00:00Where do we go from here?
00:02Topology says that they have a revolutionary ranking system right now
00:06that'll take strength of schedule, quality of victory,
00:10how you won, how long it took,
00:12and it'll actually be a fair gauge and indication of where you're ranked,
00:18and it'll help fighters to matchmake, and it'll help everybody.
00:23Dana wants to go with the AI stuff with Meta here.
00:27What's your opinion on this, James,
00:29and what does the future of rankings hold?
00:31And I say the future, the near future.
00:35So a couple things.
00:36The topology rankings, yes, they came out yesterday.
00:38This was pretty interesting.
00:40Now, these are computer-generated.
00:41They're not used, so it's kind of closer to what Dana wants,
00:44which is sort of the AI meta-generated.
00:46These are based off a number of things and obviously some factors as well.
00:49And I took a look at the rankings yesterday.
00:51I did a video on this on my YouTube channel, youtube.com slash lynchonsports,
00:54and kind of looked at how they came up with the rankings,
00:57and I did sort of a split-by-split comparing the topology rankings to the UFC.
01:01Now, I will say overall, I think they are generally better.
01:03I think the way they've factored certain fighters in with how they've done their rankings has been good,
01:08but it's not perfect.
01:09Just as a quick example,
01:11they have right now at flyweight on topology,
01:14they have Joshua Van ranked number three.
01:16They have Brandon Royveld ranked number two.
01:17Joshua Van just beat Brandon Royveld.
01:19I have a hard time having a guy that just won his last fight rank lower than a fighter that he lost to.
01:26I just, you know, and again, if you're going to factor in overall wins,
01:28I guess I understand that, but I think that's a tough sell.
01:31The other thing I don't like about the topology rankings as well,
01:34and again, overall, I do enjoy them,
01:36they still have Max Holloway and Ilya Taporia ranked at featherweight.
01:39Now, we know Max Holloway's been very vocal.
01:40He's not going back down to featherweight.
01:42I suppose he would go down if there was a title opportunity,
01:45but it's pretty much known he's not going to come back.
01:47And same thing with Ilya Taporia.
01:48In fact, the reason he moved up was because he felt like he was cutting too much weight
01:51and it was hurting his performances,
01:53and so that's why he wanted to move up to lightweight,
01:55and there's no indication that he's going to move back down.
01:57The reason I have a problem with that is,
01:59I don't mind if you want to acknowledge that he's there or where he was ranked before,
02:02but you've got guys that are actually fighting in that weight class regularly
02:05that are going to be there for a long time.
02:07They're not getting their spots in that top 15
02:09because you have a Taporia there ranked at number two or whatever he is on topology.
02:13So they have some flaws,
02:15but the one thing I do feel like they do a better job of
02:17is just sort of looking at fighters that are active,
02:20the quality of opposition.
02:22For example, I've always said this.
02:23If you're a fighter that hasn't competed for over a year,
02:26I think you should remember where you are in the rankings,
02:28but take them out.
02:29You should reward activity.
02:30If a fighter fights three times a year,
02:31a fighter fights one time a year,
02:33you know, how do you determine,
02:34like to me, you should reward the fighter who's being more active.
02:37Like Colby Covington, who, don't get me wrong,
02:39very big name, obviously successful career.
02:41He barely fights and he's holding up a spot on guys in that division at welterweight
02:46that are also competing quite frequently.
02:49So these are things that I think they need to take a look at.
02:52The way the UFC does their rankings now,
02:53just so people are aware,
02:55is they have a panel of media members who do this for free,
02:58which that's a whole other topic of where you want to pay them or not.
03:00There's a conflict of interest there.
03:02But the problem is, Gabe,
03:03is that most of the people voting aren't regular media members.
03:06They aren't people regularly going to the events.
03:08There are people that were selected, I'm not even joking,
03:11like almost a decade ago or two decades ago,
03:13that are still on the rankings panel, still voting.
03:16And like, there's no like evidence if they're even credible at this point.
03:20Like how often are they even watching the fight?
03:22So there's a lot of problems with it.
03:24And then add in that other layer,
03:26which you just said off the top to finish off my long-winded answer here,
03:29is that Dana doesn't pay attention to the rankings.
03:32We've had a number of situations.
03:33Last year with Megaman and Kalaev,
03:34not getting to fight Alex Pereira.
03:36They went with Khalil Roundtree this year.
03:38We're seeing it with mob star Yvoyev,
03:40you know, essentially getting passed over for,
03:43you know, Diego Lopez.
03:45So there are, you know,
03:47the UFC at the end of the day calls the shots.
03:49And you're right.
03:50They factor in entertainment over rankings, it seems.
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