler/Lindland be for a championship given what they SAY THEY ARE DOING proves that they could give two shits about being legitimate and honest in their approach
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 4:45 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
After the 3rd circle I just give up, WAMMA isn’t about producing fights, dictating fights and hasn’t even suggested fights.
WAMMA is simply another incentive (carrot dangling at the end of the stick) to entice promoters into pursuing top match ups. The reward is to dangle another belt around a promotion;s fighter and a few extra avenues of advertisements.
How do you want me to argue with his false example/result based on a made up Lawler/Lindland fight?
False example?
it’s not a false example at all man. They said it DIRECTLY to me it’s documented in the interview I did with them.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 6, 2009 10:07 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
UFC didn't ask for WAMMA.
The UFC has been around way longer than WAMMA. The UFC didn’t ask for WAMMA. The UFC has no obligation to help WAMMA. Holding anything against the UFC for not wanting to join something they didn’t ask for is crazy in my opinion.
They are choosing to shun the UFC.
How did Dream recognize WAMMA?
How can they call Aoki the chapmion when Dream treated them exactly the way the UFC does?
How can they make comments like they did about BJ Penn not fighting a ranked contender in x amount of time when Fedor had gone years without fighting ranked fighters before getting his title shot?
They are hypocrites, so they suck. Period.
WAMMA is a joke, so is Sam Caplan, I literally made him cry when he wrote about Fantasy Football back in the day because I knew more about football than him, so he quit that and jumped on the MMA bandwagon even though he knew nothing about the sport and fabricates that he’s watched it for however long when he just saw an opportunity to jump on the bandwagon to cover the sport.
Sam Caplan also said DREAM sucked as an org when they were only at their 2nd show (DREAM 2)…
Thats my opinion of Caplan, a joke.
But WAMMA is a whole different story and an even bigger joke. Looking at the list of women though I do wish we could get ALL of them in a single org, looks like Strikeforce is the place for that, wish they would get them all though…
Yes, but the rankings have input from more people than just Caplan, and Caplan has learned on the job in MMA, but then again, most have, and most are not Jordan Breen’s, but that is to be expected in MMA since it came from the underground up.
Also, there are a good amount of the women MMA fighters that WAMMA used as input for the rankings, which is a huge plus.
Promotions can now set up mega matches and rankings to set up matches, which is a huge deal since no one knew whether a women fighter was good or not since most are not hard core fans or follow womens MMA. This is a good thing for womens MMA and hopefully for sites will start ranking them as well. WAMMA is a good jump start for them since they had NOTHING before.
WAMMA is a joke, they aren’t doing anything for the good of mma.
and promotions need WAMMA to know to make good matches between the best female fighters?? what kinda sense does that make? and no one knew who was good in womens mma? maybe you didn’t, I’de say most people here did or at least the top 4-5.
Obviously you have some weird love for WAMMA so arguing it with you would be pointless…
Hahaha. You are joking, only hard cores maybe, and that’s a BIG MAYBE know the top 5 of 3 weight classes of womens MMA.
It is a way for female fighters to be showcased to the public who is unaware of a fighter outside of Gina Carano. Why would they care about 10 hardcore fans who could name the top 5 in 3 weight classes for female fighters.
P.S.
1) The post is not about WAMMA being a joke or not, its about Women Rankings.
2) No one does things that doesn’t benefit themselves in anyway.
Any post involving WAMMA is at least partially “about WAMMA.”
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
Yes, but you would hope you would talk about the other aspect of the post as well.
I guess people are too caught up on how WAMMA is a joke.
I guess people like to write the same things over and over again and give high five’s to each other instead of discussing something more relevant.
Rankings by organizations...
with no credibility are not “relevant” simply by existing. I get that you think the ranking board names make it more relevant but I don’t.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 5:53 PM EST up reply actions
My opinion on why it is a joke.
Tara LaRosa is ranked #1. She hasn’t fought another Top 10 fighter in well over a year.
I thought WAMMA had a rule that you had to fight another Top 10 fighter with-in a year to be considered for that weight class. Didn’t they say if BJ Penn went longer than a year without fighting another top 10 lightweight then he wouldn’t be eligible to be voted on as a lightweight. Or is that just a WAMMA rule for UFC fighters.
I know these are the first set of rankings but it just goes to show they are changing their rules to suit whatever their needs be at the time. It shows they are a fraud.
I called this when the news first came out. They didn’t start these women’s rankings to help women’s MMA. They created these rankings because they were hoping Carano and Santos would be at the top and they could make that a WAMMA title fight. Not only are they at the top they are tied. What a stroke of luck for WAMMA. See this isn’t about women’s MMA for them. It’s about WAMMA’s need to get WAMMA titles on people so they can sell the sponsorship to make money.
I thought WAMMA had a rule that you had to fight another Top 10 fighter with-in a year to be considered for that weight class. Didn’t they say if BJ Penn went longer than a year without fighting another top 10 lightweight then he wouldn’t be eligible to be voted on as a lightweight. Or is that just a WAMMA rule for UFC fighters.
You just need to face fighter in your weight class. That opponent doesn’t need to be ranked.
To remain champ...
you have to fight a top 10 fighter in a 12 month period (at least that’s their rule for now until it becomes more convenient to alter that)
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 3:44 PM EST up reply actions
Growing pains, we all have them.
To address the point of women, there was no such thing as an official women’s ranking that they could go off of, so they could hold that true from March 09 to March 10 now.
We also have to take into account that women fight out of their class all the time due to the lack of big name fighters and promotions who even do women’s MMA.
Growing from being completely full of shit to less so? Fuck WAMMA for going against its own ranking criteria.
by Derek Suboticki on Mar 5, 2009 4:48 PM EST up reply actions
To clarify..
wasn’t disagreeing with you bignerd…just saying that per their rules
1) you have to fight in your weight class at some point in the 12 month period
2) you have to fight a top 10 fighter in a 12 month period to remain champion
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 3:47 PM EST up reply actions
1) It’s pretty hard for LaRosa or anyone else to fight a top ten fighter in the past year or so since meaningful rankings for women did not exist.
2) If you think Gina or Cyborg are not at the top of the 145 lb’ers, then state who you think is. I think there would have been more biased if Gina was the undesputed #1.
3) WAMMA is composed of many writers, fighters, etc in MMA, and LaRosa, Roxy, Sexton, Buckner, Baszler, were all involved in this WAMMA ploy to make Gina and Cyborg tied for #1 spots?
LaRosa has come out recently and said she has no beef with Carano. The only reason there was animosity in the path was because she thought Carano couldn’t fight and was only getting promoted because she was pretty, but now that she has shown she can kick the ass of a lot of highly touted opposition she thinks Carano is good for the sport.
I’ll find the source if I can, but I can’t remember if it were a video or an article.
WAMMA's Biggest Problem.
They have no power to make the fights happen.
Look at Aoki they just made him a champion. I think… I haven’t seen him say anything about it or a picture of him with his WAMMA belt.
Anyway Aoki is now fighting at a different weight class. WAMMA has no control over that. They can’t tell their own champion who to fight next.
WAMMA can not tell their own WAMMA Champions who they are fighting next. Somebody please explain to me how that makes sense and how they can fix the problems they say they were created to fix if they can’t do that.
They don’t, but no one can force BJ to keep fighting at LW either if he so changes his mind, as he has done before.
Yea I realize BJ can do whatever he wants.
But that doesn’t explain to me how WAMMA can fix the problems they say they were created to fix if they can’t make the fights their rankings tell them should be made.
Their whole creation was based on giving us fans a true champion.
If they can’t make the fights to get a true champion then aren’t they a joke?
Not sure what you are complaining about? Do you want them to take over all of MMA match making? That’s never been the job of any sanctioning body.
I'm not complaining.
I’m just pointing out that they don’t have the power to do what they say they were created to do. They say they were created to make it possible for the best fighters to fight the best fighters. To give us the #1 ranked vs. the #2 ranked to give us a true champion so-to-speak.
Isn’t that what they said they were created for?
Without having any kind of match making ability they can’t fulfill their stated goal for why they were created.
It’s equivalent to the UFC saying they have the best fighters in the world but they can’t get Fedor in the UFC, which means they are not doing what they intended to do since the HW Belt is not really the best HW fighter in the world.
UFC Heavyweight Championship
would imply champion of heavyweights fighting in the UFC. VERY different from “unbiased undisputed champion outside of promotional boundries” that WAMMA claims to be
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 4:11 PM EST up reply actions
Ha?
Are you saying that you disagree?
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 4:16 PM EST up reply actions
Of course not...
but they’re not claiming to be an independent body that doesn’t care about promotional affiliations. I see nothing wrong with UFC saying they have every fighter worth having in the world as that makes sense from a promotional business model.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 4:20 PM EST up reply actions
No it's not.
WAMMA said they were created as a “Sanctioning Body” to make it possible for the best fighters to fight the best fighters. To give us the #1 ranked vs. the #2 ranked to give us a true champion so-to-speak.
The UFC is an actual fight promotion that pays fighters to fight and they can make matches.
So it’s even close to being the same thing.
They are not out to force #1 vs #2 fights upon promotions. They are around to influence promotions into staging such match ups.
and not rewarding fighters...
when they take place in them
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 4:22 PM EST up reply actions
So then you admit...
they are a for-profit organization that will only be involved in fights that they can make money off of?
End of discussion. They can’t be both that AND claiming that they are going to crown undisputed champions with no regard for where they fight.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 4:46 PM EST up reply actions
That’s not what I said at all.
I said how can you expect them compensate any fighter if there isn’t a revenue stream?
Reward =
acknowledging them as the best fighter in the weight division…not paying them
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 4:55 PM EST up reply actions
They do acknowledge a few fighters and do their best to promote participating promotions with their skeleton budget.
There seems to be a dispute with WAMMA and UFC. However, you always conclude it’s WAMMA excluding the UFC when there is no information to decide either way.
If WAMMA were as predatory as claimed there would be WW, MM and LHW belts around none UFC fighters.
No...
they can’t with WW and LHW because they don’t have another option for challengers (they say that you have to be in the top 10 to fight for the title) and with MW they already made it clear that they were gunning for an obviously bad fight for a title.
The dispute is that the UFC said “no thanks, we won’t say your name on TV” so WAMMA said “this doesn’t work for us so we’re not doing it” that’s paraphrasing but is exactly what WAMMA’s CEO, VP and COO told me and I do have audio of the interview with the CEO and COO if you don’t trust my transcribing of the interview with them.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 5:18 PM EST up reply actions
WAMMA has stated they won’t be paying their champions. Paying their Champions isn’t in their plans.
They believe fighters should consider it a privilege to wear the WAMMA belt and as the WAMMA Champion they should feel awesome about promoting WAMMA for free.
They stated he was the only one that is going to be receiving a ring I believe.
Also I believe that had little to do with compensating Fedor for something. That was done as an act of self-promotion by WAMMA. $20k spent trying to buy some good press was all that was. Plus just another bit of promotion that Fedor had to do for WAMMA.
But the reason WAMMA said they were created is to give fans the match-ups they wanted to see and to give us a true champion. If they can’t make the match-ups then they can’t do what they say they were created to do.
The promoters are still doing everything WAMMA says they were created to do. So basically there is no need for WAMMA.
Yeah..
because the UFC certainly hasn’t given us
GSP/Fitch, GSP/Penn, Penn/Florian, Griffin/Evans, Griffin/Jackson, Silva/Okami (didn’t happen due to injury), Silva/Franklin….
Man…that’s right. the UFC NEVER puts on fights featuring guys who are at the top of their division. It’s a good thing WAMMA is here to go “oh…you’re putting on Fedor/Arlovski? Let us put our name on that…even though we have no hand in it actually happening”
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 4:51 PM EST up reply actions
And I still don’t understand why WAMMA can’t give out belts to Rashad, GSP, BJ, Mike Brown, or Torres.
FEG wanted nothing to do with them yet they still “sanctioned” Aoki vs. Alvarez. I think if they really want to follow through with their goal they shouldn’t give a crap what the promoters say.
Why?
They can be champions without actually carrying the belt around.
See Aoki…
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 4:07 PM EST up reply actions
Would DREAM be okay with Aoki sporting the belt?
Kinda devalues the one that Hansen has, don’t you think?
If WAMMA was serious about crowning the undisputed champions in the weight divisions, they wouldn’t be caring about getting their faces on TV. All they would have to do is hand out their undisputed belts to say a GSP, or Anderson Silva outside of the UFC. The UFC isn’t going to get pissed because some nothing organization decided to give one of their fighters a belt. Even if they don’t actually give them a belt, just acknowledging the correct champion as the undisputed champion would give them far more credibility with fans.
They can’t just waltz in and say, “ok, our belt is the only one that matters now” and then go ahead and try and morph the rankings to suit the organizations that will work with them. That’s just nutty.
In regards to these womens rankings, they really don’t mean jack shit. They are just a list of names on a page. If Strikeforce came out tomorrow and said they were putting on a fight between Gina Carano and some 0-0 chick that hadn’t fought before then WAMMA’s rankings would just seem pointless as a tool that is meant to give guidelines on who should be fighting who to get to the top.
Sure its nice to see a list of female names up in a ranked order, but as of right now your post is about as relevant to me as if you had a post telling me MMA Bay had its own set of female fighter rankings.
The UFC wouldn’t allow one of its fighters to wear a belt from another promotion, specially WAMMA, so it would be pointless for WAMMA to give them a belt.
Unless...
you know…they were trying to live up to their own mission statement
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 6, 2009 2:24 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
WAMMA does not deserve and hasn’t earned defenders like you.
by Derek Suboticki on Mar 7, 2009 12:27 AM EST up reply actions
And of course if you can show that other people are dishonest, it makes it okay for you to be dishonest, too.
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
by Richard Wade on Mar 7, 2009 12:50 AM EST up reply actions
They planned on doing this months ago. It was always part of their plans.
Its as good of a question as saying, does WAMMA have a LHW ranking system even though the UFC has all the top LHW’s. The answer is obviously yes.
I could easily find you an interview where they said 4-6 months ago that they were currently working on Women Rankings.
That much is true...
they stated back in the day that Women’s rankings were a goal of theirs
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 4:12 PM EST up reply actions
didn’t they also state that a “goal of theirs” was to crown undisputed champions in each weight class??
Sure, they never gave a timeline, so that goal can last as long as they are around, hoping one day all promotions work together. Nothing wrong with that.
ya, I hope to and am GOING TO sleep with Jessica Alba, its a goal of mine. No timeline so as long as I’m alive I’m not lying…
Why should their be co-promotions?
In other areas of business companies don’t co-promote their competitors.
Why should MMA be any different?
“A tournament formed by the Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association…”
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
No...
the other countries (NOT leagues) have to work with them. It’s not a joint promoted tournament…it is an MLB hosted event with various countries putting together teams if they want inclusion.
And saying The Olympics is a co-promotion makes very little sense to me in the context of this conversation.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 6:50 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Which makes sense in that case.
World Cup, Olympics, WBC, FIBA, FIFA, all work together at some point to get the best players in a tournament to determine who is the best, the essence of working together.
No...
allowing people to participate in an event is much different from “working together” and is WORLDS apart from co-promotion.
If I decide to put on a slow-pitch softball tournament to see who the best team in Michigan is all participating teams are not “working together” with me. They are taking part in a tournament I am hosting…same with the WBC, World Cup…etc
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 7:39 PM EST up reply actions
Forget the word co-promoted.
I said working together.
All fans care about is seeing the best fight best, the best play the best, etc, no matter how it is done, which is why I said working together. Working together means working with others. I really don’t understand what you are arguing here.
Because...
the implication was that “every sport has co-promotion” or “works with other leagues” for major events…which is basically untrue
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 8:11 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
theres a HUGE difference between a governing body and sanctioning body/organization…
and also a difference between legit sanctioning bodies and a group of fame and fortune seeking people that claim they are or want to be a sanctioning organization but instead are a complete joke (aka WAMMA)…
Ease up...
lets keep it productive
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 11:29 PM EST up reply actions
Wrong? So I went away? Hahahaa….
More like I have more important things to do.
How was I wrong again? You telling me there is a HUGE difference between a governing body and sanctioning body (really?) and one that is not considered legit at all? When you make a good point let me know.
What I stated is that all fans care about is seeing the best fight best, the best play the best, etc, no matter how it is done, which is why I said working together. Working together means working with others. If the UFC decided to hold an event and invited others to join, no one would have a problem with it (although the UFC wouldn’t do something like this). However it is done really does not matter to anyone, as long as we get the final result and different entities cooperate.
Again, you’re still thinking you are correct in thinking things like the World Cup is different entities working together. FIFA isn’t doing that. Which is where you don’t understand the difference between governing body and sanctioning body.
I like how you try and change what you say, just above you’re agreeing with another person who apparently doesn’t know about sports saying plenty of sports have co-promotion, you call the Olympics the essence of working together (implying co-promotion), I said World Cup, you say thats also working together (implying co-promotion)…
you’ve been wrong about all of that, and now you’re trying to say you didn’t say that and just said fans want to see the best fight the best (really?)…Trying to change what you’re saying is laughable, since we can see what you posted above…
sorry I actually know how international tourneyments and events actually work, and tried to share with you so you stopped looking ridiculous trying to compare the olympics to co-promotion in MMA, a comparison which makes no sense, no matter how much you try and spin what you were originally saying.
Oh well, was just trying to educate on sports, some people think they know, but they just don’t know, and they never will.
I did say co-promotion, but I didn’t mean it that way, so I clarified with working together. I said forget I even mentioned co-promotion.
I agreed to the fact that co-promoted was the wrong term to use, and changed it to working together. I explained that throughout my posts, which makes your argument of differentiating between governing body and sanctioning body almost pointless, since I retracted my statement. I appreciate your explanation though.
I Am Posting This Because It Has Everything To Do With Women's MMA
and nothing to do with WAMMA, which many people here fail to even acknowledge.
WHOA!
Excuse my lack of knowledge, but who’s that?
by Monday Morning Martial Artist on Mar 6, 2009 3:14 AM EST up reply actions
In turning to the actual rankings...
I see LaRosa received votes for the 145 lb top ten. I’m curious. Has she competed above 135? I always thought of her as a 135er.
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
There looks to be a lot of split vote and confusion about who is in what weightclass. The article Cannon just posted points out the issues and the WAMMA ranking speak to that point.
Cannon just posted an article?
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
Ah, I see it (on the front page).
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
Yup, and all of this should be cleared up once women fight in a promotion not going under and when the talent pool grows. With shows on Showtime and CBS, I think it is heading in the right direction, that the poles will fix themselves.
I mean, we have Dan Henderson and Rich Franklin, Wandy, BJ, Silva all jumping between weight classes, so it is not like this is something new here.
Just for fun...
Taking all those receiving votes at featherweight and ranking them by Fight Matrix’s point system gets you a top ten of:
1. Tara LaRosa
2. Gina Carano
3. Christian Santos
t-4. Erin Toughill
t-4. Tonya Evinger
t-6. Yuko Yamanaka
t-6. Cindy Dandois
t-8. Megumi Yabushita
t-8. Miesha Tate
10. Marloes Coenen
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
The same for "Super Bantamweight"
1. Tara LaRosa
2. Takayo Hashi
3. Roxanne Modafferi
4. Hitomi Akano
t-5. Amanda Buckner
t-5. Sarah Kaufman
t-5. Tonya Evinger
8. Rosie Sexton
9. Shayna Baszler
t-10. Ginele Marquez
t-10. Miesha Tate
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
And "Bantamweight"...
1. Megumi Fuji
2. Tara LaRosa
3. Yuka Tsuji
4. Miku Matsumoto
5. Takayo Hashi
6. Ana Michelle Tavarez
t-7. Hitomi Akano
t-7. Yasuko Tamada
9. Rin Nakai
10. Seo See Ham
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
These rankings make more sense to me than the WAMMA ones. I’m not as familiar with the Bantamweight. However, I do still think that any rankings of women are premature at this point.
by Cannon Jacques on Mar 5, 2009 6:13 PM EST up reply actions
I like Fight Matrix’s rankings because I at least know he has a system in place.
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
I am not even clear what the weight classes are for the WAMMA womens rankings. It is not on there site.
From the press release...
“The rankings, currently available in their entirety at Go Wamma – Home Page, consist of top ten rankings in the bantamweight (115.1-125 pounds), super bantamweight (125.1-135 pounds), and featherweight (135.1-145 pounds) weight classes.”
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
meh
I only go to their site when I’m putting together the meta-rankings.
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
Yeah, I go to there site some time after that when I see the wamma ranking in the meta-rankings and want to see who ranked that garbage.
I thought people always complained about MMA Weekly’s rankings.
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
because...
they’re awful
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 5, 2009 7:39 PM EST up reply actions
One more use of the wrong “there/their” and you’re gone. ;-)
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
I have some sort of editing. It’s called deleting my comment and posting it again. Sadly, there’s nothing we can do for you guys.
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
by Richard Wade on Mar 5, 2009 10:08 PM EST up reply actions
Yes, but I want Goldberg’s perspective.
by Derek Suboticki on Mar 5, 2009 6:04 PM EST up reply actions
Has Erin Toughill ever actually fought at 145?
Yes, she’s an elite fighter, or at least was at one point, but I wasn’t aware that she’d ever fought at less than 150 lbs.
Also, I’m pretty sure that when she took up boxing she fought at 160.
WAMMA is biased agianst fighters.
WAMMA was also created to help protect the rights of fighters.
Well WAMMA is biased against any fighter that is employed by any MMA Promotion that won’t work with them.
Any fighter that is employed by any MMA Promotion that won’t work with WAMMA is not eligible for the WAMMA title.
That means WAMMA is biased against those fighters. Totally contradicting what they say they were created for.
Then why not give one to GSP, Silva and Evans??
by Derek Suboticki on Mar 6, 2009 2:02 PM EST up reply actions
How is giving that title to Aoki working out for them?
Any answer to why they are being biased against GSP, Silva, and Evans?
funny how (not specifically here at BE) most of the biggest supporters/fans of WAMMA dislike the UFC and say WAMMA is around to give us the best fighting the best, and thats one of the goals of WAMMA. Yet the UFC gives us a majority of the best v. the best fights and WAMMA gives us what amounts to exactly nothing, and does nothing for the sport.
Love WAMMA because they can’t and don’t do anything for mma.
Hate/Dislike UFC because they give us by far the best fights in mma.
I find it comical…and odd that people can think like that…
Hey good news...
April 25th is their next show.
Participants:
Yuka Tsuji 21-1-0
Naoko Omuro 8-7-3
Kyoko Takabayashi 8-3-0
Roxanne Modafferi 13-4-0
Contributor Emeritus - BloodyElbow.com
Wow
Lots of comments here.
For the record, I do vote for WAMMA.
The way I look at it is this, while I don’t agree with they way they have positioned themselves in the public eye, I A) Enjoy having motivation to submit personal top 10 rankings monthly, and B) Figure despite the public relations shortcomings, the rankings stand alone are interesting due to the variety of journalists brought in across the MMA spectrum.
That’s my two cents.
But the rankings are a joke
Who is the top ten HW that Josh Barnett faced in the last 12 months to maintain his ranking (per WAMMA’s own criteria)? The answer is ‘no one’ .
by Derek Suboticki on Mar 7, 2009 2:47 PM EST up reply actions
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