Edson Barboza has slammed the UFC ranking system after dropping out of the top-15 in the lightweight division.
Barboza has had a few close calls in recent fights such as his UFC 242 split decision loss to Paul Felder. In his last bout, the 34-year old appeared on the UFC on ESPN 8, making his featherweight debut against Dan Ige. Barboza came up short and lost again by split decision. His team filed an appeal, but that appeal was quickly shut down.
Now, Barboza has faced another disappointment after being bumped out of the top-15 lightweight rankings.
Do you guys know who makes the @ufc ranking? I’m sure it’s not the specialists. They don’t listen to the fans or public. I didn’t care about it, but now I’m sure this ranking is just a joke.
— Edson Barboza (@EdsonBarbozaJR) May 20, 2020
“Do you guys know who makes the @ufc ranking?” said Edson Barboza. “I’m sure it’s not the specialists. They don’t listen to the fans or public. I didn’t care about it, but now I’m sure this ranking is just a joke.”
The UFC ranking board has previously faced scepticism. A Reddit user dug deep into the UFC rankings and exposed a flawed system that featured a number of panellists who don’t even cover MMA.
The Redditor posted an in-depth rundown of all 14 panellists and discovered that a third of the panellists are not even active MMA media members. The UFC rankings have a knock-on impact on fighter promotion, matchmaking, and more. Barboza shared similar scepticism as he believes the change in rankings doesn’t make sense.
They took me off from the lightweight division ranking. Ige stepped up 4 positions and I am not even in the ranking in the featherweight division, in a fight that the whole word knows that I won. It doesn’t make any sense. @ufc @danawhite
— Edson Barboza (@EdsonBarbozaJR) May 20, 2020
“They took me off from the lightweight division ranking.” said Edson Barboza. “Ige stepped up 4 positions and I am not even in the ranking in the featherweight division, in a fight that the whole word knows that I won. It doesn’t make any sense.”
The fact that Ige has stepped up four positions in the featherweight rankings and Barboza has been knocked out of the lightweight rankings for a closely contested featherweight fight certainly raises eyebrows. Do you think the Brazilian star deserves to return to the UFC ranking board?