As the number one MMA in Vietnam now, Lion Championship brings together the most quality and international boxers of fighters, coming from all different martial arts platforms. “Literature of the First, Vo Vo De Nhi”, the competition of the fighters is very visual, showing the excellent fighting ability of each individual.
Referring to the comparison, Lion himself also had the ranking of fighters of each weight class. The accuracy of this ranking is highly appreciated, because the regulations of the tournament's charter is very clear from the beginning: the boxers will be calculated accumulated points depending on the results of each match.
However, there is another “specialty” of the Western MMA that Lion Championship has not owned, it is a pound-for-low chart (P4P), comparing the rankings of the boxers with the assumption that all the boxers play in the same weight class.
History of the concept of “pound-for-pound” is not new. In the 50s of the last century, Sugar Ray Robinson emerged as a perfect boxer in all aspects. To the extent that Boxing fans could not compare Robinson with anyone in the same weight class anymore, but must compare him with champions in other weight classes.
“If the martial artist is the same weight as the B boxer, considering all the advantages, the perfection of technology, endurance, punching force, Fight IQ, Footwork, … Who will win?”. The MMA arena inherits many characteristics of the boxing arena. So it is not uncommon for the audience to compare, the need to find the champion “pound -for -pound” – the champion of all their weight – their.
Based on the definition, the “pound-for-pound” chart is entirely a hypothetical ranking-other fighters who are too far away will never fight each other to delimit the victory. But in general, there are still a few standards that many fans agree to determine the rankings for the boxers. They include winning – losing records at the tournament, quality / level of antagonists, how many victories come from Knockout or Submission.
So this is the right time for Lion Championship to also own a Pound-For-Pound rankings?
History will say “maybe not yet”. It is not easy to put the name “champion all weight” on the shoulder of a boxer.
UFC, starting in 1993, until 2013 there was a pound-for-pound ranking and the ranking of the weight. One Championship has a ranking ranking early, but it is not until 2020 to push the P4P charts, both of MMA and Kickboxing and Muay Thai. Bellator is even later – the 2nd MMA U.S. only has P4P rankings since 2021.
Anyway, Vietnamese MMA fans can still be very free to arrange the “war” rankings of the boxer at their disposal. In Lion Championship, names such as Pham Van Nam, Aleksei Filonenko, Nguyen Tran Duy Nhat, Nghiem Van Y are completely deserved in the top of any P4P fan-made chart.
If Pham Van Nam, Nghiem Van Y and Nguyen Tran Duy Nhat both own a chain of 4-0, Aleksei Filonenko is also devoted to the top matches when the 3-match MMA match is not 3. Below the champions may be the names that have proven quality, such as Nguyen Van Kamil, Trinh Xuan Anh, Tran Ngoc Luong, Robson Oliveira, Dinh Van Huong, …
Lion Championship is expected to have two more events at the end of the 2023 season. There are many expectations that after two successful seasons, Lion can attract a significant amount of boxers. With new matches, the audience will have more facts to compare the capacity of each boxer, and at that time the appearance of a Pound-For-Pound ranking will be less controversial.