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Women – Independent World MMA Rankings (July 16, 2010)
By Zach Arnold | July 15, 2010

From the office of the Independent World MMA Rankings
The July 2010 Women’s Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple MMA web sites, as well as www.IndependentWorldMMARankings.com.
The members of the voting panel for the Women’s Independent World MMA Rankings are, in alphabetical order: Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter and MMA Journalist Blog); Yael Grauer (MMA HQ); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (Freelance); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Leland Roling (Bloody Elbow); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion); and Ivan Trembow (Freelance).
July 2010 Women’s Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on July 13, 2010
Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos (10-1)
2. Marloes Coenen (17-4)
3. Gina Carano (7-1)
4. Yuko “Hiroko” Yamanaka (9-1-1)
5. Cindy Dandois (4-0)
6. Shana Olsen (4-0)
7. Amanda Nunes (5-1)
8. Jamie Seaton (2-1)
9. Emily Thompson (3-2)
10. Hitomi Akano (15-7)
Bantamweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)
1. Sarah Kaufman (11-0)
2. Roxanne Modafferi (15-5)
3. Tara LaRosa (18-2)
4. Hitomi Akano (15-7)
5. Shayna Baszler (12-6)
6. Takayo Hashi (12-2)
7. Miesha Tate (9-2)
8. Julie Kedzie (14-8)
9. Jennifer Tate (6-1)
10. Vanessa Porto (10-4)
Flyweight Rankings (116 to 125 lbs.)
1. Tara LaRosa (18-2)
2. Aisling Daly (9-0)
3. Zoila Frausto (7-1)
4. Rosi Sexton (10-2)
5. Rin Nakai (7-0)
6. Sally Krumdiack (8-3)
7. Lena Ovchynnikova (6-0)
8. Megumi Fujii (20-0)
9. Monica Lovato (5-1)
10. Jeri Sitzes (3-1)
Junior Flyweight Rankings (106 to 115 lbs.)
1. Megumi Fujii (20-0)
2. Yuka Tsuji (22-2)
3. Lisa Ward (13-5)
4. Mei “V Hajime” Yamaguchi (6-2)
5. Jessica Pene (7-0)
6. Jessica Aguilar (8-3)
7. Kyoko Takabayashi (11-4)
8. Angela Magana (8-4)
9. Saori Ishioka (8-4)
10. Emi Fujino (8-4)
The Women’s Independent World MMA Rankings are tabulated and published on a monthly basis, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.
The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody’s vote counting more than anybody else’s vote, and no computerized voting.
The voters are instructed to vote primarily based on fighters’ actual accomplishments in the cage/ring (the quality of opposition that they’ve actually beaten), not based on a broad, subjective perception of which fighters would theoretically win hypothetical match-ups.
Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.
Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.
Changing Weight Classes: When a fighter announces that she is leaving one weight class in order to fight in another weight class, the fighter is not eligible to be ranked in the new weight class until her first fight in the new weight class has taken place.
Catch Weight Fights: When fights are contested at weights that are in between the limits of the various weight classes, they are considered to be in the higher weight class. The weight limits for each weight class are listed at the top of the rankings for each weight class.
Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Joshua Stein, and Yael Grauer for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
you are not going to get a lot of comments with this topic Zach.
Yuka Tsuji is out after shoulder and knee surgery and should not be ranked. She will return next year. Rin Nakai now fights at 135lbs.
Frank— Tsuji is still eligible to be ranked because she has fought in the past year. If she reaches the point where she hasn’t fought in 12 months, then she’ll lose her eligibility to be ranked at that time, just like any other fighter. As for Nakai, she is eligible to be ranked at both 135 and 125, but she only made the top ten list at 125 this month.
Precisely why I don’t waste my time with rankings. When a fighter is out with an injury for an extended period of time and she continues to be ranked #2, it makes the voters look like boobs. Your explanation is
bullshit. More likely it indicates that none of the voters know that she’s injured. Change the rules or look like idiots. That’s your choice.I’m not going to engage in a name-calling contest, but I disagree with the premise that fighters getting injured should result in those fighters losing their ranks, at least not until they’ve actually been inactive for 12 months.
We’re not talking about a couple of months. She’ll be out for at least a year. If you know that, just remove her from the rankings and explain the injury. But to leave her at #2 despite that is only explained by pure ignorance and the rankings have no credibility. And then you wonder why fans think rankings suck. Your lame answer explains that.
Don’t really wanna start an argument here but what is the big difference between a fighter being injured and out for a good amount of time, and a fighter being suspended for a couple months? Like why in the world are Shields, Diaz, and Melendez taken off the rankings for being out a couple months when they probably wouldn’t be fighting in that timespan anyway?
That is a good question. Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that fighters being out of action due to injury, and fighters being out of action due to disciplinary suspensions, are two fundamentally different things.
When a fighter suffers an injury and is out of action as a result, the fighter hasn’t been found to have done anything wrong. On the other hand, when a fighter gets a nine-month disciplinary suspension as a result of a failed drug test, or when a fighter gets a three-month suspension as a result of a post-fight brawl (like Shields, Melendez, Diaz, and Miller), the fighter has been found to have done something wrong, and the athletic commission has made the decision to punish the fighter by suspending them for X amount of months.
Different rankings systems have different rules, but one’s options when it comes to disciplinary suspensions are essentially limited to either ignoring disciplinary suspensions (and allowing fighters to be ranked while they are serving disciplinary suspensions), or choosing to make fighters ineligible to be ranked while they are serving disciplinary suspensions.
One of the rules of the Independent World MMA Rankings, as stated in the published guidelines, is that fighters who are serving disciplinary suspensions are not eligible to be ranked for as long as they are suspended.