It’s been a while since we had a post that was strictly based on analysis, so I thought it was a good time to provide one. I decided to take a look at average opponent strength between 2007 and 2009. We’ll look at which fighters have had the best average opponent strength, and although I wanted to also post who had the worst, it was really hard to filter the list in a way that did not only contain obscure fighters or those who just now reached their lofty ranking. Before consuming the lists, please consider the following qualifiers and notes:
- Fighters must have had at least four qualifying fights between 1/1/2007 and 12/31/2009, an average of one fight per nine months. I did not want to bring this to the current day due to the next point.
- The opponents’ current FightMatrix division dominance ratings are considered, not their pre-bout ratings or regular ratings. I wanted to use the current division normalized status of the opponents to show what they’ve become, not what they were, or what the rating system thought they were. So, to limit the direct effect of points gained by the opponents who beat the listed fighters, I stopped the date range short of this year.
- No contests are excluded as are female fighters.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s take a look at the list.
Top 10
1. Forrest Griffin
2. Matt Hughes
3. Chuck Liddell
4. Dan Henderson
5. Georges St. Pierre
6. Thiago Alves
7. B.J. Penn
8. Sean Sherk
9. James Irvin
10. Frank Mir
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Comments: It comes as no surprise that Forrest Griffin tops the list, but after seeing Chuck at #3, I feel kind of bad for him. Why not give the guy an easy one or two within the swath of future legends that he’s been facing? The UFC did that for CroCop. Anyway, James Irvin is a big surprise at #9, but we can blame Anderson for skewing his average a bit. Notice that the list contains only fighters above Lightweight.
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The Next 10
11. Rich Franklin
12. Nate Marquardt
13. Jens Pulver
14. Yasuhiro Urushitani
15. Josh Koscheck
16. Marcos Galvao
17. Tim Sylvia
18. Mauricio Rua
19. Matt Lindland
20. Diego Sanchez
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Comments: The first fighter tipping the scales lighter than 155 to show up is Jens Pulver at #13. Here’s another guy that could have definitely used a soft touch or two before being written off. Current Shooto 123lb champion Urushitani is representing at #14 and Matt Lindland has me scratching my head at #19. I may have been a little too hard on him in the past couple years.
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Rounding out the Top 25
21. Patrick Cote
22. Mamoru Yamaguchi
23. Jon Fitch
24. Hong Man Choi
25. Dokonjonosuke Mishima
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Comment: Outside of Jose Canseco, Choi has had a tough go from 2007-2009.