Title Writing: Ranking The Fight Camps

by Luke Nelson on Feb 8, 2012 7:28 PM EST

Randy Couture, founder of the current number one MMA fight team in the world. Photo: Jeff Sherwood/Sherdog.com

Ranking the Fight Camps combines the USA Today/SB Nation consensus rankings with win/loss records over the past three months in order to provide a ranked list of the most successful MMA fight camps in the world.

The most recent installment was released on January 24th. I'm constantly making adjustments to the team rosters, as I receive more accurate information about who is training where. I made a major change to the rosters this week; I will no longer be considering "Black House" a team. Most of the fighters that were under that designation are now under Team Nogueira. If anyone has any information they would like to share on this front (not on Black House specifically, but rather, who trains where) I'd be forever indebted to you.

THE CRITERIA

Each camp is designated as tier I, II or III, based on how many fighters from the camp appear in the top 25 for all 7 weight classes. Tier I camps have more than five top 25 fighters. Tier II camps have at least two and no more than five top 25ers and Tier III camps are those with just a single fighter in the top 25. A number one ranked fighter is worth 25 points to his camp, a number two ranked fighter is worth 24 and so on. In the past I totaled the score for each camp but moving forward I've decided to average out the score so that the big camps don't all end up at the top.

Over the past three months, each stoppage victory is worth +2, each decision victory +1. Each stoppage loss is worth -2, each decision loss -1. There will also be bonus points awarded in the case of a ranked fighter defeating one with a higher rank. The bonus points will be equal to the difference in rank, up to a maximum of 5 points. For example, when #13 Nathan Diaz defeated #8 Donald Cerrone, he earned 6 points. 1 for the decision victory and 5 because Cowboy was ranked 5 spots higher than he was.

I'm going to rank the top 5 for each tier, as well as an overall top 15. Only Tier I and II camps will be eligible for the top 15 due to the fact that I am averaging out the consensus scores.

The rankings can be found after the jump.

TIER I

Camp	Score
Xtreme Couture	31.4
Nova Uniao	23
Team Nogueira	18.83
Jackson's MMA	18.3
AKA	15.37

TIER II

Camp	Score
Cesar Gracie	28.25
Team Alpha Male	24.33
Team Quest	22.4
Kings MMA	21
Wolfslair	21

TIER III

Camp	Score
Team Takedown	28
The Reem Training Center	26
Renzo Gracie	25
Korean Top Team	24
MMA Lab	23

OVERALL

Camp	Score
Xtreme Couture (I)	31.4
Cesar Gracie (II)	28.25
Team Alpha Male (II)	24.33
Nova Uniao (I)	23
Team Quest (II)	22.4
Kings MMA (II)	21
Wolfslair	21
Red Devil Sport Club (II)	19
Team Nogueira (I)	18.83
Jackson's MMA	18.3
Team Curran (II)	18
AMA Fight Club (II)	17.5
Grudge Training Center	16.33
Paraestra Tokyo	15.66
Imperial Athletics	15.5

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Comments

Damn, this is a massive undertaking.

Quick Question — is there any allowance in the rankings equations for female fighters?

Since you list “seven” weight classes, I’m assuming you mean the seven male weight classes. Off the top of my head, more than a few camps have top-ranked female fighters. For example, Miesha Tate trains with Team Alpha Male, and Jessica Aguilar trains at ATT.

Freelance Writer at PC World
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by McKinley B. Noble on Feb 8, 2012 9:46 PM EST reply actions

I thought Rumblebutt left Napoleonic Complex?

Some drama went down, if I remember right.

Conductor of the Trainyard Sleepers! WHOO WHOOOOOO!

by Paulo Filho's Psychiatrist on Feb 9, 2012 11:22 AM EST up reply actions

Hey,

great idea. I think I’ll have to start females in. I didn’t really think to add them in before, since the level of competition is not particularly high, but when you consider that they are training side by side with all these guys, they deserve to be included.

New author at Head Kick Legend
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by Luke Nelson on Feb 9, 2012 1:10 PM EST up reply actions

Awesome.

‘Glad to be of some help. For some reason, I’m always thinking about MMA in terms of full inclusion of all weight classes, with both sexes in the mix.

To be honest, it only makes sense in the “team aspect” — once, I argued that Cyborg should be considered one of the “Top 10” pound-for-pound MMA fighters (pre-steroid test) and met with some strong resistance.

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by McKinley B. Noble on Feb 10, 2012 12:54 AM EST up reply actions

I think its a little skewed...

Some of these teams are huge. I would be more interested in average points per fighter from each camp. That would tell a fuller story I think

by TheStockyStrangler on Feb 9, 2012 8:53 AM EST via Android app reply actions

this

is exactly what I was thinking

by Pooman on Feb 9, 2012 11:21 AM EST up reply actions

I'm not sure what you mean by average points per fighter from each camp.

The points given for the consensus ranking of a camp’s fighters are averaged. The points awarded for their individual fights are not. Do you mean that I should average both?

For example: Xtreme Couture is a huge team, but they have very highly ranked fighters. Their average rank score is 13.44. Compare that to Alpha Male, who only has three ranked fighters, but all in top spots. Their average rank score is 23.33.

Since the Alpha Male have much fewer fights to add to their score, plus the fact that they are rarely fighting guys ahead of them in the rankings, they end up with very few “fight points”. (In this period, they only had 1, leaving them with a 24.33)

Xtreme Couture has a lower score but many more guys fighting. This period, they had a couple of underdogs win fights (Michael Chandler over Eddie Alvarez, Martin Kampmann over Rick Story), and they ended up with 18 “fight points”, bringing their total score to 31.44

If I had averaged out the “fight points” each camp earned, Xtreme Couture would have clocked in at 15.44, while Alpha Male would have been at 23.66. Is this the method you are referring to guys?

New author at Head Kick Legend
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by Luke Nelson on Feb 9, 2012 12:59 PM EST up reply actions

This is a pretty cool concept

But what exactly are you defining as a team? I’ve read that Team Quest is really two different teams, divided between California (where Hendo trains) and Oregon (where Chael trains), and given the there was a lawsuit going on between Hendo and Lindland awhile ago, I can’t imagine there’s much interchange between those camps. I’ve also read that Cesar Gracie BJJ is really two different teams, divided between NorCal (where Shields and Gil train) and Stockton (where the Diaz Bros train). It just seems a little trickier than using the banner they train under.

by Damnatio Memoriae on Feb 9, 2012 9:48 AM EST reply actions

Well, that's the hard part....

But it’s pretty much a perpetual work in progress, so I hope to keep making it more and more precise as I go. Last time I did the feature, I got some information regarding Blackhouse/Team Nogueira. Eventually I’d like to have a master list of all fighters, not just the top 25.

And as I continue to do it, I’ll narrow big camps with multiple gym affiliation down into the small groups that they train in. For now, Cesar Gracie is the Diaz brothers, Melendez and Shields. They rep the gym and I’m pretty sure they all trained together on a regular basis pretty recently. I’m okay with that, even though they might not train together on a daily basis anymore.

As I said though, It’s definitely my intention to narrow things down as much as possible.

New author at Head Kick Legend
Reach me here: LukeNelsonMMA@gmail.com

by Luke Nelson on Feb 9, 2012 1:07 PM EST up reply actions

Definitely a massive undertaking, and a permanent work in progress

But definitely valuable for understanding the sport. Maybe it would help to have kind of a parent/child diagram of the different camps and the different gyms they operate, especially for camps like Jackson’s/Tristar that have different names but crosstrain a great deal. Just throwing ideas out…

by Damnatio Memoriae on Feb 9, 2012 1:50 PM EST up reply actions