One UFC athlete is not believing in this system.

That fighter is Thiago Santos, who is slated to take on Anthony Smith in a middleweight bout at UFC Fight Night 125 or better known as UFC Belem.

Thes two fighters could be considered two of the best unranked fighters right now. However, there is one problem which Santos brought to light in a recent interview.

That is the fact that some fight fans no longer care about rankings and thus affects fighters under the promotion’s banner.

By doing a quick search of their fight histories, they are both coming off three knockout victories in the Octagon. Now, they will fight each other this weekend.

If you recall, Santos called out Derek Brunson following his most recent win in October. This would’ve been a fight that some fight fans would be interesting in.

However, the promotion and its President, Dana White, did not agree with the booking and thus didn’t make it happen.

This is a problem with Santos and he made it known in a recent interview hyping up the fight.

”I don’t choose opponents, but I always want to fight someone in a good position in the UFC, since I’m coming off three knockouts,” Santos told MMA Fighting. “Anthony Smith is not among the top in the rankings, but he’s a really tough guy who’s also coming off knockouts. He beat Hector Lombard, who’s a big name, so I’m fighting tough opponents even though they are not in the rankings. I have to respect him.”

”This ranking doesn’t exist,” the Brazilian said. “This ranking is a lie, it doesn’t show the reality of the sport. I’ve been fighting guys that are not in the ranking, but they are tough. I don’t turn down fights. I’ll fight anyone. Meanwhile, these guys in the top 15 of these fake rankings won’t fight anyone outside of the top 15.

”I’ve been fighting guys that are way tougher than the ones that are in there. I don’t care about being in those rankings, I want to beat the guys that are in there because they think they are too good. Being in the rankings or not, that makes no difference to me. I want to fight people that will put me in a position to fight for the belt. I want to steamroll these guys in the rankings to show that this is not a real ranking.

”Some of them deserve to be there, but others don’t,” Santos added. “I don’t speak only about myself, there are other guys that deserved to be there as well. I don’t want to be part of this lie. I want to be in the rankings when it’s full of fighters that really deserve to be there.”

UFC Belem (Fight Night 125) is here, and it goes down on Saturday, February 3, 2018 from the Arena Guilherme Paraense in Belem, Brazil.

The event will mark the promotion’s first visit to Pará in the country’s North region. The main card will air on FOX Sports 1 at 10 p.m. ET while the preliminary card will be split broadcasted on FOX Sports 1 at 8 p.m. ET and the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass, at 7 p.m. ET.

Lyoto Machida vs. Eryk Anders in a middleweight bout will headline this show while Valentina Shevchenko vs. Priscila Cachoeira in a women’s flyweight bout will serve as the co-main event.

Rounding out this six bout card is Michel Prazeres vs. Desmond Green in a lightweight bout, Marcelo Golm vs. Timothy Johnson in a heavyweight bout, Douglas Silva de Andrade vs. Marlon Vera in a bantamweight bout, and Thiago Santos vs. Anthony Smith in a middleweight bout.