I hope you all enjoyed the first installment of my top-25 MMA fighters of all-time when I released numbers 25-21. With only one current fighter on this week’s list, we’ll get to look at some legends of the MMA world.
#20 TJ DILLASHAW
TJ Dillashaw is the greatest bantamweight fighter in the history of MMA. He’s compiled a record of 16-3 in his storied career. It took me a while to really compare him and Dominick Cruz, who just missed my cut. I know that in the one time they fought Cruz won. However, it was razor close, and I know many people who still think that TJ won. Cruz went on to lose his next fight to Cody Garbrandt who’s now lost two straight fights to TJ. Dillashaw is the complete package for a fighter. He truly loves to fight and drives to be the best.
He showed the world everything he was made of when he won the belt in shocking fashion. Dillashaw was scheduled for a fight on May 24, 2014, but when the show lost its main event, the UFC was in a pickle. They decided to bump TJ up and give him the opportunity of a lifetime. He would fight Renan Barão in the main event for the bantamweight title. Renan was ranked as a top-five pound-for-pound fighter at the time.
Dillashaw shocked the world when he came out and absolutely dominated Barão for the entire fight, finishing him in the fifth round. It was one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, and people don’t realize it because of how good TJ went on to be. At the time, it was a huge upset.
TJ went on to defend his belt twice, including another fight against Barão. He then lost his belt and worked his way back to a title shot, where he knocked Cody Garbrandt out. The rematch followed, and TJ looked even better, knocking Garbrandt out in the very first round. With his all-around game and dangerous knockout power, TJ is the greatest bantamweight of all-time and the 20th best fighter in MMA history.
#19 ANTONIO RODRIGO NOGUEIRA
Antonio “Minotauro” Nogueira is one of the biggest legends in MMA history. If you’re a fight fan and have knowledge about the history of the sport you know the name “Minotauro” Nogueira. His career record is 34-10-1. He was the inaugural PRIDE heavyweight champion and was also a one-time interim champion in both PRIDE and the UFC. He was a PRIDE Grand Prix runner-up once, as well. As I said before, I hold that in higher regard than most accomplishments in MMA.
Even though Nogueira doesn’t have some of the title accomplishments as others, his legend came from his fights. He has some of the best fights in PRIDE history. His fight against Bob Sapp is complete insanity.
If you do not know who Bob Sapp is please look him up right now before you continue reading.
Sapp is the biggest monster MMA ever had to offer. He outweighed Nogueira by 127 pounds in the fight! 127 pounds! That’s seriously insane to think about considering everyone that fights today is relatively the same weight. Sapp literally slammed Nogueira around, like legit power bombs, and was laying down monster power shots from the top position. This is the fight people can turn to and say that Nogueira is the toughest man in MMA history. He very well could be, he’s for sure at least a name that has to come up when talking about the topic.
He took a beating from Sapp for almost two full rounds, waiting for Sapp to run out of gas. Which, of course, being over 300 pounds it’s just a matter of time until that happens. When it did, Nogueira pounced like a seasoned black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu does and submitted Sapp with an armbar.
Remember his legendary bouts with fellow legend Fedor Emelianenko, as well. The two great heavyweights had three fights. One of the fights was cut short due to an accidental headbutt. The other two Nogueira lost in close unanimous decisions to Fedor.
Nogueira came to the UFC after PRIDE was over, and in his second UFC fight, he won the interim heavyweight belt. He beat Tim Sylvia in that fight with a guillotine choke to capture UFC gold. Those were the twilight years of his prime. Following that win, he only won three more fights in the next seven years. He was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, and he’ll remain a legend throughout time with MMA fans.
#18 VITOR BELFORT
The Phenom, Vitor Belfort, is a legend of the game. Belfort was one of the most ferocious fighters I’ve ever seen. This man came to every fight ready for a war and ready to go out on his sword. He’s recently retired with a final record of 26-14 (one no contest). He won the UFC Heavyweight Tournament in 1997 and the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship in 2004. His career was long and illustrious, even though he was on crazy steroids for probably most of it, but I’ll look past that.
Vitor has the most knockouts in UFC history (12) and the most first-round finishes in UFC history (13). He fought Silva and Weidman for the middleweight belt losing both times. Belfort also fought Jon Jones for the light heavyweight belt. Those all taking place in 2011, 2012, and 2015, respectively, close to twenty years after he made his UFC debut.
He has five head kick finishes (most in UFC history), four in five fights. Vitor was truly one of the most exciting fighters to watch. He beat greats like Dan Henderson (twice), Wanderlei Silva, Randy Couture, Anthony Johnson, Michael Bisping, and Luke Rockhold.
That many good wins has to land you on this list. That’s what I look into almost more than anything, competition. Vitor retired in May of this year, and I’m sure he’ll soon be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.
#17 RANDY COUTURE
This man needs no introduction. Nor does he need me to make a case for him as one of the greatest fighters of all-time. Whether you liked to call him “The Natural” or “Captain America” he was deserving of each. His list of accomplishments and records goes on and on.
UFC 13 Heavyweight Tournament Champion
UFC heavyweight champion (3x)
UFC light heavyweight champion (2x)
First two-weight division champ in UFC history
Most UFC Championship Fights (15)
Most main event bouts with (18 – tied with Anderson Silva)
Oldest UFC champion – 43 years, 255 days
Oldest fighter to win a UFC fight – 47 years, 68 days
Wow. What else can you say about a man like that? I had to just lay all of his accomplishments out like that because it’s one of the most impressive resumes in all of MMA. He also beat great fighters during his reign including Chuck Liddell, Tim Sylvia, Vitor Belfort, and Tito Ortiz.
I got to witness this legend in Boston at UFC 118 in 2010. He was part of the first edition of a boxing champion vs UFC champion when boxing legend James Toney came over to the UFC and fought. Couture made quick work of Toney, making him tap out from an arm triangle choke just a few minutes into the first round.
Randy Couture is now, deservedly, in the UFC Hall of Fame.
#16 WANDERLEI SILVA
“The Axe Murderer” is a top-five nickname and one of the most fitting. He does indeed look like he would murder someone with an axe and love it. Silva was PRIDE. The absolute fiercest fighter I’ve ever seen, hands down. He came to murder his opponent as viciously as he could, and most of the time, he succeeded. Silva retired with a 35-13-1 record (one no contest).
Wanderlei was a PRIDE middleweight, which is a light heavyweight in the UFC. He got to PRIDE in 2000 where he didn’t lose in his first 17 fights! Although, he did have one draw and one no contest. His first loss didn’t come until he decided to go up to heavyweight and fight legend Mark Hunt. Even then, he only lost that fight by split decision.
Now that we’re really getting into the thick of things with the greatest of the greats, it’s going to be easier with some of these guys to just list their accomplishments.
PRIDE middleweight champion – (4 title defenses)
2003 Middleweight PRIDE Grand Prix Champion
2006 PRIDE Openweight Grand Prix Semi-Finalist
First PRIDE champion and PRIDE Grand Prix Champion
Most PRIDE wins (22)
Longest PRIDE undefeated streak (20)
Most PRIDE knockouts (15)
Most PRIDE finishes (16 – tied with Mirko Cro Cop)
Most PRIDE title defenses (4)
When I really dug into him and saw all of these accomplishments I was blown away. He started even higher up on my list, however, his post-PRIDE career hurt his ranking. In the last 12 fights of his career, he won only four of them. But none of that takes away from what he did in PRIDE. It was the premier league, and he was the premier fighter. Thank you for scaring the shit out of me for years Wanderlei!