The Ultimate Top Twenty

As you may or may not know, I'm really into statistics (which usually turn into rankings). It's one of the only objective methods we have when determining whether one fighter deserves more praise than another. And so, over the past two nights, I've gone through every single UFC event card, tracking wins, losses, and draws. I scoured each PPV (72 of them), Fight Night (10), The Ultimate Fighter finale (5), and Ortiz-Shamrock beatdown specials (1) as I dutifully recorded wins and losses, one by one, for 529 fighters. Am I out of my mind? You bet.

Anyway, here is the spreadsheet on which I worked for so long to create. When you find a mistake, email me so I can change it. Remember, it's ONLY UFC bouts.

Now, to make some sense of the numbers. I originally decided on a ten fight minimum to be included on the list of the top twenty highest winning percentages, but soon realized that this would leave out both Georges St. Pierre and Karo Parisyan (each 7-2). And so, the minimum of nine fights was born. Of course, there's no way to really take into account strength of opponent or things like that, but this is the best we can do. I think you'll be surprised by some of the results.

1. Rich Franklin (9-1) .900
1. Don Frye (9-1) .900
3. Royce Gracie (11-2) .846
4. Matt Hughes (15-3) .833
4. Chuck Liddell (15-3) .833
6. Pat Miletich (8-2) .800
7. Georges St. Pierre (7-2) .778
7. Karo Parisyan (7-2) .778
9. Matt Lindland (9-3) .750
10. Tito Ortiz (14-5) .737
11. Vitor Belfort (8-3) .727
12. Randy Couture (12-5) .705
13. B.J. Penn (7-3) .700
13. Frank Mir (7-3) .700
13. Mark Coleman (7-3) .700
16. Dan Severn (9-4) .692
16. Andrei Arlovski (9-4) .692
18. Evan Tanner (10-5) .667
19. Pedro Rizzo (9-5) .643
20. Tim Sylvia (7-4) .636

The only notable omission and current Hall-Of-Famer not on the list is, of course, Ken Shamrock. With his recent rash of losses, Shamrock stands at a meager 7-6 (.538), unfortunately not good enough to make the cut.

Additionally, there were a handful of fighters at 6-4 (.600) who could easily break into the top twenty with a win or two. They are, alphabetically: Nick Diaz, Yves Edwards, Jeremy Horn, and Matt Serra.

There you have it, Irish Whip fans. Let us know who is too high, who is too low, and who is just right on the comment board below.