USAT/SBN January 2011 MMA Consensus Rankings: Bantamweight

Rank Fighter % Promotion Last Rank 1 Dominick Cruz 100 UFC 1 2 Brian Bowles 92 UFC 2 2 Joseph Benavidez 92 UFC 3…

By: Nate Wilcox | 12 years ago
USAT/SBN January 2011 MMA Consensus Rankings: Bantamweight
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena


Rank Fighter % Promotion Last Rank
1 Dominick Cruz 100 UFC 1
2 Brian Bowles 92 UFC 2
2 Joseph Benavidez 92 UFC 3
4 Scott Jorgensen 86 UFC 4
5 Miguel Torres 83 UFC 5
6 Urijah Faber 80 UFC 6
7 Takeya Mizugaki 67 UFC 7
8 Wagnney Fabiano 55 UFC 9
9 Brad Pickett 54 UFC 8
10 Masakatsu Ueda 54 Shooto 10
11 Masakazu Imanari 43 DEEP 12
12 Eddie Wineland 40 UFC 15
13 Demetrious Johnson 38 UFC 13
14 Damacio Page 36 UFC 14
15 Antonio Banuelos 33 UFC 16
16 Charlie Valencia 29 UFC 17
17 Michael McDonald 28 UFC 18
18 Rani Yahya 25 UFC 11
19 Shuichiro Katsumura 24 Shooto 19
20 Akitoshi Tamura 23 WVR 19
21 Zack Makovsky 19 Bellator 21
22 Renan Barao 17 UFC 28
23 Darren Uyenoyama 16 Shooto 23
24 Abel Cullum 15 KOTC 22
25 Takafumi Otsuka 11 DEEP 25

Rankings compiled by Richard Wade.

The UFC’s newest division will have to wait a few months for a title defense, but two of the division’s biggest stars will be getting busy in the next eight weeks.

#1 Dominick Cruz elected to have hand surgery after defending his WEC title at the final WEC show and being named UFC champ.

Cruz beat #4 Scott Jorgensen with an entertainingly awkward, but effective, striking attack at WEC 53.

Cruz might be back in early summer.

#5 Miguel Torres takes on #15 Antonio Banuelos at UFC 126 this Saturday.

Also on that card, #13 Demetrious Johnson will welcome Japanese legend Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto to the UFC. It’s amazing that Kid Yamamoto, once one of the biggest stars in world-wide MMA, is making his US debut on the unaired undercard.

#6 Urijah Faber will face #12 Eddie Wineland at UFC 128. The bout has likely title shot implications for Faber but my guess is Wineland would need another win even if he gets past Faber.

Based on the premise that all MMA rankings are subjective but that it’s still useful and informative to know who the online MMA community as a whole ranks as the best fighters in MMA, we collect and average the rankings of the top MMA websites to produce our consensus rankings. We compile the top MMA rankings from each of our sources and award 25 points for a first place ranking, 16 for a 10th place ranking, 1 for a 25th place ranking. A formula is used to “normalize” the data so all fighters are awarded points from those lists that do not include a full 25 fighters. This formula ensures that each ranking site awards the same number of total points regardless of how many fighters they choose to rank. Each fighter’s total is divided by the number of possible points to determine their standing in the Consensus Rankings.

We are now moving to what JCS of Fight Matrix has described as assumed rankings in an attempt to rank fighters who move between weight classes. This has been the biggest problem with the consensus rankings and we believe this new methodology will rectify that.

Let’s take Anderson Silva for instance. 87% (13 of 15) of our panelists have him at Light Heavyweight and 100% (15 of 15) at Middleweight. On the 13 ballots that ranked Silva at 205, we took the average (21.2). We then reduced that number by half the percentage of Light Heavyweight ballots that he was not included on. Say he’s not on 30% of them, then we do a 15% penalty on the average that we found in the previous step. That number is then used instead of the usual “normalization number” to provide points from those not ranking the fighter in the weight class in question. This avoids fighters being excessively penalized by confusion about which weight class they belong.


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About the author
Nate Wilcox
Nate Wilcox

Nate Wilcox is the founding editor of BloodyElbow.com. As such he has hired every editor and writer to work for the site. Wilcox’s writing for BE is known for its emphasis on MMA history, the evolution of fighting techniques and strong opinions. Wilcox developed the SBN MMA consensus rankings which were featured in USA Today from 2009 to 2011. Before founding BE, Wilcox was a political operative working for such figures as Senators John Kerry and Mark Warner and an early political blogger. He is the co-author of Netroots Rising, a history of the political blogosphere from 2003 to 2007. Wilcox also hosts the Let It Roll podcast on music history for the Pantheon Podcast Network.

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