The belief that PFL fighters are a tier below the UFC is MMA's default setting. Point the promotion-blind Combat Edge Elo at this weekend's two cards and it doesn't hold: the averages are nearly identical.
The UFC signed the former two-division KSW champion and put him straight into the UFC Paris main event. Our Elo already rates him 12th of 225 active lightweights.
Tommy McMillen and Fatima Kline delivered the two best performances of the night in Oklahoma City. Different styles, same rare trait, and the numbers back both up.
The McGregor–Holloway return is the headline, but Combat Edge Elo says the real ranking damage happens on the undercard, where a Cory Sandhagen upset could jump nine spots.
We put the UFC's new Meta AI rankings next to the Combat Edge Elo model across two divisions. They match on most of the top 10, and the Meta recipe looks a lot like the Elo we have run for years.
The UFC says its new rankings will be merit-based — who you beat, strength of competition, activity. Combat Edge Elo already ranks 4,007 fighters on exactly that.
