I actually agree with a good portion of it and what the author is trying to convey. A ranking system is very much needed so the average person can follow who fits in where.

This is all about perceptions and the perception is legitimate that you can clearly see title defenses that take place that make you wonder.

I know I’m going to get ripped for this but I’ve stated all along I like what WAMMA is trying to do. We don’t need 20 ranking systems but having one that everyone acknowledges is a start to ironing out who’s who.

Anyhow I didn’t take this article to be as anti-UFC as most have here, it’s just that the UFC is the biggest and easiest to give many examples.

KTru: I applaud the other 5 oz readers for making sl many valid points and telling the author his “idea” is so flawed.I have nothing to give to this article except just reading this makes me cringe. Sure the UFC doesn’t have a perfect plan for titles, but tell me who does? Why put all the champions on the shelf, so ONEcontender emerges?this article baffles me  

All journalists face pressure to produce articles when there’s not much news to report, but this site takes it to a new level.

Once MMA reaches the popularity of more mainstream sports, we won’t have to get our news from amateurs like these whose only qualification is that they are the only game in town.

P.S. Some of you FiveOuncesofPain guys need to take a fucking writing course because it pisses me off to think that you get paid to write run-on sentences filled with shitty analogies.

and why was other orgs left out?

HOw about when Jay Hieron gets passed for a title shot, or when Miller gets a title shot cause he has a hit MTV show? Thats ok.

Frankly if someone keeps winning they will get a shot, but the way the UFC does it is fine with me, they set up good fights mostly and there champs are the best.

LW BJ, WW GSP, MW Spider, LHW Machida and Brock is number 2, I’d say if your the UFC champ your basically the best in the world.

And title fights and number one contender fights are tournaments, if Machida/Shogun and Rampage/Rashad fight and the winners fight each other, isnt that a tournament?

UFC is the top org for a reason, they have the best fighters, make big fights, market right, they are the top dogs.

This was just a troll article blasting UFC and shit, when other orgs do the same thing, but when SF or Dream give out title shots its cool, but I guess since Dream does tournaments they are great.

Tell me, how is Hellboy getting a FW title shot when he is dropping down from LW and hasnt had a fight at FW yet? They are passing up Dream FW to give Hellboy a title shot, but thats ok I guess. I guess its not a fight that has a big name in Japan like Hellboy in it so it can sell the card, I guess he really deserves the fight over guys who have fought at FW.

By the way, i’m fine with Hellboy getting the title shot vs Bibiano, I think its a great fight I’m looking forward to, but its just funny the article is all about the UFC doing it, and not other orgs.

Chris has no memory of boxing and the one million ranking systems, that lead to anything but the best fighters fighting. Only prime fighters in each organization would get ranked.

Clearly Pride always fed the champ the number one contender that is why Fedor towards the end was fighting guys like Hung Man Choi, and Mark Hunt instead of Barnett, and Crocop after the tourney win.

Twyg said it best, Strikeforce is the shining example… lol or Elite XC… for that matter. The UFC is doing the best in MMA in recent history.

I agree with most about not locking up a whole weight class to get a challenger for a title… although if they set it up to bring in not the number one ranked but the next one after (number 2 rank) in line then it would work out.. because as the episode was filming they could film the finale at the same time as the champ fought the number one ranked so then they would most likely bar serious injury be ready for a fight at the end of the showing of the tourney, which would work out perfectly.

Injuries of course could ruin any careful plan as we have seen over the last half year, so it would probably never work out perfectly.

But the part that I thought was funny is that you Chris poo poo on TUF and declare the master plan to be a tournament format. Earth to Christopher… TUF is a knockout tournament… lol

For us MMA fans that don’t care about the organization and more about the best quality fights the UFC is IT at the moment… although I always tune in WEC (amazing fights every card guaranteed), and commend Strikeforce on a great April card.. and loved Pride more than UFC during it’s heyday.. in the end all I care about is the best fights.

Hardy deserves the next shot, winner of Alves/Fitch next, Edgar is number 1 because he has the best chance now to beat Penn, Chael bar injury would’ve had the shot, Rua is the number one after the last expose and deservedly got a second straight match. In the HW’s with his return from illness no one can complain that the winner of Carwin/Mir gets the next shot, and Cain the next. So I am not sure where you were going.

Sometimes Joe Silva IMO throws too many young up and coming lions in with each other on the way up especially if they are Brazilian. I hate that.

I don’t want to see all the challengers knock each other out, that is what clears these weight categories so quickly.

And finally to Vogarian
“in most cases the UFC Champion is in fact, the best in the world.”
How do you know if they only fight who the UFC wants within the UFC?. I would argue that Randy Couture has not been the best in the world in any division for at least 10 years and yet he has earned the title 3 or 4 times in that period. Matt Serra, Forrest Griffin, Shaun Sherk and Tim Sylvia have all had titles in the UFC recently and I would argue that none of them were or are the best in the world.

Honestly, I hate people that do that. You read half a sentence and then go out of your way to cherry pick the few exceptions. Obviously there are instances where the guy who has the belt isn’t #1 in the world. Matt Sera had a fluke victory over the best WW in the world and lost the title back to him in his next fight. Forrest actually was ranked the #1 on this very site after he beat Rampage. As for Sherk and Sylvia they are the exceptions, since they were the champs 2-3 years ago when both divisions were down and to be fair Sherk was 32-2 with his only two losses to GSP and Matt Hughes. There’s no arguing right now that the best fighter in the LW, WW, MW, LHW divisions fight in the UFC and are either the number one contender or champion. The only division that the top fighter isn’t fighting in the UFC as a number one contender or champion is HW and the #2 through #6 are fighting there.

No idea why I’m feeding the troll, but I can’t help myself.

Everyone knows that Strikeforce’s title scene is barren. There’s nothing to be done about that beyond signing more fighters. That’s doesn’t make for an interesting column week in and week out.

The UFC title scene, however, can be written about and dissected any number of ways. While I don’t agree with using TUF as a way to establish title shots (removing 8-16 of your top draws in a weight class for months at a time is insanity), I do feel like SOME type of ranking system would be beneficial.

You can hope something can improve without having to hate on it.

lalo_g80:
He doesnt deserve #2 until he fights Koscheck and Swick.Until then these guys are banking on an Alves victory of 4 years ago and a bunch of Mike Pearce/Chris Wilson nobodies.Again Diego Sanchez is not the Nightmare the UFC portrayed him as.And Paulo Thiago didnt have an answer for his wrestling abilities.I think in a rematch Thiago can and will take him.  

Perhaps you know who should be number 2 then? Fitch has beaten everyone BUT Koscheck and Swick, and he doesn’t need them to take a number 2 spot. Right now Swick would be lucky to even be considered top 10 so fighting him would be even more so pointless for Fitch. After that, it’s Kos who still recently saw the losing end of a fight to Alves, and Thiago. Fitch has already beaten one guy who KO’d his teammate, and has a very viable change to beat the other guy who demolished Kos. It’s baffling to me that Fitch would be anything BUT second place. Of course his fight with Alves will be the true determiner for second place but when you say how Fitch should be ranked 15th or something it just makes it seem like you blindly hate the guy because he doesn’t finish people and doesn’t want to fight his friend.

For the record, I think the AKA guys should fight each other, but it doesn’t make me blind to the fact that Fitch has beaten everyone but GSP.

Right now the best LW, MW, WW in the world hold the titles in the UFC, while five of the top six LHW in the world (using 5oz rankings) have held the LHW title or fought for it. The only situation I’m not a fan of is the HW situation, but that only exists due to an injury to the champ.

When it comes to the WW situation, Dan Hardy is the guy who makes the most sense to me.
The only other guys in the equation would be Daley and Fitch. Fitch had his chance and hasn’t done anything that really shows he deserves another one, while Daley has had one fight at the weight, let him get another win or two and he’ll be knocking on the door.

So yes, fights are made to try and be exciting, but in most cases the guy who’s deserving gets the title shot and in most cases the UFC Champion is in fact, the best in the world.

THE UFC DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR IDEAS!!!!

THEY WANT TO MAKE MONEY!!!

I have nothing to give to this article except just reading this makes me cringe. Sure the UFC doesn’t have a perfect plan for titles, but tell me who does? Why put all the champions on the shelf, so ONE contender emerges?

this article baffles me

You make some interesting points, but in the end it comes across as a rant from a anti-zuffa fight fan. It looks almost like an elaborate post that belongs on Fight opinion or Mma weekly.

The points I would contend you on are already covered above by Super Dave, Davey D, Crane Style, and the posts by Rece Rock, and Alpha Omega cover my gut reaction to the article.

Makington: I like your points lalo, but the way you’re trying to get them across isn’t doing you any help. There are respectful ways to say it, and there are the ways that make you seem like blind hatred. The thing that bugs me about Fitch isn’t that he just can’t finish guys, it’s just that before every fight he says how much his boxing has improved and how much he is looking to knock the guy out this time for the fans, but then he goes back to his smothering wrestling. True, GSP gives similar results, but he does it in an exciting as hell way. He doesn’t lay on you, he is working all the time to turn your face into ground beef. And although he didn’t finish Fitch or Alves, it’s not so simple as that. Fitch clearly showed some sort of zombie-like resilience that kept him in, and GSP suffered a pretty tough injury half way through against Alves.
Of course Fitch deserves the number 2 spot, since he beats everyone but GSP. At the same time he can’t complain when he beats all these guys and comes no closer to a title shot because his fights are boring as hell.  

He doesnt deserve #2 until he fights Koscheck and Swick. Until then these guys are banking on an Alves victory of 4 years ago and a bunch of Mike Pearce/Chris Wilson nobodies.

Again Diego Sanchez is not the Nightmare the UFC portrayed him as. And Paulo Thiago didnt have an answer for his wrestling abilities. I think in a rematch Thiago can and will take him.

Of course Fitch deserves the number 2 spot, since he beats everyone but GSP. At the same time he can’t complain when he beats all these guys and comes no closer to a title shot because his fights are boring as hell.

superdavenorcal:
Or That one 19-1 fighter…oh what was his name…Diego Sanchez? Or ummm….Paulo Thiago who got DOMINATED all fight. No he didnt almost submit Fitch, he wasted two minutes on guillotines that weren’t working. Or Thiago Alves(by KO)…..wow dude, your case is not only disrepectful to the number 2 ww in the world…its total Nonsense.
GSP has only finished 2 of his last four opponents and BJ’s corner threw in the towel, whereas BJ would’ve fought if his corner just would’ve pointed him in the right direction. Noone is whining about him not finishing Alves or Fitch.
And YES Maia is that much better on the ground than Silva, its like Rogan said,”There’s black belts and there’s WORLD CLASS black belts.Maia submitted a man who outweighs him by almost 100 pounds in BJJ (Gonzaga).He is that good on the ground.  

LOL As we saw in December Diego Sanchez ISN’T the fighter we thought he would blossom into when he one TUF. Case in point when Fitch beat him he wasn’t a top 10 fighter. Alves again back in ’06 wasn’t a top 10 fighter that he is now. Paulo Thiago? Seriously he dominated? Thats funny… all I saw was a wrestler who didn’t wanna get knocked out take Thiago down and lay on him for 3 rounds. I guess thats your idea of dominating. You must like Couture/Vera snooze fests.

There is a difference in going the distance in the way Fitch does and then going the distance with GSP. Penn, Fitch, and Alves all got beat up the entire fight. Thiago lost the fight pissed off cuz all Fitch did to get the win was lay on him and dry hump him for 3 rounds. At least Thiago ATTEMPTED to submit him.

What makes Maia so world class? When did he fight Gonzaga in a UFC match? Do we count sparring matches in their own gym now? Was it one of those strictly submission type tourneys? This is the funny thing about some MMA fans. I guarantee you Gonzaga would beat the living crap out of Maia in a MMA match. You can compare black belts and when your talking Maia/Dan Miller but to say Maia’s is world class compared to Silva’s is moronic.