Ivan's Blog--- Ivan Trembow's Self-Important, Random Rants on Mixed Martial Arts, Video Games, Pro Wrestling, Television, Politics, Sports, and High-Quality Wool Socks (original) (raw)

Featuring Ivan Trembow's Self-Important, Random Rants on Mixed Martial Arts, Video Games, Pro Wrestling, Television, Politics, Sports, and High-Quality Wool Socks

Monday, September 27, 2010

by Ivan Trembow

A few weeks ago, I made the decision that I am no longer going to be watching MMA (or football, or boxing, or kickboxing).

It was very difficult for me to come to this decision, because MMA has not just been my favorite sport for as long as I can remember; it has also been my biggest interest and passion in life for as long as I can remember. The sport of MMA has been what I often go to bed thinking about, it has been what I've written about for years, it has given me something to look forward to during many tough times, and it has been the sport that I've defended to any of my friends or family who oppose it. I know that no longer watching MMA is going to leave a void in my life, and that no longer watching football, boxing, or kickboxing is going to be easy by comparison.

Very few days have gone by over these many years during which I haven't either read about, or written about, or watched MMA, and for good reason: The technique involved in MMA, the fact that a fighter can employ dozens of different strategies and try to go about winning in so many different ways, the fact that all of those strategies have counter-strategies (and those counters have counters), the fact that there are so many different ways to win... These are the things that have always made me feel that MMA is the most exciting sport in the world to watch.

At the same time, I know that I can't watch it anymore, and I'd like to explain what led to my decision to no longer watch the sport that I've loved so much for so many years.

I recently watched a segment on an episode of the HBO newsmagazine "Real Sports" that I had saved on Tivo. The segment was about a peer-reviewed scientific study that links brain injuries such as concussions to ALS (and to syndromes like ALS), which is probably the single worst way for a human being to (slowly and painfully) die.

After watching this segment, I went online and started reading. And reading. And reading. I read about concussions for hours and hours, then for the better part of a couple days. (One of the many, many articles that I found was one on Sherdog.com, written by Dr. Matt Pitt on the subject of brain injuries in MMA)

While of course everyone has known for years that concussions are "bad for you" in general, the scientific community has only begun to fully understand the wide scope of the long-term consequences of concussions in the past few years. Studies have recently been conducted on the brains of dead football players, boxers, and pro wrestlers. Many of these athletes lived long enough to finish their careers, but nowhere near a normal life expectancy, and the alarming trend in the studies of these athletes' brains is that they had brain damage that was far worse than anyone suspected or could have imagined.

Specifically, they had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.

Some of these athletes had drastic behaviorial changes before their deaths, some of them developed Alzheimer's-like syndromes, some of them developed ALS-like syndromes, some of them killed themselves, and some of them killed others before killing themselves (such as pro wrestler Chris Benoit, who murdered his wife Nancy and his seven-year-old son Daniel before killing himself in 2007).

While these studies have not yet looked at the brains of dead MMA fighters, in part because the sample size of dead athletes in the relatively young sport of MMA hasn't been as large yet, common sense dictates that many of the same findings that these researchers have made about football's effects on the brain later in life, and boxing's effects on the brain later in life, will also apply to MMA.

Yes, MMA is "safer than boxing," but I think I must have been kidding myself to ever think that "safer than boxing" meant "relatively safe," no matter how much the athletic commissions and MMA promoters deny or downplay the long-term brain issues associated with MMA. People in football and boxing made the same denials for many years until the evidence became too overwhelming to deny anymore.

If one uses the threshold that suffering three or more concussions causes an athlete to be much more likely to develop CTE (even though recent research has shown that you don't need to have suffered three concussions to have a greatly increased risk of CTE), what's the percentage of MMA fighters who haven't had three concussions?

Most MMA fighters have been concussed at least that many times, some far more than that. The case of Kazushi Sakuraba is probably the most sad, grotesque, and heartbreaking (and Sakuraba recently said that he wants to fight for five to ten more years). Yes, that's in Japan, but even in the United States, this country's financially motivated athletic commissions don't seem to think twice about licensing someone like, say, Wanderlei Silva, who has been knocked out cold several times in official MMA fights and, by his own admission, was knocked out cold numerous additional times during full-contact training sessions at Chute Boxe.

Unconscious MMA Fighters Continuing to Get Punched

While MMA is safer than boxing overall, there are some ways in which MMA is actually less safe than boxing. One example: While it's true that giving boxers a standing-eight-count to get back to their feet after a knockdown really just enables boxers to take more punishment after they get back up, there is one thing that you rarely see in boxing, but which takes place all the time in MMA and is not even considered anything out of the ordinary: Fighters getting punched in the head repeatedly after they've already been knocked unconscious by a devastating strike to the head.

When an MMA fighter has very clearly knocked his or her opponent unconscious, it is the exception, not the norm, for the fighter to stop like Gerald Harris did after his recent knockout win over Dave Branch.

It's far more common for MMA fighters (like Hector Lombard and many, many others) to continue punching and punching, even after their opponent has very clearly been knocked unconscious, until the referee intervenes, which is often very late.

Sometimes, the fighter even throws one or two more punches after the referee intervenes (as was the case after Quinton Jackson knocked out Wanderlei Silva), and of course, the "go along to get along" athletic commissions sit on their hands and do nothing about it, not even issuing a small fine just to make the point that you shouldn't keep punching after the referee has intervened.

In addition to the times when it's obvious that a fighter is unconscious, there are also plenty of times when the punches to the head of the already-unconscious fighter are delivered in such rapid-fire fashion that it's impossible to fault the fighter who keeps punching (one example would be Cain Velasquez's knockout of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira). In these cases, it's not as if the winning fighters had time to see that their opponents were already unconscious. However, to the losing fighters, the result is the same: Getting punched in the head repeatedly after they've already been knocked unconscious.

Many times (like in the aforementioned Nogueira-Velasquez fight), the knocked-out fighter wakes up very quickly after the punches stop. In these cases, they're usually able to give a post-fight interview with little-to-no ill effects apparent to the viewers at home. It's easy for many MMA fans (myself included) to delude ourselves into thinking that everything is okay in these situations. Two athletes competed, one of them won, one of them lost, and even if one of them got knocked out, they both seem fine now, but unfortunately, that's not the way it works. Many of the horrible symptoms of concussion-related brain damage take years to surface as the deposits of tau proteins in the brain build up over time.

Subconcussive Blows: No Concussions Necessary to Develop CTE

The study on the brain of deceased NFL player Chris Henry showed that you don't even need to have suffered a major concussion to have CTE, because you can also get CTE from many lesser blows to the head. Henry, who died during a domestic dispute in December 2009 at the age of only 26, was never diagnosed with a concussion during his football career, but the post-mortem examination of his brain revealed that he had CTE.

Think of all the times that MMA fighters get "rocked" or "buzzed" or "stung" during fights. An accumulation of these blows (both in fights and in training) can be more than enough to lead to athletes developing CTE and the associated problems that come with it, even if they are fortunate enough to go through their entire career without being knocked out.

The idea that you have to be a grizzled, old veteran of your sport to have CTE is an idea that is disproved by the Chris Henry case, and is further disproved by the recently released study on the brain of college football player Owen Thomas. Thomas, a captain on the University of Pennsylvania's football team, was only 21 years old and was never diagnosed with anything severe enough to be labeled "a concussion" during his football career. Thomas killed himself this past April, and a post-mortem examination of his brain revealed that he had CTE, which doctors believe was from an accumulation of subconcussive, "lesser" blows to the head.

How many MMA fighters have been "buzzed" or "stung" in fights that they've actually won? Too many to count. Sometimes, it's even discussed with a smile in the post-fight interview. There are many examples that I could cite, and one of them is when Rich Franklin said in the post-fight interview that he couldn't remember large portions of his unanimous decision victory against the late Evan Tanner, because he had been "rocked" earlier in the fight.

Many MMA fighters also suffer concussions and/or subconcussive blows to the head in fights that they lose, and they are often allowed to continue fighting even after they clearly should not be. To cite one of many possible examples, was there any doubt in anyone's mind that Jorge Gurgel was in no condition to continue fighting when he got "rocked" immediately after the bell sounded to end Round 1 of his recent fight against K.J. Noons? A glassy-eyed and woozy-looking Gurgel could barely make it back to his corner.

In the sixty seconds between rounds, Gurgel's corner-men, the ringside doctor, and the referee all failed to do their job. They apparently failed to realize that their job at that moment was to look out for the safety of the injured fighter and stop the fight, not to squeeze every last drop of "action" out of Gurgel. Predictably, shortly after the second round started, Noons stunned Gurgel again and won by TKO, but not before the amount of brain trauma suffered by Gurgel had far exceeded what it "needed" to be. Sadly, the case of Gurgel vs. Noons is not an isolated example; it's just one of the most obvious recent examples.

After a fight (or training session) in which a fighter gets "buzzed" or "stung" by subconcussive blows to the head, fighters sometimes have very few symptoms of a head injury. Sometimes, shortly after the offending strike, they have no symptoms whatsoever. Often, they can even pass neurological exams and feel 100% "recovered," while still having suffered brain damage that may only get worse in the years to come as deposits of tau proteins build up in their brains.

Many of the fighters who are suffering concussions or subconcussive blows to the head today, and are at risk for developing CTE, may not experience any of the signs of CTE for many years, giving them a false sense of security in some cases. (How many fighters are able to rationalize anything to themselves by saying, "No matter how many other fighters are suffering from Health Problem X, that's not going to happen to me"?) By the time that any symptoms of CTE become apparent, years' worth of additional brain damage may have been inflicted.

These fighters and their doctors would have no way of knowing for sure if they have CTE while they're alive, because CTE can currently only be diagnosed by removing and examining someone's brain tissue after they have died.

One of the reasons that some athletes who suffer brain injuries later develop CTE, and some don't even if they have suffered the same number of brain injuries, is genetic. In 70% of the brains that they have studied, doctors at the Brain Injury Research Institute have found a gene that is believed to be a precursor gene. As is the case with many diseases, this indicates that some people are more susceptible to developing CTE if they are exposed to risk factors such as a brain injury, and some people are less susceptible.

Fighters Who Have Been Reduced to Shells of their Former Selves

There are countless fighters in MMA who have been reduced to shells of their former selves when it comes to their in-ring (or in-cage) performances, in part because they have taken so much punishment to the head over the years. In some cases, while these fighters' situations are still viewed as sad, many MMA fans (myself included) have been able to rationalize this in the past by saying, "Well, they're in their late 30s or 40s," which is generally considered "old" in sports. But in addition to the fact that being in one's late 30s or 40s is not "old" in life, many of these fighters don't even meet the sports definition of "old."

To name just a few examples: Jens Pulver is 35 (and though his recent losses have come by submission, he has gotten knocked down or "rocked" shortly before the submission in most of those fights). Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is 34 (though an accident during his childhood may have accelerated his decline a couple of decades later). Keith Jardine is 34 (and he recently said that he had the "worst migraine in the world" and was "in a bad situation" before and during his fight against Trevor Prangley, but he fought anyway). Wanderlei Silva is 34 (and, in addition to the fact that he has been knocked out numerous times, he has lost five of his last seven fights). Andrei Arlovski is just 31 (and, in addition to the fact that he has lost his last three fights, he has been knocked out six times during his career).

I could list many more MMA fighters who have been reduced to shells of their former selves in the ring/cage; I have only listed fighters who are 35 years old or younger to illustrate the point that a fighter doesn't even have to be considered "old" by sports standards in order to fit that description.

Like athletes in other sports, all too many MMA fighters on the tail end of their careers don't know when the time has come for them to retire from the sport, and there's always one promoter or another who is still willing to book them (and many athletic commissions who are willing to license them).

In sports that don't involve brain injuries as an inherent part of the sport, staying around for too long in search of the next moment of glory, or the next adrenaline rush, or simply the next paycheck, can lead to athletes getting embarrassed or having their legacies diminished in some way.

In sports that do involve brain injuries as an inherent part of the sport, such as MMA, boxing, and football, staying around for too long in search of the next mega-dose of adrenaline can also lead to athletes significantly worsening the brain damage that they've already suffered.

Some MMA fighters (like Chuck Liddell) have taken so much punishment to the head that they actually speak differently than they used to. One of the biggest examples of slurred speech in boxing in the past several years is, ironically, James Toney, whose speech is so slurred that he sounds nothing like he did when he was younger. When Toney recently entered the world of mixed martial arts, this exposed MMA fans, writers, and fighters to Toney's badly slurred speech, which is something that they might not have previously been aware of.

Sadly, when it comes to how most people reacted to this, there seemed to be more people who thought it was funny that Toney needed subtitles than there were people who wondered why a fighter with such badly slurred speech was still being licensed to fight in MMA, boxing, or any other combat sport.

These are just some of the examples that I could cite, and these examples only include fighters from fairly well-known MMA promotions. Undoubtedly, there are countless other fighters that I have never heard of, fighting on small MMA shows, who could also be accurately described as shells of their former selves in the ring or cage.

MMA Fighter Suicides

Sadly, many of the times that we hear about these fighters in smaller MMA promotions are when something horrible happens, such as when a fighter dies from brain injuries suffered in a specific fight (like Sam Vasquez in 2007 and Michael Kirkham in 2010), or when a fighter commits suicide.

Both CTE and Alzheimer's disease involve tau protein deposits in the brain. These deposits affect different parts of the brain in people with CTE than they affect in people with Alzheimer's, although CTE can end up leading to many of the same symptoms, such as severe memory loss and other aspects of dementia.

Due to the parts of the brain that are affected, two of the problems faced by people with CTE are severe depression and decreased impulse control. If the combination of severe depression and decreased impulse control sounds dangerous, it should, as this deadly combination may have contributed to the suicides of football players and boxers.

While doctors have not yet tested the brains of dead MMA fighters to look for CTE, a troubling number of MMA fighters have commited suicide in recent years, and several more have attempted suicide. The actual numbers may be higher because this is just what I could find in a Google search, but these are the minimum numbers.

Since 2006, at least six MMA fighters have committed suicide, and three of those MMA fighters are believed by police to have killed someone else before they killed themselves. Additionally, three other MMA fighters have attempted suicide during the same time period.

The six MMA fighters who have committed suicide in the past four years are Shelby Walker in 2006; Jeremy Williams and Justin Levens in 2007; Cliff Moore in 2008; and Bobby Suggs and Kenny Trevino in 2010.

When the subject of MMA fighters committing suicide has been raised on the Internet, an all-too-common reaction is something to the effect of, "Well, those fighters weren't on the biggest MMA shows," as if that somehow changes the fact that these people were professional MMA fighters, and that they were human beings who had families (as did their victims in the murder-suicide cases).

In the case of Justin Levens, police say that he killed his wife, Sarah McLean-Levens, shortly before killing himself in 2007.

In the case of Bobby Suggs, police say that he killed his ex-girlfriend, Amber Zavala, shortly before killing himself earlier this year.

In the case of Kenny Trevino, both Trevino and his ex-girlfriend, Tiffanie Perry, were found dead in an apartment earlier this month. Their deaths are still being investigated, but police have indicated that Trevino was despondent and suicidal over his recent break-up, and that they are treating the case as a murder-suicide.

The MMA fighters who have had suicide attempts since 2006 are Andrei Arlovski, Mike Guymon, and Junie Browning.

How many of these MMA fighters who killed themselves or others had CTE? There's no way to know for sure, because post-mortem testing on their brain tissue was not done by the Brain Injury Research Institute, or by the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University, the two organizations that have been at the forefront of CTE-related research. But I'd have to be kidding myself to think that the number of those fighters who had CTE is zero.

Painkiller Abuse in MMA

The issues with brain injuries have added to concerns that I've had for a long time about the problem of painkiller abuse in MMA, especially given the fact that the decreased impulse control that is associated with CTE is believed to make athletes who have CTE more likely to become addicted to a variety of substances.

A large percentage of the people that I grew up watching in pro wrestling have died prematurely, and while many of the published autopsy reports noted street drugs or steroids as a primary or secondary factor in their deaths, the single biggest killer of pro wrestlers over the years (as noted on autopsy reports) has been the abuse of painkillers, which is also a growing problem in MMA.

In most of the biggest MMA promotions, if you get injured during a fight, the promotion will pay for your medical expenses as a result of that injury. However, if you get injured during training camp, you are on your own financially with those injuries. Furthermore, since your paycheck as a fighter comes when you fight, it sets up a system in which you are essentially encouraged to go into fights with training injuries, because you need that next paycheck unless you're one of the few fighters like Brock Lesnar or Chuck Liddell with millions of dollars in the bank.

Continuing to train through injuries is something that goes hand in hand with painkiller abuse, as does going through with fights while injured, which is why there are more and more MMA fighters who have problems with painkillers.

Taking into account the fact that the vast majority of painkiller abusers are going to try to keep it hidden and are going to be reluctant to admit to it publicly, just think of all the MMA fighters who have publicly admitted to abusing painkillers: Frank Mir, Joe Riggs, Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman, Don Frye, and Mark Kerr, to name a few.

Then there are the MMA fighters who have denied it publicly, but whose friends, family, coaches, or training partners have discussed their issues with painkiller abuse, like Paulo Filho and Karo Parisyan.

Then there are the MMA fighters who abused painkillers in their pro wrestling days, like Brock Lesnar, who has said that he used to eat prescription pain pills like they were candy.

Again, logic dictates that these fighters represent a small fraction of the fighters who have actually abused painkillers.

A Recipe for Disaster

As I said at the beginning of this post, I have loved MMA for as long as I can remember.

However, the facts remain that when you combine the issue of painkiller abuse in MMA with the lack of collective bargaining, medical insurance, pension plans, or any athletic commissions that have the ability (or the desire) to conduct drug testing that is even remotely close to the standards of the World Anti-Doping Agency, and you combine all of that with the avalanche of emerging science about concussions, CTE, Alzheimer's-like syndromes, and even ALS-like syndromes, it adds up to a recipe for disaster in the years to come, and I just can't watch it anymore.

At the same time, I want to make it clear that I have still have a great deal of respect for the fighters who put their lives on the line by competing in MMA. I'm also not trying to act like I'm taking a moral high ground and looking down on anyone who watches MMA and continues to watch MMA in the future. I'm just saying that for me, personally, I can't continue to watch it.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 7:27 AM

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Friday, September 24, 2010

The September 2010 Women's Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple MMA web sites, as well as www.IndependentWorldMMARankings.com.

The members of the voting panel for the Women's Independent World MMA Rankings are, in alphabetical order: Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter and MMA Journalist Blog); Yael Grauer (MMA HQ); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (Freelance); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); and Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion).

Note: Jamie Seaton is temporarily ineligible to be ranked, due to the fact that she has not fought in over 12 full months.

September 2010 Women's Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on September 21, 2010

Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos (10-1)
2. Marloes Coenen (17-4)
3. Yuko "Hiroko" Yamanaka (10-1-1)
4. Cindy Dandois (4-0)
5. Shana Olsen (4-0)
6. Amanda Nunes (5-1)
7. Hitomi Akano (16-8)
8. Ediane Gomes (5-1)
9. Yoko Takahashi (14-11-3)
10. Kaitlin Young (4-4)

Bantamweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)
1. Sarah Kaufman (12-0)
2. Roxanne Modafferi (15-6)
3. Tara LaRosa (18-2)
4. Miesha Tate (11-2)
5. Hitomi Akano (16-8)
6. Shayna Baszler (12-6)
7. Takayo Hashi (12-2)
8. Jennifer Tate (6-1)
9. Julie Kedzie (14-8)
10. Vanessa Porto (10-4)

Flyweight Rankings (116 to 125 lbs.)
1. Tara LaRosa (18-2)
2. Rosi Sexton (10-2)
3. Aisling Daly (9-1)
4. Zoila Frausto (8-1)
5. Rin Nakai (7-0)
6. Sally Krumdiack (8-3)
7. Megumi Fujii (21-0)
8. Jeri Sitzes (3-1)
9. Monica Lovato (5-2)
10. Carina Damm (15-4)

Junior Flyweight Rankings (106 to 115 lbs.)
1. Megumi Fujii (21-0)
2. Lisa Ward (14-5)
3. Yuka Tsuji (22-2)
4. Mei "V Hajime" Yamaguchi (6-2)
5. Jessica Aguilar (9-3)
6. Zoila Frausto (8-1)
7. Kyoko Takabayashi (11-4)
8. Jessica Pene (7-1)
9. Angela Magana (8-4)
10. Emi Fujino (8-4)

The Women's Independent World MMA Rankings are tabulated and published on a monthly basis, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.

The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody's vote counting more than anybody else's vote, and no computerized voting.

The voters are instructed to vote primarily based on fighters' actual accomplishments in the cage/ring (the quality of opposition that they've actually beaten), not based on a broad, subjective perception of which fighters would theoretically win hypothetical match-ups.

Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.

Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.

Changing Weight Classes: When a fighter announces that she is leaving one weight class in order to fight in another weight class, the fighter is not eligible to be ranked in the new weight class until her first fight in the new weight class has taken place.

Catch Weight Fights: When fights are contested at weights that are in between the limits of the various weight classes, they are considered to be in the higher weight class. The weight limits for each weight class are listed at the top of the rankings for each weight class.

Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Joshua Stein, and Yael Grauer for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:01 AM

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Friday, September 17, 2010

The September 2010 Men's Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple MMA web sites, as well as www.IndependentWorldMMARankings.com.

Some of the best and most knowledgeable MMA writers from across the MMA media landscape have come together to form an independent voting panel. These voting panel members are, in alphabetical order: Zach Arnold (Fight Opinion); Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jared Barnes (Freelance); Jordan Breen (Sherdog); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter and MMA Journalist Blog); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (Freelance); Todd Martin (Los Angeles Times and Sherdog); Jim Murphy (The Savage Science); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Leland Roling (Bloody Elbow); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion); and Dave Walsh (Head Kick Legend).

Note: Jake Shields, Jason Miller, and Paul Daley have each regained their eligibility to be ranked, because all of their disciplinary suspensions have expired.

Note: Nick Diaz is still not eligible to be ranked because his disciplinary suspension does not expire until September 23 (which is because it did not begin until June 23).

Note: Gilbert Melendez is still not eligible to be ranked because his disciplinary suspension does not expire until October 13 (which is because it did not begin until July 13).

Note: Due to the fact that his recent fights have been in the middleweight division, Jake Shields is eligible to be ranked exclusively in the middleweight division until he makes his return to welterweight. However, several individual voters chose not to rank Shields at middleweight because of the fact that his return to the welterweight division is just one month away.

September 2010 Men's Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on September 14, 2010

Heavyweight Rankings (206 to 265 lbs.)
1. Brock Lesnar (5-1)
2. Fedor Emelianenko (31-2, 1 No Contest)
3. Fabricio Werdum (14-4-1)
4. Cain Velasquez (8-0)
5. Shane Carwin (12-1)
6. Junior dos Santos (12-1)
7. Alistair Overeem (33-11, 1 No Contest)
8. Frank Mir (13-5)
9. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (32-6-1, 1 No Contest)
10. Antonio Silva (14-2)

Light Heavyweight Rankings (186 to 205 lbs.)
1. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (19-4)
2. Lyoto Machida (16-1)
3. Rashad Evans (15-1-1)
4. Quinton Jackson (30-8)
5. Forrest Griffin (17-6)
6. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (19-3)
7. Jon Jones (11-1)
8. Thiago Silva (14-2)
9. Gegard Mousasi (29-3-1)
10. Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante (10-2)

Middleweight Rankings (171 to 185 lbs.)
1. Anderson Silva (27-4)
2. Chael Sonnen (25-11-1)
3. Nathan Marquardt (30-9-2)
4. Vitor Belfort (19-8)
5. Demian Maia (13-2)
6. Jake Shields (25-4-1)
7. Dan Henderson (25-8)
8. Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza (13-2, 1 No Contest)
9. Yushin Okami (25-5)
10. Jorge Santiago (23-8)

Welterweight Rankings (156 to 170 lbs.)
1. Georges St. Pierre (20-2)
2. Jon Fitch (23-3, 1 No Contest)
3. Josh Koscheck (15-4)
4. Thiago Alves (17-7)
5. Dan Hardy (23-7, 1 No Contest)
6. Martin Kampmann (17-3)
7. Matt Hughes (45-7)
8. Paulo Thiago (13-2)
9. Paul Daley (25-9-2)
10. John Hathaway (14-0)

Lightweight Rankings (146 to 155 lbs.)
1. Frankie Edgar (13-1)
2. B.J. Penn (15-7-1)
3. Gray Maynard (10-0, 1 No Contest)
4. Eddie Alvarez (20-2)
5. Shinya Aoki (24-5, 1 No Contest)
6. Kenny Florian (13-5)
7. Tatsuya Kawajiri (26-6-2)
8. George Sotiropoulos (13-2)
9. Evan Dunham (11-0)
10. Ben Henderson (12-1)

Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Jose Aldo (17-1)
2. Manny Gamburyan (11-4)
3. Urijah Faber (23-4)
4. Mike Brown (23-6)
5. Bibiano Fernandes (8-2)
6. Hatsu Hioki (22-4-2)
7. Marlon Sandro (17-1)
8. Josh Grispi (14-1)
9. Michihiro Omigawa (11-8-1)
10. "Lion" Takeshi Inoue (18-4)

Bantamweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)
1. Dominick Cruz (16-1)
2. Brian Bowles (8-1)
3. Joseph Benavidez (12-2)
4. Scott Jorgensen (11-3)
5. Miguel Torres (37-3)
6. Takeya Mizugaki (13-4-2)
7. Damacio Page (15-4)
8. Masakatsu Ueda (11-1-2)
9. Wagnney Fabiano (14-2)
10. Shuichiro Katsumura (11-7-3)

The Men's Independent World MMA Rankings are tabulated on a monthly basis in each of the top seven weight classes of MMA, from heavyweight to bantamweight, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.

The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody's vote counting more than anybody else's vote, and no computerized voting.

Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.

Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.

Changing Weight Classes: When a fighter announces that he is leaving one weight class in order to fight in another weight class, the fighter is not eligible to be ranked in the new weight class until his first fight in the new weight class has taken place.

Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Zach Arnold, and Joshua Stein for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:01 AM

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Friday, August 27, 2010

The August 2010 Women's Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple MMA web sites, as well as www.IndependentWorldMMARankings.com.

Note: Gina Carano, Lena Ovchynnikova, and Emily Thompson are temporarily ineligible to be ranked, due to the fact that they have not fought in over 12 full months.

Note: Carina Damm has regained her eligibility to be ranked because she has fulfilled the terms of her 2008 California State Athletic Commission steroids suspension by paying her fine. Given that she has recent fights in both the bantamweight and flyweight divisions, she is eligible to be ranked in both of those weight classes.

August 2010 Women's Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on August 24, 2010

Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos (10-1)
2. Marloes Coenen (17-4)
3. Yuko "Hiroko" Yamanaka (9-1-1)
4. Cindy Dandois (4-0)
5. Shana Olsen (4-0)
6. Amanda Nunes (5-1)
7. Jamie Seaton (2-1)
8. Hitomi Akano (16-8)
9. Ediane Gomes (5-1)
10. Yoko Takahashi (14-11-3)

Flyweight Rankings (116 to 125 lbs.)
1. Tara LaRosa (18-2)
2. Aisling Daly (9-0)
3. Rosi Sexton (10-2)
4. Zoila Frausto (8-1)
5. Rin Nakai (7-0)
6. Megumi Fujii (21-0)
7. Sally Krumdiack (8-3)
8. Monica Lovato (5-1)
9. Jeri Sitzes (3-1)
10. Carina Damm (15-4)

Junior Flyweight Rankings (106 to 115 lbs.)
1. Megumi Fujii (21-0)
2. Yuka Tsuji (22-2)
3. Lisa Ward (13-5)
4. Mei "V Hajime" Yamaguchi (6-2)
5. Jessica Aguilar (9-3)
6. Zoila Frausto (8-1)
7. Kyoko Takabayashi (11-4)
8. Jessica Pene (7-1)
9. Angela Magana (8-4)
10. Emi Fujino (8-4)

The Women's Independent World MMA Rankings are tabulated and published on a monthly basis, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.

The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody's vote counting more than anybody else's vote, and no computerized voting.

Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.

Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.

Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Joshua Stein, and Yael Grauer for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:01 AM

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Monday, August 16, 2010

Mixed Martial Arts: Random Thoughts

-On Strikeforce pressuring Joe Riggs into signing a contract with a smaller paycheck for his most recent fight:

Strikeforce’s contractual shenanigans with Joe Riggs are not right. As a promotion, they should either honor contracts or not sign them in the first place. If they don’t think that Riggs is worth X price anymore, then releasing him would be more ethical than trying to screw him out of the amount-per-fight for which they signed him.

-On Strikeforce's one-night women's MMA tournament, in which the semi-final bouts were changed from three rounds to two rounds just a few days before the event:

Strikeforce’s disorganization strikes again.

If Strikeforce had actually prepared for this event ahead of time instead of throwing it together in the past couple of weeks, they could have learned months ago that Arizona’s athletic commission was not going to allow any fighter to fight more than five rounds in one night.

With that knowledge, they could have made the tournament semi-finals two rounds of five minutes each (instead of three minutes), and they could have made the tournament finals three rounds of five minutes each (instead of three minutes).

Instead, they had to change it at the last minute to make the semi-final fights two rounds instead of three, and if they changed the rounds to being five minutes long, that would have been another last-minute change thrown at the fighters, who had been told to train for three-minute rounds.

So, we ended up with semi-final fights that could last a maximum of six total minutes. A six-minute fight is like a YAMMA fight with a round break / stand-up in the middle of it.

-On the subject of Joe Riggs’ ignorant comments about #1-ranked women's bantamweight fighter Sarah Kaufman:

Kaufman deserves to be on major Strikeforce events a lot more than Riggs. Kaufman is the #1 fighter in her weight class. Riggs is nowhere near the top ten in his weight class. Given those basic facts, the only justification for Riggs being more deserving of a “major show spot” is that Riggs is a man and Kaufman is a woman. (Or, as Riggs put it in his own sexist way, "We're the show. The men are what people are here to see... She's lucky to even be on TV.")

Strikeforce apparently doesn’t disagree with this line of thinking too much, as they put both Sarah Kaufman and the women’s tournament finals in non-main-event spots on Strikeforce Challengers shows, while Riggs somehow got a main event spot on a Strikeforce Challengers show.

-On the 30-day suspension that the Quebec athletic commission gave to Paul Daley:

What a joke of a punishment for Daley, especially since he just happens to have a fight scheduled immediately after the conclusion of this convenient 30-day suspension.

The only way in which Quebec's athletic commission could have made their ruling more of a joke would be if they said, "Your suspension is for 30 days... unless you have a booking in three weeks. Do you? We could make it a 20-day suspension, you know. Maybe you'd like to fight two weeks from now. That would be no problem. We'd just make it a 13-day suspension in that case. The most important thing is that we do whatever is most convenient for you, the guy who sucker-punched someone after a match was over."

-On the fact that K-1 still hasn't paid Gary Goodridge for his fight from last New Year's Eve against Gegard Mousasi:

It's bad enough that Goodridge, at his age, still has to fight in order to make a living, but it's just reprehensible for K-1 to stiff him on his paycheck. Goodridge was on the wrong end of a huge mismatch, but still took the fight on short notice, and this is how they treat him?

Other fighters should take a stand and refuse to fight for promoters who stiff fighters on pay, such as K-1/Dream, Shine Fights, and ImpactFC. If for no other reason, they should do it because of the fact that they could be the next fighters to not get paid.

Labels: K-1 / K-1 MMA News, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:22 AM

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Friday, August 13, 2010

The August 2010 Men's Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple MMA web sites, as well as www.IndependentWorldMMARankings.com.

Note: Paul Daley, Gilbert Melendez, Jake Shields, Nick Diaz, and Jason Miller are all temporarily ineligible to be ranked due to the fact that they are all currently serving disciplinary suspensions. Daley is serving a disciplinary suspension for punching Josh Koscheck after their fight was over, and all of the other fighters are serving disciplinary suspensions for their roles in the post-fight brawl at the Strikeforce event in Nashville.

Note: Due to the fact that Anderson Silva has said in numerous recent interviews that he plans to stay in the middleweight division for the rest of his career and has no plans to fight in the light heavyweight division anymore, along with the fact that Silva's most recent fights have been at middleweight, Silva has lost his eligibility to be ranked in the light heavyweight division. Unless Silva returns to light heavyweight in the future, he will be eligible to be ranked exclusively in the middleweight division.

August 2010 Men's Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on August 10, 2010

Heavyweight Rankings (206 to 265 lbs.)
1. Brock Lesnar (5-1)
2. Fedor Emelianenko (31-2, 1 No Contest)
3. Fabricio Werdum (14-4-1)
4. Cain Velasquez (8-0)
5. Junior dos Santos (12-1)
6. Shane Carwin (12-1)
7. Alistair Overeem (33-11, 1 No Contest)
8. Frank Mir (13-5)
9. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (32-6-1, 1 No Contest)
10. Antonio Silva (14-2)

Light Heavyweight Rankings (186 to 205 lbs.)
1. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (19-4)
2. Lyoto Machida (16-1)
3. Rashad Evans (15-1-1)
4. Quinton Jackson (30-8)
5. Forrest Griffin (17-6)
6. Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal (7-0)
7. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (19-3)
8. Jon Jones (11-1)
9. Gegard Mousasi (29-3-1)
10. Thiago Silva (14-2)

Middleweight Rankings (171 to 185 lbs.)
1. Anderson Silva (27-4)
2. Chael Sonnen (25-11-1)
3. Nathan Marquardt (29-9-2)
4. Dan Henderson (25-8)
5. Vitor Belfort (19-8)
6. Demian Maia (12-2)
7. Yushin Okami (25-5)
8. Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza (12-2, 1 No Contest)
9. Jorge Santiago (22-8)
10. Robbie Lawler (17-6, 1 No Contest)

Lightweight Rankings (146 to 155 lbs.)
1. Frankie Edgar (12-1)
2. B.J. Penn (15-6-1)
3. Kenny Florian (13-4)
4. Shinya Aoki (24-5, 1 No Contest)
5. Eddie Alvarez (20-2)
6. Gray Maynard (9-0, 1 No Contest)
7. Tatsuya Kawajiri (26-6-2)
8. George Sotiropoulos (13-2)
9. Evan Dunham (11-0)
10. Ben Henderson (12-1)

Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Jose Aldo (17-1)
2. Manny Gamburyan (11-4)
3. Urijah Faber (23-4)
4. Mike Brown (23-6)
5. Hatsu Hioki (21-4-2)
6. Marlon Sandro (17-1)
7. Bibiano Fernandes (8-2)
8. Josh Grispi (14-1)
9. Michihiro Omigawa (11-8-1)
10. "Lion" Takeshi Inoue (18-4)

Bantamweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)
1. Dominick Cruz (15-1)
2. Brian Bowles (8-1)
3. Joseph Benavidez (12-1)
4. Miguel Torres (37-3)
5. Scott Jorgensen (10-3)
6. Takeya Mizugaki (13-4-2)
7. Damacio Page (15-4)
8. Wagnney Fabiano (14-2)
9. Masakatsu Ueda (11-1-2)
10. Rani Yahya (15-6)

The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody's vote counting more than anybody else's vote, and no computerized voting.

Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.

Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.

Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Zach Arnold, and Joshua Stein for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 1:50 AM

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Friday, July 16, 2010

The July 2010 Women's Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple MMA web sites, as well as www.IndependentWorldMMARankings.com.

The members of the voting panel for the Women's Independent World MMA Rankings are, in alphabetical order: Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter and MMA Journalist Blog); Yael Grauer (MMA HQ); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (Freelance); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Leland Roling (Bloody Elbow); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion); and Ivan Trembow (Freelance).

July 2010 Women's Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on July 13, 2010

Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos (10-1)
2. Marloes Coenen (17-4)
3. Gina Carano (7-1)
4. Yuko "Hiroko" Yamanaka (9-1-1)
5. Cindy Dandois (4-0)
6. Shana Olsen (4-0)
7. Amanda Nunes (5-1)
8. Jamie Seaton (2-1)
9. Emily Thompson (3-2)
10. Hitomi Akano (15-7)

Bantamweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)
1. Sarah Kaufman (11-0)
2. Roxanne Modafferi (15-5)
3. Tara LaRosa (18-2)
4. Hitomi Akano (15-7)
5. Shayna Baszler (12-6)
6. Takayo Hashi (12-2)
7. Miesha Tate (9-2)
8. Julie Kedzie (14-8)
9. Jennifer Tate (6-1)
10. Vanessa Porto (10-4)

Flyweight Rankings (116 to 125 lbs.)
1. Tara LaRosa (18-2)
2. Aisling Daly (9-0)
3. Zoila Frausto (7-1)
4. Rosi Sexton (10-2)
5. Rin Nakai (7-0)
6. Sally Krumdiack (8-3)
7. Lena Ovchynnikova (6-0)
8. Megumi Fujii (20-0)
9. Monica Lovato (5-1)
10. Jeri Sitzes (3-1)

Junior Flyweight Rankings (106 to 115 lbs.)
1. Megumi Fujii (20-0)
2. Yuka Tsuji (22-2)
3. Lisa Ward (13-5)
4. Mei "V Hajime" Yamaguchi (6-2)
5. Jessica Pene (7-0)
6. Jessica Aguilar (8-3)
7. Kyoko Takabayashi (11-4)
8. Angela Magana (8-4)
9. Saori Ishioka (8-4)
10. Emi Fujino (8-4)

The Women's Independent World MMA Rankings are tabulated and published on a monthly basis, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.

The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody's vote counting more than anybody else's vote, and no computerized voting.

Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.

Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.

Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Joshua Stein, and Yael Grauer for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:01 AM

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Friday, July 09, 2010

The July 2010 Men's Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple MMA web sites, as well as www.IndependentWorldMMARankings.com.

Note: Nick Diaz, Jason Miller, and Jake Shields were all recently issued disciplinary suspensions by the Tennessee Athletic Commission for their roles in the post-fight brawl at the Strikeforce event in Nashville. Like all fighters who are serving disciplinary suspensions, these fighters have temporarily lost their eligibility to be ranked, and they will regain their eligibility to be ranked as soon as their disciplinary suspensions have ended. Shields' three-month disciplinary suspension began on June 9; Miller's began on June 16; and Diaz' began on June 23. Gilbert Melendez' three-month disciplinary suspension has not yet begun, due to the fact that his consent order has not yet been received, so he has not yet lost his eligibility to be ranked.

July 2010 Men's Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on July 6, 2010

Heavyweight Rankings (206 to 265 lbs.)
1. Brock Lesnar (5-1)
2. Fedor Emelianenko (31-2, 1 No Contest)
3. Fabricio Werdum (14-4-1)
4. Cain Velasquez (8-0)
5. Shane Carwin (12-1)
6. Junior dos Santos (11-1)
7. Alistair Overeem (33-11, 1 No Contest)
8. Frank Mir (13-5)
9. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (32-6-1, 1 No Contest)
10. Antonio Silva (14-2)

Light Heavyweight Rankings (186 to 205 lbs.)
1. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (19-4)
2. Lyoto Machida (16-1)
3. Rashad Evans (15-1-1)
4. Quinton Jackson (30-8)
5. Anderson Silva (25-4)
6. Forrest Griffin (17-6)
7. Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal (7-0)
8. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (19-3)
9. Gegard Mousasi (28-3-1)
10. Thiago Silva (14-2)

Middleweight Rankings (171 to 185 lbs.)
1. Anderson Silva (25-4)
2. Chael Sonnen (24-10-1)
3. Nathan Marquardt (29-9-2)
4. Dan Henderson (25-8)
5. Vitor Belfort (19-8)
6. Demian Maia (12-1)
7. Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza (12-2, 1 No Contest)
8. Yushin Okami (24-5)
9. Jorge Santiago (22-8)
10. Robbie Lawler (17-6, 1 No Contest)

Welterweight Rankings (156 to 170 lbs.)
1. Georges St. Pierre (20-2)
2. Jon Fitch (22-3, 1 No Contest)
3. Thiago Alves (16-6)
4. Josh Koscheck (15-4)
5. Dan Hardy (23-7, 1 No Contest)
6. Martin Kampmann (17-3)
7. Paulo Thiago (13-2)
8. Matt Hughes (44-7)
9. Paul Daley (23-9-2)
10. Matt Serra (11-6)

Lightweight Rankings (146 to 155 lbs.)
1. Frankie Edgar (12-1)
2. B.J. Penn (15-6-1)
3. Gilbert Melendez (18-2)
4. Kenny Florian (13-4)
5. Eddie Alvarez (20-2)
6. Shinya Aoki (23-5, 1 No Contest)
7. Gray Maynard (9-0, 1 No Contest)
8. Tatsuya Kawajiri (26-5-2)
9. Evan Dunham (11-0)
10. George Sotiropoulos (13-2)

Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Jose Aldo (17-1)
2. Manny Gamburyan (11-4)
3. Urijah Faber (23-4)
4. Mike Brown (23-6)
5. Hatsu Hioki (21-4-2)
6. Bibiano Fernandes (8-2)
7. Marlon Sandro (17-1)
8. Josh Grispi (14-1)
9. Michihiro Omigawa (10-8-1)
10. "Lion" Takeshi Inoue (18-4)

The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody's vote counting more than anybody else's vote, and no computerized voting.

Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.

Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.

Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Zach Arnold, and Joshua Stein for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:01 AM

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Monday, July 05, 2010

None of the fighters who competed on the two recent UFC events in the state of Nevada were asked to take out-of-competition drug tests prior to the events, according to Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer.

A total of 20 fighters competed on the UFC's "Ultimate Fighter 11 Finale" in Las Vegas on June 19, including one fighter who has previously tested positive for anabolic steroids (Chris Leben), but none of these 20 fighters had to take an out-of-competition drug test.

A total of 22 fighters competed at UFC 116 in Las Vegas on July 3, including two fighters who have previously tested positive for anabolic steroids (Chris Leben and Stephan Bonnar), but none of these 22 fighters had to take an out-of-competition drug test.

The question of whether any out-of-competition drug testing had been administered to any of the fighters on the UFC 116 card was first posed to Keith Kizer on Tuesday, June 29, but the question was not answered until Sunday, July 4, after the completion of the UFC 116 event.

Less than one month ago, there was a public meeting about the Nevada State Athletic Commission's drug testing program on June 9. At one point during the meeting, NSAC Commissioner and Chairwoman Pat Lundvall asked Travis Tygart, the head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, to evaluate the NSAC's current drug testing program. Tygart's paraphrased response was, "You can do better. You can do a lot better, and I ask you to do so on behalf of clean athletes."

Tygart added that when athletes are coming to USADA for drug testing because they know that the NSAC's drug testing is inadequate, something is wrong. Tygart would be referring to Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Shane Mosley, and there were also statements that were made a few weeks ago by Josh Koscheck indicating that he wants USADA testing for his upcoming UFC fight against Georges St. Pierre, to which St. Pierre reportedly agreed. However, UFC President Dana White later said in public interviews that Koscheck needs to "shut up" about his desire for USADA-level drug testing in his UFC fights.

In addition to the NSAC's lack of any blood-based drug testing, both Tygart and Dr. Robert Voy said at the June 9 meeting that there is a reliable, urine-based drug test for EPO that is not currently being used by the NSAC.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 2:01 AM

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Friday, June 18, 2010

The June 2010 Women's Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple MMA web sites, as well as www.IndependentWorldMMARankings.com.

The members of the voting panel for the Women's Independent World MMA Rankings are, in alphabetical order: Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter and MMA Journalist Blog); Yael Grauer (MMA HQ); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (Freelance); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Leland Roling (Bloody Elbow); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion); and Ivan Trembow (Freelance).

June 2010 Women's Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on June 15, 2010

Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos (9-1)
2. Marloes Coenen (17-4)
3. Gina Carano (7-1)
4. Yuko "Hiroko" Yamanaka (9-1-1)
5. Cindy Dandois (4-0)
6. Shana Olsen (4-0)
7. Amanda Nunes (5-1)
8. Jamie Seaton (2-1)
9. Emily Thompson (3-2)
10. Hitomi Akano (15-7)

Flyweight Rankings (116 to 125 lbs.)
1. Rosi Sexton (10-1)
2. Tara LaRosa (18-2)
3. Aisling Daly (9-0)
4. Rin Nakai (6-0)
5. Sally Krumdiack (8-3)
6. Lena Ovchynnikova (6-0)
7. Megumi Fujii (20-0)
8. Monica Lovato (5-1)
9. Jeri Sitzes (3-1)
10. Mutsumi Kasai (4-1)

Junior Flyweight Rankings (106 to 115 lbs.)
1. Megumi Fujii (20-0)
2. Yuka Tsuji (22-2)
3. Lisa Ward (12-5)
4. Mei "V Hajime" Yamaguchi (6-2)
5. Jessica Pene (7-0)
6. Jessica Aguilar (8-3)
7. Kyoko Takabayashi (11-4)
8. Angela Magana (8-4)
9. Saori Ishioka (8-4)
10. Emi Fujino (8-4)

The Women's Independent World MMA Rankings are tabulated and published on a monthly basis, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.

The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody's vote counting more than anybody else's vote, and no computerized voting.

Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.

Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.

Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Joshua Stein, and Yael Grauer for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:09 AM

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Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Info from today's meeting of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, to which I listened via teleconference:

Both Brock Lesnar's attorney/agent David Olsen and UFC executive Michael Mersch (who is also a former attorney for the NSAC) are arguing the case to the Nevada commission that Steve Mazzagatti should not be one of the referees considered for the upcoming Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin fight.

They are both arguing that Mazzagatti is biased against Brock Lesnar, and they both cited comments made by UFC president Dana White about Mazzagatti’s competence as grounds for Mazzagatti not being considered.

NSAC Commissioner and Chairwoman Pat Lundvall rejected their claims, so Mazzagatti’s name was officially still on the list of referees under consideration for the fight.

Fortunately from the perspective of Lesnar and the UFC, all of that was a moot point.

The referees are determined by NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer, who "recommends" the officials for title fights to the commissioners, and I have personally never heard a single instance of the commissioners not accepting his recommendation.

Kizer has never recommended Mazzagatti for a Lesnar fight since Lesnar's first fight against Frank Mir, and he didn't recommend Mazzagatti this time, either. He recommended Josh Rosenthal, and of course, the commissioners immediately and unanimously agreed.

What was different today is that instead of it just being the usual (Lesnar's attorney basically saying "we don't like Mazzagatti" because of the first Mir fight), this time UFC executive Michael Mersch also testified and he said that Steve Mazzagatti has a perceived bias AND an actual bias against Brock Lesnar.

I have never heard a promoter argue that before, and Commissioner Skip Avansino commented that he doesn't recall Zuffa ever saying this about any official in the past.

Commissioner/Chairwoman Lundvall seemed unconvinced and dismissed Mersch's allegations pretty clearly... but it was all Kabuki Theater because the appointment of officials is always based on who Keith Kizer recommends, and he recommended Josh Rosenthal.

...

The primary item on the agenda today, unrelated to the selection of officials for the upcoming UFC event, was a very lengthy discussion about drug testing in MMA and boxing.

Hopefully this isn't the case, but the forces of inertia and the status quo might prevent anything from actually changing.

The most anticipated speaker of the day, U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) head Travis Tygart, is testifying now. His testimony could best be described as very politely explaining the shortcomings of the NSAC's drug testing system.

Tygart emphasized that you need to have both urine testing and blood testing in order to have a legitimate drug testing system that can detect various different kinds of banned substances.

The line of questioning by the NSAC's commissioners seemed to be trying to focus on the limits of blood testing and the things that it can't detect (ie, defending the status quo of Nevada's urine-only testing), but Tygart kept emphasizing that if you only have one or the other (only urine testing or only blood testing), you're missing out on detecting entire groups of banned substances.

Tygart added that even if the NSAC were to give itself the authority to order blood tests on fighters and then rarely use that authority, that would still be a big step in the right direction. Tygart said that just the fact that the NSAC would have the authority to order blood tests would act as a deterrent to cheaters, and it would be up to the NSAC to decide how frequently or infrequently these blood tests would be ordered.

Another point that Tygart made is that when a fighter is ordered to take an out-of-competition drug test under the NSAC's current system and the fighter has 24 or 48 hours to submit a urine sample from the time when they are notified, that is plenty of time for any drug-savvy fighter to beat a drug test. Under World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and USADA standards, athletes must either submit to a drug test immediately, or the athlete must not leave the sight of the inspector until the athlete has submitted a sample.

The NSAC's commissioners appear to be getting a bit defensive, as Commissioner Avansino defensively told Tygart, "We at the Nevada State Athletic Commission have been devoted to random drug testing for years!"

Travis Tygart referred to "the money excuse" and said to the NSAC commissioners (paraphrasing), "The money is there. You just have to decide how you want to prioritize it. You could take one dollar, or one percent, from every PPV buy of the Mayweather/Mosley fight and that could fund your drug program for the next five years."

I feel that it's starting to get more contentious now. Commissioner Lundvall asked Tygart to evaluate the NSAC's current drug testing program, and Tygart said (paraphrasing), "You can do better. You can do a lot better, and I ask you to do so on behalf of clean athletes."

Tygart said that when athletes are coming to him for drug testing because they know the NSAC's drug testing is inadequate, something is wrong. Tygart would be referring to Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Shane Mosley, and there were also statements that were made recently by Josh Koscheck indicating that he wants USADA testing for his upcoming UFC fight against Georges St. Pierre, to which St. Pierre reportedly agreed.

(Update: UFC president Dana White later said in public interviews that Josh Koscheck needs to "shut up" about his desire for USADA-level drug testing in his UFC fights.)

Earlier, a doctor who works for the NSAC, Dr. David Watson, started his testimony by saying that anyone who wanted to pass an NSAC drug test could do so very easily just by injecting clean urine into their bladder, and then urinating out the clean sample in front of an NSAC inspector...

... and Dr. Watson eventually ended his testimony by saying (paraphrasing), "We're doing a great job!" and saying that the NSAC shouldn't be changing its drug testing protocols at this time. Maybe it's just me, but that seemed like an odd thing to say, given how easy Dr. Watson said it is for fighters to beat NSAC drug tests.

Dr. Watson did suggest that one possible solution to the "fighters injecting clean urine into their bladder" problem would be if the NSAC required that a fighter give one urine sample (which could be their own urine, or it could be urine that they had injected into their bladder); and then after the fighter's bladder was empty, then the NSAC inspector would have to wait for potentially an hour or more in order to receive another urine sample, which would theoretically be the fighter's own urine because the fighter would have had no opportunity to give themselves any additional bladder injections.

Of course, the problem with this suggestion is the difficulty of establishing when exactly a fighter has an "empty bladder." What would stop a fighter from injecting his bladder with clean urine, providing a urine sample without fully emptying his bladder, and then releasing the rest of the clean urine 30 or 60 minutes later?

Another witness was Las Vegas-based Dr. Robert Voy, who (like Travis Tygart) talked about the fact that there is a reliable, urine-based test for EPO that the NSAC is not currently using. Dr. Voy said that this would cost 400to400 to 400to500 per test, although Tygart later said that those amounts sounded very high to him.

Though Dr. Voy did not get into this, 400to400 to 400to500 per test is more than the NSAC currently spends on drug tests, but when you think about how much money the NSAC brings in just from the percentage of the live gates of big boxing and MMA events, it would be nothing in the big picture.

Dr. Voy also said some ridiculous things about the need for EPO testing (or the lack of need for it), such as saying that he doesn't think EPO is a performance-enhancing drug in boxing because endurance is not that important in boxing.

Also, as Tygart said when he was discussing the same urine-based EPO test (which all parties agreed was a rock-solid, reliable test), urine samples can only be tested for EPO at World Anti-Doping Agency-approved labs.

Unlike its neighbors to the west, the Nevada State Athletic Commission does not currently use WADA-approved labs (it uses Quest labs for fight night drug testing, and it uses LabCorp for out-of-competition drug testing). The California State Athletic Commission does use WADA-approved labs for "B" samples if the "A" sample comes back positive.

In the end, no resolutions were made today and no changes were promised, nor was any time frame given when something might be done. The discussion about drug testing was not an "action item" on today's meeting agenda. It was just an information-gathering item on the agenda.

Labels: Boxing, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 8:46 PM

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Friday, June 04, 2010

The June 2010 Men's Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple MMA web sites, as well as www.IndependentWorldMMARankings.com.

Some of the best and most knowledgeable MMA writers from across the MMA media landscape have come together to form an independent voting panel. These voting panel members are, in alphabetical order: Zach Arnold (Fight Opinion); Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jared Barnes (Freelance); Jordan Breen (Sherdog); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter and MMA Journalist Blog); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (Freelance); Todd Martin (CBS Sportsline); Jim Murphy (The Savage Science); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Leland Roling (Bloody Elbow); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion); Ivan Trembow (Freelance); and Dave Walsh (Head Kick Legend).

Note: Quinton Jackson, who was previously ineligible to be ranked due to 12 months of inactivity, has regained his eligibility to be ranked as a result of his recent return to competition.

June 2010 Men's Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on June 1, 2010

Heavyweight Rankings (206 to 265 lbs.)
1. Fedor Emelianenko (31-1, 1 No Contest)
2. Brock Lesnar (4-1)
3. Shane Carwin (12-0)
4. Cain Velasquez (8-0)
5. Alistair Overeem (33-11, 1 No Contest)
6. Junior dos Santos (11-1)
7. Frank Mir (13-5)
8. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (32-6-1, 1 No Contest)
9. Fabricio Werdum (13-4-1)
10. Brett Rogers (10-2)

Middleweight Rankings (171 to 185 lbs.)
1. Anderson Silva (25-4)
2. Jake Shields (25-4-1)
3. Chael Sonnen (24-10-1)
4. Nathan Marquardt (29-9-2)
5. Vitor Belfort (19-8)
6. Dan Henderson (25-8)
7. Demian Maia (12-1)
8. Robbie Lawler (17-5, 1 No Contest)
9. Yushin Okami (24-5)
10. Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza (12-2, 1 No Contest)

Welterweight Rankings (156 to 170 lbs.)
1. Georges St. Pierre (20-2)
2. Jon Fitch (22-3, 1 No Contest)
3. Thiago Alves (16-6)
4. Josh Koscheck (15-4)
5. Paulo Thiago (13-1)
6. Nick Diaz (22-7, 1 No Contest)
7. Dan Hardy (23-7, 1 No Contest)
8. Matt Hughes (44-7)
9. Paul Daley (23-9-2)
10. Matt Serra (10-6)

Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Jose Aldo (17-1)
2. Manny Gamburyan (11-4)
3. Urijah Faber (23-4)
4. Mike Brown (23-6)
5. Hatsu Hioki (21-4-2)
6. Bibiano Fernandes (8-2)
7. Marlon Sandro (16-1)
8. Raphael Assuncao (14-2)
9. Michihiro Omigawa (10-8-1)
10. "Lion" Takeshi Inoue (18-4)

Bantamweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)
1. Dominick Cruz (15-1)
2. Brian Bowles (8-1)
3. Joseph Benavidez (12-1)
4. Miguel Torres (37-3)
5. Scott Jorgensen (10-3)
6. Takeya Mizugaki (13-4-2)
7. Damacio Page (15-4)
8. Masakatsu Ueda (11-1-2)
9. Wagnney Fabiano (13-2)
10. Rani Yahya (15-6)

The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody's vote counting more than anybody else's vote, and no computerized voting.

Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.

Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.

Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Zach Arnold, and Joshua Stein for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:01 AM

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Friday, May 21, 2010

The May 2010 Women's Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple MMA web sites, as well as www.IndependentWorldMMARankings.com.

The members of the voting panel for the Women's Independent World MMA Rankings are, in alphabetical order: Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter and MMA Journalist Blog); Yael Grauer (MMA HQ); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (Freelance); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Leland Roling (Bloody Elbow); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion); and Ivan Trembow (Freelance).

Note: Erin Toughill is temporarily ineligible to be ranked, due to the fact that she has not fought in over 12 full months, and she will regain her eligibility the next time she fights.

May 2010 Women's Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on May 18, 2010

Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos (9-1)
2. Marloes Coenen (17-4)
3. Gina Carano (7-1)
4. Yuko "Hiroko" Yamanaka (8-1-1)
5. Cindy Dandois (3-0)
6. Shana Olsen (4-0)
7. Amanda Nunes (5-1)
8. Jamie Seaton (2-1)
9. Emily Thompson (3-2)
10. Hitomi Akano (15-7)

Bantamweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)
1. Sarah Kaufman (11-0)
2. Tara LaRosa (18-1)
3. Roxanne Modafferi (14-5)
4. Hitomi Akano (15-7)
5. Takayo Hashi (12-2)
6. Shayna Baszler (11-6)
7. Miesha Tate (9-2)
8. Vanessa Porto (10-4)
9. Jennifer Tate (6-1)
10. Julie Kedzie (13-8)

Flyweight Rankings (116 to 125 lbs.)
1. Rosi Sexton (10-1)
2. Tara LaRosa (18-1)
3. Aisling Daly (9-0)
4. Rin Nakai (6-0)
5. Sally Krumdiack (7-3)
6. Lena Ovchynnikova (6-0)
7. Monica Lovato (4-1)
8. Jeri Sitzes (3-1)
9. Mutsumi Kasai (4-1)
10. Anita Rodriguez (3-1)

Junior Flyweight Rankings (106 to 115 lbs.)
1. Megumi Fujii (19-0)
2. Yuka Tsuji (22-2)
3. Lisa Ward (12-5)
4. Mei "V Hajime" Yamaguchi (6-2)
5. Jessica Pene (7-0)
6. Kyoko Takabayashi (11-4)
7. Jessica Aguilar (7-3)
8. Angela Magana (8-4)
9. Saori Ishioka (8-4)
10. Emi Fujino (8-4)

The Women's Independent World MMA Rankings are tabulated and published on a monthly basis, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.

The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody's vote counting more than anybody else's vote, and no computerized voting.

Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.

Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.

Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Joshua Stein, and Yael Grauer for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:01 AM

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Friday, May 07, 2010

The May 2010 Men's Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple MMA web sites, as well as www.IndependentWorldMMARankings.com.

Some of the best and most knowledgeable MMA writers from across the MMA media landscape have come together to form an independent voting panel. These voting panel members are, in alphabetical order: Zach Arnold (Fight Opinion and MMA Memories); Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jared Barnes (Freelance); Jordan Breen (Sherdog); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter and MMA Journalist Blog); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (Freelance); Todd Martin (CBS Sportsline); Jim Murphy (The Savage Science); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Leland Roling (Bloody Elbow); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion); Ivan Trembow (Freelance); and Dave Walsh (Head Kick Legend).

May 2010 Men's Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on May 4, 2010

Heavyweight Rankings (206 to 265 lbs.)
1. Fedor Emelianenko (31-1, 1 No Contest)
2. Brock Lesnar (4-1)
3. Shane Carwin (12-0)
4. Cain Velasquez (8-0)
5. Frank Mir (13-5)
6. Junior dos Santos (11-1)
7. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (32-6-1, 1 No Contest)
8. Brett Rogers (10-1)
9. Alistair Overeem (32-11, 1 No Contest)
10. Fabricio Werdum (13-4-1)

Light Heavyweight Rankings (186 to 205 lbs.)
1. Lyoto Machida (16-0)
2. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (18-4)
3. Rashad Evans (14-1-1)
4. Anderson Silva (25-4)
5. Forrest Griffin (17-6)
6. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (18-3)
7. Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal (7-0)
8. Gegard Mousasi (28-3-1)
9. Thiago Silva (14-2)
10. Jon Jones (10-1)

Welterweight Rankings (156 to 170 lbs.)
1. Georges St. Pierre (20-2)
2. Jon Fitch (22-3, 1 No Contest)
3. Thiago Alves (16-6)
4. Josh Koscheck (14-4)
5. Paulo Thiago (13-1)
6. Nick Diaz (21-7, 1 No Contest)
7. Dan Hardy (23-7, 1 No Contest)
8. Matt Hughes (44-7)
9. Paul Daley (23-8-2)
10. Matt Serra (10-6)

Lightweight Rankings (146 to 155 lbs.)
1. Frankie Edgar (12-1)
2. B.J. Penn (15-6-1)
3. Gilbert Melendez (18-2)
4. Kenny Florian (13-4)
5. Eddie Alvarez (19-2)
6. Shinya Aoki (23-5, 1 No Contest)
7. Gray Maynard (9-0, 1 No Contest)
8. Tatsuya Kawajiri (26-5-2)
9. Ben Henderson (12-1)
10. Tyson Griffin (14-2)

Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Jose Aldo (17-1)
2. Urijah Faber (23-4)
3. Manny Gamburyan (11-4)
4. Mike Brown (23-6)
5. Bibiano Fernandes (8-2)
6. Hatsu Hioki (20-4-2)
7. Marlon Sandro (16-1)
8. Raphael Assuncao (14-2)
9. "Lion" Takeshi Inoue (18-3)
10. Michihiro Omigawa (10-8-1)

Bantamweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)
1. Dominick Cruz (15-1)
2. Brian Bowles (8-1)
3. Joseph Benavidez (12-1)
4. Miguel Torres (37-3)
5. Scott Jorgensen (10-3)
6. Takeya Mizugaki (13-4-2)
7. Damacio Page (15-4)
8. Masakatsu Ueda (10-1-2)
9. Wagnney Fabiano (13-2)
10. Akitoshi Tamura (14-8-2)

The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody's vote counting more than anybody else's vote, and no computerized voting.

Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.

Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.

Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Zach Arnold, and Joshua Stein for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:01 AM

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Friday, April 23, 2010

The April 2010 Women's Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple MMA web sites, as well as www.IndependentWorldMMARankings.com.

Much like the Men's Independent World MMA Rankings, which were launched in June 2009, the Women's Independent World MMA Rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody's vote counting more than anybody else's vote, and no computerized voting.

In the time since last month's rankings were published, the heads of two of the largest athletic commissions have clarified via e-mail that they use the same names for the weight classes in both men's MMA and women's MMA. For example, 145 pounds is featherweight, whether it's in men's MMA or women's MMA.

The members of the voting panel for the Women's Independent World MMA Rankings are, in alphabetical order: Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter and MMA Journalist Blog); Yael Grauer (MMA HQ); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (Freelance); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Leland Roling (Bloody Elbow); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion); and Ivan Trembow (Freelance).

April 2010 Women's Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on April 20, 2010

Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos (9-1)
2. Erin Toughill (10-2-1)
3. Marloes Coenen (17-4)
4. Gina Carano (7-1)
5. Yuko "Hiroko" Yamanaka (8-1-1)
6. Cindy Dandois (3-0)
7. Shana Olsen (3-0)
8. Amanda Nunes (5-1)
9. Jamie Seaton (2-1)
10. Emily Thompson (3-2)

Flyweight Rankings (116 to 125 lbs.)
1. Rosi Sexton (10-1)
2. Tara LaRosa (18-1)
3. Aisling Daly (9-0)
4. Sally Krumdiack (7-3)
5. Rin Nakai (6-0)
6. Lena Ovchynnikova (6-0)
7. Monica Lovato (4-1)
8. Mutsumi Kasai (4-1)
9. Jeri Sitzes (3-1)
10. Anita Rodriguez (3-1)

The Women's Independent World MMA Rankings are tabulated and published on a monthly basis, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.

Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.

Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.

Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Joshua Stein, and Yael Grauer for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:01 AM

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