In almost every major sport you have some kind of ranking system that almost anyone, fan or not, can understand. For as long as the UFC has been around they have not officially recognized any ranking of their fighters. That is about to change, and Dana White is actually onboard with this change and has announced that the organization would establish a system to begin immediately after UFC 156.

Only UFC-promoted fighters will be included in the rankings provided by the UFC official statistics provider, FightMetric, and will be voted upon by 90 media member worldwide according to Dana White. He stated that he hopes this will make the UFC product easier to understand for people new to it.

“When you have a top 10 ranking, that’s literally what we all go by,” he said. “For as long as we’ve been on this planet until today, when you open the sports section, you see the Boston Red Sox in first place, Toronto in last place. There are rankings in every sport. It just makes sense.”

Dana White was also clear that the rankings wouldn’t have any real significance in terms of matchmaking, but consideration would be given to fighters who get to the top of their division. This could be a positive for fighters like Jon Fitch who went on an eight-fight win streak in the UFC before getting his title shot. Then after losing to Georges St-Pierre, he won five in a row, and was considered by many the No. 2 welterweight in the world. Fitch had also been criticized by some fans and labeled as “boring,” which many people also thought was the reason he didn’t get another shot at the champion.

With the UFC recognizing this new ranking system, maybe it will make it tougher on UFC matchmakers to overlook fighters like Fitch. Dana White says that he’ll still focus on the entertainment factor as much as the fairness when deciding championship fights.

“No matter what the rankings are, I’m putting on the fights the fans want to see,” he said.

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