UFC Rankings System Changes Drastically After UFC 168

The aftermath of 2013 has huge implications in the world of MMA, for so many reasons; the ‘hiatus’ of Welterweight legend Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva’s two losses and subsequent broken leg, the dominance of Ronda Rousey, the rise of the next generations of fighters and the new launch of the UFC’s digital platform.

It seems that the UFC has moved even further ahead of it’s competition, leaving lesser organizations in the dust. Indeed it is hard for the lesser promotions to make the headlines, but that’s due to the amount of coverage, star power and money that Zuffa possesses. With that in mind, the UFC rankings system should be awesome right now; unfortunately that isn’t the case.

You can check out the new rankings on the official UFC.com website, but let me give you a lowdown on the biggest changes:

For some reason the rankings are now of the top 15 in each division and on the pound for pound list. This could be telling of the promotion’s growth in talent, or possibly to give them the ability to have more legit fighter promotion for lesser events (Fight nights and other free (ish) cards). Whatever the reason, I’m not sure it was the right move. It makes the ranking system more diluted and could give way to more pointless or undeserved title bouts.

Secondly, Anderson Silva drops four places on the pound for pound list, to his new home in the number seven spot. Champion Chris Weidman now fills the number five pound for pound spot, jumping three places after beating Silva by TKO (injury). Jon Jones resides at #1, Johny Hendricks has gone from ‘not ranked’ to the number ten p4p, while coming off a loss (?),  while streaking Ronda Rousey and Anthony Pettis fall a spot each to make way. Confusing.

Tarec Saffiedine is ranked at the number 10 Welterweight spot without even having a UFC debut, while Tyron Woodley is ranked at number 11. Woodley is fresh off a knockout win over Josh Koscheck and is 2-1 in his UFC career. Travis Browne moved up two places to number three at 265lbs., whereas Josh Barnett moves up one place for getting KTFO by ‘Hapa’. What is this wizadry?

Most of the new spots (11-15) on the lists are filled with previously unranked competitors. I look at it this way; anything over ten is unranked, and if you are not in the top ten then you shouldn’t be fighting guys from the top five. The reality is that I really don’t know why the rankings have changed so much, but check them out for yourselves and let me know what you think. SILVA VS. WEIDMAN PHOTO COURTESY OF USA TODAY SPORTS