Dana White has seen enough.
The UFC President announced on social media his intentions to remove the media’s involvement from the promotion’s ranking system.
White doubled down on the concept during the post-event presser following the season finale of the Contender Series. Here is the segment.
According to White, an unidentified group is pitching him on a non-biased system that will theoretically be more objective than the current panel of media members who currently vote on the rankings.
White slammed the current media members as lazy, incompetent, or both. Over the years, White has had several beefs with the rankings of fighters in the UFC. Recently, he took umbrage with Jon Jones not being ranked as the pound-for-pound No. 1 fighter in the world over Islam Makhachev.
That debate continued for months, triggering a G.O.A.T-themed video presentation that doubled as a promotion for Jones main eventing UFC 309 with Stipe Miocic in November. Most recently, White had a significant issue with Khalil Rountree not receiving a boost in the rankings from No. 8 after he lost a war to UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira at UFC 307.
Rountree’s spot in that fight was criticized as many felt No. 1 contender Magomed Ankalaev was more deserving of the spot. As it was, Rountree made an excellent account for himself. While he was stopped in the fourth round, he was up on all three scorecards when he was finished.
Rountree suffered multiple injuries to his face, so it may be a while before he returns. However, in defeat, his star has grown in the eyes of the MMA community. Unfortunately, that didn’t result in a jump in the rankings. As for the new rankings philosophy, This could be really bad or really good.
The best formula is one that is transparent and that fans can follow along with and predict based on what they see in the Octagon. The parameters around activity, quality wins, respectable losses, and the overall points system should be available to the public.
The criteria should be clear but not so rigid that they cannot be adjusted if something is unfair down the road. Essentially, the new rankings system and its sharing could be used to educate better and entertain fans. Rewarding finishes, activity in top control, clinches, and action–especially against equal or upper-level opposition would be ideal concepts.
Fight Matrix has an exciting formula for unbiased fighter rankings; most fighters seem to approve. I recently spoke with Bellator champion Johnny Eblen about the system, and he said he felt it was accurate.
While White calls for a new system, he may still find some pushback against his concepts. Much of what he wants to be considered in the rankings is based on intangibles, which is challenging to incorporate in an unbiased formula.
How do you back up a concept like ‘if you put Jon Jones in a room with anybody, Jon Jones is the guy who’s coming out of that room?’
It’s impossible. A sound system will need to have parameters based on activity and strength of opposition. It’ll be interesting to see what the UFC settles on, but it’s great to see White open to change for the betterment of his promotion, which is No. 1 in the sport.
