Who are the Top 10 All Time Greatest UFC Champs?
By Jack W. Carver
Before I get into my list, I just want to note that this is completely my own opinion, if yours is different from mine, that’s alright.
For those who aren’t aware of what the UFC is, I’ll give you a quick run down. The UFC stands for Ultimate Fighting Championship, and held its first event in 1993. Through the years, there have been tons of fighters and many champions, but among these who are the greatest? Well I’ll give you guys my 2 cents on the topic!
Here are my qualifications for the list:
- They must’ve been champ and defended their title at one point, interim’s don’t count. So no Tony Ferguson!
- Weight plays big a factor, for example Heavyweight fights are more risky and have a higher chance of ending quickly so multiple title defenses are more impressive at higher weight classes than lighter.
- The competition that the fighter faces will also come into consideration, so if a fighter is defending the belt against absolute tomato cans, it’ll bump them down.
- For WEC champs that were automatically promoted to UFC champs, I’m including their WEC title defenses along with their UFC defenses.
- All time legacy here will not count only title fights, so if a fighter went on a losing streak to lesser competition after losing a title it won’t come into consideration here.
- Getting double champ status holds weight, but if a fighter has only 3 or 4 defenses and double belts it won’t hold as much weight as 9 or 10 defenses but no double belts.
- Finally, how active a champion is also plays a factor. If a fighter doesn’t stay active and defend once or twice a year they will probably end up a little lower on this list.
Just for reference, HW means Heavyweight, LHW means Light Heavyweight, MW means Middleweight, WW means Welterweight, LW means Lightweight, FHW means Featherweight, BW means Bantamweight, and FLW means Flyweight
10. Randy Couture
Record: 19-11
UFC Record: 16-8
UFC Title Defenses: 3 at HW, 0 at LHW
UFC Title Fight Record: 8-6
I feel as though Randy Couture isn’t brought up enough, much like another fighter on this list. Don’t be fooled by his record either. Randy was an Olympic wrestler before doing MMA. When he transitioned to MMA, he was 33 years old when he competed in UFC 13 and won the tournament! He won the UFC Heavyweight title against Maurice Smith, but vacated the title and left the UFC. After returning to the UFC 3 years later, Randy beat the then Heavyweight champion known as Kevin Randleman! Randy defended this title against Pedro Rizzo twice before losing it. After his Heavyweight run, he went down to Light Heavyweight and faced Chuck Liddell for the Interim Light Heavyweight title where he won by TKO in Round 3. He unified the title against the undisputed champ, Tito Ortiz, in a wrestling masterclass. Although, in his first title defense, he fought Vitor Belfort, where in a freak accident, an eye poke caused the ref to stop the fight and Vitor won by TKO. In the rematch, the result was much different; Randy put his pace on Vitor and made him quit in his corner going into round 4. After the Vitor fight, he re-matched Chuck Liddell while Chuck was beginning to tear through the division, and was KO’d in round 1! After a trilogy match that he lost to Chuck by KO in round 2, he moved up to Heavyweight again to fight the Heavyweight champ, Tim Sylvia. Randy dominated him through 5 rounds to breeze into an easy Unanimous Decision. He defended it once against Gabriel Gonzaga, who was coming off a head kick KO over Mirko Cro Cop, who was known for his head kick KO’s. Randy lost the title to Brock Lesnar and competed in a few more fights before he retired from MMA in 2011.
Randy Couture often used his impressive wrestling to take-down his opponent or use clinch strikes to set up a trip from the clinch to devastate his opponents with ground and pound until they either went out, quit or went to a decision. On the feet he used leg kicks to weaken his opponents legs and his boxing.
9. Dominick “The Dominator” Cruz
Record: 24-4
UFC Record: 7-3
UFC and WEC Title Defenses: 5 at BW
UFC and WEC Title Fight Record: 7-3
Dominick Cruz became the WEC Bantamweight champion in 2010, and became the UFC Bantamweight champ automatically when the WEC merged with the UFC. He defended this title 3 times in the WEC, and in the UFC, he defended it twice, once against Demetrious Johnson. After defending it, he vacated it and returned in 2014. In 2016, Dominick fought TJ Dillashaw, beating him by split decision to retain the belt. Dominick got the belt from Brian Bowles, and defended it against Joseph Benavidez, Scott Jorgensen, Urijah Faber 2x, and former Flyweight champ and Flyweight GOAT, Demetrious Johnson. Dominick was also known for his trash talk before and after fights that he often used to make his opponents seem lesser compared to him, and most of the time they were lesser as shown in his many fights.
He was primarily a wrestler but on the feet was impressive as well. He often mixed his boxing and kicks with wrestling to outpace and beat his opponents.
8. Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson
Record: 25-4-1
UFC Record: 15-2-1
UFC Title Defenses: 11 at FLW
UFC Title Fight Record: 12-2
Granted, Demetrious Johnson could’ve easily been in the top 3 if he wasn’t at the lightest male division in the UFC. Other than that, he truly is a stand out fighter! After becoming the Flyweight champion and getting 11 consecutive title defenses, he lost a split decision and his title to Henry Cejudo. Before they could have their trilogy match, the UFC traded DJ over to ONE FC in exchange for Ben Askren, who was, at the time, undefeated and considered the best Welterweight not in the UFC. When talking about stand out wins for DJ, this is where he also falls a little short compared to others on this list. Some of these wins include John Dodson 2x, Joseph Benavidez 2x, Henry Cejudo and Ray Borg. Other than that, his competition was pretty weak and fighting at Flyweight also plays a part as to why he isn’t higher ranked on this list.
Demetrious is all around top tier when it comes to his skills. His stand up is usually on point, along with his sharp grappling skills makes him the Flyweight GOAT easily. The only reason he’s not higher on the list is as I mentioned, he fought at the lightest male division in the UFC.
7. José Aldo “Junior”
Record: 32-8
UFC Record: 14-7
UFC and WEC Title Defenses: 9 at FHW
UFC and WEC Title Fight Record: 11-4
José Aldo is the Featherweight GOAT, undoubtedly in my book. Volkanovski is a close second, but he isn’t quite José Aldo level. Similarly to Dominick Cruz, he won the WEC title and became the UFC champ when the two merged. With 9 consecutive title defenses at Featherweight, he is the best 145 lbs. fighter. With wins such as former WEC Featherweight champion Urijah Faber, former Lightweight champion Frankie Edgar 2x, Chad Mendes 2x, the Korean Zombie, and former Lightweight title contender Kenny Florian. José’s second fight against Chad Mendes will go down in the history book as possibly the best Featherweight fight ever, as the two put on a fight where they both went to war and got knocked down multiple times by each other! If you haven’t seen it yet, go watch it, trust me. Despite his 13 second KO loss to Conor McGregor, he was able to recapture the belt via an Interim title that promoted him to the undisputed champ in Conor’s absence.
José Aldo used his crisp boxing along with ever evolving Muay Thai to pick apart his opponents on the feet, and on the ground used his BJJ and wrestling to counter the opponent and get the fight back to the feet. In his fight with Chad Mendes at UFC 142, his KO’d Chad in the first round at 4:59 with a knee after disengaging from the clinch which was engaged from a take down attempt by Chad.
6. Matt Hughes
Record: 45-9
UFC Record: 18-7
UFC Title Defenses: 7 at WW
UFC Title Fight Record: 9-3
It’s truly unfortunate that Matt doesn’t get brought up more, considering he was, before GSP, the greatest Welterweight ever. He is a 9x Welterweight champ, beating the likes of former Welterweight champ Carlos Newton 2x, former Welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre, former Welterweight and Lightweight champ, BJ Penn, former Welterweight champ Matt Serra, former Lightweight champ Sean Sherk, Frank Trigg 2x and more. Matt even beat Joe Riggs in what should’ve been for the Welterweight title, but Riggs missed weight and so the fight was a non-title fight. That being said, he still won. Like I mentioned previously, he is underrated and underappreciated. One of his most impressive moments is when he got hit in the nuts by Frank Trigg by accident, and since the referee didn’t notice, Frank was able to get the upper hand and almost KO’d the legend! When he couldn’t put the champ out, Frank slipped in a Rear Naked Choke, but in a display of pure grit and heart, Matt escaped the choke, picked Frank up, ran across the octagon with him on his shoulders and slammed him into the canvas, slipped in a Rear Naked Choke of his own and won the fight!
Matt Hughes was an impressive wrestler who trained and fought out of the Miletich Fighting Systems and was trained by former Welterweight champ, Pat Miletich. Early on, Matt relied on his outstanding wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu to eliminate most of his oppositions, but later on, his striking started to evolve as he started to throw more kicks and used his jab more. If you watch the difference between when he fought BJ for the first time and second, you’ll notice two things, first of all, his striking looked much more improved, and two he won the fight. If you haven’t seen a Matt Hughes fight, I highly suggest you watch his second fight with Frank Trigg, first fight with GSP, and fight with the first ever UFC tournament winner and MMA legend, Royce Gracie.
5. Stipe Miocic
Record: 20-4
UFC Record: 14-4
UFC Title Defenses: 4 at HW
UFC Title Fight Record: 6-2
One of the few fighters to beat Francis Ngannou, one of the two fighters to beat Daniel Cormier. Most title defenses at Heavyweight with 4, with those being Alistair Overeem by KO in Round 1, Junior dos Santos by KO in Round 1, Francis Ngannou by Unanimous Decision, and Daniel Cormier by Unanimous Decision. Stipe managed to beat Fabricio Werdum to get the title in 2016 by KO in Round 1! After losing the title in a super fight with Daniel Cormier, he exacted his revenge by KO in Round 4 in their rematch in one of the greatest comebacks ever befitting the greatest UFC Heavyweight there ever was. A fight that Stipe participated in that you may not know of is his first fight against Junior dos Santos, which is one of the greatest Heavyweight fights in the UFC. Other than the fighters I named that Stipe Miocic won against, he has also beaten Mark Hunt, Andrei Arlovski, Gabriel Gonzaga, and Roy Nelson.
Stipe Miocic has a heavy right hand, beautiful boxing, and great wrestling. Apart from a loss to the Skyscraper Stefan Struve that most would consider a fluke, he has only lost to the most elite when they were at the top of their games, and even then in rematches, or in the case of Ngannou the first match, has beaten them. So putting all of that into consideration it wouldn’t feel right putting him anywhere below the #5 spot.
4. Daniel “DC” Cormier
Record: 22-3 (1 NC)
UFC Record: 11-3 (1 NC)
UFC Title Defenses: 3 at LHW, 1 at HW
UFC Title Fight Record: 6-3 (1 NC)
Daniel Cormier is a former Olympic wrestler who really made a name for himself in Strikeforce. In the 2011 Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, he stepped in for the former Strikeforce Heavyweight champ, Alistair Overeem. In his first bout in the Grand Prix, he KO’d Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. Daniel then went on to win the Grand Prix and become the Strikeforce Heavyweight champ. Afterwards, he went to the UFC and competed at Heavyweight until he decided to move down to Light Heavyweight. He tore through the division until he ran the then champion, Jon Jones, where he lost a Unanimous Decision. Daniel Cormier rebounded with a fight against Anthony Johnson for the vacant Light Heavyweight title, which he won! He had multiple rematches booked against Jon Jones, one for UFC 200 which never happened because of Jon Jones testing positive for PED’s (Performance Enhancing Drugs). When they eventually did fight again at UFC 214, Jon got the TKO in the 3rd round, but it was later changed to a No Contest because Jones, once again, tested positive for PED’s. Cormier defended his title at 205 once more before challenging Stipe Miocic who was the Heavyweight champ for double champ status at that time. As pictured above, Cormier won. He defended the title once against Derrick Lewis before fighting Stipe Miocic two times back to back, losing both and retiring. Big names he beat include Josh Barnett, Stipe Miocic, Anthony Johnson 2x, Volkan Oezdemir, Derrick Lewis and Dan Henderson.
Daniel has some of the best wrestling in the game, along with that striking that has developed to go along with his grappling beautifully which got him double champ status. He also participated in one of the if not the greatest Heavyweight trilogies ever with Stipe Miocic.
3. Anderson “The Spider” Silva
Record: 34-11 (1 NC)
UFC Record: 17-7 (1 NC)
UFC Title Defenses: 10 at MW
UFC Title Fight Record: 11-2
When speaking about all time greats, it’s practically criminal to not mention Anderson Silva. He has the most title defenses in the UFC’s Middleweight division, and during that title run he also dabbled into the Light Heavyweight division three times, first off beating James Irvin, then beating the first Ultimate Fighter winner and former Light Heavyweight champ Forrest Griffin, and one final one during the title run in 2012 against the man who fought Forrest Griffin on the Ultimate Fighter 1, Stephan Bonnar. The run was devastatingly snapped by Chris Weidman when he got too cocky and KO’d in Round 2. In the rematch, only 2 seconds separated from the KO in the first match, Anderson’s leg shockingly snapped in a freak occurrence when Chris checked Anderson’s leg kick. Although he wasn’t quite the same, you still have to give him credit that he was untouchable for years. Even as he grew older, Anderson went toe to toe with Daniel Cormier and almost finished him in the last round with a body kick! Anderson also fought Israel Adesanya, who was unable to finish the veteran fighter. Now, we’ll get to why he isn’t No. 2 or 1. In his bout with Nick Diaz in 2015, he initially won the Unanimous Decision before it was overturned to a No Contest after Anderson tested positive for PED’s along with Nick Diaz testing positive for Marijuana. Still, he was able to beat former Middleweight champ Rich Franklin 2x, Chael Sonnen 2x, Vitor Belfort, Dan Henderson, Yushin Okami and Nate Marquardt without testing positive.
Anderson is famous for his slick and smooth striking. He would slip and weave punches and throw devastating counters as most prominently seen in the Forrest Griffin fight, and he had Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to make anyone tap. Pair that with long reach and height for the division along with pin point accuracy, and you have the greatest Middleweight there ever was.
2. Jon Jones
Record: 27-1 (1 NC)
UFC Record: 21-1 (1 NC)
UFC Title Defenses: 11 at LHW
UFC Title Fight Record: 15-0 (1 NC)
This may be a little controversial, but you need to remember it is my own opinion, and I can explain. Although, when you take a glance and see he’s undefeated in title fights, there are many factors that bring him down. Number 1, multiple times he’s been popped for PED’s. This is why he didn’t fight Cormier at UFC 200 and why his fight against DC at UFC 214 was ruled a No Contest. Number 2, he’s had two controversial decisions near the end of his 205 reign. Dominick Reyes and Thiago Santos could’ve both been ruled in favor of the contenders. Other than those two, he’s undoubtedly one of the greatest to do it. Jon Jones is a multiple time champ and has the most title defenses at 205. He’s beaten the cream of the crop, such as former Light Heavyweight champ Mauricio Shogun Rua, former Light Heavyweight champ Lyoto Machida, former Light Heavyweight champ Quinton Rampage Jackson, former Light Heavyweight champ Rashad Evans, former Light Heavyweight champ Vitor Belfort, Chael Sonnen, former Light Heavyweight champ Glover Teixeira, former Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier 2x and many others.
Jon Jones’s wrestling and ground and pound is nearly unrivaled as he’s been able to dominate most of his opponents and finish the fight. As he continued to fight, he started to implement more kicks and elbows into his game to devastate his opponents from the clinch. He also utilizes brutal Oblique kicks ,which are essentially front kicks to the legs. Only few have been able to match the skill he brings in each fight, as he fights very calculated and intelligently. Perhaps if he had stayed clean and PED free, he could’ve made No. 1. In my mind, there is one fighter who is perfect for the No. 1 spot.
1. Georges St. Pierre
Record: 26-2
UFC Record: 20-2
UFC Title Defenses: 9 at WW
UFC Title Fight Record: 13-2
When you talk about Georges St. Pierre, you’re talking about a pure mixed martial artist. No PED’s, no dirty tactics, kept the trash talk low and performance high, and you have the G.O.A.T. Kyokushin Karate black belt to the highest degrees, and grappling that has been virtually unrivaled, which has brought him to the sports’ most prestigious and glorious title, the Greatest. In George’s first attempt for the title, he faced Matt Hughes, who was on his title run and was submitted in Round 1. Afterwards, George decided to evolve his game tenfold with his grappling; becoming so great that he was offered to participate for Canada in Jiu-Jitsu tournaments. A little background, he didn’t wrestle in high school or college, and didn’t do Jiu-Jitsu before MMA, so during his MMA career, he not only became the greatest at something he had no experience in, but he did it fast. He faced Matt Hughes for a second time for the belt and dominated the former 9x Welterweight champ and KO’d him! In his first title defense, he ran into another road block in the Ultimate Fighter 4 winner Matt Serra who had heavy hands and good wrestling. Serra KO’d George St. Pierre in Round 1, and afterwards, George had to evaluate himself again where he would not only win the belt again from Matt Hughes, but go undefeated after winning against Josh Koscheck 2x, former Welterweight champ Matt Hughes 2x, former Welterweight champ Matt Serra, former Welterweight and Lightweight champ BJ Penn 2x, Carlos Condit, Dan Hardy, Nick Diaz, Thaigo Alves, Jake Shields, and former Welterweight champ Johny Hendricks. He took a 4 year break and returned to defeat the Middleweight champ Michael Bisping by Rear Naked Choke in the 3rd round. On top of that he never used PED’s and was clean in his fights not having to cheat or use dirty tactics to get the win over his opponents in dominating fashion.
Georges St. Pierre’s striking is not someone to sleep on as he is crafty! One of my favorite combos he does is his lead Superman punch followed up by a right leg kick. To go along with his crafty striking, he uses his overpowering and complete grappling where he utilizes brutal ground and pound to wear down his opponents and submissions with vicious intent. Stir these together to get the complete Mixed Martial Artist Georges St. Pierre, and my No. 1 greatest of all time.
Honorable mentions:
- Henry Cejudo
- Alexander Volkanovski
- BJ Penn
- Cain Velasquez
- Khabib Nurmagomedov
Links to Photo’s used in this article:
Henry Cejudo with Double UFC Belts: https://www.forbes.com/sites/trentreinsmith/2019/06/12/coach-its-time-the-ufc-pays-two-division-champ-henry-cejudo/
Dominick Cruz with WEC and UFC Belts: https://aminoapps.com/c/mma/page/blog/dominick-cruz-master-of-the-mind/BB7C_wuJv5GoGKDkqPXW1qnR3Y4NR0n
Matt Hughes with UFC Belt: https://capitalcitycagewars.wordpress.com/tag/matt-hughes-renzo-gracie/
José Aldo with Brazilian Flag and UFC Belt: The Legacy of José Aldo | UFC
Demetrious Johnson with UFC Belts: mmafighting.com, Wish granted: Demtrious Johnson gets photo with all 10 UFC belts – MMA Fighting
Stipe Miocic with UFC Belt: https://www.bjpenn.com/mma-news/john-mccarthy/john-mccarthy-shares-theory-as-to-why-the-ufc-didnt-want-stipe-miocic-fighting-for-the-interim-heavyweight-title/
Daniel Cormier with Double UFC Belts: https://www.latimes.com/sports/boxing/la-sp-mma-rankings-20181129-story.html
Anderson Silva with UFC Belt: https://www.yardbarker.com/mma/articles/anderson_silva_career_retrospective/s1__37852132
Jon Jones with UFC Belt: mmafighting.com, Jon Jones teases retirement after Stipe Miocic bout, Tom Aspinall responds – MMA Fighting
Georges St. Pierre with UFC Belt: https://www.essentiallysports.com/stories/ufc-mma-news-georges-st-pierre-top-5-records-held-by-the-mma-goat-in-ufc/
