Who was the greatest of all-time? A historical analysis by a complex network of professional boxing

Tennant, Adam G.; Smith, Chase M. L.; C, Jotam E Chen

doi:10.1093/comnet/cnaa009

Cited by 3 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…We now proceed to the main aim of this article, which is to provide a ranking scheme from which the relative skill of players may be identified. This is obtained through a complex networks approach which involves assigning each node i some level of importance P i based upon their record across the entire network that is obtained via evaluating the PageRank score originally used in the ranking of webpage search results [36] and more recently within the domain of sports [25][26][27][28][29]. This procedure is mathematically described by…”

Section: B Ranking Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The benefit offered by this approach is that, through the aforementioned dominance network, the quality of competition faced in each game is incorporated when determining a player's rank rather than simply the final result itself. As such, the algorithm places higher levels of importance in victory against other players who are perceived as successful and, notably, similar approaches have proven effective when applied to other sports resulting in numerous new insights to the competitive structure of said contests [25][26][27][28][29]. Through this ranking system we proceed to highlight a number of interesting properties underlying the sport including an increased level of competition among players over the previous thirty years.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Analysis has also been conducted into individual-based sports, again with the aim of providing a ranking of players within a given sport. For example, the competitors within both professional tennis [27] and boxers, at an individual weight level [28] and a pound-for-pound level [29], have been extensively studied. Lastly, rankings at a country level based upon their success across the spectrum of Olympic Games sports have also been considered [30].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A complex networks approach to ranking professional Snooker players

O’Brien¹,

Gleeson²

2020

Preprint

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A detailed analysis of matches played in the sport of Snooker during the period 1968-2020 is used to calculate a directed and weighted dominance network based upon the corresponding results. We consider a ranking procedure based upon the well-studied PageRank algorithm that incorporates details of not only the number of wins a player has had over their career but also the quality of opponent faced in these wins. Through this study we find that John Higgins is the highest performing Snooker player of all time with Ronnie O'Sullivan appearing in second place. We demonstrate how this approach can be applied across a variety of temporal periods in each of which we may identify the strongest player in the corresponding era. This procedure is then compared with more classical ranking schemes. Furthermore, a visualization tool known as the rank-clock is introduced to the sport which allows for immediate analysis of the career trajectory of individual competitors. These results further demonstrate the use of network science in the quantification of success within the field of sport.

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Section: B Ranking Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A complex networks approach to ranking professional Snooker players

O’Brien¹,

Gleeson²

2020

Preprint

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“…The area of Network Theory and Analysis [1] has rapidly expanded into a very active and vibrant field of research, with ever more fundamental theoretical results [2] and novel applications [3] [4] being reported. A network consists of units called nodes that interact via connections referred to as links or edges.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For economy of presentation, throughout, the same symbol is used both for a system and its mathematical model; these are usually not the same 3. In order to emphasize that the results presented here apply in much more general contexts, the term "mapping" will be used instead of "operator.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Multivaluedness in Networks: Theory

Wyk

2020

IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. II

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This brief note reports the fundamental phenomenon of implicit multivaluedness exhibited from one output to the other of two node-systems with a common inputreferred to as counter-cascaded 1 systems-under the appropriate conditions. The novel concepts of immanence and transcendence are introduced upon which the formulation and prove of a necessary and sufficient condition for multivaluedness are based; this is the main result of this note. Next, subsequent consequences of this result are presented. Among these is the fact that this result also holds for cascaded generalized systems.The novel application of structural complexity reduction in directed networks presented next, demonstrates the utility of multivaluedness and is itself a contribution to the theory of signals and systems.The significance of the work presented here is that it contributes toward the theory of systems and networks as well as toward the arsenal of tools for studying networks.

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A complex networks approach to ranking professional Snooker players

O’Brien

Gleeson

2020

Journal of Complex Networks

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A detailed analysis of matches played in the sport of Snooker during the period 1968–2020 is used to calculate a directed and weighted dominance network based upon the corresponding results. We consider a ranking procedure based upon the well-studied PageRank algorithm that incorporates details of not only the number of wins a player has had over their career but also the quality of opponent faced in these wins. Through this study, we find that John Higgins is the highest performing Snooker player of all time with Ronnie O’Sullivan appearing in second place. We demonstrate how this approach can be applied across a variety of temporal periods in each of which we may identify the strongest player in the corresponding era. This procedure is then compared with more classical ranking schemes. Furthermore, a visualization tool known as the rank-clock is introduced to the sport which allows for immediate analysis of the career trajectory of individual competitors. These results further demonstrate the use of network science in the quantification of success within the field of sport.

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Who was the greatest of all-time? A historical analysis by a complex network of professional boxing

Cited by 3 publications

References 10 publications

A complex networks approach to ranking professional Snooker players

A complex networks approach to ranking professional Snooker players

Multivaluedness in Networks: Theory

A complex networks approach to ranking professional Snooker players

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