Statistically Ranking the Weightclasses

For quite a while now, I've been dabbling with ranking college football teams, and I've been thinking about how to apply the same methodology I use with college football to MMA. If you would like to read about my college football rankings, please click here.

****Please note that these rankings do not represent my own personal rankings. These are simply attained through statistical measures. These rankings are also in the preliminary stages. I'm planning on adjusting the methodology in the future, but as for right now they are very crude****

The methodologies are very simple for the rankings. If an athlete fights the best fighter in a weight class and win, they are given 100 points. If an athlete fights and beats the worst fighter or a fighter ranked outside of the top 100, they are given just one point.

Conversely, if an athlete fights the best fighter in a weight class and loses, they are penalized one point. And if an athlete fights the worst fighter or an unranked fighter in a weight class and loses, they are penalized 100 points.

This method will reward fighters who fight top competition and penalize fighters who fight "cans." By utilizing a method similar to this, we can hope to emphasize the importance of quality fights instead of gimme fights.

To keep the playing field equal, only the most recent 10 bouts are accepted for scoring purposes. This will keep the rankings up to date and reduce the numbers of fighters who sneak into the top 10 without having a proven track record.

Utilizing only the 10 most recent bouts will also ensure that a fighter who goes a long time without fighting will be penalized since the fighters from the oldest fights will most likely no longer be ranked. IE Kazuhiro Nakamura is unranked despite his known name. Therefore fighters who have fought Nakamura and won receive just one point.

By ranking the fighters in this manner, we can also compare across weightclasses to find which weight class has the most top fighters based on points and we can also compare the top fighters from each weight class to determine the elusive "pound-for-pound king."

The initial rankings for the fighters come from various areas around the net. I tried to find the average ranking in order to reduce bias.

****Remember, these are calculations and in no way, shape, or form reflect my own personal rankings.****

Without further ado, here is a statistical ranking of the top 10 fighters for each weightclass.

Lightweight

1. BJ Penn 333
2. Sean Sherk 331
3. Takanori Gomi 300
   
4. Kenny Florian 285
   
5. Gesias Calvancante 198
   
6. Shinya Aoki 185
   
7. Roger Huerta 158
   
8. Eddie Alvarez 145
   
9. Gilbert Melendez 133
   
10. Tatsuya Kawajiri 128
    

Honorable mention: Mitsuhiro Ishida, Josh Thomson, Joe Stevenson, Joachim Hansen.

Welterweight

1. Georges St. Pierre 797
   
2. Jon Fitch 577
   
3. Thiago Alves 535
   
4. Diego Sanchez 479
   
5. Karo Parisyan 450
   
6. Matt Hughes 432
   
7. Jake Shields 413
   
8. Carlos Condit 245
   
9. Mike Swick 243
   
10. Josh Koscheck 228
    

Honorable mention: Matt Serra, Brock Larson, Nick Thompson, Yoshiyuki Yoshida.

Middleweight

1. Anderson Silva 644
   
2. Dan Henderson 549
   
3. Rich Franklin 382
   
4. Nate Marquadt 355
5. Gegard Mousasi 335
   
6. Robbie Lawler 331
   
7. Kazuo Misaki 317
   
8. Yushin Okami 256
   
9. Frank Trigg 224
   
10. Thales Leites 209
    
11. Yoshihiro Akiyama  155
    
12. Matt Lindland 149
    

Note: As of this ranking, it is uncertain if Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson will move up to 205 or not. This is why this list has 12.

Light Heavyweight

1. Chuck Liddell  544
   
2. Shogun Rua 483
   
3. Quinton Jackson 385
   
4. Lyoto Machida 376
   
5. Keith Jardine 354
   
6. Forrest Griffin 340
   
7. Vladimir Matyushenko 338
   
8. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira 334
   
9. Rashad Evans 279
   
10. Tito Ortiz 249
    

Honorable mention: Thiago Silva, Wanderlei Silva

Heavyweight

1. Andrei Arlovski 573
   
2. Fedor Emelianenko 502
   
3. Josh Barnett 487
   
4. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira 447
   
5. Randy Couture 421
   
6. Sergei Kharitnatov 383
   
7. Tim Sylvia 364
   
8. Fabricio Werdum 354
   
9. Mirko Crocop 332
   
10. Frank Mir 268
    

Honorable Mention: Aleksander Emelianenko, Ben Rothwell, Gabriel Gonzaga

Pound-for-pound

1. Georges St. Pierre 797
2. Anderson Silva 644
3. Jon Fitch 577
4. Andre Arlovski 573
5. Dan Henderson 549
6. Chuck Liddell 544
7. Thiago Alves 535
8. Fedor Emelienenko 502
9. Josh Barnett 487
10. Shogun Rua 483

Deepest Weight Divisions

1. Welterweight 440
2. Heavyweight 413
3. Light Heavyweight 368
4. Middleweight 360
5. Lightweight 220