I was kind of thinking about this the other day while playing in my current game world. I have a welterweight prospect who’s 14-0 (12KOs) whom I’ve progressed through fights like I have every other fighter that I’ve ever had in any game world, and he’s still just inside the top 100 fighters in all 4 rankings. Which led me to think: would removing all rankings outside of the top 15 (like they have in real life) and adding in “player tags” or what ever you’d want to call them instead? Fighters would be able to upgrade their “tag” as they progressed through opposition, and the higher up the ladder they got, the better opposition they were given to fight. For example, the ladder of “tags” could be something like this:
Champion: Denotes a champion, obviously
Contender: Denotes a fighter who’s ranked in the top 5 of at least one of the sanctioning bodies
Ranked: Denotes a fighter who’s ranked in the top 15 of at least one of the sanctioning bodies
Fringe Contender: A fighter who is one or two fights away from being ranked
Step Up Fighter: An older fighter who’s got a lot of fights and a decent win %
Top Prospect: A young fighter who’s got a high Box Office stat, and has a good amount of wins to his name already
Prospect: Any young fighter that you could sign to your gym at the start of the game
Journeyman: An older fighter who’s got a lot of fights but a poor win%
Jobber/Bum/Tomato Can/etc.: A fighter without a lot of fights but a poor win%
Obviously, the progression that you’d put your fighters through would be: Tomato Cans, up to Journeymen or other prospects. By then, after beating a handful of that level of guys (anywhere from 5-10, based on which level of guys you were matching up with), you should probably be up to Top Prospect, where you’d be fighting Step Up Fighters, other Top Prospects, or Fringe Contenders for the next 3-5 fights. Once you obtained Fringe Contender status, you’d want to fight to be fighting Top Prospects or Fringe Contenders until a Ranked fighter opened up for a bout. From there, it’s pretty self-explanatory. That makes my 14-0 guy, if I played it right, a Top Prospect or Fringe Contender, which is probably fairly realistic. He’s 26, so if there’s a 14-0, 26 year old fighter who’s fought other talented prospects and multiple veterans with solid records, including a former title contender, shouldn’t he bee looking at stepping up to a ranked fighter soon? With they way that I’ve played it out, you could, if you played your cards absolutely perfectly, get a 0-0 fighter up to Fringe Contender status in around 8 fights, which still isn’t wholly unrealistic depending on weight class.
Other “tags” that could boost fighters up in terms of résumé would be Former Champs, Former Contenders, or Amateur tags, which is something that was brought up a while ago on this forum, with things like “National Champion” or “Olympian” being both a factor for your fighter and your opponents. Signing those guys with amateur tags makes your stable more attractive, and so does beating them.
Having Former Whatever-it-is tags on your fighters could open up fights higher up on the ladder for your guy than what might be available for most due to name value, and beating a fighter who’s a former champ or contender could potentially do the same.