I’ve described the rating system (which then produces the ranking) briefly elsewhere on the site, and I make no claims as to its “accuracy,” only that it is systematic.

Linear is also systematic. 45’s rankings probably have some sort of method to them, but I suspect there’s a fair share of madness as well (as with all opinion rankings)

Any systematic rating that claims to be focused on recent performance is going to be lacking too much information to be valuable IMHO. Talking about just the fights in the last 12 months is kind of ridiculous unless you’re allowing for the ranking of those fighters coming into those 12 months, and then you’re talking about a lifetime system anyway, you’re just calling it something else.

So who wants to recognize Briggs as a former undisputed world heavyweight champ? Not me! He had the WBO belt a few years ago, but that is it! Nothing more!

2. Nope! Unlike the UFC, Affliction does not leverage Free TV or mainstream media outlets to promote the event. At least the fans got to see Arvloski on Free Network TV (via Elite XC) before his fight with Fedor. But we all know that Card was probably a financial failure.

3. Re-read point no. 3. In addition, FEDOR has a history of being a PPV bust (Bodog, Pride USA & now Affliction). Don’t expect anything to change.

4. Unless Affliction uses their MMA card as a loss leader to promote their fashion line as a LOSS LEADER, I see a dismal future for them in the MMA fight biz. You can’t run a successful MMA promotion by having a fight card every 4 to 6 months, especially without any effective promotion or any effective means to attract a larger audience, (other than Hardcore MMA fans).

Then from there, I created a point system which I can’t really recall right now but something along the lines of a win against the #1 ranked fighter gains you 10 points. Losing to him, though, only drops you 1 point.

The crazy thing about it is that my rankings ended up like what most look like anyway. Fedor is #1, Mir is #2, Arlovski was #3 or #4, etc.

Give me a break – so basically your giant gripe is that he’s not facing top talent because he hasn’t fought Mir? If Barnett fought Mir it would be even money. He tried his damnedest to fight Couture when Couture was the top dog in the UFC, UFC wouldn’t allow it to happen (can’t fault them for that), and I saw NOTHING from Couture that makes me think he wouldn’t get fucking wrecked if they fought.

I basically just have to give up with guys like 45, because they continually try to rearrange the chess pieces to attempt to make their failing argument work.

e.g. “He needs to fight fighter X, Y, Z to prove he’s fighting ‘top guys’” –> Destroys X, Y, Z —> “Well X, Y, Z aren’t even top guys, they were run out of the UFC, he needs to fight A, B, C to prove he’s fighting ‘top guys’.” Lather, rinse, repeat as desired.

And then Randy left and you campaigned that he drop in the rankings accordingly. And Sylvia dropped because after losing to a fight he dominated most of against Nog, he was wiped out by Fedor. Two of them dropped appreciably, one guy kept winning. What, you think Arlovski should have been penalized for Sylvia’s failures and dropped too?

In any case, your talk about some sort of linear #2 flies out the window because you removed Randy from that to slot in Noguiera over inactivity. Figure in that Noguiera lost to a guy that’s wasn’t in the top ten at the time prior to Arlovski/Fedor, and then suddenly Arlovski is the #2 contender. Ta da!

In short, ranking perversions happen when an underdog gets the upset in a mismatch. A case in point is Dos Santos – Werdum. Whenever a top fighter is matched against a can with a puncher’s chance, the system is vulnerable to irregularity.

All the limitation will always exist, as well they should (such as promotional interests), so match-making will never be fully logical. However it is useful to come up with principles on what constitutes objective match-making, just to keep in mind.

1. The point of match-making is to determine the best fighter.

2. To be the champion, beat the champion

3. A fighter coming off a win should be matched against an opponent ranked higher than himself. This gives him the opportunity to rise in the ranks

4. A fighter coming off a loss should be matched against an opponent ranked lower than himself. This allows him to plummet if he loses again, or tread water if he wins

5. Fighters should face opponents who are not too distant from them in the rankings. This helps ensure fair, competitive fights and resolves apparent irregularities

6. It’s good to strive toward giving a tournament-like structure to determining title shots, or at least “#1 contender” fights, rather than giving fighters title shots out of the blue (like Anderson Silva’s last 2 opponents). For example, I would have liked to see Arlovski vs Barnett to determine Fedor’s challenger

7. It should take, at minimum, 2 victories over Top 10 opponents (and no losses between them) to be considered the #1 contender

Based on these principles, Velasquez-Kongo is an excellent match-up. The winner should be one more fight away from a title shot, and that fight should be against a higher-ranked opponent, such as the loser of Mir-Lesnar or the loser of Nogueira-Couture. Defeating Cain or Cheick, then beating any one of those four HW giants, earns any man a title shot

Dos Santos should be matched against Carwin to determine the #1 contender for the HW belt. It would be difficult to deny Dos Santos the shot given decisive victories over Shane and Fabricio. Alternatively, Dos Santos could be exposed, and an undefeated Carwin given the title shot.

* Fedor is the undisputed champion. Nobody has dominated the division as thoroughly as he has. He holds wins against #3 Nogueira (x3), #6 Sylvia, #7 Arlovski, #13 Herring and #15 CroCop

* Nogueira is one crossover point. In addition to holding UFC wins over #6 Sylvia and #13 Herring, he also holds PRIDE wins over #15 CroCop and #16 Barnett. Mir\’s win over Nogueira earns him the #2 spot

* Dos Santos\’s high ranking is a potential irregularity. I say \”potential\” because time will tell, and his ranking might prove justified. But it seems intuitively odd for fighters with short records to rise suddenly due to a single win over a top-ranked opponent. I believe this level of potential irregularity is tolerable in the short run, and the wrinkles are ironed out by the system over time. In other words, if Dos Santos\’s knockout of Werdum was a fluke, he will steadily plummet in the rankings, as did Houston Alexander and Sokoudjou, for example. For the mystery to vanish, Dos Santos must not be matched against cans like Struve, but must be tested against top caliber competition to see if he belongs

* The other major crossover point is CroCop. His poor performance in the UFC is the main reason for ranking the UFC (and former UFC) elite decisively above the former PRIDE elite (with the exception of Fedor). CroCop holds wins over #16 Barnett and #17 Aleks, and losses to UFC\’s #11 Gonzaga and #14 Kongo