UFC to Replace Media Voting Panel With Meta Elo Rankings Starting Monday

The UFC will introduce the Meta UFC Rankings on Monday, shifting from a media voting panel that has operated since February 2013. com reported that Meta designed the Elo rating system, a mathematical method to calculate relative skill, with development beginning in February 2025.

The UFC will continue to reference the media rankings while matchmaking, and both sets of rankings will remain publicly available.

A UFC representative stated that winning and who a fighter beats accounts for 95 percent of ranking placement. Finishes apply a small bonus to ratings, while decisions receive no bonus regardless of dominance. Fight metrics such as significant strikes or takedowns are not considered.

Active fighters receive a bonus in the new system. Inactivity decay negatively impacts rankings after 18 months without competition. Legacy fight decay penalizes the value of fights that are five years old, making them obsolete after 10 years.

Injuries, pregnancies, division jumping and contract disputes are treated identically for inactivity decay. UFC matchmakers decide when a fighter loses ranking eligibility. A fighter competing in multiple divisions receives an adjusted score based on the original division rating.

No human intervention occurs in the process beyond eligibility decisions. The system launched with a top-15 list per weight class and without a pound-for-pound category. Machine learning was used to design the model, but the UFC representative stated that the system does not use artificial intelligence on a week-to-week basis.

Media members from 22 publications comprised the former voting panel.