Who is the best UFC fighter of all time?: The UFC has been the face of MMA for a while. The world’s best fighters compete in the organization, and the UFC champions are considered the best MMA fighters in the world. Let’s look at some of the greatest fighters who have graced the UFC octagon.
Who is the best UFC fighter of all time?
10. Israel Adesanya (24-3)
Israel Adesanya is the first-ever two-time middleweight champion. He has successfully defended his title five times. His rivalry with Brazilian Alex Perera is quite famous. He recently lost his title to Sean Strickland unanimously on September 10, 2023, at UFC 293.
9. Alex Volkanovski (26-2)
Alex Volkanowski is arguably the greatest featherweight of all time. Volkanovski debuted in the octagon in November 2016. At the end of 2018, he had won six consecutively. In 2019, he defeated the legendary Jose Also and the champion Max Holloway to claim the belt. He beat Max Holloway three times, although the second win is highly disputed. He also tried his luck in the lightweight division, but the current lightweight champ, Islam Makachev, defeated him in a unanimous decision.
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Who is the best UFC fighter of all time?
Who is the greatest MMA heavyweight of all time?
8. Kamaru Usman (20-3)
The ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ is the former welterweight champion of the world. He has the third-most title fight wins in UFC Welterweight division history. He is the first Nigerian-born UFC champion. He also holds a record for the latest knockout in a UFC title fight against Colby Covington.
7. Jose Aldo (31-8)
Jose Aldo is the former two-time UFC featherweight champion. The UFC Hall of Famer lost his title to Conor McGregor on December 12, 2015. He has seven title defenses on his record, which makes him the most title defenses in UFC featherweight history.
6. Henry Cejudo (16-2)
The ‘Tripple C’ is the former UFC bantamweight and flyweight champion. He was also the gold medal winner in freestyle wrestling at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He retired on May 9, 2020, after knocking out Dominic Cruz in UFC 249. But he returned again to the octagon, fought for the bantamweight title, and lost to Aljamain Sterling on May 6, 2023, at UFC 288.
5. Daniel Cormier (22-3)
The UFC Hall of Famer, Daniel Cormier, is the former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion. He has 22 wins and 3 losses. He retired from MMA in 2020 after his bout with former heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic.
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4. Demetrious Johnson (27-3)
Demetrious Johnson is an all-around fighter. His submission game is as superb as his stand-up. The ‘Mighty Mouse’ was UFC’s flyweight champion for a long time. He still holds the record for the most number of title defenses in the UFC (11). Currently, he is fighting in Singapore’s ONE FC promotion.
3. Anderson Silva (34-11-0 (1 NC))
Anderson Silva might have been even higher on the list if no positive drug tests had occurred. He was caught twice in his career, and cheating should never be counted out in the sport, especially in combat. He ruled the 185-pound division in his prime, defeating the notorious Chael Sonnen, Dan Henderson, and Vitor Belfort. The UFC Hall of Famer even dominated the middleweight division until being finished by Chris Weidman twice. In the last fight with Weidman, Silva broke his leg, and after his return from the injury, he was no longer the same. After losing five of his last six matches, Silva finally hung up his gloves in 2020.
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2. Jon Jones (27-1-0 (1 NC)
Jon Jones would be the greatest of all time if he hadn’t been caught on the drug test. Unlike in any other sport, it’s surprising that the people who cheated with drugs don’t get banned forever. In a sport like this where people punch each other for a living, the assistance of a drug could be even more dangerous to the other contestant’s life.
Jone Jones is the youngest UFC champion ever. He was crowned the light-heavyweight champion when he was just 23. Since then, he has run through a number of UFC legends to become the dominant force in his division.
However, it was not a cakewalk for Jones post-2015. His win over former heavyweight and light-heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier was reversed after he was found positive in a drug test. This made the world question the legitimacy of his former wins as well. The famous picture of Jones hiding under the cage to escape from USADA officials was an internet meme at the time. Also, his wins against Dominick Reyes and Thiago Santos are still controversial. Many still think that Reyes clearly won the fight 3-2.
Outside of all of these, Jon still has incredible achievements on his resume.
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1. Khabib Nurmagamedov/Georges St. Pierre
Khabib Nurmagamedov (29-0)
People may argue that Khabib Nurmagamedov’s early retirement and not fighting enough numbers would make him sit a bit down on the list. But if a man who has never bled or cut in a fight, who has hardly lost even a round in his whole career, and who has a record of 29-0 in his MMA career, where would you put him other than on top? In fact, he is the only MMA fighter in the history of the sport to hang up his gloves undefeated.
Khabib Nurmagamedov is the most dominant fighter in the history of combat sports. He joined the UFC in 2012 with an unbeaten record of 16-0. Till 2013, he fought five times and made it to 21-0. From 2013–17, he could only fight five times due to unending injury streaks. In 2018, he beat Al Iaquinta to win the vacant lightweight title, which was vacated by none other than the notorious Conor McGregor.
Till then, the feud between Mcgrager and Khabib had already started. After continuous back-and-forth incidents, the two lightweight stars collided in UFC 229, and Khabib brutally defeated Conor, tapping him out in the fourth round. This is considered the greatest fight in MMA history.
After humbling Conor, Khabib defeated Dustin Poirier in UFC 242 in Abu Dhabi. In 2020, Khabib lost his father, cum coach Abdulmanab Nurmagamedov, to COVID-19. This was during his fight camp for Justin Gaethje. He decided not to pull out of the fight, and after choking out Justin in the very second round, The Eagle hung up his gloves, stating that he had given his word to his mom not to fight anymore in the absence of his father.
Khabib was just 32 when he retired. He could have dominated the division for another four years. He could have even climbed to undisputed GOAT status if he had continued to fight a bit more. But Eagle believes that he has done enough in the sport, which is true.
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Who is the greatest MMA heavyweight of all time?
Who is the best UFC fighter of all time?
Georges St. Pierre (26-2)
GSP is one of the greatest of all time, if not the greatest of all time. He dominated the best division of his time, the Welterweight division, and defeated an array of some of the best fighters in the world.
He fought with Matt Hughes for his first title fight at the age of 23, when he was just 2-0 up. Hughes, the legend of the time, dominated him and submitted him via armbar. But this loss ignited the fire in GSP, and he rag-dolled the entire division, including a bunch of UFC legends like Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller, Frank Trigg, BJ Penn, and Sean Sherk. Then he avenged Matt Hughes to clinch the Welterweight title.
Following that, he lost unexpectedly to Matt Sera, but came back and avenged the loss in 2008. Since then, it has been GSP’s time in the UFC, defending his title nine times and beating great names. Even the great Khabib Nurmagamedov was a fan growing up watching GSP.
After a close fight with Johny Hendricks in 2013, GSP retired from the sport. But later, he came back to defeat the UFC middleweight champion of that time, Michael Bisping, to become a two-division champion.
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