Debating the Importance of a Consensus Number One Ranked Fighter

isn’t that basically two options of ‘no’?

But in the event he does, Maia would have to be the consensus #1 MW. Also, Silva would deserve an immediate rematch IMO.

Matchups make the fight not rankings…….but rankings are important

I honestly couldn’t give a shit. Champion is the guy with the belt. Everybody else is the challenger. One way or other everybody is going to fight everybody. Well Unless your Fedor j/k lol

Strikeforce’s middleweight title bout between Dan Henderson and Jake Shields could become a legitimate contender for ranking the #1 middleweight in the world.

Sorry but this is just incredibly dumb. Shields has one official fight at MW (the Lawler fight was at a catchweight if I’m not mistaken), with a win over Miller. This is like saying if Hardy beats GSP, the outcome of the Diaz/Zaromskis fight could become a legitimate contender for ranking the #1 WW. Diaz fans might like that logic, but even if Maia did beat Silva, he would have two MW wins (Silva/Sonnen) that surpass anything both Hendo and Shields have done at that weight: Hendo fought Franklin at LHW, and his best wins at MW are over Bisping, Palhares, and Misaki back in 2006 which would go on to be avenged by Misaki (!).

Hendo’s a great fighter, but the brilliance he’s shown at LHW reveals quite a gap compared to what he’s done at MW.

While I agree rankings are largely irrelevant, it serves as a nice little merit based system for those who put in the work and get results as opposed to fighters that coast on success at other weights or who looked brilliant against sub par competition (like Kid Yamamoto). This might sound like Zuffa-centered logic, but I say the guy who wins the belt in the deepest division available gets the benefit of the doubt in terms of rank regardless of who looks better in some ma-and-pa organization.

Then again I say leave the top 10 rankings for contenders, and give whoever has the belt a nice little spot called “Champion”.

While I agree that it definitely creates a mess of confusion as to who is the #1 middleweight in the world, should we really care?

1. contender is a marketing tool only. The rankings will always be subjective unless you have beaten everyone below you, which never happens as a non-champ. Promoters always need to keep a viable challenger.

The only people who should really care are the owners. Spider losing makes the UFC middleweight division viable again. That translates to more PPV buys to determine the “true” #1 and that means more money in their pockets. Same goes for GSP and BJ. The UFC needs one of these “unbeatable” champions to lose to generate greater interest in those divisions.

Who would’ve though the UFC HW division would be more competitive than LW, WW and MW?

There is no such thing as an “important ranking” in terms of the sport itself. Rankings are just a fun hobby for dorks like me, and something for promoters to refer to in an oblique way to hype things.

Look I for one just wanna see the best matchups that can be put together. If my grandma is a good matchup for Anderson then imo she’s the no#1 contender.

and due to the unexpected nature of MMA in general, sometimes it’s pretty tough to come up with a consensus #1, but I understand the need to have such rankings. Personally, I’d rather see interesting or new fights.

There are consensus #1’s in almost every division in MMA. They are important. They shouldn’t be hard to identify. It’s #2 and beyond that is the hard part (i.e., determining a #1 contender, as stated in the post).

…but I don’t see that happening either.

I feel like “I just like great match-ups” was a loaded option in the poll.

Rankings should be qualitative instead of based on MMA math, but that relies on people to be reasonable and not intellectually lazy when analyzing fighters. Even if so-and-so beat this guy and the other guy beat the first guy, you can still look at each fighter, as a whole, and determine the objective truth about who is the more complete, better fighter, regardless of who got caught by who when.

Maia beats Anderson, Maia is #1. To be The Man, you have to beat The Man – and right now, The Spider is The Man.

I think a lot of confusion arises from not distinguishing between what a single fight means, and what a fighters history of fights in comparison to other fighters history means. A single fight does not necessarily mean fighter X is better than Y. It does however, provide promoters with a way in which to organize future fights. It gives a current but temporary ranking. #1 consensus ranking takes time and many fights to incrementally make a case.

For instance, if Maia does beat Silva, even convincingly, that doesn’t make Maia the better fighter period, it means he fought better that night and it gives people a temporary and referential relation between the two, a ranking. If he were to then continue winning, including rematches against silva, that accumulated history of fights would lend evidence to him being the premier fighter over other fighters in the division.

Rankings in MMA are especially fuzzy as we often see with the logic circles that are created (Marquardt > Maia > Sonnen > Marquardt…etc, etc) If Silva were not in the picture, having a #1 consensus fighter is really an impossibility. It would take many more fights with a clear trend to declare consensus rankings.

This same issue is why creating visualized rankings of MMA so difficult, and why a lot of people have problems interpreting the graphics that I think Brent publishes showing a divisions organizational structure.

I don’t see why we’d knock Silva off the #1 perch just because he lost one fight.

I am all for the idea of a linear title. If you beat the #1 ranked fighter, you become the #1 ranked fighter, period.
I don’t care if there are very good arguments that many other fighters are more deserving or more skilled. If you beat the best then you are the best until someone else can prove otherwise.
All the other spots should be up for debate but unless they lose or go a very long time without facing meaningful competition I don’t see how a fighter can lose the #1 spot.

I love a good clusterfuck.