Using computers crunching formulas to determine who is best is nothing new to sport. Companies like AccuScore run thousands of simulations in order to predict winners of games for the purpose of betting, the ELO system was devised for rating chess players and College football has determined computers are a far better option to pussy shit like letting the best teams play each other until one remains. For fighting, computers offer the potential to provide an objective view of who is best, without opinion skewed by personal love or hatred for a given fighter, and have the ability to turn out quite nicely.
On the other hand, they have the ability to turn out, in the words of the poet Hammer, wiggidy, wiggidy whack. FIGHT! Magazine is best known online for having the so-obvious-it’s-brilliant idea to put a camera on Bas Rutten and film anything at all he wants to say, because it is sure to be awesome.
They also run an excellent MMA mag, which is always worth a read, so it’s not like these rankings were put together by a bunch of rank amateurs, if you’ll excuse the pun. It’s often argued that rankings don’t really mean anything, and while on the one hand it’s entirely true, there’s still some merit in trying to objectively find the best in the world, particularly at the weight classes where the top talent is not gathered under one roof. So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at some highlights from the weight classes heavy-through-light in, to date, the worst rankings I have ever seen.
