SBNation.com User Blog: cokemachinebaby

How to Play the Game, by Brian Stann.

cokemachinebaby — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 04:06:08 -0000

Step 1 – Find an angle and play it hard. Stann knows that military service plays big with many a fight fan. A humble man may never make mention of his heroics even if he were asked. Stann knows that won’t grow his status within the promotion, so he slips in a combat comment whenever possible. Smart move. "I’ve been in a little bit more intense situations than that before and kept my calm."

Step 2 – Get ranked and get known at the same time. Stann called out Chris Leben. Very smart. Leben was freshly ranked in the top 12-14 for the first time in his life after beating Akiyama and building his name in a banner year. Stann jumped at the opportunity to steal all that momentum by calling out a fighter with a rank that far outweighed their skill.

Step 3 – Build your opponent up to build yourself up. Describe your opponent as the "top echelon" and "toughest" amongst other things. Having Joe Rogan in your supporting cast doesn't hurt either.

Step 4 – Win, and win big. Stann fought smart. He went in with a plan. He knew how to beat Leben and he executed perfectly. On top of that, he told everyone exactly what he would do beforehand. He already had a trustworthy image, but now we really believe him.

Step 5 – Rinse and repeat. Wanderlei Silva is not ranked beyond his skill like Leben was. However, his name is huge and Stann can beat him. Stann is wisely picking off the juiciest of the low lying fruit that puts him en route to a title.

Hats off to Brian Stann. Fighters could learn a lot by studying his playbook.

Rankings, Buy Rates, and More

cokemachinebaby — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 07:55:44 -0000

Below is a graph of UFC events 100 through 124 compared to the ranking score of the event and its buy rate (divided by 10,000). The ranking score is the total of 26 minus each of the fighter's rankings. So a #1 ranked fighter scores an event 25 points down to 1 point for a #25 ranked fighter. Not surprisingly, UFC 100 had the largest group of highly ranked fighters, and the buy rate reflects that. However, that connection is rather inconsistent. Although it would simplify the lives of fighters, rankings do not necessarily sell PPVs. While there is a host of reasons why each card sells a certain amount of PPVs, it seems clear that, above all else, stories and characters sell fights.

Here are some interesting facts about UFC 100-124.

Unranked fighters beat ranked fighters 32% of the time

The higher ranked fighter won 67% of the time

The biggest championship upset was #1 BJ Penn losing to #7 Frankie Edgar

The biggest upset was #9 Paulo Thiago losing to #20 Diego Sanchez

The biggest mismatch was #2 Jon Fitch versus unranked Ben Saunders

The most common match ups were 1vs2 and 23vsNR (4 times each)

The most upset ranking was 6th (4 times)

63% of upsets happened to top 10 fighters.

I posted this once before and it was full of errors. Once again here is the data. I hope its all right this time.

Event	Buyrate	Fighter 1 (winner)	Rank 1	Score 1	Fighter 2	Rank 2	Score 2
UFC 100	1,600,000	Georges St. Pierre	1	25	Thiago Alves	2	24
UFC 100	1,600,000	Jon Fitch	3	23	Paulo Thiago	10	16
UFC 100	1,600,000	Dan Henderson	4	22	Michael Bisping	13	13
UFC 100	1,600,000	Brock Lesnar	5	21	Frank Mir	3	23
UFC 100	1,600,000	Yoshihiro Akiyama	12	14	Alan Belcher	22	4
UFC 100	1,600,000	Mark Coleman	23	3	Stephan Bonnar	NR	0
UFC 101	850,000	B.J. Penn	1	25	Kenny Florian	2	24
UFC 101	850,000	Anderson Silva	1	25	Forrest Griffin	4	22
UFC 101	850,000	Alessio Sakara	NR	0	Thales Leites	9	17
UFC 102	435,000	Nate Marquardt	3	23	Demian Maia	5	21
UFC 102	435,000	Antonio Rod. Nogueira	4	22	Randy Couture	5	21
UFC 102	435,000	Thiago Silva	13	13	Keith Jardine	6	20
UFC 102	435,000	Gabriel Gonzaga	18	8	Chris Tuchscherer	NR	0
UFC 102	435,000	Brandon Vera	20	6	Krzysztof Soszynski	24	2
UFC 102	435,000	Aaron Simpson	NR	0	Ed Herman	NR	0
UFC 103	375,000	Josh Koscheck	7	19	Frank Trigg	25	1
UFC 103	375,000	Vitor Belfort	8	18	Rich Franklin	8	18
UFC 103	375,000	Junior dos Santos	14	12	Mirko Filipovic	15	11
UFC 103	375,000	Tyson Griffin	16	10	Hermes Franca	NR	0
UFC 103	375,000	Vladimir Matyushenko	19	7	Igor Pokrajac	NR	0
UFC 103	375,000	Paul Daley	NR	0	Martin Kampmann	6	20
UFC 104	500,000	Lyoto Machida	1	25	Mauricio Rua	4	22
UFC 104	500,000	Chael Sonnen	10	16	Yushin Okami	4	22
UFC 104	500,000	Cain Velasquez	11	15	Ben Rothwell	19	7
UFC 104	500,000	Joe Stevenson	20	6	Spencer Fisher	21	5
UFC 104	500,000	Anthony Johnson	NR	0	Yoshiyuki Yoshida	NR	0
UFC 105	0	Randy Couture	9	17	Brandon Vera	16	10
UFC 105	0	Dan Hardy	13	13	Mike Swick	5	21
UFC 105	0	Michael Bisping	13	13	Denis Kang	NR	0
UFC 106	375,000	Josh Koscheck	4	22	Anthony Johnson	16	10
UFC 106	375,000	Forrest Griffin	5	21	Tito Ortiz	25	1
UFC 106	375,000	Paulo Thiago	7	19	Jacob Volkmann	NR	0
UFC 106	375,000	Antonio Rog. Nogueira	9	17	Luis Artur Cane Jr.	10	16
UFC 107	620,000	B.J. Penn	1	25	Diego Sanchez	7	19
UFC 107	620,000	Jon Fitch	2	24	Mike Pierce	23	3
UFC 107	620,000	Frank Mir	4	22	Cheick Kongo	17	9
UFC 107	620,000	Kenny Florian	4	22	Clay Guida	18	8
UFC 107	620,000	Alan Belcher	20	6	Wilson Gouveia	NR	0
UFC 108	300,000	Rashad Evans	3	23	Thiago Silva	8	18
UFC 108	300,000	Junior dos Santos	5	21	Gilbert Yvel	22	4
UFC 108	300,000	Paul Daley	10	16	Dustin Hazelett	16	10
UFC 108	300,000	Martin Kampmann	12	14	Jacob Volkmann	NR	0
UFC 109	275,000	Demian Maia	4	22	Dan Miller	NR	0
UFC 109	275,000	Chael Sonnen	5	21	Nate Marquardt	2	24
UFC 109	275,000	Paulo Thiago	9	17	Mike Swick	8	18
UFC 109	275,000	Randy Couture	11	15	Mark Coleman	25	1
UFC 109	275,000	Matt Serra	22	4	Frank Trigg	25	1
UFC 110	240,000	Cain Velasquez	6	20	Antonio Rod. Nogueira	4	22
UFC 110	240,000	Wanderlei Silva	22	4	Michael Bisping	14	12
UFC 110	240,000	George Sotiropoulos	NR	0	Joe Stevenson	14	12
UFC 110	240,000	Ryan Bader	NR	0	Keith Jardine	16	10
UFC 111	850,000	Georges St. Pierre	1	25	Dan Hardy	6	20
UFC 111	850,000	Jon Fitch	2	24	Ben Saunders	NR	0
UFC 111	850,000	Shane Carwin	6	20	Frank Mir	3	23
UFC 111	850,000	Jim Miller	14	12	Mark Bocek	NR	0
UFC 111	850,000	Nate Diaz	23	3	Rory Markham	NR	0
UFC 112	500,000	Anderson Silva	1	25	Demian Maia	6	20
UFC 112	500,000	Frankie Edgar	7	19	B.J. Penn	1	25
UFC 112	500,000	Matt Hughes	8	18	Renzo Gracie	NR	0
UFC 113	520,000	Mauricio Rua	2	24	Lyoto Machida	1	25
UFC 113	520,000	Josh Koscheck	4	22	Paul Daley	8	18
UFC 113	520,000	Alan Belcher	17	9	Patrick Cote	NR	0
UFC 114	1,050,000	Rashad Evans	3	23	Quinton Jackson	4	22
UFC 114	1,050,000	Antonio Rog. Nogueira	7	19	Jason Brilz	NR	0
UFC 114	1,050,000	Michael Bisping	15	11	Dan Miller	25	1
UFC 114	1,050,000	John Hathaway	NR	0	Diego Sanchez	11	15
UFC 114	1,050,000	Cyrille Diabate	NR	0	Luis Artur Cane Jr.	15	11
UFC 115	520,000	Martin Kampmann	11	15	Paulo Thiago	5	21
UFC 115	520,000	Rich Franklin	13	13	Chuck Liddell	19	7
UFC 115	520,000	Carlos Condit	14	12	Rory MacDonald	NR	0
UFC 115	520,000	Mirko Filipovic	17	9	Patrick Barry	NR	0
UFC 115	520,000	Ben Rothwell	21	5	Gilbert Yvel	NR	0
UFC 115	520,000	Evan Dunham	NR	0	Tyson Griffin	9	17
UFC 116	1,160,000	Brock Lesnar	2	24	Shane Carwin	3	23
UFC 116	1,160,000	George Sotiropoulos	15	11	Kurt Pellegrino	19	7
UFC 116	1,160,000	Chris Leben	NR	0	Yoshihiro Akiyama	11	15
UFC 117	600,000	Anderson Silva	1	25	Chael Sonnen	2	24
UFC 117	600,000	Jon Fitch	2	24	Thiago Alves	3	23
UFC 117	600,000	Junior dos Santos	6	20	Roy Nelson	18	8
UFC 117	600,000	Matt Hughes	9	17	Ricardo Almeida	20	6
UFC 117	600,000	Stefan Struve	23	3	Christian Morecraft	NR	0
UFC 118	570,000	Frankie Edgar	1	25	B.J. Penn	2	24
UFC 118	570,000	Demian Maia	6	20	Mario Miranda	NR	0
UFC 118	570,000	Gray Maynard	7	19	Kenny Florian	4	22
UFC 118	570,000	Randy Couture	13	13	James Toney	NR	0
UFC 118	570,000	Mike Pierce	22	4	Amilcar Alves	NR	0
UFC 119	295,000	Frank Mir	7	19	Mirko Filipovic	15	11
UFC 119	295,000	Sean Sherk	15	11	Evan Dunham	10	16
UFC 119	295,000	Ryan Bader	16	10	Antonio Rog. Nogueira	6	20
UFC 119	295,000	Chris Lytle	23	3	Matt Serra	13	13
UFC 120	0	Michael Bisping	12	14	Yoshihiro Akiyama	17	9
UFC 120	0	Cheick Kongo	14	12	Travis Browne	NR	0
UFC 120	0	Carlos Condit	15	11	Dan Hardy	6	20
UFC 120	0	Mike Pyle	NR	0	John Hathaway	16	10
UFC 120	0	Alexander Gustafsson	NR	0	Cyrille Diabate	25	1
UFC 121	1,050,000	Cain Velasquez	3	23	Brock Lesnar	1	25
UFC 121	1,050,000	Jake Shields	4	22	Martin Kampmann	7	19
UFC 121	1,050,000	Matt Hamill	18	8	Tito Ortiz	23	3
UFC 121	1,050,000	Diego Sanchez	20	6	Paulo Thiago	9	17
UFC 121	1,050,000	Brendan Schaub	NR	0	Gabriel Gonzaga	13	13
UFC 121	1,050,000	Tom Lawlor	NR	0	Patrick Cote	22	4
UFC 122	0	Yushin Okami	8	18	Nate Marquardt	3	23
UFC 123	500,000	B.J. Penn	2	24	Matt Hughes	8	18
UFC 123	500,000	Quinton Jackson	4	22	Lyoto Machida	2	24
UFC 123	500,000	George Sotiropoulos	9	17	Joe Lauzon	NR	0
UFC 123	500,000	Phil Davis	23	3	Tim Boetsch	NR	0
UFC 123	500,000	Nik Lentz	NR	0	Tyson Griffin	16	10
UFC 124	875,000	Georges St. Pierre	1	25	Josh Koscheck	4	22
UFC 124	875,000	Thiago Alves	5	21	John Howard	NR	0
UFC 124	875,000	Jim Miller	12	14	Charles Oliveira	NR	0
UFC 124	875,000	Ricardo Almeida	24	2	T.J. Grant	NR	0
UFC 124	875,000	Stefan Struve	25	1	Sean McCorkle	NR	0
UFC 124	875,000	Mac Danzig	NR	0	Joe Stevenson	17	9

UFC	Score	Buyrate	Buyrate
100	188	1,600,000	160
101	113	850,000	85
102	136	435,000	43.5
103	116	375,000	37.5
104	118	500,000	50
105	74	0	0
106	83	375,000	37.5
107	138	620,000	62
108	106	300,000	30
109	123	275,000	27.5
110	80	240,000	24
111	127	850,000	85
112	107	500,000	50
113	98	520,000	52
114	102	1,050,000	105
115	99	520,000	52
116	80	1,160,000	116
117	150	600,000	60
118	127	570,000	57
119	103	295,000	29.5
120	77	0	0
121	140	1,050,000	105
122	41	0	0
123	118	500,000	50
124	94	875,000	87.5

Zuffa Divisional 'Stackedness'

cokemachinebaby — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:27:22 -0000

There is a lot of talk and often hyperbole about which Zuffa division is the most stacked. I thought a comparison by the numbers would show exactly how they stack up to each other. Below is a list of fighters in each division categorized by rank that are either top 25 or have a positive win/loss total. The list shows their wins and losses under Zuffa in their current division as well the sum of those fights and their most recent streak. Below that are some stats about each division and some analysis.

#1 - UFC Light Heavyweight

Fighter	Win	Loss	Sum	Strk	Rnk
Mauricio Rua	3	2	1	1	1
Lyoto Machida	8	1	7	-1	2
Rashad Evans	9	1	8	2	3
Quinton Jackson	5	2	3	-1	4
Anderson Silva	2	0	2	2	5
Forrest Griffen	8	4	4	1	6
Antonio Rog. Nogueira	2	0	2	2	7
Thiago Silva	5	2	3	-1	10
Rich Franklin	6	2	4	1	11
Jon Jones	4	1	3	1	12
Randy Couture	6	3	3	2	13
Ryan Bader	4	0	4	4	15
Vitor Belfort	4	3	1	1	16
Brandon Vera	3	3	0	-2	19
Matt Hammill	8	2	6	4	20
Chuck Liddell	16	7	9	-3	21
Luis Cane	3	3	0	-2	22
Tito Ortiz	14	7	7	-3	23
Cyril Diabate	1	0	1	1	24
Wanderlei Silva	3	5	-2	1	25
Vladimir Matyushenko	2	0	2	2	NR
Phil Davis	2	0	2	2	NR
Krzysztof Soszynski	4	2	2	-1	NR
Brian Stann	2	1	1	2	NR
Ricardo Romero	1	0	1	1	NR
James Te-Huna	1	0	1	1	NR
Jason Brilz	3	2	1	-1	NR
Stephan Bonnar	6	6	0	1	NR
Jared Hamman	1	1	0	1	NR
Alexander Gustafsson	1	1	0	-1	NR

100 % of Top 5
80 % of Top 10
80 % of Top 25
67 % Ranked
33 % Un-ranked

LHW is Zuffa's marquee division for good reason. In terms of overall size is sits directly in the middle of the other seven divisions, but it has the largest number of top 25 ranked fighters. Also it is the only division that can claim all of the top 7 fighters. With some up and comers and tough gate keepers rounding out this division, there are very few easy fights.

#1 - UFC Light Heavyweight

Fighter	Win	Loss	Sum	Strk	Rnk
Mauricio Rua	3	2	1	1	1
Lyoto Machida	8	1	7	-1	2
Rashad Evans	9	1	8	2	3
Quinton Jackson	5	2	3	-1	4
Anderson Silva	2	0	2	2	5
Forrest Griffen	8	4	4	1	6
Antonio Rog. Nogueira	2	0	2	2	7
Thiago Silva	5	2	3	-1	10
Rich Franklin	6	2	4	1	11
Jon Jones	4	1	3	1	12
Randy Couture	6	3	3	2	13
Ryan Bader	4	0	4	4	15
Vitor Belfort	4	3	1	1	16
Brandon Vera	3	3	0	-2	19
Matt Hammill	8	2	6	4	20
Chuck Liddell	16	7	9	-3	21
Luis Cane	3	3	0	-2	22
Tito Ortiz	14	7	7	-3	23
Cyril Diabate	1	0	1	1	24
Wanderlei Silva	3	5	-2	1	25
Vladimir Matyushenko	2	0	2	2	NR
Phil Davis	2	0	2	2	NR
Krzysztof Soszynski	4	2	2	-1	NR
Brian Stann	2	1	1	2	NR
Ricardo Romero	1	0	1	1	NR
James Te-Huna	1	0	1	1	NR
Jason Brilz	3	2	1	-1	NR
Stephan Bonnar	6	6	0	1	NR
Jared Hamman	1	1	0	1	NR
Alexander Gustafsson	1	1	0	-1	NR

100 % of Top 5
80 % of Top 10
80 % of Top 25
67 % Ranked
33 % Un-ranked

#2 - WEC Bantamweight

Fighter	Win	Loss	Sum	Strk	Rnk
Dominick Cruz	5	0	5	5	1
Brian Bowles	5	1	4	-1	2
Joseph Benavidez	4	1	3	2	3
Miguel Torres	4	2	2	-2	4
Scott Jorgensen	6	2	4	4	5
Takeya Mizugaki	2	2	0	1	6
Wagnney Fabiano	1	0	1	1	8
Rani Yahya	3	2	1	-2	9
Charlie Valencia	5	3	2	3	10
Damacio Page	3	1	2	-1	11
Akitoshi Tamura	1	1	0	-1	14
Brad Pickett	2	0	2	2	15
Eddie Wineland	4	2	2	3	16
Antonio Banuelos	7	4	3	-1	18
Clint Godfrey	0	1	-1	-1	22
Ian Loveland	0	0	0	0	23
Frank Gomez	2	1	1	2	NR
Will Ribeiro	1	1	0	-1	NR
Chad George	1	1	0	-1	NR

100 % of Top 5
90 % of Top 10
64 % of Top 25
84 % Ranked
16 % Un-ranked

This may come as a surprise to some people, but WEC bantamweight is a legitimate 'shark tank.' It is a confined area teaming with killers as seen by the percentage of ranked fighters. It is the only Zuffa division with 90% of the top ten. Fighters rankings skew heavily toward the top. If two new comers are lucky enough to fight each other in their debut, their second fight is most likely against a highly ranked opponent.

#3 - UFC Welterweight

Fighter	Win	Loss	Sum	Strk	Rnk
George St Pierre	14	2	12	7	1
John Fitch	12	1	11	4	2
Thiago Alves	9	3	6	-1	3
Josh Koshcheck	13	4	9	3	4
Dan Hardy	4	1	3	-1	6
Martin Kampman	4	1	3	2	7
Matt Hughes	17	5	12	2	8
Paulo Thiago	3	2	1	-1	9
Matt Serra	3	3	0	1	12
Mike Swick	4	2	2	-2	14
Carlos Condit	2	1	1	2	15
John Hathaway	4	0	4	4	16
Anthony Johnson	5	3	2	-1	18
Mike Pierce	2	1	1	1	19
Ricardo Almeida	1	0	1	1	22
Jake Ellenberger	1	1	0	1	23
Marcus Davis	9	3	6	1	NR
Dong Hyun Kim	4	0	4	4	NR
John Howard	4	0	4	4	NR
Diego Sanchez	7	3	4	-1	NR
Johnny Henricks	3	0	3	3	NR
Rick Story	3	1	2	3	NR
Matt Riddle	3	1	2	1	NR
DaMarques Johnson	2	1	1	2	NR
Dustin Hazelett	4	3	1	-1	NR
Ben Saunders	4	2	2	-1	NR
Claude Patrick	1	0	1	1	NR
Charlie Brenneman	1	0	1	1	NR
Nate Diaz	1	0	1	1	NR
James Wilks	2	1	1	1	NR
Nick Osipczak	2	1	1	-1	NR
Matt Brown	4	3	1	-2	NR
Mike Guymon	1	1	0	1	NR
Amir Sadollah	2	2	0	-1	NR
Rory MacDonald	1	1	0	-1	NR
TJ Grant	2	2	0	-1	NR
Chris Lytle	8	9	-1	3	NR

80 % of Top 5
80 % of Top 10
64 % of Top 25
43 % Ranked
57 % Un-ranked

Welterweight has several un-ranked diamonds in the rough, but it also has a lot of filler. If the UFC signs #5 Nick Diaz and #11 Jake Shields this division would be even more stacked than bantamweight, but the lack of talent at the lower end of the top 25 would keep it a close second to LHW.

#4 - UFC Middleweight

Fighter	Win	Loss	Sum	Strk	Rnk
Anderson Silva	9	0	9	9	1
Chael Sonnen	4	3	1	3	2
Nate Marquardt	8	3	5	-1	4
Vitor Belfort	0	0	0	0	5
Demian Maia	6	2	4	-1	6
Yushin Okami	8	2	6	1	8
Yoshihiro Akiyama	1	1	0	-1	11
Alan Belcher	4	2	2	1	12
Wanderlei Silva	1	0	1	1	13
Michael Bisbing	5	2	3	1	14
Alessio Sakara	6	4	2	3	18
Rousimar Palhares	4	1	3	3	23
Patrick Cote	4	5	-1	-2	24
Chris Leben	10	5	5	3	NR
Gerald Harris	3	0	3	3	NR
Mark Munuoz	3	0	3	3	NR
Kendall Grove	7	4	3	1	NR
Jorge Rivera	7	5	2	3	NR
CB Dolloway	4	2	2	2	NR
Tim Credeur	3	1	2	-1	NR
Aaron Simpson	3	1	2	-1	NR
Nate Quarry	7	3	4	-1	NR
Court McGee	1	0	1	1	NR
Rich Attonito	1	0	1	1	NR
Brad Tavares	1	0	1	1	NR
Kyle Noke	1	0	1	1	NR
Chris Camozzi	1	0	1	1	NR
Ryan Jensen	2	2	0	1	NR
John Salter	1	1	0	1	NR
Tomaz Drwal	1	1	0	-1	NR
Dan Miller	3	3	0	-3	NR

80 % of Top 5
60 % of Top 10
52 % of Top 25
42 % Ranked
58 % Un-kranked

Middleweight is practically the same size as LHW, but has eight more un-ranked fighters making it much more diluted. It is tied with HW for the lowest number of ranked fighters among the UFC divisions.

#5 - UFC Lightweight

Fighter	Win	Loss	Sum	Strk	Rnk
Frankie Edgar	7	1	6	4	1
BJ Penn	10	2	8	-1	2
Kenny Florian	9	2	7	2	4
Gray Maynard	7	0	7	7	6
Sean Sherk	3	2	1	-1	9
Benson Henderson	5	0	5	5	10
Jim Miller	6	1	5	4	12
Tyson Griffen	7	3	4	-1	13
Evan Dunham	4	0	4	4	14
George Sotiropoulos	4	0	4	4	15
Joe Stevenson	7	4	3	-1	16
Takanori Gomi	0	1	-1	-1	17
Diego Sanchez	2	1	1	-1	18
Kurt Pelligrino	5	2	3	-1	19
Gleison Tibau	6	3	3	2	20
Melvin Guillard	7	3	4	2	NR
Jeremy Stephens	5	4	1	2	NR
Rafael Dos Anos	3	2	1	3	NR
Ross Pearson	3	0	3	3	NR
Matt Wyman	6	3	3	2	NR
Cole Miller	5	2	3	1	NR
Joe Lauzon	5	2	3	-1	NR
Nik Lentz	2	0	2	2	NR
Efrain Escadero	3	1	2	1	NR
Terry Etim	5	3	2	-1	NR
Denis Siver	5	4	1	1	NR
Andre Winner	2	1	1	2	NR
Jacob Volkmann	1	0	1	1	NR
Darren Elkins	1	0	1	1	NR
Paul Kelly	2	1	1	1	NR
Aaron Riley	3	2	1	1	NR
Clay Guida	6	5	1	1	NR
Thiago Tavares	4	3	1	1	NR
Mark Bocek	4	3	1	-1	NR
Spencer Fisher	6	5	1	-2	NR
Sam Stout	4	5	-1	-1	NR

60 % of Top 5
60 % of Top 10
60 % of Top 25
42% Ranked
58 % Un-ranked

Being Zuffa's largest division in terms of contracted fighters, it would stand to reason that lightweight also has the most top 25 ranked fighters. This is not the case. LW is the only Zuffa division missing two of the top five. Granted, there are a lot of very tough un-ranked fighters, but only a small number of contenders. Zuffa needs to sign Eddie Alvarez and Gilbert Melendez to round out this division.

#6 - WEC Featherweight

Fighter	Win	Loss	Sum	Strk	Rnk
Jose Aldo	7	0	7	7	1
Manvel Gamburyan	3	0	3	3	2
Mike Brown	5	2	3	-1	3
Urijah Faber	7	3	4	-1	4
Josh Grispi	3	0	3	3	9
Rafael Assuncao	2	1	1	-1	11
Deividas Taurosevičius	2	1	1	-1	12
Leonard Garcia	4	2	2	1	13
LC Davis	3	0	3	3	15
Mark Hominick	2	2	0	2	17
Chad Mendes	2	0	2	2	18
Diego Nunes	2	0	2	2	25
Tyler Toner	1	0	1	1	NR
Cub Swanson	4	2	2	1	NR
Mackens Semerzier	1	1	0	-1	NR
Erik Koch	1	1	0	-1	NR

80 % of Top 5
50 % of Top 10
48 % of Top 25
75 % Ranked
25 % Un-ranked

Not only is featherweight is Zuffa's smallest division, but it also has the lowest number of top 10 and top 25 fighters across both brands. They really need to raid Japan for a few of their nine ranked fighters.

#7 - UFC Heavyweight

Heavyweight	Win	Loss	Sum	Strk	Rnk
Brock Lesnar	4	1	3	4	2
Shane Carwin	4	1	3	-1	3
Cain Velasquez	6	0	6	6	4
Frank Mir	11	5	6	-1	5
Junior Dos Santos	5	0	5	5	6
Anotnio Nogera	3	2	1	-1	8
Gabriel Gonzaga	7	4	3	-1	13
Czeck Congo	8	4	4	1	14
Mirko CroCop	4	3	1	2	16
Roy Nelson	2	0	2	2	19
Ben Rothwell	1	1	0	1	20
Randy Couture	9	4	5	-2	22
Stefan Struve	3	2	1	-1	23
Jon Madsen	3	0	3	3	NR
Mike Russow	2	0	2	2	NR
Matt Mitrione	2	0	2	2	NR
Joey Beltran	2	0	2	2	NR
Brendan Schaub	2	1	1	2	NR
Travis Browne	1	0	1	1	NR
Todd Duffee	1	1	0	-1	NR
Patrick Barry	2	2	0	-1	NR
James McSweeney	1	1	0	-1	NR

80 % of Top 5
60 % of Top 10
52 % of Top 25
59 % Ranked
41 % Un-ranked

Compared to itself from a historical perspective, the UFC heavyweight division could be called stacked, but compared to other Zuffa divisions it simply is not. HW puts up numbers that are barely better than featherweight, but comes in last due to the fact that it is the only Zuffa division without the #1 fighter. Of course, that will likely change with the next issue of BE's top 25.

Poll

Vote for Zuffa's most stacked division

Bantamweight

9 votes

Featherweight

4 votes

Lightweight

13 votes

Welterweight

33 votes

Middleweight

3 votes

Light Heavyweight

145 votes

Heavyweight

5 votes

212 votes | Poll has closed

P4P by the numbers - Vol. 4

cokemachinebaby — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:19:16 -0000

Analysis: A lot has happened since the last installment of this list, but the P4P king remains the same. Fedor, who recently spoke of retirement, would remain #1 for a long time even if he lost his last two fights. In a potentially historic changing of the guard, #3 GSP is poised to take Big Nog's #2 spot with a win over Josh Koscheck who could jump from the bottom of the list to the middle with a win over the world's best welterweight. Rashad Evans moved from 8th to 5th with his win over Rampage who dropped one spot from 6th to 7th. Rashad's ascent was aided in part by Lyoto Machida's KO loss to Shogun. Lyoto lost not only the belt but his win streak as well which was doing wonders for his score. Shogun moved from 11th to 8th with is win over Lyoto and stands to take Rashad's spot in their upcoming championship fight.

Outside the top 10: BJ Penn could break back into the top 10 provided he wins his rematch with Frankie Edgar who could break the top 25 with another victory over the Prodigy. Although it is clearly not a concern to him, Chuck Liddell continues to chip away at his legacy as he drops from 16th to 18th with a KO loss to Rich Franklin. Alistair Overeem jumps from 44th to 25th with his demolition of Brett Rogers, but advancing further up the list should be much harder. On the same night Andrei Arlovski plummeted from 22nd to 33rd after losing to Antonio Silva who enters the list at 63rd. Matt Hammill enters the list at 48 after bloodying up Keith Jardine.

After the string of recent cards there are several new entrants to the list. It remains to be seen if fighters like Marlon Sandro, Ben Askren, Josh Grispi, and Evan Dunham can have a lasting impact as P4P fighters.

Aside from the use of the inherently subjective SBN Consensus Rankings this pound for pound (P4P) system attempts to remove subjectivity by being compiled through mathematics. Bloody Elbow’s top 25 are used to track fighter’s wins and losses over ranked competition. A fighter’s P4P score represents the accumulation of those wins and losses over their entire career. Fighters are rewarded more for winning above their optimal weight and penalized less for losing in the same fashion. A factor based on the ease with which heavier fighters can be (T)KO’d is applied to all weight classes. Also, fighters are rewarded for extended win streaks over ranked competition with an additional cumulative win streak factor. This P4P system was developed over several weeks using feedback from the Bloody Elbow community. If you know of a fighter missing from this list, please list them in the comments.

Mayweather, Faber, and the Ref

cokemachinebaby — Tue, 04 May 2010 09:02:03 -0000

Admittedly I am not much of a boxing fan, although I have mastered every iteration of the Punch Out video game series. The first and last fight I ever bought was advertised as "The Sound and the Fury" and became known as "The Bite Fight." While it lived up to the billing in a very ironic fashion, it was extremely disappointing. So much so that I did not watch another fight in its entirety until Mayweather vs. Mosley thirteen years later. My interest was temporarily reignited solely through commentary on Bloody Elbow. While I found the fight more entertaining than a Steve Carrell movie but less entertaining than an episode of Lost, I couldn’t help but be distracted by the constant referee interruptions. It seemed strange that he was necessary so often, as if these grown men could not be trusted to ever let go of each other once they tied up. To give the ref credit, he did strongly encourage the fighters to work through those situations, and even resorted to slapping their arms on several occasions. In a sport known as "The Sweet Science" I assume the reasons for the break ups are far more intricate than distrust, but still it reminded of a very simple and somewhat stereotypical explanation of why Sherdog host TJ Desantis became disenchanted with boxing, "punch punch hug…punch punch hug."

This pattern was so distracting that I found myself counting the tie ups. The fighter’s movements became repetitive to the point that I could easily anticipate when a tie up would occur. This meant that I had between 5 and 6 seconds to avert my attention elsewhere. I played with my cat, spoke to my wife, put my face in my hands, etc. all without missing a second of the actual action. By this time rounds 1, 2, and 3 were in the books and there had been 7, 9, and 5 tie ups respectively. Then came an anomaly. In the third round there were only three significant breaks in the action. Foolishly I thought the combatants had loosened up and would continue the fight in a more fluid manner. I was wrong. There were 49 more tie ups throughout the fight for a grand total of 73 and an average of 6 per round, or one every thirty seconds. At an average of 5.5 seconds per tie up there were close to 7 minutes of stalling which translates to nearly 19% of the fight. There were a few moments where, contrary to my knowledge, I thought the fight might actually be taking place in Japan. It seemed blasphemous that over 33 seconds of every round were completely wasted. Didn’t these guys know how much can happen in that time?

Round	Breaks
1	7
2	9
3	5
4	3
5	6
6	3
7	6
8	6
9	8
10	5
11	6
12	9

At the end of the fight I was left scratching my head. It was odd that the commentators were acting like Mosley was near death even though he looked in pretty decent shape. The talk of stoppage seemed more predicated on knowledge of the outcome rather than physical damage. On top of that I kept thinking, "These men weighed in at 147 lbs. right?" This was a far cry from Aldo vs. Faber. Maybe I became too conditioned by MMA to appreciate the subtlety of boxing. Where was the unpredictability and dramatic swings of momentum? I was expecting more action and less…well…hugging. Please remember that I am not a boxing fan, and I mean no disrespect. My concept of a professional fight was born with an eight man PPV tournament in 1993 and has evolved with MMA ever since. I am used to the third man allowing a fight to take its natural course, stopping a contest as little as possible. All the extra talking, finger wagging, slapping, and prying seemed so out of place.

Directly after viewing Mayweather vs. Mosley I decided to cleanse my pallet with another viewing of Aldo vs. Faber. Just for fun I kept a close eye on the ref. To my delight I was able to watch five full minutes with zero interruptions. That grew to ten, then fifteen, then twenty minutes, then in the final round it happened; a few seconds elapsed as the ref let Faber get back to his feet. That remained the one time in 25 minutes that he came between the fighters. I'm not saying that one sport is better than the other necessarily, but comparing the structure of the contests and involvement of the third man make one seem much more pure than the other.

There were several parallels between these two fights. Both were fought around 146 lbs., both went the distance, both had one elite fighter outclassed by another, and both became increasingly predictable as they progressed. However, there was a reason why the corner men, commentators, and referee in Aldo vs. Faber were not as interested in having the fight stopped, and that is because anything can happen in MMA. This adage seems much less applicable to a sport where a non-competitor is involved in so much of the contest. Sure MMA is not without its buzz kills; groin shots, eye pokes, ice bags, middleweight champions. But at least these add an element of drama and excitement. Can he come back from a shot or poke like that? Is this going to turn into the Ice Capades? Is Dan Mirgliatta about to make this a two on one match? The breaks in boxing only created frustration which was visible on the faces of the fighters, the referee, and the audience.

This may have been the wrong fight to re-spark my interest in boxing. Or maybe it was the perfect fight, which would probably mean boxing is just not for me. Either way I'll likely give The Sweet Science another chance. I'll even drastically adjust my expectations, but I have my doubts that a sport as interrupted as boxing can ever hold my attention like Mixed Martial Arts.

Ranking the Past & New P4P

cokemachinebaby — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:00:07 -0000

First, let me say thanks again to everyone who has been helping out in the comments section. The changes this time around, as before, were born from BE member ideas. This has become somewhat of a community project, and I appreciate that. Now that many of the kinks are worked out, I plan on posting this once a month with analysis.

Those of you who have been following along with the two previous P4P lists should remember that the most glaring weakness with this system was that it did not account for fights prior to August 2007. There are major changes in the ranking order this time around, because that problem has been fixed. Fighters now get credit for every relevant fight on their resume. The result is an all time P4P list that represents fighter’s accomplishments over their entire careers. This differs from other P4P lists that tend to fluctuate drastically with single wins and losses.

How did I accomplish this you wonder? It was no easy task. Using every fight in Pride and UFC history, starting from the implementation of the unified rules and modern weight classes, I created rankings for each division in each organization after every single event. The method for creating these was basic. In general, fighters got to the top of a weight class by either winning a lot or by beating the top man. Long periods of inactivity were also taken into account and would drop a fighter in the rankings. Complimenting those rankings with other organizations such as Shooto and events such as IFC, I created a total of 130 sets of rankings ranging from May 2001 to August 2007. These organizational rankings were then combined to create 35 sets of world rankings (about every two months).

Only a small amount of relatively easy interpolation had to be done between the demise of pride and the start of Sherdog’s official rankings. A fighters P4P tally begins the first time they face a ranked opponent and keeps going until the end of their career. This has done wonders for fighters like Fedor and Big Nog who have had long careers beating top opposition. On the other hand, the complete history has hurt other fighters like Nick Diaz and Chael Sonnen whose past losses have come back to haunt them.

A few other minor adjustments have been made this time around. First, the "Experience Factor" has been done away with because it did not correlate with P4P status. Second, the previous "Finish Factor" has been changed to a "(T)KO Factor" to reflect its true purpose. Now, by excluding submissions, the adage "the bigger they are, the harder they fall" rings true without exception. Below is a graph showing the percentage of Zuffa fights that end in (T)KO in each weight class. Below that are the adjusted factors for each division which are now calculated like this:

[HW (T)KO Rate] - [X (T)KO Rate] = Delta, 1 - Delta = Factor

Class	(T)KO Rate	Delta	Factor
HW	0.612	0.000	1.000
LHW	0.470	0.142	0.858
MW	0.384	0.228	0.772
WW	0.336	0.276	0.724
LW	0.242	0.370	0.630
FW	0.239	0.373	0.627
BW	0.185	0.427	0.573

The last adjustment to the system is the addition of a win streak bonus. This had very little affect on the overall order because it is so hard to obtain. In fact, only three fighters were able to make use of it: GSP, Machida, and Fedor. To illustrate how this works, let’s look at GSP’s latest streak in the chart below. Following his loss to Serra the streak tally was reduced to zero, and a new streak began after defeating Koscheck. When a fighter beats a ranked opponent their streak tally begins with the points they earned from that win divided by 100 or (26-r)/100. So when GSP beat Koscheck he earned (26-4)/100 = 0.22 towards his streak tally. At this point the streak tally has no effect on the score. As the win streak continues each result is added to the previous one. Once the tally becomes greater than one, then it is multiplied by the points for each win thereafter. When GSP beat Penn, his win points (11.4) were multiplied by the now relevant streak tally (1.04) to give him 11.91 points. As long as GSP continues to beat ranked opponents, his streak tally will continue to aid him and grow his score. As soon as he loses, the tally is reduced to zero.

Opponent	Rank	Points	Streak Tally	Adj. Points
Dan Hardy	#6	20	1.48	29.60
Thiago Alves	#2	24	1.28	30.82
B.J. Penn	#1LW	11.40	1.04	11.91
Jon Fitch	#2	24	0.93	24
Matt Serra	#2	24	0.69	24
Matt Hughes	#3	23	0.45	23
Josh Koscheck	#4	22	0.22	22

And now here are the rankings:.

	Fighter	Division	Score
1	Fedor Emelianenko	HW	377.99
2	Antonio Rod. Nog.	HW	184.00
3	Georges St-Pierre	WW	162.07
4	Anderson Silva	MW	125.61
5	Lyoto Machida	LHW	108.80
6	Quinton Jackson	LHW	104.73
7	Wanderlei Silva	LHW	92.78
8	Rashad Evans	LHW	91.85
9	Randy Couture	LHW	84.34
10	BJ Penn	LW	83.75
11	Mauricio Rua	LHW	72.97
12	Jake Shields	MW	70.62
13	Jon Fitch	WW	70.23
17	Rich Franklin	LHW	64.11
14	Matt Hughes	WW	63.45
15	Chuck Liddell	LHW	62.67
16	Shinya Aoki	LW	59.43
18	Nate Marquardt	MW	52.48
19	Thiago Alves	WW	50.68
20	Takanori Gomi	LW	49.78
21	Junior dos Santos	HW	48.00
22	Andrei Arlovski	HW	47.00
23	Kenny Florian	LW	45.37
24	Cain Velasquez	HW	43.00
25	Mirko Filipovic	HW	41.00
26	Antonio Rog. Nog.	LHW	37.77
27	Jose Aldo	FW	37.62
28	Mike Brown	FW	37.54
29	Dan Henderson	MW	37.45
30	Shane Carwin	HW	37.00
31	Brian Bowles	BW	35.51
32	Tatsuya Kawajiri	LW	35.27
33	Bibiano Fernandes	FW	27.59
34	Dan Hardy	WW	27.51
35	Paulo Thiago	WW	26.79
36	Dominick Cruz	BW	26.35
37	Frank Mir	HW	26.00
38	Frankie Edgar	LW	25.20
39	Gray Maynard	LW	24.57
40	Gilbert Melendez	LW	24.57
41	Yoshihiro Akiyama	MW	22.38
42	Tim Sylvia	HW	22.00
43	Brett Rogers	HW	21.00
44	Alistair Overeem	HW	20.86
45	Urijah Faber	FW	20.30
46	Forrest Griffin	LHW	16.37
47	Muhammed Lawal	LHW	16.31
48	Paul Daley	WW	13.76
49	Josh Koscheck	WW	12.31
50	Joseph Benavidez	BW	12.07
51	Miguel Torres	BW	11.77
52	Eddie Alvarez	LW	11.34
53	Scott Jorgensen	BW	10.88
54	Takeya Mizugaki	BW	4.01
55	Gegard Mousasi	LHW	0.86

Analysis: Fedor has set the standard of what can be accomplished by defeating mostly ranked opponents over his storied career and going on an epic win streak. The fact that 61.2% of high profile HW fights end in (T)KO really puts his career in perspective. He has managed to win 28 fights in a row, 13 of which were against ranked fighters, in the division where winning streaks are arguably the hardest to amass. Perhaps the most amazing thing is that his reign is still going. The same cannot be said for Big Nog. It is likely that his #2 spot will be overtaken by GSP, and that his score of 184 represents the pinnacle of his career.

Shogun fans will be happy to see that with the pre-2007 fights being included he makes the list at #10. At UFC 113 he will have the chance to advance a few spots with a win over #5 Machida, who stands to have his budding win streak bonus cleared with a loss. At the same event Koscheck and Daley fight for a chance to break into the middle of the pack.

New & Improved P4P

cokemachinebaby — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:09:03 -0000

After taking in some great criticism about the last set of rankings and thinking it over, I have completely reworked the system. I have thrown out the old "keep it simple" mantra and decided that simplicity should not outweigh a logical and functional methodology. Although I didn't take every suggestion, I considered all the comments aside from those that suggested rankings in general have little value. I also realized that I forgot a bunch of fighters. Here are the changes…

1. Fighters can accumulate points by beating anyone in the BE top 25. This gave several fighters a bump up. Using the new scale, they earn 25 points for beating a #1 ranked opponent, 24 for #2, 23 for #3 and on down to 1 point for beating a #25 ranked opponent.

2. Another issue that was illuminated was that weak divisions were treated equally to strong ones. Originally I thought it was unfair to penalize the smaller guys for the state of their division. It’s not their fault they weren’t born heavier. However, it is true that fighters get ranked quicker in a inexperienced division and therefore can take a shorter path to P4P status. This made me look at the cumulative experience of each division. I tallied the total fights of the top 25 in each weight class:

Division	HW	LHW	MW	WW	LW	FW	BW
Experience	634	561	656	578	550	494	462

As expected the lighter divisions had less experience. Since MW had the most, it was used as the measure for all other divisions. Dividing each cumulative fight total by the MW total, we get the following "Division Experience Factors":

Division	HW	LHW	MW	WW	LW	FW	BW
Experience Factor	0.966	0.855	1.000	0.881	0.838	0.753	0.704

Once the lighter divisions get more experience, this adjustment will become less drastic.

3. The old saying, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall." rings true in MMA. BWs manage to keep it out of the judges hands 50% of the time while HWs finish their fights a whopping 71.9% of the time. That makes it very dangerous and difficult to compete in the heavier divisions. There is such disparity that it must be accounted for. Here is how the percentages break down:

Division	HW	LHW	MW	WW	LW	FW	BW
Finish %	71.91	64.34	69.18	59.89	54.90	55.74	50.00

This time, we use HW as the measure for all other divisions. Dividing each finishing percentage by 71.91 we get the following "Division Finish Factors":

Division	HW	LHW	MW	WW	LW	FW	BW
Finish Factor	1.000	0.895	0.962	0.833	0.763	0.775	0.695

Similar to the experience factor listed previously, this finish factor will have to be reevaluated after a while; annually or perhaps more often. This factor also partially addresses the suggestion of awarding win streaks. HW is the most difficult division to put a streak together in, which is one reason why Fedor is so special. This data was compiled using sherdog.com, ufc.com, and wikipedia.com and is comprised of UFC events from June '06 to March '10 for HW through LW and WEC events over the past four years for FW and BW. This data was the most easily accessible and sortable and happens to be most relevant to the fighters on the P4P list. It can be viewed here.

To get the total adjustment for each division we simply multiply the two factors together. In general this factor is multiplied by a fighter’s total score in order to get their adjusted score.

Division	HW	LHW	MW	WW	LW	FW	BW
Adjustment	0.966	0.765	0.962	0.734	0.640	0.584	0.490

4. Another suggestion was that fighting up in weight should earn you more when you win and cost you less when you lose. I couldn’t agree more. After all, it is very difficult to do. So, if a fighter wins in a weight class above theirs, then their score for that fight is multiplied by the sum of the divisional adjustments ranging from the lighter to heavier division. For example, when Anderson Silva defeated #4 Forrest Griffin at LHW he earned 22 x (0.962+0.765) = 38 points. For HWs this concept works in reverse.

The calculation is slightly different for a loss. When Aoki lost to #12 ranked WW Hayato Sakurai he would have lost 10 points under the old system. Now his loss looks like this -12 x 0.734 x 0.640 = -5.64. This is Sakurai’s rank multiplied by the divisional adjustments for the LW and WW divisions.

These adjustments have made for a more sensible and fair set of rankings. Some people disagree with fighters like Mike Brown and Brian Bowles being ranked over the men that just defeated them. Please remember that these rankings are not about who was better than who on a given night. Instead, they represent a fighter’s body of work. The fact remains that Brown and Bowles defeated a higher ranked set of opponents to get their P4P status. Try to think of it this way; when Serra knocked out GSP was he the better P4P fighter or just better that night? Also remember that this compilation is not based on retrospection. Just give it time, and the cream will rise to the top. So without further ado, here are the new rankings:

Rank	Name	Class	Score
1	Georges St-Pierre	WW	100.54
2	Anderson Silva	MW	94.76
3	Lyoto Machida	LHW	63.51
4	Quinton Jackson	LHW	63.51
5	Fedor Emelianenko	HW	61.85
6	Chael Sonnen	MW	55.80
7	Mike Brown	FW	54.28
8	Shinya Aoki	LW	49.41
9	Thiago Alves	WW	47.70
10	Rashad Evans	LHW	46.68
11	Junior dos Santos	HW	46.39
12	BJ Penn	LW	44.98
13	Cain Velasquez	HW	41.56
14	Jake Sheilds	MW	40.70
15	Shane Carwin	HW	35.76
16	Gegard Mousasi	LHW	30.70
17	Brian Bowles	BW	30.36
18	John Fitch	WW	28.62
19	Paulo Thiago	WW	27.15
20	Antonio Rog. Nogueira	LHW	24.49
21	Randy Couture	LHW	23.88
22	Miguel Torres	BW	23.02
23	Urijah Faber	FW	22.76
24	Dominick Cruz	BW	22.53
25	Paul Daley	WW	22.02
26	Dan Hardy	WW	22.02
27	Jose Aldo	FW	21.60
28	Frank Mir	HW	21.26
29	Brett Rogers	HW	20.30
30	Forrest Griffin	LHW	17.60
31	Gray Maynard	LW	17.28
32	Joseph Benavidez	BW	16.16
33	Bibiano Fernandes	FW	12.84
34	Frankie Edgar	LW	12.80
35	Kenny Florian	LW	12.80
36	Antonio Rod. Nogueira	HW	11.60
37	Eddie Alvarez	LW	9.60
38	Dan Henderson	MW	9.11
39	Nick Diaz	WW	8.81
40	Andrei Arlovski	HW	7.73
41	Tatsuya Kawajiri	LW	6.40
42	Rich Franklin	LHW	6.32
43	Nate Marquardt	MW	5.77
44	Yoshihiro Akiyama	MW	3.85
45	Scott Jorgensen	BW	1.96

As you can see, GSP still reigns supreme, but Anderson Silva is close behind. Those of you who saw the first version of these rankings should notice that Silva has moved up drastically. The new division factors and reward for fighting up in weight have given him a more deserving rank. Hopefully his antics in his fight against Maia haven't spoiled a potentially great fight between the #1 and #2 P4P fighters in the world. Penn's loss has bumped him out of the top ten, while the man who defeated him makes his first appearance on this list at #34. In recent fights Frankie has lost to an un-ranked (at the time) fighter then beaten numbers 6 and 1. His score breaks down like this (-25+20+25)*(0.640)=12.80. It remains to be seen if he can put together a string of title defenses against top competition as Penn did. Up next is Strikeforce Nashville which should be fantastic because it features the #8, 14, 16, and 38 ranked P4P fighters.

As before, I am open to constructive criticism. Obviously I don't care to hear from people that don't value rankings. I would like to hear if anyone has a good argument in favor of awarding more points for a TKO, KO, or Sub versus a decision. My general stance is that all methods of winning are equally valid and that to award one over another is playing favorites.

Rules (updated):
1. Factors based on divisional experience and finishing rates will be applied to all divisions to account for the difficulty of competing in a particular division.
1a. The experience factor is calculated by dividing the sum of all fights in a particular division by the sum of all fights in the division with the most total fights.
1b. The finishing factor is calculated by dividing the percentage of finishes in a particular division by the percentage of finishes in the division with the most finishes per fight.
1c. These two factors multiplied together equal the division adjustment (DA).

2. Beating a fighter ranked in the BE top 25 earns (26 – r)(DA) points, where r equals the losing fighters rank in the division the match was. Beating a fighter outside the top 25 earns you nothing.

3. A fighter’s optimal weight class is defined as the division they have the highest BE rank in or the division they have the most wins in over the past two years. This can change.

4. Beating a fighter outside your optimal weight earns (26 - r)(DA1+…+DAn) where DA1 equals your division adjustment and DAn equals your opponents division adjustment.

5. When losing to a fighter ranked in the top 25 in your division you lose r*DA.

6. When losing to a fighter outside your optimal weight you lose r*DA1*DAn

7. When losing to a fighter outside the top 25 you lose 25*DA.

8. Fighters do not carry their divisional rank from one weight class to another. They have separate ranks in each division.

9. Between two fighters with the same score, the fighter with the more recent win is ranked ahead.

10. All methods of winning have equal worth.

11. Inactivity has no bearing on this list.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Here are the rankings without the "Experience Factor" which has been debated in the comments below.

Rank	Name	Class	Score
1	Georges St-Pierre	WW	114.11
2	Anderson Silva	MW	97.61
3	Lyoto Machida	LHW	74.26
4	Quinton Jackson	LHW	74.26
5	Mike Brown	FW	72.08
6	Fedor Emelianenko	HW	64.00
7	Shinya Aoki	LW	58.03
8	Chael Sonnen	MW	55.80
9	Rashad Evans	LHW	54.58
10	Thiago Alves	WW	54.14
11	BJ Penn	LW	53.57
12	Junior dos Santos	HW	48.00
13	Brian Bowles	BW	43.11
14	Jake Sheilds	MW	43.08
15	Cain Velasquez	HW	43.00
16	Shane Carwin	HW	37.00
17	Gegard Mousasi	LHW	33.29
18	Miguel Torres	BW	32.68
19	John Fitch	WW	32.48
20	Dominick Cruz	BW	31.98
21	Paulo Thiago	WW	30.82
22	Urijah Faber	FW	30.23
23	Jose Aldo	FW	28.68
24	Antonio Rog. Nogueira	LHW	28.63
25	Randy Couture	LHW	25.84
26	Paul Daley	WW	24.99
27	Dan Hardy	WW	24.99
28	Joseph Benavidez	BW	22.95
29	Frank Mir	HW	22.00
30	Brett Rogers	HW	21.00
31	Gray Maynard	LW	20.61
32	Forrest Griffin	LHW	20.58
33	Bibiano Fernandes	FW	17.05
34	Frankie Edgar	LW	15.27
35	Kenny Florian	LW	15.27
36	Antonio Rod. Nogueira	HW	12.00
37	Eddie Alvarez	LW	11.45
38	Nick Diaz	WW	9.99
39	Dan Henderson	MW	8.86
40	Andrei Arlovski	HW	8.00
41	Tatsuya Kawajiri	LW	7.63
42	Nate Marquardt	MW	5.77
43	Rich Franklin	LHW	4.29
44	Yoshihiro Akiyama	MW	3.85
45	Scott Jorgensen	BW	2.78

* Some additional research on the Finish factor:

There are only 5 HWs that have never been (T)KO’d before and all of them are relatively new to the sport. Of the 20 HWs that have been (T)KO’d, 13 of those have been very recent and 7 of those have suffered multiple (T)KO’s in recent fights. This is all top tier competition.

Now compare to BWs. There are 9 top 25 BWs that have never been (T)KO’d 6 of which are in the top 10. Of the remainder that have been (T)KO’d, 11 have been closer to the start of their career when it happened.

It seems pretty clear that the top tier HWs are able to (T)KO each other with more regularity than the top tier BWs. As you go up the divisions the trend generally looks like this /

Intro to cmb's P4P Rankings

cokemachinebaby — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:40:38 -0000

Pound for pound (P4P) is a relatively simple concept that gets clouded when people add unnecessary variables. It is a method of comparing fighters in various divisions based on their weight versus their ability to win. Many people misunderstand the phrase, but it simply asks, "Whose pounds are worth more?" This calculation is basic when comparing two fighters of the same weight e.g. BJ Penn and Shinya Aoki. As of this writing they are the #1 and #2 fighters in the lightweight (LW) division respectively. Since major online MMA outlets have started keeping track, Aoki has beaten (at the time of the fights) two separate #2 ranked lightweights, two separate #8 ranked lightweights, and has lost to one unranked LW and one unranked welterweight (WW). Penn on the other hand has beaten #’s 9, 8, 2, and 7 in the LW division while losing to the #1 WW. It is easy to quantify this situation and calculate which fighter, pound for pound, is doing better. By assigning an inverse scale where beating the #10 fighter gives you 1 point and beating the #1 fighter gives you 10 points we quantify the quality of the win. Fighters must be penalized for a loss, and so, reversing the scale to normal, Aoki loses the maximum 10 points for his defeats against unranked fighters while Penn loses only 1 point for his loss to the #1 WW Georges St-Pierre (GSP). The calculation breaks down like this:

Penn: 2+3-1+9+4=17
Aoki: 9+3-10+9-10+3=4

The disparity in their scores illustrates why Penn is on most P4P lists and Aoki is not. Both men know that fighting outside their optimal weight class is risky business. However, Penn was once able to take the WW crown from a previous P4P entrant just by getting fat, while Aoki got himself knocked out in the heavier division. There is a flaw in allowing fighters to accumulate or lose points in various divisions; not all fighters have that ability. This system is unfair to people like Brock Lesnar who will never be able to fight outside of heavyweight (HW), but only marginally so since most P4P fighters only find lasting success in one division.

Several people make the mistake of replacing "ability to win" with some other adjective like skill or greatness. This only confuses an otherwise simple idea. A fighter could have all the skill in the world, but be unable to execute when the bell rings. A list of credentials that makes a combatant look great on paper should have no bearing on their pound for pound status. The only things that matter are the wins and loses; specifically their quality and quantity. To put it another way, the fighter who beats the most top 10 opponents in a given time period is the #1 P4P fighter for that time period. See how simple that is? Further, it does not matter how a fighter wins. Another unimportant factor that people like to confuse the issue with is dominance. Anderson Silva is a good example of this. He hasn’t beaten anywhere near the quality of opposition that GSP has, yet people insist on ranking him higher due to his methods of winning. This is a discriminatory practice, which creates favoritism toward specific skill sets. The beauty of MMA is that if offers so many ways to win which are all equally valid.

Q. But what happens when we compare fighters in separate divisions? Should we pretend to shrink Fedor into a BJ Penn sized frame, give him his same skill set, but take away some of his punching power, give him a little extra speed, carry the one, and…

A. No. The real trick to P4P rankings is simply not to compare fighters through fantasy. Just look at their ability to win and give them a rank. Let’s try it. In the same time that Penn became the top LW, Fedor beat the #4, 2, and 8 ranked HWs.

Fedor: 7+9+3=19
Penn: 2+3-1+9+4=17

Fedor > Penn (from late 2007 to April 5th 2010). Think that’s wrong? Fear not. Penn faces the #7 LW in his next bout and Fedor faces an unranked HW. Although, Werdum might sneak into the top ten via pre-fight hype bump.

Q. So if a fighter beats a P4P entrant, then they take their spot right?

A. Not necessarily. While that would make sense in the context of a divisional ranking, there should be no leap-frogging in a P4P list. The P4P status shows an accumulation of work over time, which cannot be taken away in one fell swoop. Jose Aldo and Mike Brown illustrate the point perfectly. Mike Brown got on the P4P list by beating a steady flow of top 3 contenders, and amassed 36 points before being defeated by Jose Aldo. Jose on the other hand has only defeated one top ten ranked fighter. We cannot assume that he is better than every fighter beneath Brown on the P4P list nor can we assume that his body of work outweighs theirs. Again, if you think that’s wrong…fear not. Now that Aldo is the champion he will have little choice but to fight highly ranked opponents. Time will tell if he is deserving of Brown’s spot on the list.

The most glaring issue with this system is that it does not account for any fight prior to late 2007. That is where reliable ranking data ends. BloodyElbow’s rankings were used from June 24th 2009 to the present. Sherdog’s rankings were used for fights prior to that. Fedor may very well be ahead of GSP, but we have no way to know what the PRIDE fighters were ranked when Fedor fought them. This issue will work it self out in due time. So here are the rankings with more detail below.

P4P Rankings

Rank	Name	Class	Score
#1	Georges St-Pierre	WW	47
#2	Mike Brown	FW	33
#3	Lyoto Machida	LHW	23
#4	Quinton Jackson	LHW	23
#5	Thiago Alves	WW	20
#6	Fedor Emelianenko	HW	19
#7	BJ Penn	LW	17
#8	Brian Bowles	BW	17
#9	Dominick Cruz	BW	16
#10	Anderson Silva	MW	16
#11	Chael Sonnen	MW	13
#12	Jose Aldo	FW	10
#13	Shane Carwin	HW	8
#14	Cain Velasquez	HW	7
#15	Paulo Thiago	WW	7
#16	John Fitch	WW	6
#17	Junior dos Santos	HW	5
#18	Shinya Aoki	LW	4

Ranking Detail

Georges St-Pierre WW 47=7+8+9+9+9+5
20–2		Dan Hardy	#6	03/27/10
19–2		Thiago Alves	#2	07/11/09
18–2		B.J. Penn	NR	01/31/09
17–2		Jon Fitch	#2	08/09/08
16–2		Matt Serra	#2	04/19/08
15–2		Matt Hughes	#3	12/29/07
14–2		Josh Koscheck	#4	08/25/07

Mike Brown FW 33=9+10+8+9-3
23-5	Anthony Morrison		NR	01/10/10
22-5 L	Jose Aldo		#3	11/18/09
22-4	Urijah Faber		#2	06/07/09
21-4	Leonard Garcia		#3	03/01/09
20-4	Urijah Faber		#1	11/05/08
19-4	Jeff Curran		#2	06/01/08

Lyoto Machida LHW 23=3+3+10+7
16-0	Mauricio Rua		#4	10/24/09
15–0	Rashad Evans		#1	05/23/09
14–0	Thiago Silva		#8	01/31/09
13–0	Tito Ortiz		NR	05/24/08
12–0	Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou		#8	12/29/07

Quinton Jackson LHW 23=9+8-3+5+4
30–7	Keith Jardine		#7	03/07/09
29–7	Wanderlei Silva		#6	12/27/08
28–7 L	Forrest Griffin		#3	07/05/08
28–6	Dan Henderson		#3	09/08/07
27–6	Chuck Liddell		#2	05/26/07

Thiago Alves WW 20=4+8+9-1
16-6	Georges St. Pierre L		#1	07/11/09
16-5	Josh Koscheck		#2	10/25/08
15-5	Matt Hughes		#3	06/07/08
14-5	Karo Parisyan		#7	04/02/08

Fedor Emelianenko HW 19=7+9+3
32-1 (1)	Brett Rogers		#8	11/07/09
31-1 (1)	Andrei Arlovski		#2	01/24/09
30–1 (1)	Tim Sylvia		#4	07/19/08

BJ Penn LW 17=2+3-1+9+4
15–5–1	Diego Sanchez		#7	12/12/09
14–5–1	Kenny Florian		#2	08/08/09
13–5–1 L	Georges St-Pierre		#1 WW	01/31/09
13–4–1	Sean Sherk		#8	05/24/08
12–4–1	Joe Stevenson		#9	01/19/08

Brian Bowles BW 17=9+2+10-4
8-1 L	Dominick Cruz		#4	03/06/10
8-0	Miguel Torres		#1	08/09/09
7-0	Will Ribeiro		#9	12/03/08
6-0	Damacio Page		NR	08/03/08
5-0	Marcos Galvao		#2	12/12/07

Dominick Cruz BW 16=6+10
15-1	Brian Bowles		#1	03/06/10
14-1	Joseph Benavidez		#5	08/09/09

Anderson Silva MW 16=7+2+7 (MW 9 + LHW 7)
25–4	Forrest Griffin		#4 LHW	08/08/09
24–4	Thales Leites		#9	04/18/09
23–4	Patrick Côté		NR	10/25/08
22–4	James Irvin		NR
21–4	Dan Henderson		NR	03/01/08
20–4	Rich Franklin		#4	10/20/07

Chael Sonnen MW 13=-2+9-10+7+9
24–10–1	Nate Marquardt		#2	02/06/10
23–10–1	Yushin Okami		#4	10/24/09
22–10–1	Dan Miller		NR	05/23/09
21–10–1 L	Demian Maia		#10	02/20/09
21–9–1	Paulo Filho		#2	11/05/08
20–9–1	Bryan Baker		NR	03/26/08
19–9–1 L	Paulo Filho		#2	12/12/07

Jose Aldo FW 10
16-1	Mike Brown		#1	11/18/09
15-1	Cub Swanson		#14	06/07/09

Shane Carwin HW 8
12–0	Frank Mir		#3	03/27/10
11–0	Gabriel Gonzaga		NR	03/07/09

Cain Velasquez HW 7
8-0	Antônio Nogueira		#4	02/21/10
7–0	Ben Rothwell		#19	10/24/09
6–0	Cheick Kongo		#12	06/13/09

Paulo Thiago WW 7=7-3+3
13-1	Mike Swick		#8	02/06/10
12-1	Jacob Volkmann		NR	11/21/09
11-1 L	Jon Fitch		#3	07/11/09
11-0	Josh Koscheck		#4	02/21/09

John Fitch WW 6=6-1+1
22-3 (1)		Ben Saunders	NR	03/27/10
21-3 (1)		Mike Pierce	NR	12/12/09
20–3 (1)		Paulo Thiago	#10	07/11/09
19–3 (1)		Akihiro Gono	NR	01/31/09
18–3 (1) L		Georges St. Pierre	#1	08/09/08
18–2 (1)		Chris Wilson	NR	03/01/08
17–2 (1)		Diego Sanchez	#5	09/22/07

Junior dos Santos HW 5
11-1	Gabriel Gonzaga		#13	03/21/10
10–1	Gilbert Yvel		#22	01/02/10
9–1	Mirko Filipović		#15	09/19/09
8-1	Stefan Struve		NR	02/21/09
7–1	Fabricio Werdum		#6	10/25/08

Shinya Aoki LW 4=9+3-10+9-10+3
23-4-0 (1)		Mizuto Hirota	#11	12/31/09
22-4-0 (1)		Joachim Hansen	#8	10/06/09
21-4-0 (1)		Vitor Ribeiro	#21	07/20/09
20-4-0 (1) L		Hayato Sakurai	NR	04/05/09
20-3-0 (1)		David Gardner	NR	03/08/09
19-3-0 (1)		Eddie Alvarez	#2	12/31/08
18-3-0 (1)		Todd Moore	NR	09/23/08
17-3-0 (1) L		Joachim Hansen	NR	07/21/08
17-2-0 (1)		Caol Uno	#8	07/21/08
16-2-0 (1)		Katsuhiko Nagata	NR	06/15/08
15-2-0 (1)		Gesias Calvancante	#2	04/29/08

Anderson’s ranking will no doubt cause contention. The issue is that when he fought Henderson it was at MW where Dan was unranked. If they had fought at LHW where Dan was ranked #2 it would have been a different story. But with weight cutting and a host of other variables, we absolutely cannot assume that a fighter will perform the same in different weight classes.

Rules:

1. Beating a fighter ranked in the top 10 divisional rankings earns (11 – r) points, where r equals the losing fighters rank in the division the match was fought. Beating a fighter outside the top ten earns you nothing.

2. When losing to a fighter ranked in the top 10 you lose the face value of their rank (r).

3. When losing to a fighter outside the top 10 you lose the maximum 10 points.

4. Fighters do not carry their divisional rank from one weight class to another. They have separate ranks in each division.

5. Fighters can earn or lose points by competing in any division.

6. Rank is determined by accumulated points alone.

7. Between two fighters with the same score, the more recently active one is ranked ahead. However, if that recent activity is a loss, then they are ranked behind.

8. These rankings do not discriminate. All methods of winning and all divisions have equal worth.

9. Inactivity has no bearing on this list.

As always, constructive criticism is welcome. If you can think of any fighters that have beaten multiple ranked opponents recently that do not appear on this list, please let me know. Also let me know of any reliable ranking system earlier than late 2007.

Thanks

The Future of MMA: A Dichotomy of Entertainment

cokemachinebaby — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:54:02 -0000

Awards such as "Submission of the Night" (SotN), "Knockout of the Night" (KotN), and "Fight of the Night" (FotN) give fans a decent measure of how exciting or entertaining a particular fighter is. The two awards based on finishing an opponent (SotN & KotN) are hard to misinterpret. Demian Maia’s 4 SotN awards let jiu jitsu fans know when to tune in, while fighters similar to Chuck Liddell keep the knockout fans satisfied. The third award, although sometimes given for seemingly different reasons than excitement (see Coleman vs. Rua), is a measure of a fight’s overall entertainment value. FotN bouts make you think of people like Tyson Griffin, who has won the award 5 times, and contain ingredients like well-roundedness, momentum shifts, courage, and sometimes recklessness. There is an elite group who hold the honor of receiving all three awards. Two of those fighters took drastically different paths to accomplish that feat. One path is hailed as the future of the sport while the other is often dismissed as its past.

Chris Lytle and Anderson Silva have the ability to finish fights with dramatic knockouts and submissions, and put on exceptionally entertaining bouts on the world’s biggest stage for Mixed Martial Arts. A closer look at the two most exciting combatants shows an interesting dichotomy. To receive the same awards one uses brains and accuracy while the other uses heart and aggression.

Chris Lytle has 7 awards in total that span all three categories: 2 for SotN, 1 for KotN, and 4 for FotN. Fans of Chris know exactly how he accomplished this goal. He throws caution to the wind and swings his fists with full force for fifteen minutes until the point of near exhaustion, often leaving the cage a bloody mess. It is hard for any fan not to appreciate his efforts and to be entertained, but with the amount of damage taken, it is hard not to worry for his longevity in the sport. Some fans take solice in the thought that brawlers like Chris are approaching extinction (figuratively speaking).

In the other hemisphere of excitement there is a fighter who, by these award standards, is on par with Chris Lytle, having accrued 1 SotN bonus, and 2 bonuses each for KotN and FotN. However, an examination of their contests reveals that these fighters are near polar opposites stylistically. Anderson Silva fights with intelligence, and manages to put on exciting matches while rarely ever taking any damage. Along with other fighters like Georges St. Pierre, BJ Penn, and Lyoto Machia he represents an important stage in the evolution of the sport. These fighters inflict the most damage while receiving the least, which, according to Lyoto's father Yoshizo, is the future of the sport. Yoshizo also suggests that slugfests will be phased out by fighters like his son and Anderson.

But who is more exciting, Chris or Anderson? Which style translates to the masses? Do fighters have to move forward more often than not in order to win over the fans? Do they have to take damage? Or, will such reckless styles be phased out as fighters and fans take the next step in their evolution together? The elder Machida's prediction fails to take into account several factors about the business aspect of the sport, its participants, and the fans. Regardless of whether any major shift in fighting style takes place, fans will always demand excitement, businesses will keep awarding finishes, and some fighters will just like brawl.

MMA will continue to bring us many different forms of excitement. The new generation of fighters may be aspiring to be the next Anderson Silva, but there will always be another Chris Lytle in the ranks. On occasion we will even be treated to both technical and reckless fighting in the same fight. Such was the case in Lytle's last bout at UFC 110 where he opened the first round with his patented wild punches and closed the fight with a beautiful and technical knee bar submission. That this dichotomy can exist within the sport, even within a single fight, and even further within a single fighter is one of the traits that makes MMA the most entertaining sport on earth.

Below is an incomplete list of data compiled from Wikipedia showing fighers bonus totals:

Fighter	FotN	KotN	SotN	Total
*Chris Lytle*	4	1	2	7
*Anderson Silva*	2	2	1	5
Nate Diaz	3		2	5
Tyson Griffin	4		1	5
*Marcus Davis*	2	1	1	4
*Wilson Gouveia*	2	1	1	4
Forrest Griffin	3		1	4
Demian Maia			4	4
Quinton Jackson	2	2		4
Sam Stout	4			4
Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira	2			2
Wanderlei Silva	2	1		3
*Josh Koscheck*	1	1	1	3
Clay Guida	3			3
Matt Wiman	3			3
Paul Taylor	3			3
Thiago Tavares	3			3
Alan Belcher	2		1	3
Dustin Hazelett	1		2	3
Terry Etim			3	3
Joe Stevenson	3			3
Joe Lauzon	2		1	3
Dennis Siver		2		2
Jeremy Stephens		2		2
Lyoto Machida		2		2
Anthony Johnson	1	1		2
Chris Leben	1	1		2
Dan Henderson	1	1		2
Gabriel Gonzaga	1	1		2
Mauricio Rua	1	1		2
Patrick Barry	1	1		2
Rashad Evans	1	1		2
Thiago Alves	1	1		2
Ed Herman		1	1	2
Jason MacDonald		1	1	2
Diego Sanchez	2			2
Frank Edgar	2			2
Jorge Gurgel	2			2
Josh Neer	2			2
Michael Bisping	2			2
Randy Couture	2			2
Georges St-Pierre	1		1	2
Jim Miller	1		1	2
Kevin Burns	1		1	2
Rick Story	1		1	2
B.J. Penn			2	2
Krzysztof Soszynski			2	2
Aaron Simpson	1	1		2
Cain Velasquez		2		2
Nate Marquardt	1	1		2
Paulo Thiago		1	1	2
Matt Serra	1	1		2
Cole Miller			2	2
Tom Lawlor	1		1	2

Poll

Who is more exciting, Chris Lytle or Anderson Silva?

Chris Lytle

40 votes

Anderson Silva

110 votes

150 votes | Poll has closed

Main Event Status: Another Couture Record

cokemachinebaby — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:09:28 -0000

After watching Couture and Nogueira battle in a classic fight at UFC 102, I started reminiscing about The Natural (as I often do after his fights). I took a look back to see how many times Couture has been the main event on a UFC Pay Per View card. It came as no surprise that he holds the record with an impressive 16 main events. Couture has fought 19 times in the UFC since 1997, and has been the main event for about 82% of his fights. With a less than stellar record of 16-10 there are a few things to keep in mind when reflecting on The Natural. First, he has consistently fought high caliber opponents. Second, he fights in the highest pressure position 82% of the time. And finally, his age and other factors almost always make him the underdog. Despite all of that, he has managed to win in most of his UFC PPV main events. Pretty impressive.

Check out a list of Couture's main events and a table of other fighters Main Event Status (MES) in the full entry.

UFC 15.5 vs Maurice Smith (W)
UFC 28 vs Kevin Randleman (W)
UFC 31 vs Pedro Rizzo (W)
UFC 34 vs Pedro Rizzo (W)
UFC 36 vs Josh Barnett (L)
UFC 39 vs Ricco Rodriguez (L)
UFC 43 vs Chuck Liddell (W)
UFC 44 vs Tito Ortiz (W)
UFC 46 vs Vitor Belfort (L)
UFC 49 vs Vitor Belfort (W)
UFC 52 vs Chuck Liddell (L)
UFC 57 vs Chuck Liddell (L)
UFC 68 vs Tim Sylvia (W)
UFC 74 vs Gabriel Gonzaga (W)
UFC 91 vs Brock Lesnar (L)
UFC 102 vs Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira (L)

The table below (which includes UFC 103) shows fighters who have been a PPV main event at least twice. It is interesting to see the parallels between Couture and Ortiz's careers. Both men started with the company on the same card, they hold the #1 and #2 spots for MES, both men became disgruntled, and both men eventually re-signed with the UFC. Luckily for Randy he was able to avoid any blackout of his past fights unlike Ortiz.

Fighter	PPV Main	1st UFC Fight	Years	UFC Fights	%Main
Couture	16	5/30/1997	12	19	84.2%
Ortiz	13	5/30/1997	12	21	61.9%
Liddell	11	5/15/1998	11	22	50.0%
Hughes	9	9/24/1999	10	21	42.9%
Franklin	8	4/25/2003	6	15	53.3%
A.Silva	7	6/28/2006	3	10	70.0%
Belfort	7	2/7/1997	12	11	63.6%
K.Shamrock	7	11/12/1993	16	15	46.7%
Penn	6	5/4/2001	8	15	40.0%
St.Pierre	6	1/31/2004	5	15	40.0%
Arlovski	4
Coleman	4
Evans	4
Jackson	4
Randleman	4
Severn	4
Sylvia	4
F.Shamrock	3
Gracie	3
Henderson	3
Rizzo	3
Smith	3
Abbott	2
Bisping	2
Cote	2
Gonzaga	2
Griffen	2
Jardine	2
Kimo	2
Lesnar	2
Newton	2
Noguiera	2
Rodriquez	2
Serra	2
Sherk	2
Stevenson	2
W.Silva	2

Poll

Which of the current main event fighters is most likely to surpass Randy's MES record?

Ortiz

45 votes

Liddell

4 votes

Hughes

2 votes

Franklin

1 votes

A.Silva

26 votes

Belfort

1 votes

St.Pierre

132 votes

Penn

4 votes

215 votes | Poll has closed