Fight fans familiar with the World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts, or WAMMA, follow their independent fighter rankings hopefully a true MMA champion may be crowned in each different weight classes.
The goal of WAMMA remains simple: Promote the integrity, legitimacy, and longevity of the sport. WAMMA's rankings system disregard a fighters' specific organization and rely solely on knowledgeable journalists who vote for which fighters deserve the top spots in the sport.
Despite the presence of many Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighters listed in WAMMA's rankings, the UFC still refuses to recognize WAMMA as a legit sanctioning organization, ignores their nonsensical fighter rankings and meaningless title holders.
Clearly, the best fighters in the world—Brock Lesnar, B.J. Penn, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson—all compete in the UFC. However, WAMMA ranks these fighters much differently than their UFC counterparts.
With a win over "The Dean of Mean" Keith Jardine, Rampage Jackson looks next in line for a UFC light heavyweight title shot versus current champ Rashad Evans. WAMMA ranks Jackson third, behind an undefeated and second-ranked Lyoto Machida, and four spots higher than Jardine, whom Jackson fights this weekend at UFC 96.
No wonder why UFC disregards such fans' rankings system: They want to control what fighters fight whom and not what fighters the fans or any other outside sanctioning bodies wielding any power in what fights take place in the UFC.
This is not to say that fans don't want to see these fights because, as fans they want to see the best fights with best fighters in the world inside the Octagon.
However, fans should not simply support the fighters UFC push, nor should they unconditionally accept the fights UFC set up, at least not without first expressing their valid opinions on what's best for the sport.
The more organizations that arise, each with their own rankings, their own titles and their own acronyms, may soon send the ever-popular sport of MMA down the depressing path followed by professional boxing where multiple fighters hold different titles from different organizations and mutiple weight classes, and no one gives a damn about your sport any more.
After defeating the legendary Randy Couture, Lesnar now serves as the de-facto UFC Heavyweight Champion, with Frank Mir serving as an Interim Heavyweight Champion in the UFC.
The two fighters face off in a much anticipated rematch to crown an undisputed UFC Heavyweight Champion. The fight, scheduled for UFC 98 in May, pins the UFC's top two heavyweights in a fight fans must see since Mir beat Lesnar via a knee-bar submission back at UFC 81, amidst two unwarranted stoppages called on Lesnar.
As strange as this sounds, WAMMA ranks Lesnar the fourth best heavyweight in all mixed martial arts, two spots behind Mir, with three Affliction fighters—Fedor Emelianenko, Josh Barnett, Andrei Arlovski— all ranked ahead of the current UFC heavyweight and lightweight champions.
Emelianenko serves as the WAMMA Heavyweight champion, with Shinya Aoki its lightweight champ, both facts few MMA fans dispute yet the UFC debunks.
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