The new era of official UFC rankings has arrived, and the formula behind it forbids human intervention.
Development for the new official UFC rankings system, in partnership with Meta, began in earnest in February 2025. UFC CEO Dana White can be quoted months before that vocalizing his disdain for the media-driven voting rankings, which debuted in 2013 and have been in place since.
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Although any and all rankings for MMA will be met with some form of resistance by fans, the goal for the Meta rankings was to not simply redo the existing system with a math-driven formula, but make something different and ideally better, using a meticulously-crafted formula that gives every fighter in every division a rating. That rating then generates an order to create a rankings list using “a comprehensive set of objective metrics, including outcome probability, win type, fighter trajectory, and weight-class sensitivities,” according to a UFC press release on Monday.
“I’ve been unhappy with the rankings and always believed there had to be a better way,” White said. “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.”
UFC Meta rankings: What’s new about them?
According to a UFC representative, ratings are generated with a priority on activity and performance. A fighter rating will “decay” if they do not compete in an 18-month window, while the rating value of past wins will dwindle and expire over time, too.
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This is evident in the dramatic shift in the ranking of former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Raquel Pennington, who held the No. 2 spot in her weight class in the media rankings but finds herself clinging to No. 15 in the Meta rankings.
Pennington, despite her ex-champion status in a comparatively thin weight class, hasn’t competed since October 2024, when she lost the belt to Julianna Peña. Her previous victories were against Mayra Bueno Silva, who is now on a six-fight winless skid, as well as Ketlen Vieira and Aspen Ladd, who are no longer on the UFC roster.
Those elements are prioritized to enhance the worth of wins that happen in real time. Competing frequently and achieving finishes will be met with a greater boost in rating, and therefore a better position in the rankings.
An example of a beneficiary would be Pat Sabatini, who was previously unranked at featherweight but finds himself No. 7 in the Meta rankings at 145 pounds after putting together a four-fight winning streak against quality competition, although with just one finish. That’s a career changer for someone who otherwise might struggle to get true momentum behind his name.
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UFC Meta rankings: What early data already shows
In theory, the goal of a ranking system should be to express to the public how a fight would go. If two fighters with rankings by their names are matched up, the higher number should always get the win. Obviously reality could be a different story, and the highly volatile and unpredictable nature of MMA is what leads to unexpected outcomes and upsets from the lowest level of the sport to the highest.
According to UFC data, the media rankings have historically produced a 53.4 percent winning result for the higher-ranked fighter when both athletes are in the top 15. Through the trial period with the Meta rankings, the higher-ranked fighter has emerged the victor at a 63.5 percent rate.
If that percentage floats in that same range or continues to grow over time, that should be viewed as a massive positive in what the new system could be and how it would distinguish itself as objective.
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The questions beyond that would then spill into how much the matchmaking will be guided by the Meta rankings. Will someone like Sabatini get a top-six matchup like the rankings would imply he should?
If so, then believers of meritocracy should rejoice. If not, then what does this exercise truly mean?
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC launches new Meta rankings system: How does it work?
