Fighters Only

Issue 116

July 2014

After Nate Diaz and TJ Grant were left out of the UFC’s lightweight ratings due to unavailability, we ask the MMA universe...

YES

TAREC SAFFIEDINE

Former Strikeforce welterweight champion on five-fight win streak

15-3

It depends on the length of inactivity. But if a fighter is not fighting for a certain period of time and other fighters are climbing up the rankings in his or her absence, then they should be removed. It makes perfect sense that a fighter should be phased out, and simply be removed slowly from their weight class’s ratings, in order to give other fighters the chance to move up and be inside the top 10, or whatever. It’s only fair to keep the division moving along and keep each weight division’s title contendership clear. That said, to be honest with you, I don’t ever look at the rankings, and I won’t until I have the letter ‘C’ in front of my name.

NO

RICHARD CARTEY

Fighters Only associate editor

Because you can’t enforce it fairly and sensibly, removing people from the rankings for anything other than definite long-term injury or a career hiatus risks making an already debated system so disputed it’s unusable. Even a concrete time limit is untenable. Should a fight booking before the end of that cut-off be deemed ‘activity,’ or should they lose their rank two weeks before fight night? And who can respect a ranking without obvious top-10 fighters simply because they’ve had an opponent injured the week of a fight six days ago and now they won’t step into the Octagon for that requisite eight months? Or do you make an exception? And does that exception become the rule? It’s a minefield that’s wise to avoid. No deadline means no confusion or claims of unfair play.