USAT/SBN February 2011 MMA Consensus Rankings: Featherweight

by Richard Wade on Feb 25, 2011 12:35 PM EST in MMA Rankings

Rank	Fighter	%	Promotion	Last Rank
1	Jose Aldo	100	UFC	1
2	Hatsu Hioki	92	WVR	2
3	Chad Mendes	87	UFC	12
4	Manny Gamburyan	85	UFC	3
5	Marlon Sandro	71	Bellator	5
6	Diego Nunes	68	UFC	6
7	Michihiro Omigawa	67	UFC	4
8	Mark Hominick	63	UFC	9
9	Hiroyuki Takaya	59	K-1	7
10	Bibiano Fernandes	57	K-1	8
11	Dustin Poirier	49	UFC	10
12	Joe Warren	49	Bellator	11
13	Josh Grispi	35	UFC	13
14	Rani Yahya	33	UFC	17
15	Kazuyuki Miyata	28	K-1	18
16	Masanori Kanehara	25	WVR	15
17	Raphael Assuncao	24	UFC	16
18	Mike Brown	23	UFC	14
18	Yoshiro Maeda	23	WVR	20
20	Yuji Hoshino	19	WVR	21
21	LC Davis	19	UFC	19
22	Deividas Taurosevicius	15	Bellator	24
23	Leonard Garcia	14	UFC	25
23	Joachim Hansen	14	Superior Challenge	22
25	Koichiro Matsumoto	13	DEEP	33

#1 Jose Aldo will make his UFC debut at UFC 129 as he defends his title against #8 Mark Hominick. The winner’s next challenge will most likely be the winner of UFC 131’s bout between #6 LW Kenny Florian and #6 Diego Nunes.

#7 Michihiro Omigawa was ground out by #3 Chad Mendes in his return to the Octagon at UFC 126.

#5 Marlon Sandro signed with Bellator as the mass exodus from Japan continues. #12 Joe Warren was Bellator’s top featherweight prior to Sandro’s signing.

#2 Hatsu Hioki owns a win over Sandro, but still has one fight left on his deal with Sengoku. His preferred US destination is reportedly the UFC.

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.

We are now moving to what JCS of Fight Matrix has described as assumed rankings in an attempt to rank fighters who move between weight classes. This has been the biggest problem with the consensus rankings and we believe this new methodology will rectify that.

Let's take Anderson Silva for instance. 87% (13 of 15) of our panelists have him at Light Heavyweight and 100% (15 of 15) at Middleweight. On the 13 ballots that ranked Silva at 205, we took the average (21.2). We then reduced that number by half the percentage of Light Heavyweight ballots that he was not included on. Say he's not on 30% of them, then we do a 15% penalty on the average that we found in the previous step. That number is then used instead of the usual "normalization number" to provide points from those not ranking the fighter in the weight class in question. This avoids fighters being excessively penalized by confusion about which weight class they belong.

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So they'll be pushing Mendes

after the Hominick fight…..could he grind out Jose for 5 rounds?

by Scribonius Curio on Feb 25, 2011 12:41 PM EST reply actions

Mendes can grind out anybody for five rounds. Whether Aldo can prevent him from doing so is the question.

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by Derek Suboticki on Feb 25, 2011 1:02 PM EST up reply actions

i'm glad

omigawa didn’t fall too far. i was very impressed by him against mendes (though, obviously, even more impressed with mendes).

omigawa’s next fight will be huge for him. two straight losses and he’ll be looking at cut down to bantamweight, practically.

by Clifford J on Feb 25, 2011 12:52 PM EST reply actions

Takaya

What does Kevin Iole have against Takaya?

by Philosophy Pro on Feb 25, 2011 1:12 PM EST reply actions

Very frustrating to see Manny still ranked so high.

I understand how it happened, as Garcia and Brown were much more highly valued wins when he beat them, but urgh. I would pick pretty much everyone else in the top 10 to beat Manny.

BJJ > Sambo

by lowellthehammer on Feb 25, 2011 1:14 PM EST reply actions

Manny-Omigawa would probably be really fun.

by Derek Suboticki on Feb 25, 2011 2:06 PM EST up reply actions

Props for being the only guy to give Takaya some love.

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by Neil Manich on Feb 25, 2011 2:50 PM EST up reply actions

His rankings make me figure most people on the board aren't following MMA outside of the UFC.

Iole ranks him at 24 while Bibi is top 10? Same logic goes for Holland. And Sherdog/Botter rank Warren, who has precisely 1 notable win out of 7 fights, but not Takaya?

BJJ > Sambo

by lowellthehammer on Feb 25, 2011 4:51 PM EST up reply actions