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<h3><a href="/go=news.detail&gid=446757" target="_blank">
White: I love having rankings now
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<p>In February of 2013, the UFC introduced official rankings for it's athlete that would be ranked by approximately fifty journalists from across the globe.</p>
UFC President Dana White has at times been critical of where athletes were ranked according to the media, but has grown to 'love it':
“I like it,” White recently told MMAjunkie of the UFC rankings. “I wasn’t crazy about it in the beginning. I love it now.”
“(It’s for) people who are just casually tuning in to FOX,” White said. “Say you flip through the television. There are 57,000 college football games on, and you see No. 2 vs. No. 3. You think, ‘This must be a pretty important game. This is No. 2 and No. 3!’ So, even if you’re uneducated about it, everyone understands what that means.”
Pitbull3744 - Yeah but UFC does #1 vs #6 so isn't that bad for the UFC when casuals see that?
Um... No? What other sports always feature teams playing off that are 2 vs 3. And it's not like 6th best in the world is a push over.
He's 100% right. When I have friends over the guys who don't follow love seeing those ranks, even if those of us who follow closely know that it isn't always 100% accurate.
The rankings are not always 100% accurate in my book but they are typically pretty fucking close. My casuals like it and it draws them in with little to no promotion.
the rankings are a great idea it shouldn't have taken as long as it did really.. but really the only rankings I care to look at to see where guys really should be ranked is fightmatrix... anybody have any others that are pretty accurate?
Of course rankings arent always 100% on but close enough.
And like someone said, #1 doesnt compete against #2 all the time in any sport. Thats why when it does happen, its awesome - like Weidman/Machida, Aldo/Mendes 2 coming up....though funny more peoplre are into the fights with BAD BLOOD!
And rankings also will not always be the only factor in match making. They will still put the BAD BLOOD fights and fights people wanna see - like Brown vs Lawler or Diaz vs Anderson.
But....people should be commending the UFC on the ranking system because it gives us a legitimate baseline for the sport. Its supposed to be about merit and not just who wangs who. Remember?
But its more like: Fitch gets top level fight - boring! Fitch gets cut - BS!
Pitbull3744 - Yeah but UFC does #1 vs #6 so isn't that bad for the UFC when casuals see that?
Casuals see #1 v #6 and similar all the time, especially during March madness, and NCAA bowl season.
I think top 5 is fine for title shots(with variables like has the champ beat a majority of the top 5, injuries ect). And Gus vs #6 is perfectly fine.
That doesn't happen with the UFC. They just automatically make the next contender #2 regardless of who they've beat. It's why Gus was #2 after beating Shogun, and then Glover was #2 for beating Bader, and why Dc is #2 for beating Hendo, or how Werdum is somehow ranked above all guys he's never beat.
Pitbull3744 - Yeah but UFC does #1 vs #6 so isn't that bad for the UFC when casuals see that?
Casuals see #1 v #6 and similar all the time, especially during March madness, and NCAA bowl season.
I think top 5 is fine for title shots(with variables like has the champ beat a majority of the top 5, injuries ect). And Gus vs #6 is perfectly fine.
That doesn't happen with the UFC. They just automatically make the next contender #2 regardless of who they've beat. It's why Gus was #2 after beating Shogun, and then Glover was #2 for beating Bader, and why Dc is #2 for beating Hendo, or how Werdum is somehow ranked above all guys he's never beat.
Where would you have ranked all the above guys at the time then? And were they actually ranked #2?
Is he referring to 'UFC only' rankings? I could see him liking the rankings more now that used to include all mma fighters, because he no longer has to look at Fedor, Strikeforce fighters and whoever else may be bothersome to the ranks of his UFC guys, if he is referring to the rankings that aren't strictly UFC. There's no real competition so what's not to like? It used to drive him nuts seeing Fedor up top the heavyweight ranks!
