Fickle

Sports fans, journalists and organizations are a bunch of fickle butterflies.

What do I mean?

Take the UFC official fighter rankings. The UFC calculates them by amalgamating the rankings of a number of respected journalists and mma websites. About a month ago in the women's division Alexis Davis was ranked one spot above Sara McMann. Based on their records this seemed correct. Since then the two have switched spots with McMann on top.

What changed in that month? McMann did nothing, but Davis had a fight against another top-level fighter and won convincingly. Somehow, the consensus was now that McMann was better than Davis despite Davis's victory. What's up with that?

Another example of fickle fans is the case of Rory MacDonald. He was the third-ranked challenger in the welterweight division. Everybody was convinced he was on the verge of seizing the title. It seemed to be only a matter of when. He always looked great and had amassed a record of 15-1.

It didn't seem to matter that he only had two big names on his resume. One was a victory against over-the-hill BJ Penn, and the other a loss to Carlos Condit. The evidence showed that Rory was good, but there was no proof that he was a future world-beater.

A week ago he had a fight against Robbie Lawler, who beat him in a split decision. A few more punches one way or the other, or a takedown or two, or even a judge in a slightly different mood, and MacDonald might have won.

If he'd won, the chorus would still be calling him the next World Champion. Unfortunately he lost, barely, and is now being called a trumped-up phoney. Really? Interestingly, the guy slightly on the winning side of this close fight is being hailed as the new Superman.

It is not possible that two guys who performed that closely can be considered so vastly different in potential.

The same night, the longest-reigning champion in the UFC, Georges St. Pierre, took on number-one-ranked John Hendricks.

Hendricks has killer punching power, and is a top-level wrestler. People were saying that there was no way the champion could handle either ability. Really?

Regarding wrestling; for years Georges St. Pierre has been considered the best wrestler in the UFC. In his career, he has dominated every top-level wrestler he has faced, including fighters like Koscheck and hall-of-famer Matt Hughes.

Georges St. Pierre can be hurt by a big puncher, but he has one of the best defenses in the game and is incredibly difficult to hit.

So they fought, and St. Pierre won by split decision. Many are calling this a bad decision, and that Hendricks should have won.

If this is true, or even if it is a fair result that he lost a close decision, the call should be for a rematch. Fans should want to see this thing settled. Instead, the call is for George St. Pierre to retire. Retire?

St. Pierre, despite his illustrious career, is only 32 years of age. He's hardly over the hill.

After losing to Matt Serra by knockout back in 2004, he came back determined to return the favor. In the rematch, he totally dominated every second and knocked out Serra with ease. After losing to Matt Hughes by first-round arm-bar, he returned in the rematch and knocked Hughes out. When Hughes and St. Pierre fought a third time, he arm-barred the only man to have arm-barred him. In all his rematches, St. Pierre comes back better and determined to win.

Retire? Really? Granted, St. Pierre himself has made retirement comments, but this was right after the fight. Fighters always say silly stuff immediately after fights. More recently he's been saying that he needs some time to sort out some personal issues. Turns out he not only has management conflicts, but he has gotten some woman pregnant, and that his father is seriously ill, perhaps terminally.

I'd say, fans should want him to get that all dealt with, however long it takes, and that a rematch take place. I think we'd either see him exert his usual dominance, or that it will turn out Johnny Hendricks does deserve to rule the division.

The point all being, sports fans make pretty random judgment calls. Pity that the official UFC rankings follow this insanity around.

See if you can follow this one.

Lyoto Machida was ranked number 6 in the 205 pound division, and Gegard Mousasi was number 9. Mousasi hasn't fought at all in the period in question. Machida, in contrast, dropped down in weight and defeated the number 5 contender in the 185 division.

As a result, Machida is now rated number 5 at 185 pounds. Interestingly, this victory caused him to drop from 6^th at 205 down to number 10. This helped Mousasi, as he is moved up to number 8. The two men have since been contracted to fight each other at 185 pounds. In comparing the two men one should compare their 185 rankings, but Mousasi has none. The next best would be to look at them at 205, where both are ranked, and to consider Mousasi the better man.

How did he get to be the better man over someone who out-ranked him? Simple. He sat on his ass while the better man defeated a top-ranked contender.

Fickle butterflies.