UFC Performance Based Fighter Rankings: Heavyweights: Sept 28/18

There is constant debate about the “official” UFC fighter rankings, which are based on voting from a panel of journalists. Such is the case with something as subjective as voting – it’s totally based on voter’s opinion, and biases are bound to seep through, whether intentional or no. So to try to put a fresh, objective, data-driven spin on rankings, The MMA Manifesto has come up with a performance based ranking system, solely based on how a fighter has performed in the cage. Next up: The Heavyweights.

*stipulations: 1) any fighter currently suspended or 2) inactive for at least 12 months (without an upcoming fight scheduled) are excluded from the rankings

Scoring based on a fighter’s past 10 UFC performances (we use a seven year time limit, so if they have fought less than 10 times in past seven years, only the fights within that time frame are counted)
Points based on a fighter’s opponent’s UFC win/loss record (ie strength of schedule – the more successful a vanquished opponent is, the more points awarded), extra points given for finishes, extra points given for title fight wins.
Points are weighed so most recent fights are worth more (ie most recent fight counts the most, 10th most recent fight the least)
No points awarded for a loss

(first column performance based ranking, second column is last ranking, third column is official UFC ranking from UFC.com)

Stats	Last	UFC		Total
Rank	Rank
1	1	1	Daniel Cormier	614
2	2	2	Stipe Miocic	446
3	3	7	Alistair Overeem	199
4	13	9	Aleksei Oleinik	166.5
5	5	3	Derrick Lewis	164
6	7	5	Francis Ngannou	156
7	8	6	Alexander Volkov	153
8	6	11	Mark Hunt	133
9	9	4	Curtis Blaydes	125.5
10	10	8	Junior dos Santos	119
11	11	12	Tai Tuivasa	112.5
12	12	10	Marcin Tybura	112
13	19	13	Shamil Abdurakhimov	89
14	15		Walt Harris	58.5
15	14	14	Andrei Arlovski	54
16	16	15	Stefan Struve	50
17	18		Adam Wieczorek	34.5
18	20	16	Justin Willis	31.5
19	21		Dmitriy Sosnovskiy	30
20	22		Cyril Asker	29.5
21	23		Chris De La Rocha	25
22	24		Junior Albini	24
23	25		Daniel Spitz	22.5
23	25		Marcelo Golm	22.5
25	27		Chase Sherman	18.5
26	NR		Augusto Sakai	5
27	29		Arjan Singh Bhullar	4.5
28	30		Allen Crowder	0
28	30		Blagoy Ivanov	0
28	30		Hu Yaozong	0
28	30		Rashad Coulter	0