The hosts of The Hammer MMA Radio have been contributing to the UFC’s Official Fighter Rankings since its inception earlier this year. While the UFC have confirmed that these rankings may not necessarily impact their matchmaking, the three of us still put a lot of thought into our selection process at the conclusion of each event. Following each event we will be breaking down our thought process on a few of the relevant divisions right here at Last Word On Sports.
You can find our updated Rankings, as well as the overall UFC Rankings at http://www.ufc.com/rankings, all updated on the Monday immediately following every UFC event.
UFC 163: Aldo vs. Korean Zombie
Steve Jeffery: This one may be controversial. Top ranked Lyoto Machida (previously #2 on our rankings and #1 overall) lost a unanimous decision to the much-lower ranked Phil Davis last weekend. Despite the loss, you would be hard pressed to find anyone other than the three judges in Brazil who actually scored the fight for Phil Davis. FightMetric.com, Dana White, the other media, all of us at The Hammer MMA Radio, we all figured that Machida had the fight in the bag. So what do you do with the rankings?
After much debate, we determined that while we would personally score the fight for Machida, that round 1 was close enough, and that round 2 was certainly won by Davis, so that while we may disagree with the judges’ decision, it’s not enough to punish Davis in the rankings for winning a somewhat arguable fight. For all intents and purposes he beat the higher-ranked Lyoto Machida but it isn’t enough to put him all the way up to Machida’s former #2 slot.
So we’ve placed Phil Davis at #4 (one slot below Rashad Evans who is the only person to ever beat him), with Machida directly below at #5. Machida’s recent record of 3-4 in his last seven fights actually backs up this ranking, and while it kind of feels like weird positioning, in the end it made a lot more sense to us than just leaving Machida at the top of the rankings with the only once-beaten Phil Davis still down near the bottom.
Steve Jeffery: There really isn’t a lot to say here. Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo who has been undefeated since 2005, and having held the belt (or at least the WEC version of it) since 2008, seems untouchable. Despite breaking his foot at the very beginning of last weekend’s title fight against the always dangerous Korean Zombie Chan Sung Jung, the Champion still almost made victory look easy.
The Zombie was a worthy contender but after more than three rounds of not being able to mount much substantial offense, he dislocated his shoulder throwing a punch and Aldo capitalized instantly for a TKO win. Although the Korean Zombie lost, he was only actually ranked #5 and isn’t hurt too much by losing.
On the other hand there are still four men ranked higher than Jung that deserve either a first shot or a rematch for the title as soon as possible.
Steve Jeffery: This was one of the tougher calls that we’ve had to make yet while doing these rankings. Ian McCall was widely considered the #1 Flyweight in the world back before the UFC actually had a Flyweight division. Since UFC brought in the Flyweights, McCall has gone to a controversial draw with now Champion Demetrious Johnson, and also lost non-controversial decisions to both Johnson a second time, and then Joseph Benavidez.
Due to these setbacks we had dropped “Uncle Creepy” down to a still respectable #3 ranking, just below the also-talented former contender John Dodson. McCall has now won his first fight in the UFC, a decisive decision over the admittedly low-ranked Jose Maria, but it still seems like enough to get him back on track just below the only two men who have beaten him in the UFC.
John Dodson meanwhile drops one below McCall. Dodson has beaten solid Flyweights so far but still has to prove that he can beat (or even draw) one of the top names to stay closer to the top of the pack.
The Hammer MMA Radio has featured interviews with some of the biggest names in MMA over the years, including Georges St. Pierre, Matt Hughes, BJ Penn, Sean Sherk, Mark Coleman, Rory MacDonald, Brendan Schaub, Mark Bocek, Nate Diaz, Mark Hominick, Martin Kampmann, Johny Hendricks, and many more, all of which are archived at http://www.thehammermma.com.
The Hammer MMA Radio continues to bring unparalleled, independent coverage of all things MMA to fans of the sport and they always bring you straight goods and the last word, and we at LWOS are pleased to be partners with them.
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