How Does The Nordic Elite Stack Up Against The Rest of The World?

We at mmaviking have our Nordic Rankings where we rank our top Nordic fighters after their performances and skill level. But how well does the Nordic elite stack up against the rest of the world and the huge amount of professional fighters out there? Www.fightmatrix.com is a website that ranks fighters from all around the world objectively and unbiased using sherdogs fighter database. Fightmatrix use a software engine called CIRRS – Combat Intelli-Rating and Ranking System to assemble and rate their data. Below are some of the points that the software takes into consideration when assembling the rankings. You can read the full summary here.

• These are CURRENT rankings. The more recent a result, the more impact it has on a fighter’s ranking.
• A fighter must have a professional MMA bout in the previous 450 days to be listed.
• The winner is always placed above the loser, regardless of the outcome.
• A bout’s winner can lose points, if for example, they only manage a close win over a much lower rated fighter. In addition, the loser will gain points in this scenario.
• A ranked fighter may appear to lose or gain points for no reason at all. The reasons for this may include: historical bout additions & changes and/or quality performance decay penalties.

So with that background, let’s see how fightmatrix ranks the top five Nordic Fighters in every division. Some divisions do not have enough Nordic fighters ranked in fightmatrix’s to fill up all the five spots.

Heavyweight

Nordic Ranking, Overall Ranking, Name, Country and Record

1. (#221)  Eddy Bengtsson, Sweden 6-4-0
2. (#228) Marko Petteri, Finland

Summary: Very thin division seen from a Nordic Perspective, Jörgen Kruth was also ranked on fightmatrix but we chose not to include him since he’s announced his retirement. Bengtsson remains the top Heavyweight around for now and is ranked 45 spots below Valentijn Overeem (30-28-0).

Light Heavyweight

1. (#4) Alexander Gustafsson, Sweden. 15-1-0
2. (#32) Ilir Latifi, Sweden. 7-2-0
3. (#56) Juha Saarinen, Finland. 10-2-0
4. (#71) Marcus Vänttinen, Finland. 21-4-0
5. (#88) Matti Mäkelä, Sweden. 11-11-0

Summary: Not surprisingly the Swedish superstar Alexander Gustafsson claims the first place. What is nice to see here is that every single one of these five men are ranked within the top 100 fighters in the light heavyweight division in the world. Matti Mäkelä takes a giant leap forwards in the rankings following his assault on James McSweeney at Superior Challenge 8. Ilir Latifi is ranked before many UFC fighters, including “The Janitor” Vladimir Mayushenko (26-7-0), Jimi Manuwa (12-0-0) and Alexander Gustafssons former opponent Thiago Silva (14-3-0). Finlands giant, Marcus Vänttinen is a couple of spots before Kyle Kingsbury (11-5-0) and Krzyz,Krzysztof Socs, Krzysztof Soszynski (26-12-1).

Middleweight

1. (#41) Tor Troéng, Sweden. 15-4-1
2. (#70) Andreas Spång, Sweden. 8-2-0
3. (#87) Mats Nilsson, Sweden. 9-2-1
4. (#100) Mikkel Parlo, Denmark. 9-0-0
5. (#128) Victor Cheng, Sweden. 10-2-0

Summary: Tor takes the lead and ranks just below Matt Horwich and above Kendall Grove, followed by Mats Nilsson. The placement of these two gentlemen could have been switched had their bout at The Zone last year had a different outcome. No Danes, Finns or Icelanders made this list and was not even found in fightmatrix´s database. Andreas Spång is the second highest ranked and places two spots above Magnus “Jycken” Cedenblads would-be opponent Renzo Gracie Academy fighter Rafael “Sapo” Natal.

Welterweight

1. (#6) Martin Kampmann, Denmark. 20-6-0
2. (#58) Assan N’jie, Sweden. 13-2-0
3. (#64) Gunnar Nelson, Iceland. 10-0-1
4. (#98) Nico Musoke, Sweden. 10-2-0 1NC
5. (#100) Morten Djursaa, Denmark. 11-4-0

Summary: One of the most stacked division with fighters from all the Nordic countries in fightmatrix rankings. What’s interesting here is that Assan N’jie is ranked above Icelands pride Gunnar Nelson. Nelson however will look to climb in the rankings with a win over Jorge Santigo at Wembley Arena in two weeks. Gunnar is currently ranked over Marius Zaromskis (19-8-0) who defeated Bruno “BC” Carvalho (20-6) at Rumble of The Kings with a flip kick and Matt Riddle (7-3-0), who recently defeated John Maguire (23-5).

Lightweight

1. (#85) Anton Kuivanen, Finland. 17-5-0
2. (#111) Reza Madadi, Sweden. 12-3-0
3. (#130) Diego Gonzalez, Sweden. 15-7-0
4. (#131) Niko Puhakka, Finland. 27-12-0
5. (#144) Juha-Pekka Vainikainen, Finland. 20-6-1

Summary: The Nordic lightweight rooster is also a stacked one with fighters from many of the Nordic nations. Reza Madadi would probably have been ranked higher if the outcome of his fight against Cristiano Marcello would have been scored by any other judges than the ones ringside at UFC 153 in Rio. This divison is topped by veterans, Madadi being to one with the fewest fights with his 15 bouts says a lot. Both Kuivanen and Madadi have climbed past George Sotiropoulos (14-5-0) in the ranking.

Featherweight

1. (#48) Tom Niinimäki, Finland. 18-5-1
2. (#98) Niklas Bäckström, Sweden. 5-0-0
3. (#105) Joni Salovaara, Finland. 13-6-0
4. (#119) Akira Corassani, Sweden. 10-3-0
5. (#126) Makwan Amirkhani, Finland. 8-1-0

Summary: Another competitive division with many Nordic fighters battling for position. A newcomer on the list is Makwan Amirkhani, mmavikings Nordic Showman of the Year, who’s been racking up six consecutive wins, with only one of those six fights going to a decision. The Finn will be looking to extend his winning streak as he’ll probably be making appearances at Vision during 2013. Frontier MMA Academys Martin Svensson came up just short at placement #135 as he was knocked down a few pegs by Scottish Robert Whiteford and lost his Vision Featherweight title. Bäckström is also looking to climb the rankings if he can get an opponent for Royal Arena 3 in March, if Bäckström can rack up a few more quality wins a call from the Big Leagues won’t be far away. Tom “Stoneface” Niinimäki tops the list and rightfully so. Niinimäki hasn’t lost in almost 5 years now and is currently riding a nine fight win streak. Tom has had an active professional career  for over a decade now and should not be far from a contract with the UFC.

Bantamweight

1. (#77) Sirwan Kakai, Sweden. 8-1-0
2. (#88) David Häggström, Sweden. 7-1-1
3. (#166) Timo-Juhani Hirvikangas. 6-2-0
4. (#239) Emil Hartsner, Sweden. 3-0-0

Summary: GBG MMA/ATT fighter Sirwan Kakai has been on a tear with eight consecutive wins and is longing for a shot in the big leagues. Tipi is also climbing the rankings with one leg lock at a time, the submission specialist from the east is looking to solidify his place on the European MMA scene.

Flyweight

1. (#46) Mikael Silander, Finland. 8-1-0

Summary: Mikael Silander is a talented Finnish fighter who is the only Nordic representative in the flyweight division. “Hulk” started out his career with 7 wins in a row before loosing a decision to Russian Ali Bagautinov (9-2-0) at Fight Nights – Battle of Moscow 7. Young Silander has the time and ability to train hard and go very far in this sport and if the talented Finn keeps this pace up he could be a threat to anyone in the 125lb. division.

Women (All Weights)

1. (#6) Katja Kankaanpää, Finland. 7-0-1

Summary: Our Nordic female fighter of the year has solidified herself as one of the top females around and is ready to take on the elite. Katja finished of 2012 with an impressive victory over Aisling Daily at Cage Warriors Fighting Championship 51.