UFC rankings system faces imminent overhaul

Eleven years after their implementation, it seems like a serious change is coming to the UFC rankings system.

Tuesday, UFC CEO Dana White vented his frustration about Khalil Rountree’s place at No. 8 within the UFC mild heavyweight rankings.

Rountree just lately had success in opposition to champion Alex Pereira earlier than being knocked out in Spherical 3. He didn’t shift upward within the rankings.

However it’s not simply this difficulty that White has taken difficulty with. It’s additionally Renato Moicano’s stagnation after a dominant win over Benoit Saint Denis in September.

“I simply can’t deal with incompetence,” White stated after Dana White’s Contender Sequence 76. “I simply can’t take it anymore. It’s driving me loopy. I can’t let those who I don’t imagine know what the f*ck that they’re speaking about take care of the rankings anymore. I simply can’t do it. I’ve to determine an answer.”

Since 2013, the rankings have been voted upon by a UFC-selected group of shops, with many others declining participation. Some shops on the present panel are recognizable and even area of interest hardcore media. Others are non-MMA-specific radio stations and native newspapers.

Whereas White didn’t give particulars into what a alternative system would appear like, he indicated he’s listening to one concept Wednesday.

“Tomorrow, I’ve a gathering with a gaggle of people who find themselves coming to me saying they’ve an answer to this drawback,” White stated. “God, I hope they’re proper. As a result of I’m going to vary it. The media will now not management the rankings within the UFC.”

One answer White pushed again in opposition to was internally-controlled rankings. White stated he, the matchmakers Mick Maynard and Sean Shelby, and UFC CBO Hunter Campbell shouldn’t take part in that course of due to bias and {that a} third social gathering should be in cost.

“We are able to’t do it,” White stated. “I don’t suppose that it’s proper that we’d do the rankings. Irrespective of how unbiased you attempt to be, it’s not possible. I’ll be trustworthy with you, there are some fighters I don’t like. There are fighters that I actually like. There are issues which are good for the enterprise.

“… I don’t need that on our palms in any respect. Not mine, not Sean’s (Shelby), not Mick’s, not Hunter’s – no person’s. There needs to be a 3rd social gathering or AI or one thing that does the rankings. It’s not possible to not biased. I imagine there may be bias with the media, too. It’s not possible to not be biased.”