Like with any sport, the question of who are the best competitors of all time in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is something that is hotly debated among MMA fans. And unlike for tournament based sports such as tennis, or sports where results can be objectively measured such as track and field, it is a question that is much more difficult to answer in MMA. Firstly, fighters compete in different weight classes and organizations, often making direct comparison impossible. Secondly, even when competitors are in the same weight class in the same organization, comparison can be difficult simply because of the relatively low number of matches that an average competitor has – not everyone is competing against everyone else. All of this leavies a lot of room for speculation and what-if scenarios. Indeed, any ranking of fighter’s skills is highly subjective, dependant on the criterias set forth and as a consequence highly debatable.

1. Pierre “Rush” Country: Canada. Pierre is the best MMA fighter.
2. Ranking Contributors. As Tapology users create their own lists, the consensus rankings will update in real-time. For P4P All Time Hardest Punchers in MMA, the 100 most-recently updated member lists will be included.

Rankings Panelist Overall rankings Andreas Hale Ariel Shnerer Armando Romo Ashah Tafari Brian Hemminger Bruno Massami Christoffer Esping Daniel Vreeland. For our list of the 25 greatest MMA fighters of all time, we tried to balance the criteria. A fighter’s overall career resume mattered. But not as much as their performance at their peak.

What we can do though is to take a purely statistical approach, by estimating which fighters are the likeliest to have the highest skill level, considering their wins and the quality of their opponents. This blog post intends to do just that, by using state of the art statistical methods that have been successfully used in similar settings, for example to analyze and rank chess players (see
TrueSkill Through Time: Revisiting the History of Chess) and for ranking players in competitive online games.

Best P4p Mma Fighters Of All Time Leaders

Dataset

The data we will utilise is obtained from Sherdog fight finder, a comprehenseive database of MMA matches, dating back from 1980 (with the first match between Casemiro Martins and Rickson Gracie). The dataset includes results of over 200,000 matches and over 94000 fighters in total. The following chart displays the number of matches per year in the dataset.

In this data, we have full details of match outcomes, including win type (if the fight ended with a win for one of the contestants), but also information about matches ending in no contest or disqualification. Since the study tries to esimate skill, we ignore data about both NC and disqualified matches (even though the latter means a win for one of the fighters, it is not possible to infer the skill level based on that fact alone, Jon Jones vs Matt Hamill being a good example ). All computatios are done on the snapshot of the data as of Dec. 20, 2015.

Skill inference

Our goal is to assign a skill level for each fighter, based on observed match outcomes. As mentioned earlier, the methodology we will employe is based on the same Bayesian statistical approach that is used by Microsoft for Xbox called Trueskill to determine the skill level players so that they can be matched up optimally competitive multiplayer games such as Halo. Also, the same approach has been employed to rank chess players using historic chess match outcome data from 1850 to 2006 (see TrueSkill Through Time: Revisiting the History of Chess).

We rely on Bayesian inference to infer the skill of competitors based on the observed match outcomes. As skills of fighters are unknown, they are assigned a probability distribution, in the current case a Gaussian with mean (mu) and variance of (sigma^2). The mean (mu) of a fighter skill specifies the average performance of the fighter. Our uncertainty in the skill level is specified by variance (sigma^2). The match outcome is determined by the performance of both contestants. Since performance of a fighter can vary from match to match (good days and bad days), it can be thought of as a noisy version of skill. The winner of the match is the one with hgher performance in that particular match.

The following is the high level summary of the model we base the stastical inference on

• Each fighter’s skill is a normally distributed (Gaussian) random variable (the mean and variance of which we will lern from the data). Since a fighter’s skill changes over the years, we have a skill ranking for a fighter for each year he is active. These are the values we want to infer.
• In every match, fighters performance comes from skill, i.e. is drawn from Gaussian ( mathcal{N}(skill, performanceVariance)), where (perfromanceVariance) is another hidden variable, learned from data.
• A fight ends in a decision victory for fighter (f_1), if his performance (p_1) is greater than the performannce of fighter (f_2) + some threshold (decisionThreshold), i.e. (p_1 > p_2+ decisionThreshold).
• If the skill difference is less than the decision threshold, the fight ends in a draw.
• A fight ends in a finish victory (sbmission, KO or TKO) for fighter (f_1) if ( p1 > p2 + finishThreshold)
• Both finish and decision threshold themseves are hidden variables that are learned from data
• Finish threshold is constrained to be strictly larger than decision threshold, i.e. (finishThreshold > decisionThreshold)
• Two contestants in a match are assumed to be on a somewhat similar level, i.e. their skill level is very unlikely to be vastly different. In other words, UFC level fighters are in general matched up with other UFC level fighters, not low level amateurs. This assumption helps us in inferring the skill level of fighters who have a very small number of fights. Thus for each match, we assume (mid skill_1 – skill_2 mid lt matchupThreshold ). The value of matchup threshold is again a hidden variable learned from data.

To implement the model we use Infer.net, a Bayesian inference framework. The model is in large parts based on the Chess analysis model built by Microsoft Research on the same toolset. The code for the model can be found in Github. The final inference is done model is inferred based on the full Sherdog fight database.

Dealing with weight classes

While most matches are within a weight class, there are also matches where contestants in different weight classes are matched up. In this case, a heavier fighter has an advantage on average. This translates into a bias, where the average skill levels of fighters in higher weight classes will be observed to be higher than those of lower ones. To create a true pound for pound ranking, we can normalize the skill by weight class, by dividing each fighter’s skill level by the average skill level of the given weightclass.

The mean skill level over all fighters is 1000 (since this is chosen as the prior/baseline). The following are the weight class averages (NA denotes no information about a fighter’s weightclass).

A note about this table: this shouldnt be interepreted in absolute terms (“flyweights are only 6% weaker that heavyweights”). Rather, this is a bias correction table for the pound for pound ranking. In p4p terms, every weight class should have the same average skill level. Since across-weight class matches bias the numbers, this is the table we can use to correct it.

Jon Jones is the best MMA fighters ever

Long story short, statistically, Jon Jones has the highest skill ranking of any fighter in the database. The following graph shows the computed skill level of the top 10 male fighters out of 94000 fighters in the database.

Jones stands quite a bit higher above other fighters in terms of his skill rating. Where other top fighters’ ratings are very close to each other, Jon Jones’ rating is clearly above. Statistically, this isn’t a surprise. He is without loss (the model disregards DQ losses as irrelevant to skill), and with wins over extremely high level competition.

Looking at the rest of the list, there are some interesting results there. While Daniel Cormier isn’t typically ranked among the very top, statistically speaking, he should be. His only loss is to number one in Jones, and almost all of his wins are over very high quality opponents. The combined record of his opponents is the best in all of top 10.

Anderson’s Silva’s position as an all-time great is statistically somewhat hurt by the start and end of his career, his two losses to Chris Weidman and the losses to relatively weak fighters early in the career mean that from purely statistical point of view, he does not quite reach Jon Jones’s level. But even so, he is among the very top.

Ben Askren is definitely a surprise in the list. His undefeated record is the main reason he is this high. Since we have not observed a loss for him, it makes his probable skill very high from a statistical perspective. This is in some sense a drawback of the model, but fundementally, it is difficult to draw a conclusion about undefeated fighters. Khabib Nurmagomedov is another example for this. Normally, he isn’t considered p4p top 10. Statistically however, it makes a lot of sense, being 22-0 and having a very solid win list, including the current champion.

Two fighter have made meteoric rises in the rankings. Rafael dos Anjos and Conor Mcgregor, starting from a relatively low baseline(due to their lower level competionion and losses earlier in the career) have risen to top 10 very quickly, thanks to their very strong wins in the recent year(s).

One thing that should be emphasized is that the statistical skill levels for the top fighters are actually extremely close. For example, Conor Mcgregor came into the top 10 ranking only after beating Aldo, who was top 5 prior to that. This means a single fight can change the rankings very significantly.

Additionally, as mentioned earlier there is also variance associated with each inferred skill which reflects our statistical uncertainty in the estimation. An this uncertainty is (naturally) very high, due to the low number of fights each fighter has (unlike say chess, where the number of games can be in the thousands for a competitor). This is illustrated by the following chart, where we plot 95% confidence intervals around the mean for fighters often considered to be the top 3 of all time.
As can be seen, the intervals are fairly wide and overlapping. What this means is that while Jones has the highest average skill given the match outcomes, we cannot conclude with absolute certainty that his skill level is above the other top ranked fighters, simply that it is likely to be the case. And indeed, a slight underperfomance in one of his fights (such a loss to Gustafsson) would have changed the rankings drastically, showing how fragile the ranking estimation actually is. This all boils down to the fact that since the number of fights of a typical competitor is fairly small and there is a lot of “luck” involved, small mistakes making large changes in the overall picture. And our model is well able to capture and quantify this uncertainty.

Where is Demetrious Johsnon?

Many consider the long-reigning flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson to be among the all time best, so him not being in top 10 statstically is somewhat surprising. Looking at the data further, the main reason for this seems to be overall competition, which surprisingly seems slightly weaker in the division. For example, his oppponents’ and their opponents’ combined win percentage is 62.9%. For comparison Chris Weidman’s opponents and their opponents win ratio is 64.6%, for McGregor it is 64.1% . This translates to Demetrious’s opponents ranking be on average lower than the opponents of the fighters in the top 10, in turn translating to his score being lower.

Summary

Bayesian inference provides an excellent toolset for inferring hidden parameters in the data, especially when the amount of data to draw conclusions on is small. As a result it is especially useful in a setting such as reasoning about the skill levels of top MMA competitors. Based on the available data, Jon Jones is the best ever from a statistical perspective. But it has to be kept in mind that the variance (uncertainty) in the estimates is very high and small changes in the data, such as one win or loss, can significantly alter the rankings. And this reflects the real world intuition well: a loss or two can easily change the perception of the fighter in the list of all time greats.

The code for the model to replicate the results or develop it further can be found at Github.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Who is the greatest MMA fighter of all time? It’s a question that many have tried to answer with no definitive outcome.

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Part of the problem is that since the rise of cage fighting and the launch of the UFC, eras have come and gone. How do you assess fighters who ruled over a specific time that had weaker competition in different promotions? Could one of today’s rising stars take out a dominant force like Chuck Liddell, Royce Gracie, Wanderlei Silva or Kazushi Sakuraba in their prime?

For our list of the 25 greatest MMA fighters of all time, we tried to balance the criteria. A fighter’s overall career resume mattered. But not as much as their performance at their peak. The eye test was important. But not as important as the competition a fighter faced and how they handled that competition.

Ultimately, we valued fighters who put together multiple wins (often in multiple divisions) over others who were considered among the greatest of all time. You might say that produced recency bias, especially considering pioneer Gracie didn’t make our list and that our No. 25 is an all-time fan favorite.

The list has also been updated to reflect high-profile wins by Stipe Miocic and Khabib Nurmagomedov.

25. Chuck Liddell

Might as well start this list with some controversy. For the record, I began watching the UFC in 2005. At the time, Chuck Liddell was the biggest star and the person most responsible for making the sport of MMA popular. He was a phenom and the fact that he barely made this list is going to upset old-school fans. Yet, it’s easy to forget Liddell’s peak run didn’t last all that long and it wasn’t against the toughest competition. During his seven-win run atop the UFC, four fights came against Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture. Liddell was a human highlight reel. But was he a better mixed martial artist than Cain Velasquez, Shogun Rua, Vito Belfort, Fabricio Werdum and Rampage Jackson, who were considered for this final spot? In the end, Liddell’s peak years and the way he finished guys put him over the edge...just barely.

24. Valentina Shevchenko

Some might find it hard to rank women and men together on a list like this. Not me. Many of the male fighters on this list never faced each other either. Valentina Shevchenko is terrifying and the greatest female striker in MMA history. She’s picked apart the likes of Jessica Eye, Holly Holm, Joanna J 1/4 u0119drzejczyk and Julianna Pena. Her only two losses since joining the UFC are to Amanda Nunes, the greatest female mixed martial artist of all time. And there’s a solid case to be made that Shevchenko won that second fight.

23. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

Had Big Nog stopped fighting after Pride 24, he would still be considered an all-time great. At that point, he was coming off a streak of 13 straight wins against top-notch competition. Nogueira’s only knock is that he couldn’t get past Fedor Emelianenko in his prime. But no one could. Big Nog did earn big wins over Heath Herring (to win the inaugural Pride Heavyweight Championship), Bob Sapp, Dan Henderson, Ricco Rodriguez, Mirko Cro Crop, Fabricio Werdum and Tim Sylvia (for the UFC Heavyweight Championship). Nogueira was battle-worn by the time he got to the UFC and still managed to win a title in the top promotion in the world.

22. Eddie Alvarez

To truly appreciate Eddie Alvarez, you have to examine his time in both the UFC and Bellator. He was great in both and the competition Alvarez faced remains a who’s who in MMA today. Alvarez always put on a show for fans. His UFC stretch of beating Gilbert Melendez, Anthony Pettis and Rafael dos Anjos was as good as the lightweight division had seen. And let us not forget that Alvarez was a welterweight champion early in his career, showcasing his ability to excel in multiple divisions.

21. Robbie Lawler

Throughout his career, Robbie Lawler came to finish fights. That didn’t get him too far during his first run in the UFC once he ran into elite competition. Yet, Lawler’s second run in the promotion, which began in 2013, will put him in the Hall of Fame one day. His stretch as champion was nothing short of brilliant while holding two wins over Carlos Condit, Johny Hendricks and Rory McDonald (their second fight is, in my opinion, the most entertaining battle in MMA history).

20. Israel Adesanya

Too soon for Adesanya? Maybe. But look at what he’s done since entering the UFC. In his last six fights, Adesanya has consecutive wins over Brad Tavares, Derek Brunson, Anderson Silva, Kelvin Gastelum, Robert Whitaker and Yoel Romero. Silva is an all-time great, while Whitaker and Romero would have surely made this list had they not run into Adesanya. The 30-year-old has earned his spot and will only move up from here.

19. Dan Henderson

After becoming a standout with his epic bouts in Pride, Dan Henderson’s arrival to the UFC was much anticipated. But it didn’t go as planned the first time around. Still, his KO of Michael Bisping might be the best finish in UFC history. Henderson moved on to Strikeforce, where he regained his mojo and took out the great Fedor Emelianenko. Upon his return to the UFC, Hendo gave us one of the greatest fights in MMA history against Shogun Rua.

18. B.J. Penn

We have to look past the last several years of B.J. Penn’s career, because, quite frankly, they’ve been hard watch. Yet, during his prime, Penn was one of the most exciting fighters in MMA. He made some odd career choices during his first run with the UFC. But his raw talent was unmatched. After getting bounced from welterweight by Matt Hughes in 2006, Penn moved back down to lightweight and was unstoppable. His five wins in the division (four of which came with the UFC Lightweight Championship on the line) were all finishes. Penn did attempt to go back to welterweight, losing to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 94. Yet, by then he was cemented as icon.

17. Henry Cejudo

Two years ago, it’s hard to imagine we’d be putting Henry Cejudo on this list. His UFC career had been a mixed bag, beginning with two losses -- one to Demetrious Johnson and then a split decision to Joseph Benavidez after Cejudo was deducted a point for low blows. Then came one of the greatest runs in UFC history. Cejudo shocked the world and beat Johnson in their closely contested rematch. Cejudo’s last six wins are as impressive as almost any on this list, including wins over TJ Dillashaw and Dominick Cruz. In between those fights, Cejudo became a two-division champ after KO’ing Marlon Moraes to win the UFC Bantamweight Championship.

16. Matt Hughes

Coming before Georges St-Pierre is no easy task from a historical standpoint. But Matt Hughes certainly made the UFC Welterweight Division. Hughes won the championship almost by accident, in a double knockout against Carlos Newton that went Hughes’ way. From then on, Hughes was a monster. He beat Newton decisively in a rematch and then scored impressive wins against Sean Sherk and Frank Trigg. BJ Penn upset Hughes at UFC 46. But Hughes would eventually go on to avenge that loss. The competition at welterweight would get better after Hughes’ run was over. But he has holds wins over two of the biggest names on this list in their prime (including Georges St-Pierre). That, and Hughes’ unprecedented dominance gets him here.

15. Randy Couture

Randy Couture had one of the greatest careers in MMA history. But it was a roller coaster ride, making it hard to determine when his prime was. Couture had as many as four great runs with the UFC. The legend of “The Natural” began with two amazing fights against Pedro Rizzo. He would go on to lose to Josh Barnett (who tested positive for banned substances) and Ricco Rodriguez the following year. Yet, Couture bounced back at light heavyweight, beating Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz and splitting a two-fight series with Vitor Belfort. It wasn’t a stretch of dominance like some of the others on this list. But it was an impressive showing in two highly competitive divisions. There’s something to be said for remaining in your prime for such a long period.

14. Frankie Edgar

Everyone’s favorite underdog until he became one of the greatest fighters in history. Frankie Edgar always looked undersized. But that never stopped him from beating the best lightweights on the planet, including Sean Sherk, Hermes Franca, Jim Miller, Tyson Griffin and BJ Penn (twice). Edgar was the man who stopped Penn’s best career stretch. Two questionable decision losses to Benson Henderson pushed Edgar up to featherweight where he, again, became a title contender with wins over elite fighters. Edgar is one of the best mixed martial artists of all time in two divisions. Few can say that.

12. Max Holloway

Recent losses shouldn’t taint what Max Holloway has accomplished over the past six years. Since losing back-to-back fights to Dennis Bermudez and Conor McGregor early in his career, Holloway has 14 wins with most of them are against strong competition. That list includes Frankie Edgar, Brian Ortega, Jose Aldo (twice), Anthony Pettis, Ricardo Lamas, Jeremy Stevens, Charles Oliveira and Cub Swanson. You could say he over-reached in trying to become a two-division champ against Dustin Poirier. But Holloway has a chance to avenge his recent loss at featherweight against Alexander Volkanovski. Should he do that, Holloway’s legacy as the greatest featherweight of all time could be guaranteed.

12. Dominick Cruz

If it weren’t for injuries, Dominick Cruz might have the greatest career of any MMA fighter. And yet, it’s still quite impressive the way it is. Upon Cruz’s return to the WEC in 2008, he became a well-rounded force, beating future UFC title contenders like Joseph Benavidez and Ian McCall before getting his rematch against Urijah Faber and winning the UFC Bantamweight Championship at UFC 132. Cruz dominated that fight. But the crown jewel of his career may be his win over Demetrious Johnson at bantamweight. It’s the only clear cut win someone has over Johnson in his prime.

11. Daniel Cormier

Is easy to focus on Cormier’s career as him being the greatest light heavyweight in UFC history not named Jon Jones. But consider before Cormier joined the UFC he was dominating heavyweights like Antonio Silva and Josh Barnett in Strikeforce. Cormier’s coming-out party was a dominant performance against Frank Mir in Cormier’s UFC debut. Cormier never coasted on his wrestling, even though he could have, becoming a formidable striker. If he beats Stipe Miocic at UFC 241, Cormier will go down as the greatest heavyweight in UFC history. It’s hard to get past the two losses to Jon Jones (granted, one was overturned due to a positive drug test by Jones). And maybe we’re short-changing Cormier because of them. But he still makes the top-10.

10. Amanda Nunes

Some MMA purists won’t want to see a woman this high on the list. They’ll say Amanda Nunes didn’t face the same level of competition as the men. But take the greatest female MMA fighters of all time and Nunes has beaten all that were willing to face her, usually in spectacular fashion. That includes Cris Cyborg, Holly Holm, Miesha Tate, Holly Holm and Valentina Shevchenko (twice). After an uneven start to her career, the past half-decade has seen Nunes be as dominant as any fighter – male or female – in UFC history. Oh, and she’s a double champion who has successfully defended BOTH of her titles.

9. Jose Aldo

When you think of Jose Aldo, it’s easy to picture his 13-second knockout loss to Conor McGregor at UFC 194. Sure, it would have been nice to see Aldo try and avenge that loss. But what he accomplished before that fight was astonishing. Aldo was an assassin during his early days at WEC, with his breakthrough performance coming when he TKO’d Cub Swanson with a flying knee at WEC 41. Aldo then dominated the promotion’s mega-stars Mike Brown and Urijah Faber. When he joined the UFC, Aldo all but closed out the featherweight division until he ran into McGregor’s fist. There are some people high enough on Aldo to put him atop of this list. I’m not quite as sold on the strength his competition, especially after losses to Conor McGregor and Max Holloway. But that’s just me.

8. Stipe Miocic

From a career standpoint, a TKO loss to Stefan Struve hurts Stipe Miocic’s resume a bit. But he became a different fighter after that. After losing a close war to Junior dos Santos in 2014, Miocic fine-tuned his skills and went on the greatest run in the history for a UFC Heavyweight Division that is as competitive as its ever been. Miocic is a quiet guy. But his wins from 2015 on speak for themselves: Mark Hunt, Andrei Arlovski, Fabricio Werdum, Alistair Overeem, Junior dos Santos (in a decisive rematch). Those are all Hall of Fame level names. Miocic also beat Francis Ngannou at UFC 220, controlling a seemingly unstoppable force that may very well be the future of the heavyweight division. Miocic’s trilogy fight win over Cormier now cements him as an all-time great.

7. Conor McGregor

Is Conor McGregor really retired? If he is, he’s is an icon. No question. Don’t let the hype and showmanship fool you. McGregor was a dominant force possessing a left-hand for the ages. Following the momentum of an early win against Max Holloway in 2013, McGregor beat Diego Brandao (a former “The Ultimate Fighter” winner), tough veteran Dennis Siver, longtime contender Chad Mendes and put Jose Aldo’s lights out. McGregor then lost to Nate Diaz in a fight the former was winning until he ran out of gas. McGregor would avenge that loss in a classic rematch before beating Eddie Alvarez to become a two-division champion. If McGregor wants to move into the top five on this list, he’ll need to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov again and win. But there’s no denying his greatness even without that rematch.

6. Anderson Silva

From April 2006 through October 2012, Silva recorded 17 consecutive wins, 16 in the UFC. But it wasn’t just that streak (bested only by Jones in terms of UFC wins), it was the way Silva destroyed people. In his UFC debut, Silva brutalized Chris Leben, one of the toughest guys in the promotion’s history. Four months later, he would KO Rich Franklin to win the UFC Middleweight Championship. Franklin, a future Hall of Famer, was unstoppable for two years before Silva made him look like a scrub. Most of Silva’s fights weren’t close to competitive. He made fighters like Dan Henderson, Patrick Cote and Franklin (again) look average. Silva answered a close call to Chael Sonnen with dominating wins against Vitor Belfort, Yushin Okami and Sonnen in a quick rematch. And when Silva got bored during that time, he beat up and embarrassed light heavyweights like Stephan Bonnar, Forrest Griffin and James Irvin. Yes, Silva was dominant in an era where the competition wasn’t as strong as it is now. But was that just because Silva made those guys look so bad?

5. Demetrious Johnson

Johnson’s peak period may still be ongoing. His one loss since 2013 was a split decision to Henry Cejudo (a fighter he TKO’d during their first fight) that could have gone either way. Johnson left no question about who was the best in the world during his fights, dominating each opponent in every aspect of MMA. The only knock against Johnson is that he never went up a division after clearing out flyweight. Could he have captured two UFC belts while still in his prime? We can assume yes. But we may never know.

4. Fedor Emelianenko

There’s this idea that Fedor Emelianenko’s all-time rating takes a hit because he never fought in the UFC. In terms of looking at an entire career resume, perhaps that is true. But if we’re just looking at fighters’ prime periods, Emelianenko lays claim to the most impressive streak in MMA history with 27 consecutive wins. And he did it against some of the all-time greats, including Mark Coleman (twice), Kevin Randleman, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (twice), Mirko Cro Cop and Mark Hunt. Emelianenko’s dominance ran from 2000-2009. During that time, there isn’t a UFC champion that would have been favored in a fight against him. Yes, it would have been nice to see him take out all of the UFC’s elite during that time (Though, he beat several of them in other promotions). But it shouldn’t take away from his Mt. Rushmore of MMA status.

3. Khabib Nurmagomedov

If he is done, Nurmagomedov will go out undefeated with the answer to the question of whether anyone can beat him being no. His first true test, at least on paper, came against Rafael dos Anjos at a UFC event in 2014. That fight was not competitive. In fact, none of Nurmagomedov’s fights in the UFC have been, despite top-notch opponents like Michael Johnson, Edson Barboza, Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier. It’s hard to argue with Nurmagomedov’s dominance up until this point. His stretch against McGregor, Poirier and most recently Justin Gaethje ranks as, perhaps, the best three-fight run in UFC history. We may be a bit emotional with Khabib declaring he’s retiring, but he’s earned this spot.

Bellator Mma

2. Jon Jones

Jon “Bones” Jones didn’t waste any time making a name for himself in the UFC. His spinning back elbow against Stephan Bonnar at UFC 94 is a star-is-born moment. But Jones’ first truly great performance was technically a loss. He demolished Matt Hamill only to be disqualified for using illegal downward elbows. Hamill could barely stand to awarded the victory. From that point on, Jones was unstoppable. He didn’t just beat people. He demolished them, including seven (yes, seven!) surefire, future UFC Hall of Famers. Most of those victories coming via finishes. You could maybe make the case Jones wasn’t the same after his classic fight with Alexander Gustafsson. Yet, he went on to beat Glover Teixeira and Ovince Saint Preux (without surrendering around to either) and scored two wins over Daniel Cormier (Though, one was overturned due to a positive drug test). Jones’ recent fights haven’t been all that entertaining, especially his razor-close decision win against Dominick Reyes. Jones is moving up to heavyweight. If he wins a title there, it would be hard to argue with his GOAT status.

1. Georges St. Pierre

St. Pierre won the UFC Welterweight Championship from Matt Hughes in impressive fashion (TKO) in 2006. He took his first challenger for that belt – a game Matt Serra – lightly, leading to one of the greatest upsets in UFC history. However, Pierre’s next run with the title was flawless, showcasing the most well-rounded skill set of any fighter in MMA history. From his second win over Hughes and retribution against Serra on, Pierre barely lost a round, dominating Jon Fitch, B.J. Penn, Thiago Alves, Dan Hardy, Josh Koscheck, Jake Fields, Carlos Condit and Nick Diaz in their prime. And dominate isn’t a strong enough word. Most of those fights were barely competitive against fighters who were among the division’s elite. By the time Pierre got to Johny Hendricks, a fight he won controversially, Pierre had one foot out the door. Yet, during his peak, he was easily the greatest athlete the UFC. His return bout against Michael Bisping to win the UFC Middleweight Championship in 2017 was just the icing on the cake. You can’t go wrong with any of the fighters in this top-three. But for us, GSP was the total package.

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