UFC welterweight Neil Magny stopped caring about the UFC rankings long ago. Speaking on a recent episode of The Fighter vs The Writer, Magny revealed that he lost interest more than half a decade ago, choosing instead to focus on himself rather than trying to decode the baffling decision process behind the UFC ranking system.
“For me to protect my own sanity, my own peace, I quit caring about the rankings a long time ago. I stopped caring about the rankings when it was a situation where I was ranked No. 6 or something like that, this was years ago and Donald Cerrone was supposed to fight Kelvin Gastelum, who at the time was ranked No. 5 and that fight never came through, it never happened. The fight never took place. I think Kelvin had something go wrong with his weight cut and he had to pull out of the fight either the day before or the day of, and the fight never came through.
Neil Magny: Chasing UFC Rankings Was “the most frustrating thing possible”
Somehow the rankings came out the next week and Donald Cerrone found himself in the top five, I fell back a spot and Kelvin Gastelum was at No. 6.
I’m sitting there scratching my head trying to figure out how does someone move up in the rankings without actually fighting?” The head-scratching moment led to an epiphany for Neil Magny.“I quit caring about the rankings at that point.
At that point I’m like if I have a number [beside] my name, sure whatever, come and get it. If someone who’s not ranked wants the opportunity to try and take this number that I have by my name, come and get it. Try and make that fight happen.
For me, I’m ready to do whatever it takes to get that title shot. For me to protect my own sanity, my own peace, I quit caring about the rankings a long time ago.”
This mentality sets Magny apart from many of his fellow elite welterweights, some of whom would rather not fight at all than risk the number next to their names.
“I tried to get a fight with [Vicente] Luque. I tried to get a fight with Belal [Muhammad]. I tried to get a fight with [Gilbert] Burns. I tried to get a fight with Khamzat [Chimaev]. I tried to get a fight with ‘Wonderboy’ [Stephen Thompson]. I tried to get a fight with all these ranked guys and for some reason or another, these fights have just not been coming through.
“t was a pretty frustrating place to be because at this point going into this Max Griffin fight, I went eight months without a fight and really long layoffs take something mentally and physically.” Is Neil Magny right about the UFC rankings? Let us know in the comments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awJVLB0ukbA
