After seeing what seems like hundreds of rankings online, Dana White has decided that the UFC may consider making their own. He confirmed the notion in a Q&A with Mark Gilbert at the Sun. White even mentions that people would most likely say that their rankings are biased, and I’m going to be the first one to say it. They will be biased.

First and foremost, the rankings won’t include any international stars that are not with the UFC. Obviously, this list will be for UFC fighters only. This would skew the rankings in a way that would have many fighters higher than actual rankings from other websites that consider all fighters in the MMA world. Obviously, that is something that is going to happen, and I can deal with that problem. It’s a ranking system for one specific promotion.

The real problem lies in the evidence of how the UFC handles matchups. It’s obvious that the UFC is moving fighters around for matchups in order to get the most bang for their buck. Fights that pit two rivals against one another, or title fights that pit a popular fighter against a guy that maybe doesn’t deserve the shot quite yet happen more often than they should. It happens on a consistent basis in mixed martial arts, and especially in the UFC.

So, who would undoubtedly benefit from the UFC rankings? Chuck Liddell would most certainly. Not only does his popularity play a big factor in where he stands in the division, but it also gets him bigger fights and propels him in the title picture even with losses. I’m sure the UFC will have him ranked #2 or #3 when he logically should be in the middle of the pack at #5 or #6. Even that is up for argument within the community.

The article at MMAJunkie.com that talks about the interview also mentions that the rankings would have to consider competition outside the UFC. As we all know, Dana White has downplayed PRIDE fighters and PRIDE significantly, so we can almost guarantee discrepancies in the rankings there.

Bottom line is that the UFC shouldn’t undertake a ranking system. It’ll just make more controversy over why certain fighters are ranked this way when it’s obvious that they are a lower rank. I can only imagine that Chuck Liddell will be the first fighter people see as legitimately ranked too high. The rankings will have more factors than performance. The popularity factor shouldn’t be accounted for, and it most likely will be a huge factor to justify matchups.