Every Wednesday for the past eight weeks, I've taken the rankings from UFC.com, Fight Matrix, Sherdog, and MMA Weekly, combined them, and used the combined rankings to determine who got the next title shot and who participated in the next #1 contender's match based on a set of rules (rules will be listed below). For the next eight weeks, I'm going to go back through all of the men's divisions (Sherdog and MMA Weekly have a pound-for-pound list for woman but not an explicit women's bantamweight list, so I'm skipping that division for now) taking a look at the fights that have occurred since my last post, how the rankings have changed, and then take a look ahead.
My previous post on the UFC Middleweights can be found here.
Here's what happened in the division in the past eight weeks:
- Lyoto Machida defeated Mark Munoz at UFC Fight Night 30.
- Francis Carmont defeated Costa Philippou at UFC 165.
- Tim Kennedy defeated Rafael Natal at UFC Fight for the Troops 3.
- Tim Boetsch defeated C.B. Dollaway at UFC 166.
- Brad Scott defeated Michael Kuiper at UFC Fight Night 30.
- Luke Barnatt defeated Andrew Craig at UFC Fight Night 30.
- Nicholas Musoke defeated Alessio Sakara at UFC Fight Night 30.
- Derek Brunson defeated Brian Houston at UFC Fight for the Troops 3.
- Lorenz Larkin defeated Chris Camozzi at UFC Fight for the Troops 3.
- Yoel Romero defeated Ronny Markes at UFC Fight for the Troops 3.
- Omari Akhmedov defeated Thiago Perpetuo at UFC Fight Night 32.
- Cezar Ferreira defeated Daniel Sarafian at UFC Fight Night 32.
The combined rankings for the division are now as such:
Combined Rankings
UFC | Fight Matrix | Sherdog | MMA Weekly | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Last Update: | 11/11/2013 | 11/10/2013 | 10/28/2013 | 10/27/2013 | |||||||||
1. | Chris Weidman | 1 | (0) | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
2. | Anderson Silva | 2 | (1) | 2 | 2 | 2 | |||||||
3. | Vitor Belfort | 3 | (2) | 3 | 3 | 3 | |||||||
4. | Ronaldo Souza | 4 | (3) | 5 | 4 | 4 | |||||||
5. | Michael Bisping | 5 | (4) | 6 | 5 | (6) | 5 | ||||||
6. | Lyoto Machida | 6 | (5) | 4 | 6 | (7) | 6 | ||||||
7. | Luke Rockhold | 7 | (6) | 8 | (10) | 8 | (9) | 8 | |||||
8. | Mark Munoz | 8 | (7) | 10 | (12) | 7 | (8) | 7 | |||||
9. | Francis Carmont | 9 | (8) | 7 | T9 | (OC) | |||||||
10. | Tim Kennedy | 9 | (11) | T9 | (OC) | 9 | (10) | ||||||
Costa Philippou | 10 | (9) | T9 | (OC) | |||||||||
Tim Boetsch | T9 | (OC) |
It's been a busy eight weeks for the middleweight division. The top five are unchanged from the last report. Of the top five, only Belfort has fought, and his fight was at light heavyweight against Dan Henderson. He won, and Dana White has said that Vitor gets the next title shot (unless something "weird" happens involving Weidman/Silva II). Machida joined the division and knocked Munoz down a couple spots by beating him in his debut. Okami was cut and thus no longer qualifies for the list. Carmont and Philippou flipped spots (more or less) after their fight.
My rules for determining who gets the next title shot and who fights to be the next #1 contender:
- The next title contender would be the highest ranked fighter that:
- Won two fights in a row.
- Won three fights since his last loss in a title fight or against the current champion unless he's a former champion that successfully defended the belt.
- Won five fights in a row if his number of losses against the current champion is two greater than his number of wins.
- The next #1 contender match would be between the next two highest ranked fighters that:
- Won his last fight.
- Won two fights since his last loss in a title fight or against the current champion unless he's a former champion that successfully defended the belt.
- Won four fights in a row if his number of losses against the current champion is two greater than his number of wins.
Matches I'd Make
Starting off with the title, the next shot at Chris Weidman would go to Vitor Belfort. Belfort has had three wins at middleweight since his last middleweight title fight and has earned another shot. As for the #1 contender, I'd pit Ronaldo Souza against Michael Bisping to see who gets the next title shot. I'd make Francis Carmont put his 11 fight winning steak on the line against Lyoto Machida in a fight that would likely determine who'd get the next crack at earning a title shot. And for the final guy coming off of a win in the top ten, I'd give Tim Kennedy a fight against Tim Boetsch and let one of the Tims work his way towards the top. As for the fighters coming off of a loss, I'd give the former UFC champion Anderson Silva a crack at the last Strikeforce middleweight champion (Luke Rockhold). Mark Munoz and Costa Philippou would be given the opportunities to redeem themselves against each other.
Matches the UFC has Made
With a bunch of recent activity, there's not a lot set up for the middleweight top ten. Silva is getting a chance to regain his title against Weidman at UFC 168 at the end of December. Machida will be welcoming Gegard Mousasi to the middleweight division at a Fight Night card in February.
Matches I'd Add to the UFC's
I could accept a case for holding Belfort for the next title shot, but I'd rather he fight a top contender in the division to earn it instead, so I'd pit Vitor against Souza for the #1 contendership. Bisping would then instead fight Carmont. Instead of the Spider, Rockhold would take on Munoz. And my match between Kennedy and Boetsch would still be on.
The case of Anderson Silva exposes a potential weakness in my rules. Should a champion who defended his belt 10 times, won a non-title match at his championship weight, and 3 fights in the division above really have to win twice to get back in the title picture? Feels like I should adopt a rule that allows for immediate rematches (although I usually don't like them) or one win to get back in for champions that kept the title for long enough (determined by fights and not time).
If Weidman can repeat his success in their first match up, the middleweight division could become quite interesting over the next few years as there will be a number of potentially interesting title fights.