You likely know that the UFC has an "official" rankings list that they update after every event. It was originally designed to be voted on by esteemed members of the media, and to be a way for casual fans to understand the relevance of a fight. If people didn't really know names like Jussier Formiga and Henry Cejudo, they might not care about their fight at all. But if you tell them that they're both top-five fighters in their division, there's some importance there. Seemed like a pretty good idea, right?
Well, it hasn't turned out that way. Pretty much all of the major media members in the sport refused to participate. I, on the other hand, signed up right away. I've always found rankings to be fascinating, and I naively thought that the idea of my little rankings list having an actual effect on fighter pay or treatment was patently ridiculous. I did this for a while, until I found out that it actually WOULD have an effect. So I quit. I wasn't the only one who did.
But after being baffled and disgusted by the lousy job the revised panel has done since then, I've decided that I'm going to do my own rankings on this very website. I'll focus on one division at a time.
The biggest thing here is that I want to be held accountable for my rankings. Faceless members of the panel submit their shitty lists and then don't provide any reasoning why they did what they did. I'd like to do the opposite. I want you to disagree with me, or at least challenge me on why I ranked a division this way. I will provide a brief description of where I differ from the panel, but I'm completely open to compelling arguments on why I may be incorrect.
Let's have a dialogue about this and as a community, maybe we can come up with the best damn rankings out there. What do you say? Let's do this! It's your chance to tell me I'm stupid and wrong! Everyone loves to do that, right!?
Today I'll start with the heavyweight division since it should (in theory) be the easiest to rank. To look at how the official panel has the division, go here for a reference point.
Here goes nothing!
Heavyweight
Champion : Fabricio Werdum
1. Cain Velasquez
2. Junior Dos Santos
3. Andrei Arlovski
4. Travis Browne
5. Stipe Miocic
6. Josh Barnett
7. Mark Hunt
8.. Ben Rothwell
9. Alistair Overeem
10. Frank Mir
11. Antonio Silva
12. Roy Nelson
13. Stefan Struve
14. Matt Mitrione
15. Ruslan Magomedov
Synopsis: I have Miocic ranked two spots lower than the rest of the panel simply because he has no signature wins. He has defeated Roy Nelson, and most recently Mark Hunt. That's not enough for him to be above Andrei Arlovski and Travis Browne. Arlovski's wins over Browne and a resurgent Mir are impressive. Both Browne and Miocic are hampered by losses to lower-ranked guys early in their UFC career (Silva and Struve respectively), but Browne's win over Barnett is better than anything on Miocic's resume.
I flip-flopped Hunt and Rothwell in the seven and eight spots. It's very close, and there's a case for either to be in seven. But with Hunt holding a win over Rothwell, I think it's still enough to have him in front. That's not always the case at HW since a lot of guys have lost to guys ranked lower than them, but it's the case here for me.
I put Struve above Mitrione simply because he has better wins. The win over Miocic is still better than anything Mitrione has done (his best win is Gabriel Gonzaga or Shawn Jordan). Mitrione also lost to Brendan Schaub, while Struve has only lost to guys currently above him in the rankings (though usually by brutal KO). In all honesty, I don't really think Meathead belongs in the top 15 at all, but his win over Gonzaga at that time is better than anything the guys below have so far.
Finally, I pulled Alexey Oliynyk and put in Ruslan Magomedov. This is debatable for sure, and my logic may not win out under cross-examination. I put him there because he has three UFC wins over Oliynyk's two, and beating Shawn Jordan is better than beating Jared Rosholt in my eyes. Yes, Rosholt has a very good UFC record even with the loss, but he hasn't looked good in pretty much any of those fights. Jordan is a very good fighter, and even though he was injured in the Magomedov fight, I've been very impressed with Ruslan's skills in the cage thus far. Hence the move.
Okay, now it's your turn. Should Stipe be higher? Should Mitrione be ranked at all? Is Mago better than Oliynyk? Is there something I agree with the panel on that we're all wrong about? Explain yourself.