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USAT/SBN August 2009 MMA Consensus Rankings

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The August USA TODAY/Sports Blog Nation MMA Consensus Rankings are now live. Be sure and pick up a hard copy of USA TODAY to see them in print.

Based on the premise that all MMA rankings are subjective but that it’s still useful and informative to know who the online MMA community as a whole ranks as the best fighters in MMA, we collect and average the rankings of the top MMA websites to produce our consensus rankings. We compile the top MMA rankings from each of our sources and award 25 points 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. This formula ensures that each ranking site awards the same number of total points regardless of how many fighters they choose to rank. Each fighter’s total is divided by the number of possible points to determine their standing in the Consensus Rankings.

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Why is Arlovski now rated above Brett Rogers? That really doesn’t make sense to me.

But if you are stupid, you will be beaten with a stick - Proverbs 10:13

by Ominous on Aug 27, 2009 11:47 AM EDT reply actions   1 recs

Unbelievable.

...Behold, a pale horse. The man that sat upon it was Wieters, and hell followed with him.

"BJ on the BE" - Kierkegaard

by Brett Jones on Aug 27, 2009 11:53 AM EDT up reply actions  

1) I have to say this, so sorry if you already know, but we only compile the rankings. They are based on the opinions of over 20 top MMA sites.
2) Most rankers apparently feel that Arlovski’s career accomplishments outweigh Roger’s quick KO win over him.

This is a common occurrence — many ranked Randy Couture over Brock Lesnar after his loss to Lesnar because of Lesnar’s thin ranking at that time.

Some even ranked Matt Serra below Georges St Pierre after Serra beat GSP to take the title.

It’s a not unreasonable position.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Aug 27, 2009 11:55 AM EDT up reply actions  

also the reason for the movement

is due to an eccentricity of the consensus rankings, since we have a cut off date for sites that haven’t updated recently, our panel ends up changing a bit from month to month. This can cause considerable movement in the lower rankings from month to month but only in isolated instances does it impact the top 10 as in this case.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Aug 27, 2009 11:58 AM EDT up reply actions  

It’s just odd that they’ve swapped places.

In the last rankings Rogers was 8 and AA was 9, now they’ve switched.

Not your fault, but it’s odd for it to switch like that.

by Phildo on Aug 27, 2009 12:02 PM EDT up reply actions  

yeah

we had a tighter cut off deadline last month because of UFC 100 so that changed our panel a bit more than we usually like.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Aug 27, 2009 12:07 PM EDT up reply actions  

Oh I know you only compile the rankings and I wasn’t trying to criticize you guys at all, I just thought it kind of funny/strange that they swapped spots. But thank you for explaining.

But if you are stupid, you will be beaten with a stick - Proverbs 10:13

by Ominous on Aug 27, 2009 12:20 PM EDT up reply actions  

I addressed this in the comments of the Heavyweight post.

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 Aug 27, 2009 5:25 PM EDT up reply actions  

I’ll wait for the actual posts on the weights before commenting, so that it would make for better discussions cause everyone will be on point.. :)

by Anton Tabuena on Aug 27, 2009 12:06 PM EDT reply actions  

Jamie Varner went up 4 places in the rankings while being sidelined with injuries.

?

Keep firing Assholes!

ZE GOGGLES! ZAY DO NOZING!!!!

by Ubernoober on Aug 27, 2009 12:17 PM EDT reply actions  

that has more to do with the panel composition changing

from July to August.
We had a really short cut off date because of the timing and magnitude of the UFC 100 title fights.
Normally we’d let the rankings be a little slow, but with the USA TODAY deal we couldn’t delay the biggest fight.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Aug 27, 2009 12:27 PM EDT up reply actions  

It’s one of those things that make you go whuh?

Keep firing Assholes!

ZE GOGGLES! ZAY DO NOZING!!!!

by Ubernoober on Aug 27, 2009 12:29 PM EDT up reply actions  

yeah

the lower rankings are especially susceptible to jumps like that because fewer sites do top 25 rankings than top 10 rankings.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Aug 27, 2009 1:00 PM EDT up reply actions  

Varner was ranked 10th by MMA Ratings who were not included in last months Consensus Rankings. Of the other three sites ranking him, he held steady in one (Inside MMA) and dropped one spot in two (Fight Magazine & Fight Matrix).

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 Aug 27, 2009 5:27 PM EDT up reply actions  

wow the first time in a while that the chump about to fight fedor didn’t make a miraculous jump to number two in the heavy weight rankings

by MMAFanatic on Aug 27, 2009 12:48 PM EDT reply actions  

Give it time, the fight only got announced yesterday. Won’t be as dramatic as others, but Rogers will rise.

by szucconi on Aug 27, 2009 12:49 PM EDT up reply actions  

Very true, but he is sitting at 9 now, get might get up to 4ish leading up to the fight. If he gets to 2 I will be breaking stuff.

by szucconi on Aug 27, 2009 12:55 PM EDT up reply actions  

It is the double standard of in the UFC and out of it. It is a little frustrating. It is easier to be a big fish when you are in a small pond. The UFC pulls all the big fish out of the pond so what is left are now the biggest fish in the pond, even if they are not keepers (i.e. the UFC threw them back). This happens at all weight classes to some extent and it is hard to account for. What drives me crazy is when the rankings sites don’t even try to understand. They make no effort to apply logic evenly. I am in no way saying its an easy task to devise fair ranking, in fact it is very very hard. Brett Jones has some of the best rankings in the biz, but they take him to long to crank out because he is constantly going over them and auditing himself. He kind of called it quits because they distracted him from his real job.

by szucconi on Aug 27, 2009 1:07 PM EDT up reply actions  

ye…. it’s prolly just wishful thinking on my part thinking he won’t jump up anymore

by MMAFanatic on Aug 27, 2009 12:57 PM EDT up reply actions  

He’ll jump the Nog/Couture loser. He shouldn’t, but he will. He’ll probably also move up over Barnett by the time the fedor fight happens. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go over AA. So that gets him up to 6 via some questionable, but not ridiculous movements.

If he hits the top 5, it would be joke.

by Phildo on Aug 27, 2009 1:01 PM EDT up reply actions  

if he goes ahead of nog or couture it will be a joke

by MMAFanatic on Aug 27, 2009 1:14 PM EDT up reply actions  

i don’t think it would be right, but I won’t call it a joke. The people will feel a need to move the loser down, so someone has to move up. Hopefully they’ll just let Carwin take the spot, but if they feel they need to move the loser more than 1 spot, it’ll be Rogers, it would be even more of a joke for Barnett to move ahead of one of them while suspended.

by Phildo on Aug 27, 2009 1:34 PM EDT up reply actions  

I mean not really suspended, just in steroid positive test limbo.

by Phildo on Aug 27, 2009 1:34 PM EDT up reply actions  

If Nog looks as bad as he did against MIr

then he should definitely drop below Rogers.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Aug 27, 2009 2:08 PM EDT up reply actions  

^this. Hate to say it, but it’s true.

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 Aug 27, 2009 5:28 PM EDT up reply actions  

Hopefully the panellists have enough common sense to realize that Rogers is just one of the best possible opponents available and not actually anyone other than a fringe-lower top 10 HW.

Hopefully.

I am the bastard love child of Junie Browning and Diamond Dave Kaplan.

by The_Gaijin on Aug 27, 2009 1:30 PM EDT via mobile reply actions  

Anyone else feel...

Silva’s ranked a little too low (#10) after the way toyed with the #5 ranked Forrest Griffin?

How’d they come up with that…

"We'll show up tomorrow and do the same thing we try to do every day, Kick Pedroia's ass in cribbage and try and win a baseball game."

by tito (eight and oh) on Aug 27, 2009 1:56 PM EDT reply actions  

Lots of places won’t rank him at both MW and LHW.

by Phildo on Aug 27, 2009 2:00 PM EDT up reply actions  

exactly

when fighters jump between weight classes it hurts their rankings.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Aug 27, 2009 2:09 PM EDT up reply actions  

Interesting...

So I’m guessing him staying at 100% for Middleweight even though his last fight was at LH is more a testament to his dominance.

"We'll show up tomorrow and do the same thing we try to do every day, Kick Pedroia's ass in cribbage and try and win a baseball game."

by tito (eight and oh) on Aug 27, 2009 2:18 PM EDT up reply actions  

yeah

there are several sites that are bending their rules by ranking silva at MW when his last fight was at LHW. but I understand why they do it.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Aug 27, 2009 3:49 PM EDT up reply actions  

Why not rank him in both divisions? Like say a fighter has a ranking in ever division they have fought in.

A man should never waste an opportunity to keep his mouth shut.

by iiowyn on Aug 27, 2009 3:51 PM EDT up reply actions  

that's what most of the sites who ranked him at LHW

did.
but htere are a couple that explicity say they rank according to last fight.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Aug 27, 2009 4:03 PM EDT up reply actions  

A little flaw in logic there. He has had 2 fights at LHW, good ones, but now he is ranked. So my guess is they are counting his body of work at MW, illogical. I say rank him independently at both. ignore his fights at LHW when ranking him at MW and so on. He is fighting more frequently at MW then other fighters that are ranked, yet gets penalized because he takes a fight at LHW between MW bouts. Has BE thought about enforcing some sort of classification rules among rankers or is it totally hands off?

by szucconi on Aug 27, 2009 4:10 PM EDT up reply actions   1 recs

And if this were the case...

Wouldn’t you rank him a bit higher than 10th in the LH division??

"We'll show up tomorrow and do the same thing we try to do every day, Kick Pedroia's ass in cribbage and try and win a baseball game."

by tito (eight and oh) on Aug 28, 2009 9:38 AM EDT up reply actions  

the sites that are ranking him

are ranking him around #5.
its the sites that aren’t ranking him at all at LHW that are pulling him down.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Aug 28, 2009 9:56 PM EDT up reply actions  

Zuffa has 54 of the 70 Top 10 Ranked Fighters. That’s amazing.

by AlwaysRelaxing on Aug 27, 2009 2:54 PM EDT reply actions  

WOW!!!

never really noticed it before, but DAMN!!!

Everyone has a game plan, untell they get hit.

by mma is #1 on Aug 27, 2009 2:57 PM EDT up reply actions  

I honestly would have thought they’d have more. I presume the lower weight classes (155 and below) are skewed towards the Japanese promotions.

I am the bastard love child of Junie Browning and Diamond Dave Kaplan.

by The_Gaijin on Aug 27, 2009 3:02 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions  

Heavyweight & Lightweight has 9 guys total who are outside Zuffa. So they really have the other divisions on lockdown. And even Heavyweight will likely be on lockdown within a year or two. I don’t see the same happening to the Lightweight Division.

by AlwaysRelaxing on Aug 27, 2009 3:25 PM EDT up reply actions  

HW will be totally locked down by end of 2010. Either Fedor beats the outside guys left in the top 10 (or around the fringes) or loses and likely tumbles down the rankings unless he comes to the UFC to redeem himself (which 99.9% wouldn’t happen bc his leverage would be 0 and Vadim won’t get his $).

And for the love of god Barnett better not be there much longer if all he’s going to do is fight in puro matches for Inoki and against whatever other plugs are left overseas.

I am the bastard love child of Junie Browning and Diamond Dave Kaplan.

by The_Gaijin on Aug 27, 2009 3:35 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions  

It looks like the WEC really has a lock on their weight classes too(top ten at least). Light Heavyweight is almost completely in the UFC for the entire top 25.

The Breakdown of top 5, top 10, top 25:
Heavyweight…………4/5, 5/10, 14/25 in UFC
Light Heavyweight…..5/5, 10/10, 22/25 in UFC
Middleweight……….. 5/5, 8/10, 14/25 in UFC
Welterweight ………..4/5, 9/10, 19/25 in UFC
Lightweight…………..3/5, 6/10, 14/25 in UFC/WEC
Featherweight……….4/5, 7/10, 11/25 in WEC
Bantamweight……….4/5, 9/10, 14/25 in WEC

by who me on Aug 27, 2009 9:00 PM EDT up reply actions  

Lw ranking is giving UFC roster 2 much credit

by Silverobot on Aug 27, 2009 3:29 PM EDT reply actions  

Nah…I think that it would be tough to put anyone else in there. I really don’t think Aoki is the 2nd best LW in the world. The wrestling base and size of most UFC 155ers would be heaps of trouble for most DREAM guys, with the exception of maybe Eddie.

I am the bastard love child of Junie Browning and Diamond Dave Kaplan.

by The_Gaijin on Aug 27, 2009 3:41 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions  

Eddie Alvarez

wants no part of the UFC LW division. He’d get smoked by about five guys there.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Aug 27, 2009 3:50 PM EDT up reply actions  

I don’t see Eddie Alvarez doing anything that guys like Gray Maynard, Diego Sanchez, or even Joe Stevenson can’t do. Don’t get me wrong, he is a talented fighter, but he wouldn’t be a champion in the UFC. Kind of like Thomson and Melendez as well. Heck, Thomson got beat down by Guida, and Clay is about a .500 fighter in the UFC (still quality, but not top the heap).

by AlwaysRelaxing on Aug 27, 2009 3:54 PM EDT up reply actions  

I think Thomson had improved after the Guida fight

his injuries might mean he’s no longer at the level he was when he beat melendez tho.
Alvarez is very good and could potentially contend in the UFC, but I don’t see him winning a title in that division.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Aug 27, 2009 4:04 PM EDT up reply actions  

well id just take out sherk and put thompson or melendez in 10/11 since melendez beat kawajiri and thompson beat melendez

by Silverobot on Aug 27, 2009 4:09 PM EDT up reply actions  

I for one, agree. His strength in Japan is his wrestling and there more then a few great wrestlers in the UFC that are better then him at wrestling. He has promise, but his rise was a little quick.

by szucconi on Aug 27, 2009 3:55 PM EDT up reply actions  

Hmmm…I must profess some red-faced-ness for making that statement and getting my butt handed to me by you boys so soundly.

Just to be clear I didn’t mean to say he’d be winning any belts soon, he’s still a burgeoning prospect with tonnes of hype (which I think is/will be justified) – remember I said maybe to cover my butt! :)

 My thought was that he’s a pretty decent wrestler with good quickness and some heavy mitts – thus while he’s not going to outwrestle a lot of those guys, he’d be able to keep himself in good (out of bad) situations and get into scrambles in order to punish guys with strikes.

I am the bastard love child of Junie Browning and Diamond Dave Kaplan.

by The_Gaijin on Aug 27, 2009 4:18 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions  

he's definitely a prospect

and i’d love to see him in the UFC but if anyone can be said to be ducking the ufc to protect their ranking and fat paydays its Alvarez.
He made really good money in Bellator and would probably be getting what $30/$30 in the UFC? and he might go 0-3 and get cut.
he’d be a fool to do anything but stay out of the ufc for as long as possible. only if he can come in as an immediate contender should he make the jump.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Aug 27, 2009 10:52 PM EDT up reply actions  

Kid Nate, what are the 20 or so websites you get the info from??

Everyone has a game plan, untell they get hit.

by mma is #1 on Aug 27, 2009 4:01 PM EDT reply actions  

they're listed on the rankings page

click the icon.

Follow me on Twitter @KidNate

by Kid Nate on Aug 27, 2009 4:05 PM EDT up reply actions  

thanks.

Everyone has a game plan, untell they get hit.

by mma is #1 on Aug 27, 2009 4:08 PM EDT up reply actions  

I hate to be the one to bring it up

but USA Today printed Jorge Santiago as Jorge Sengoku.

Jeremiah Johnson
Contributor
FightMatrix.com

by Jeremiah Johnson. on Aug 27, 2009 4:41 PM EDT reply actions  

Can't really see it in this pic

go to http://i26.tinypic.com/1231te9.jpg if you want to see

bummer

Jeremiah Johnson
Contributor
FightMatrix.com

by Jeremiah Johnson. on Aug 27, 2009 4:44 PM EDT up reply actions  

Technically, you are correct. The best kind of correct. They can’t really recall the paper though.

by szucconi on Aug 27, 2009 4:45 PM EDT up reply actions  

Maybe Sengoku bought his naming rights.

But if you are stupid, you will be beaten with a stick - Proverbs 10:13

by Ominous on Aug 27, 2009 5:24 PM EDT up reply actions  

That’s funny.

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 Aug 27, 2009 5:31 PM EDT up reply actions  

Indeed.

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 Aug 27, 2009 5:32 PM EDT up reply actions  

The August USA TODAY/Sports Blog Nation MMA Consensus Rankings are now live.

Anyone else read this and hear it in your head with Bruce Buffer’s voice?

“Ladies and Gentleman, the August USA Today/SBN MMA rankings ARE NOW LIVE!”

Walla walla walla I'm an idiot.

by ufc4 on Aug 27, 2009 7:24 PM EDT reply actions  

I will from now on.

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 Aug 27, 2009 7:42 PM EDT up reply actions  

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