TSR & CCR: The Two Most Important Advanced Stats in MMA
True Skill Rating (TSR) and Current Competitiveness Rating (CCR) combine striking, grappling, pace, control, finishing ability, and opponent strength into a pair of context-aware ratings designed to answer two of the most important questions in MMA — How good is a fighter, and how good are they right now?
Jun 17, 2026
MMA is complicated.
A fighter can rack up big striking numbers against weak competition. Another can have a mediocre record despite facing nothing but elite opponents. One knockout can change a fight that was otherwise being dominated. Looking at wins, losses, or a single stat rarely tells the full story.
That's what True Skill Rating (TSR) and Current Competitiveness Rating (CCR) are built to do.
TSR and CCR use the same underlying philosophy, but they are designed to answer different questions. TSR focuses on what a fighter has consistently proven over the course of their UFC career. CCR focuses on what version of that fighter is entering the cage today. Together, they help distinguish established greatness from current competitiveness, answering the two most important questions:
How good is this fighter?
And how good are they right now?
Think of TSR and CCR as a fighter's overall report card.
Similar to how chess uses Elo ratings to measure player strength, or how advanced baseball metrics summarize a player's overall value, UFC Savant combines many different aspects of fighting into ratings that help separate long-term ability from current competitiveness.
Every major sport has evolved beyond traditional statistics. Baseball has metrics like WAR and wRC+, basketball has Player Efficiency Rating (PER) and Box Plus-Minus (BPM), and football relies on advanced grading systems that attempt to measure a player's true impact beyond the box score, such as Pro Football Focus (PFF) Grades. These metrics exist because a single statistic rarely captures the full picture. TSR and CCR bring that same philosophy to MMA by combining multiple dimensions of fighting into ratings that are easier to compare, understand, and apply.
On UFC Savant, TSR and CCR form our advanced fighter rating system. They look beyond wins and losses to evaluate the quality of performances, the level of competition faced, and the underlying skills that tend to translate into future success.
When you see a TSR or CCR number, you're not looking at a single statistic. You're looking at a composite rating built from:
- Striking effectiveness
- Grappling success
- Pace
- Control
- Finishing ability
- Opponent strength
The goal is to create ratings that are easy to understand while capturing the complexity of MMA.
The easiest way to think about it is this:
TSR measures a fighter's established skill level.
CCR measures how competitive that fighter is right now.