What is wrong with the UFC rankings? (Critique post)

The UFC rankings in their current form do their job well enough. It gives you a good surface level idea of who is up and coming in the weight divisions, and who is close to the top. However, once you begin to really give them a look the inconsistencies and problems are all over.

Firstly, the rankings as they stand now are determined by a panel of media members. This is a good thing, as if the promotion directly controlled the rankings, they would be very biased towards the fighters and fights they want to promote, even though they already are to a degree. The problem with the media that creates the rankings today is that many of the media outlets on the panel are completely unknown and have little presence in the sport. The media also does not have to explain their reasoning for how the rankings are put together, which would at least give some insight into why they are like this.

To further explain this issue, I will use the lightweight division as an example, as I think it has had some of the most nonsensical and ridiculous rankings-based decisions made in the past few years. Currently ranked number fifteen, Grant Dawson has just made his way back into the rankings after recently leaving after suffering a loss to King Green. Grant became ranked after beating the number twelve ranked fighter which is completely fair. He was also on an eleven-fight winning streak. He was then booked to face the unranked Green and lost in the first round and fell from number ten to unranked. He then needed to get three more wins just to make it back into the rankings today at fifteen. On the opposite side of the spectrum, we have Benoit Saint Denis currently ranked at number fourteen. He became ranked after beating the number fifteen ranked fighter and was on a five-fight winning streak. He then lost his next two fights dominantly and yet remains at number 14. There are examples of situations like this in every division recently, and none of them make any sense.

My biggest issue with the rankings, however, is how inactivity is essentially meaningless. Going back to the lightweight division, number seven ranked Michael Chandler has fought only once in the past two years and has only fallen 2 spots in the rankings. Conor McGregor won a single fight at lightweight, that being in 2016. Once he was stripped of the belt due to inactivity two years later, it took him all the way until 2022 to finally leave the rankings. On top of that, he also lost 3 times at lightweight in that four-year period after he was stripped. It should not take six years for a fighter to fall out of the rankings when they have done nothing but lose fights and not fight at all. The same division where one fighter on a win streak loses once and drops five spots out of the rankings, others can stay ranked despite years of inactivity and losing. To give a brief answer on how to fix the rankings, I believe that the media determining it needs to be re-assessed, inactivity should not go unpunished, and some level of consistency needs to be determined regarding what moves you up and down in the rankings.