UFC started the week by rolling out their new ranking system, which is powered by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta AI.
The new AI-based model operates using a mix of statistical modelling and machine learning that, “evaluates a comprehensive set of objective metrics, including outcome probability, win type, fighter trajectory, and weight-class sensitivities.”
Examples of those metrics include taking into consideration the ranking of the opponent, how recent their latest wins are, and how dominant their victories were (with finishes being valued higher than a decision) to help determine where a fighter is placed on the weekly rankings.
“I’ve been unhappy with the rankings and always believed there had to be a better way,” UFC President Dana White said on the official UFC.com website. “We’ve always been a company that runs toward technology and innovation and now we’ve worked with Meta to integrate it directly into our rankings system. I’m excited to see how this innovation can help change the sport for both the fans and the athletes.”
“I’m excited to work with Dana and the UFC to build a system that analyzes fighter performance at a much deeper level, helping create more transparent and accurate rankings,” Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg stated.
Despite White’s apparent eagerness in recent times to go down the AI route for rankings, it should be noted that they have decided to also keep going with their previous media-panel ranking system alongside it.
“I’m going to have both,” White said after last weekend’s Fight Night event. “I’m still going to do human, non-human, however you want to look at it, rankings. And I think neither will be perfect, but, you know, it will get us closer.”
Comparing the two different ranking systems there are some similarities, but one particularly drastic difference sees former women’s bantamweight champion Raquel Pennington drop from No.2 on the media rankings down to No.15 on the AI rankings due to the fact that she hasn’t fought since her title loss to Julianna Pena back in October of 2024.
Check out the full rankings via this link, using the tab at the top right to switch between the two ranking systems: https://www.ufc.com/rankings
