diff --git a/lib/MetaCPAN/Util.pm b/lib/MetaCPAN/Util.pm
index 1a8027679..b6fefae85 100644
--- a/lib/MetaCPAN/Util.pm
+++ b/lib/MetaCPAN/Util.pm
@@ -17,24 +17,28 @@ sub digest {
 
 sub numify_version {
     my $version = shift;
-    use warnings FATAL => 'numeric';
-    eval { $version = version->parse($version)->numify + 0; } or do {
-        $version = fix_version($version);
-        $version = eval { version->parse( $version || 0 )->numify + 0 };
-    };
+    $version = fix_version($version);
+    $version =~ s/_//g;
+    if ($version =~ s/^v//i || $version =~ tr/.// > 1) {
+        my @parts = split /\./, $version;
+        my $n = shift @parts;
+        $version = sprintf(join('.', '%s', ('%03s' x @parts)), $n, @parts);
+    }
+    $version += 0;
     return $version;
 }
 
 sub fix_version {
     my $version = shift;
-    return undef unless ( defined $version );
-    if ( $version =~ /^v/ ) {
-        eval { $version = eval( version->parse($version)->numify ) };
-        return $version + 0 unless ($@);
-    }
-    $version =~ s/[^\d\._]//g;
-    $version =~ s/_/00/g;
-    return $version;
+    return 0 unless defined $version;
+    my $v = ($version =~ s/^v//i);
+    $version =~ s/[^\d\._].*//;
+    $version =~ s/\.[._]+/./;
+    $version =~ s/[._]*_[._]*/_/g;
+    $version =~ s/\.{2,}/./g;
+    $v ||= $version =~ tr/.// > 1;
+    $version ||= 0;
+    return (($v ? 'v' : '') . $version);
 }
 
 sub author_dir {
diff --git a/t/util.t b/t/util.t
index 3c712232f..bbc6d041f 100644
--- a/t/util.t
+++ b/t/util.t
@@ -10,15 +10,15 @@ is( MetaCPAN::Util::numify_version('v2.1.1'),   2.001001 );
 is( MetaCPAN::Util::numify_version(undef),      0.000 );
 is( MetaCPAN::Util::numify_version('LATEST'),   0.000 );
 is( MetaCPAN::Util::numify_version('0.20_8'),   0.208 );
-is( MetaCPAN::Util::numify_version('0.20_88'),  0.200088 );
-is( MetaCPAN::Util::numify_version('0.208_8'),  0.208008 );
-is( MetaCPAN::Util::numify_version('0.20_108'), 0.2000108 );
-is( MetaCPAN::Util::numify_version('v0.9_9'),   0.009009 );
+is( MetaCPAN::Util::numify_version('0.20_88'),  0.2088 );
+is( MetaCPAN::Util::numify_version('0.208_8'),  0.2088 );
+is( MetaCPAN::Util::numify_version('0.20_108'), 0.20108 );
+is( MetaCPAN::Util::numify_version('v0.9_9'),   0.099 );
 
 lives_ok { is( version("2a"),      2 ) };
-lives_ok { is( version("V0.01"),   0.01 ) };
-lives_ok { is( version('0.99_1'),  '0.99001' ) };
-lives_ok { is( version('0.99.01'), '0.99.01' ) };
+lives_ok { is( version("V0.01"),   'v0.01' ) };
+lives_ok { is( version('0.99_1'),  '0.99_1' ) };
+lives_ok { is( version('0.99.01'), 'v0.99.01' ) };
 
 is( MetaCPAN::Util::strip_pod('hello L<link|http://www.google.com> foo'),
     'hello link foo' );