Dana White promises change to UFC rankings: ‘I have to figure out a solution’

Dana White is serious about changing the rankings.

Over the past couple of months, the UFC rankings have been a source of constant consternation for White, and on Monday that continued as White ripped the rankings for Khalil Rountree Jr. remaining at No. 8 at light heavyweight after his thrilling loss to Alex Pereira at UFC 307.

But though White has attacked the rankings before, and even called for A.I. to take over, this time the UFC CEO intends to do something about it.

“If you look at who Pereira has beat, and how he’s beat them leading up to this fight, [Rountree] was winning on the scorecards when he got stopped,” White said at his Contender Series media scrum on Tuesday. “He was ahead on the scorecards. Stayed in the pocket, put on one of the greatest fights anybody has ever seen, and he stays at No. 8.

“I can’t handle incompetence. I can’t take it anymore. It’s driving me crazy. And I can’t let people that I don’t believe know what the f*ck they’re talking about deal with the rankings anymore. I just can’t do it. I have to figure out a solution.

“Tomorrow I have a meeting with a group of people that are coming to me saying they have a solution to this problem. And God I hope they’re right, because I’m going to change it. The media will no longer control the rankings in the UFC.”

For White, the rankings are significant because of how they play into the UFC’s matchmaking. While White says that rankings are not the end-all-be-all when it comes to booking a fight, he also says they’re part of the conversation he, Mick Maynard, Sean Shelby, and Hunter Campbell have when making those decisions. But he also wants to draw a clear line between the promotion and however the rankings are done.

“The rankings are very important,” White said. “It’s important or I wouldn’t be — the rankings, judging, reffing. There are a lot of things we can’t control. Because there should never be a scenario where we are personally controlling the rankings. Can’t happen. You have to have another system in there.

“At the end of the day, I make fights that people want to see anyway, but I believe that I should not be the one controlling the rankings. So we’re going to figure out a different system, because it can’t be the people who are doing it, because they’re not doing it right.”

This then begs the question, why can’t the UFC take control of the rankings? And for White it seems to be a hedge against biases among the UFC staff.

“We can’t do it,” White said. “I don’t think that it’s right that we would do the rankings. No matter how unbiased you try to be, it’s impossible. And I’ll be honest with you, there are some fighters I don’t like. There’s fighters that I really like. And there’s things that are good for the business. There are things that I don’t want in our hands at all. Not mine, not Mick’s, not Sean’s not Hunter’s, nobody. There has to be a third party or AI or something that does the rankings. It’s impossible not to be biased.”