UFC’s Pound for Pound rankings are int he spotlight thanks to how UFC is choosing to market UFC 284. The event is pitting together featherweight champ Alex Volkanovski against the lightweight champ Islam Makhachev – for the lightweight title.
But despite that fact, only one belt is on the line – Makhachev.
UFC’s marketing even prominently features the tagline Pound for Pound number 1 against pound for pound number 2 – which apparently isn’t even accurate.
For one, Leon Edwards is currently ranked at number 2 on the pound for pound list.
UFC Heavyweight Tom Aspinall roasted the choice and those who are excited for this clash by saying:
“On another note. “Pound for pound” is an absolute load of sh**e made up by nerds and can never be proven to be a “p4p champ”. It’s basically a pointless argument”
UFC athlete rankings are certainly entertaining to see. However, these rankings are quite inaccurate and mostly just related to how UFC feels about a certain prospect.
The UFC rankings are allegedly determined through a voting by several MMA media members.
“Rankings were generated by a voting panel made up of media members. The media members were asked to vote for who they feel are the top fighters in the UFC by weight-class and pound-for-pound. A fighter is only eligible to be voted on if they are in active status in the UFC.” The promotion explained.
However a bloody elbow investigation into the panel revealed that many of the listed outlets do not cover MMA and some never did in any significant fashion.
- Bursprak.se: The domain for this site is for sale. It has posted nothing on its Instagram or Twitter pages since July 2017.
- FightNews: Strictly focused on boxing.
- Gazeta Esportiva: Does not cover UFC with any regularity. A search found three Conor McGregor stories, two Anderson Silva pieces and one Khabib Nurmagomedov story since August.
- Cherokee Scout: No UFC coverage in 2020.
- Burbank Leader: No UFC coverage found via search.
- KIOZ 105.3: The most recent UFC news found via search was a May conversation about Ronaldo Souza being pulled from UFC 249 after testing positive for COVID-19.
- Vladusport.com: The domain for this site is for sale. The most recent tweet from this site is from September 2013.
- My MMA News: Has withdrawn from the rankings team, but remains listed.
- BoxeoMundial: Does not seem to cover UFC, focused on boxing and Brave CF.
- Inside Fighting Radio: Domain is for sale. Most recent Facebook post is from July.