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Boxing

Best UFC Fighters of All Time

Jack Dempsey / AP Photo

Mixed martial arts have come a long way. Over the last 20 years, the sport has clawed its way into popular culture to stand alongside the most popular sports in the world. The outfit leading this groundbreaking rise has been the Las Vegas-based Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Led by president Dana White, the UFC has become a global, multibillion-dollar operation. 

How popular is UFC? Well, the debate over whether MMA has surpassed boxing as the top combat sport in the world is a ship that sailed toward the end of the 2000s. Now the only real question is how far the sport can climb. 

These are the best UFC fighters of all time. 

10. Daniel Cormier

UFC fighter Daniel Cormier
Julio Cortez / AP Photo

Born: March 20, 1979 (Lafayette, Louisiana)

Career: 2009-20

Weight classes: Heavyweight, light heavyweight

Record: 22-3

Bottom line: Daniel Cormier was a three-time state wrestling champion at Northside High in Lafayette, Louisiana, before becoming a two-time NJCAA national champion at Colby (Kansas) Community College and an NCAA All-American at Oklahoma State. 

Cormier’s legacy in the UFC became defined by him becoming just the second fighter in history to hold both the light heavyweight and heavyweight titles at the same time. He was a world champion in every pro circuit he fought over his career, including Strikeforce and King of the Cage. 

Cormier was part of a great era of light heavyweights and heavyweight fighters, and as much as his career was marked by his success, it was also marked by losses to Jon Jones and back-to-back defeats at the hands of Stipe Miocic that effectively ended his career. 

9. Chuck Liddell

UFC fighter Chuck Liddell
Branimir Kvartuc / AP Photo

Born: Dec. 17, 1969 (Santa Barbara, California)

Career: 1998-2010, 2018

Weight classes: Light heavyweight, heavyweight

Record: 21-9

Bottom line: Former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell went from being a college wrestling star at Cal Poly to pushing UFC into the mainstream of American sports culture.

Liddell’s career in the UFC was marked by several fights that we can now point to as the turning point when UFC became more popular than boxing. His bouts against Randy Couture and Tito Ortiz were the most financially successful UFC fights of all time when they went off.

Liddell’s style of fighting was what endeared him to fans. Out of 21 UFC wins for The Iceman, 16 came by knockout. 

8. Kamaru Usman

UFC figher Kamaru Usman
John Locher / AP Photo

Born: May 11, 1987 (Auchi, Nigeria)

Career: 2012-present

Weight classes: Welterweight

Record: 20-2

Bottom line: Kamaru Usman’s family immigrated to the U.S. from Nigeria when he was just 8 years old. He became a three-time All-American wrestler at NCAA Division II Nebraska-Kearney, where he helped lead the team to a national championship in 2008 and capped his career by going 44-1 and winning a national title at 174 pounds in 2010. 

Usman won the UFC welterweight title in 2019 and successfully defended his title in five highly anticipated fights before losing in a rematch with Leon Edwards in August 2022. The third fight between the two fighters is tentatively scheduled for March 2023 in London. 

Usman followed the footsteps of another famous UFC fighter into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2022 with a role in the blockbuster hit “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Former UFC champion Georges St. Pierre has played the villain Batroc in several MCU films and television shows. 

7. Fedor Emelianenko

Heavyweight fighter Fedor Emelianenko
Paul Beaty / AP Photo

Born: Sept. 28, 1976 (Rubinzhne, Ukrainian SSR)

Career: 2000-12, 2015-present

Weight classes: Heavyweight

Record: 40-6

Bottom line: Russian fighter Fedor Emelianenko reeled off one of the greatest stretches of any fighter in history with 28 consecutive wins following a loss in 2000 that included victories over four UFC champions, two K-1 champions, two Olympic medalists and one Pride FC champion. 

Named the top MMA fighter of the 2000s by Sports Illustrated, Emelianenko’s career and inclusion on this list comes with a catch. He was never a UFC champion, but he defeated seven UFC champions over his career. 

So he makes the cut. Technicalities be damned.