UFC president Dana White is finally taking some steps towards an AI-generated rankings system, weeks after expressing his vitriol for the existing one in practice. He cited the examples of Renato Moicano and Khalil Rountree not moving up in rankings despite great performances to point out the existing problems with the rankings.
Hence, he had hoped for an AI-powered system. And now thanks to Mark Zuckerberg’s expertise, the UFC will have a similar option in place soon.
In an interview for UFC on TNT, White spoke on what he is doing to bring the changes,
“We literally had meetings this week to work on it and I actually talked to Mark Zuckerberg too, about AI. I’m totally gonna fix the rankings and we’re going to make a lot of strong moves here coming into ’25.”
White is adamant that he will be fixing the rankings system. It will no longer be in the hands of the media and will be auto-generated with the help of AI. How accurate that would be or how efficient the system will be, those still remain huge questions.
There needs to be a standardized method to calculate points and while that will have problems of its own, it will solve the claims of unfairness on the current system.
However, this is not the only big step that the company will be taking going into 2025.
One of White’s major revelations was that the UFC will be looking to book an event in Spain as soon as possible, thanks to featherweight champion Ilia Topuria.
Madrid or Barcelona? White to bring UFC to Spain
White is finally agreeing to the demands of his own champion, Topuria. The Spaniard initially wanted to make his first title defense in Spain, but they could not book the fight in the country.
However, things are looking up for the Spaniard. In an interview with Adam Catterall, White asserted that he didn’t want to do shows in outdoor arenas and said:
“ASAP. I mean, the reason we haven’t been there is because the arena’s are all backed up there….We’ve looked everywhere, I’m not doing an outdoor arena.”
Regardless of the location, ‘El Matador’ will look to hang onto his belt this weekend when he takes on Max Holloway. And If he can win his first title defense, he may get to defend his belt in Spain next.
Ahead of the fight, Lionel Messi’s former football club, Barcelona has sent their jersey no. 9 to Holloway. This of course is a shot at Topuria, who is a huge Real Madrid fan.
So much so that he got into a heated argument with Holloway for suggesting that the UFC should let Camp Nou (Barcelona’s home ground) host the fight! Thankfully, there is still time for UFC Spain.
