Seeding Aldo vs. Mendes (UFC 142)

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(Sort of) in the tradition of Mike Fagan's Fightlines, I bring you UFC 142's Dirty Dozen, the twelve fighters surrounding this Saturday's featherweight title bout. Under ideal circumstances, this bracket would of course feature a Sweet Sixteen so to speak, but the unpredictability of MMA makes it difficult for its practitioners to consistently perform well against others who do the same.

Blue fighters were seeded into the first round of the bracket, with no special consideration. Green fighters received one level of privilege, either a bye to the second round, or an extra seed elsewhere in the first. Yellow fighters were granted some combination of the two (for example, a two-round bye, or a ridiculous three total seeds).

In each individual match, the then-betting favorite is positioned above the underdog. Only two upset losses occurred en route to Aldo vs. Mendes, and they were both suffered by Mike Brown, who was initially afforded the most favorable conditions to reach the final round (two seeds and a single bye).

Seeding, as extrapolated from betting odds and pairings:

1. Aldo
2. Mendes
3. MTB
4. Florian
5. MTB (again)
   
6. Yahya
7. Omigawa
8. Hominick
9. Roop
10. Escovedo
11. Nunes
12. Vazquez
13. Gamburyan

Not much to analyze here, it's just an alternative way to look at the title picture at 145.