(Kaufman celebrates her win. Props to Esther Lin.)
At FIGHT! Magazine, we believe there is a need for a completely objective and unbiased ranking system for fighters to replace the myriad subjective rankings that have become skewed, in many instances, by fighter popularity. In an effort to address this issue FIGHT! Magazine brings you its computerized rankings system which takes into account a fighters strength of opponent, strength of performance, and frequency of activity.
Three fighters entered the Strikeforce cage on Friday night in Everett, Wa. with FIGHT! Rankings and six exited the cage with a spot on our computerized poll.
Co-headliner Mike Kyle began the night #63 in FIGHT!’s Heavyweight Rankings. We reassigned him to Light Heavyweight, where he has been installed at #41 following his win over Ron “Abongo” Humphrey, who enters our rankings at #51. Shane Del Rosario stayed put at #27 in our Heavyweight Rankings with a win over unranked Lolohea Mahe, and Bobby Voelker entered our Welterweight Rankings at #79 with his win over Cory Devela, who drops from #93 to #99. Ousmane Thomas Diagne enters our Lightweight Rankings at #113 following his loss to unranked Caros Fodor.
The rest of the card, including Strikeforce Women’s 135-Pound Champion Sarah Kaufman, remains unranked. The male fighters are unranked because they have yet to complete three qualifying fights. The female fighters are unranked because until now we haven’t believed that the pool of active female fighters was deep enough to assign accurate values to their wins and losses. Now, with the establishment of Strikeforce’s 135- and 145- pound Women’s Championships, Bellator’s 125-pound women’s tourney, and the inclusion of smaller promotions around the globe that regularly feature women’s MMA bouts, FIGHT! will begin assigning values to female fights in two to three different weight classes.
The rankings, like women’s MMA, will be a work in progress but we feel that it’s something that the fans, and the fighters, deserve.
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