Brendan Allen doesn’t agree with Khamzat Chimaev being ranked in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s middleweight division.
Chimaev (13-0) made his long-awaited permanent move to middleweight at UFC 294 last month against short-notice replacement Kamaru Usman (20-4), who also made his debut at 185 pounds. A -300 favorite on some sportsbooks going into the fight, “Borz” managed to eke out a majority decision.
While the fight was widely believed to be a middleweight title eliminator, Chimaev was allegedly not even discussed as a potential opponent while booking Sean Strickland’s upcoming defense against Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297 on Jan. 20.
However, “Borz” landed directly at No. 8 on the middleweight ladder as per the newly updated UFC rankings.
No. 10 ranked middleweight Brendan Allen slammed the UFC ranking system for giving Chimaev a spot in the Top 10 of the division, despite him having not fought a true middleweight, let alone a ranked one.
“It wasn’t a middleweight fight. They weighed in at ‘85, but they’re both 170s. I don’t know how you rank — I don’t know if anyone here’s on the panel, but if you do, I don’t like you,” said Allen during UFC Fight Night 232 media day ahead of his main event meeting with Paul Craig. “I’m just going to be honest. “It’s bullsh*t. This guy hasn’t beat an ‘85er. He hasn’t beat an ‘85er, especially a ranked ‘85er. He beat the No. 1 170 guy. Cool. Congratulations. I think everyone can agree a five-round fight, Kamaru wins and that was off the couch. Keep him at ‘70 and rank him No. 1, do that. This is a different thing,”
Allen further accused the rankings system of being motivated by factors other than pure skill. Based on performance and activity, Allen believes there are several fighters who don’t deserve their spots in the Top 15.
“The rankings are absolutely political bullsh*t. It’s people going off of what? It’s politics because it’s not off of skill. If we’re going off pure skill there’s tons of guys that shouldn’t be in. How do we have guys that haven’t fought in two years in the rankings? Three years. How is that a thing? It shouldn’t even be close. There should be guidelines. You have to fight at least this many times — at least once a year. If you don’t, you get pulled.”
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