Here it is! I’ve ranked some of the best to ever compete in mixed-martial arts, and it all starts here. The Top-25 MMA Fighters of All-Time 25-21. Enjoy!
#25 MATT HUGHES
Matt “The Country Boy” Hughes is one of the greatest welterweight fighters in MMA history and is in the UFC Hall Of Fame. From 2001-2005 he was a two-time champion and defended his welterweight belt a total of seven times during two title defense runs. Until GSP came along, Matt Hughes was not only the greatest welterweight of all time, he was one of the greatest fighters that ever fought in the UFC to that point.
He lost his belt to BJ Penn in 2004 only to beat GSP later that same year to win it back. Two years later, GSP entered his prime and beat Hughes to win the welterweight belt. Matt Hughes’ career was basically over at that point, as far as significant fights go, but he stayed around for a few more years.
He got a few more wins under his belt before losing his last two and decided to hang up the gloves. He finished with a 45-9 record in his career. After his in-ring career, Hughes has continued to be a legend after retirement, training great fighters such as former champion Robbie Lawler.
He also had a near-death accident after his truck was hit by a train! The man survived getting hit by a fucking train!
Not to mention he has one of the most historic fights and finishes in UFC history when he beat Frank Trigg by rear-naked choke after being seconds away from defeat.
You can’t talk about the career of Matt Hughes without talking about how he won the welterweight belt for the first time. Champion Carlos Newton locked in a deep triangle choke on Hughes, which left Hughes with only one option. He picked up Carlos and rested him on top of the cage, then, as he was losing consciousness, he slammed Newton on his head and knocked him clean out. Matt Hughes became champion, and the rest, as they say, is history.
With all these accomplishments, he still sits at #25 on my list, and he’s one of the oldest fighters on my list. As I said about my criteria, not many old fighters are on my list due to the sport of MMA passing them by. As I made my list, I would look at the people in front of them and think if they were pound-for-pound who would win? While I was doing that Matt Hughes’ accomplishments, title defenses, and legendary moments were enough to get him to #25 but no higher.
#24 RAMPAGE JACKSON
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is one of the most popular fighters of all-time. He’s also one of the greatest light heavyweight MMA fighters of all-time. His popularity started in PRIDE where he earned the name “Rampage.” For my money, it’s the greatest nickname in MMA history. I mean, most casual fans probably couldn’t even tell you his real name.
He slammed the fuck out of people in PRIDE. He has one of the most famous slams in MMA history when he basically power-bombed Ricardo Arona and knocked him unconsciousness. It was one of the all-time MMA highlights.
The PRIDE Grand Prix tournaments held multiple fights in the same day, like the old school UFC events. I look at winning one of those as high as any accomplishment anyone can get in MMA. PRIDE had the best fighters in the world, and to win one of those tournaments a fighter had to go through a murderers row of opponents.
Rampage competed in the 2003 PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix tournament and made it to the final fight. He beat Chuck Liddell in the semifinals and had to fight Wanderlei Silva in the final on the same night! How insane is that! He did lose to Silva (who we’ll get to) in the final but won his next two fights and got a title fight against Silva again. Once again he came up short in the fight.
Jackson then went on to the UFC and got a title shot against Liddell who he beat again knocking him out in the very first round, proving to everyone PRIDE had the superior talent. He never defended the title but did get another title shot against Jon Jones which he obviously lost. His career continues now in Bellator where he just continues to get bags.
Jackson’s #24 ranking seems fair to me. He deserves to be in the top 25, but only being a champion once and never defending it held him back. He lost his last three fights in the UFC, the last two being Ryan Bader and Glover Teixeira. His accomplishments just didn’t match-up with most fighters on the list, but he squeezed his way onto the list.
#23 RONDA ROUSEY
Ronda “Rowdy” Rousey. The second greatest Woman’s MMA fighter of all-time. The greatest UFC title run defense run for any female fighter. She defended the woman’s bantamweight title six times in a three-year span. She got to 12-0 before her first loss and was as dominant a fighter as anyone has ever seen during that run.
Rousey was also Strikeforce champion and defended it once before the UFC bought it and brought the Woman’s division to the UFC for the first time.
Dana White was on video saying he would never have women in the UFC. That changed very quickly once Ronda hit the scene. She was must-see whenever she fought. Everyone wants to remember her for her two loses at the end and talk like she’s trash. That could not be further from the truth.
She came into MMA very raw with judo and jiu-jitsu and dominated. Much like Matt Hughes, other fighters eventually caught up to them. I also think she had some self-destructive qualities, especially when it came to her coach. Rousey finished with a career record of 12-2 with the most title defenses by a female fighter and is already in the UFC Hall of Fame.
Some people may not agree with putting her on the list, I think those people are crazy. Her accomplishments, skills, and the way she dominated and won every fight in such dominating fashion (never going to a decision in any of her fights) is why she’s here. You don’t typically see that in the woman’s division. She was one of the most exciting fighters I’ve watched in my life. Everything together landed her at #23 on my list. Oh, and by the way, now she’s the champion in WWE and just continues to get that bag. Respect.
#22 ROYCE GRACIE
The man himself. I know. I said I wasn’t going to have many old fighters on the list because the sport passed them by, which it has on Royce, but how do I not put Royce fucking Gracie on my list. He almost didn’t make it, but the more I looked at his record and accomplishments I had to put him on.
This man weighed 170 pounds, was fighting people over 200 pounds, and was killing everyone. People didn’t know what the fuck was hitting them, and before they knew it, they were on their face with their arm behind their back screaming in pain.
The Gracie family is obviously very famous, but most people don’t know they were actually the ones who came up with the idea of the UFC purely to showcase their family practice of Gracie jiu-jitsu.
While they were putting UFC 1 together they could’ve sent some of the older Gracie’s and had them clean house, but they didn’t. They chose to send the youngest brother, and the smallest, Royce. They wanted to show that the smallest guy could beat the biggest guy with their family’s method.
He fought three times on the night of UFC 1, November of 1993, winning all of them to be the first UFC champion. UFC 2 followed in March of ’94, just four months later! He had to fight four times in one night! What did he do? He won every fight! The man won seven fights in four months! It was incredible.
In UFC 3, he was injured and couldn’t continue in the tournament and had to give up his title. He came right back at UFC 4 in December of ’94 and had another three fights. He fought Dan “The Beast” Severn in the final who was just a monstrosity of a man. They fought for over 15 minutes until Royce finally got Dan to submit with a triangle choke.
Royce won three UFC tournament championships and won eight fights in 1994 alone. His career continued in PRIDE where he had one of the most famous fights of all-time against “The Gracie Killer” Kazushi Sakuraba. They fought for 90 minutes. Legit an hour and a half of fighting before Royce couldn’t answer the bell for the seventh round and lost the fight. Everyone that knows the UFC knows the name Royce Gracie, and he deserves to be on this list.
Royce has unbelievable accomplishments, but with the times he was fighting and looking at everyone else I had on the list, it was hard for me to put him any higher than #22. I didn’t put him on the list just because of his name or what he did for the sport, but because he truly deserves to be on this list as one of the greatest MMA fighters of all-time.
#21 CRIS CYBORG
Cristiane Justino Venâncio, known professionally as Cris Cyborg, is the greatest female MMA fighter of all-time. She’s scary good. Legit, she scares the shit out of me.
Cyborg lost her very first MMA fight ever in 2005 and has not lost since. She’s currently the UFC Women’s Featherweight Champion. She almost has had no competition her whole career. Her record speaks for itself, currently at 20-1 in her career with only three decision victories, and her other 17 victories have come by KO/TKO.
Bouncing around a lot, Cyborg became champion everywhere she went. She’s the best female boxer I’ve seen in MMA, proving it when she beat Holly Holm who gave her the toughest fight of her career, taking her to a decision.
There’s honestly not much to say about her because she’s so good. She’ll have her biggest test this December when she fights the current Bantamweight champion, Amanda Nunes.
Some people may not think women belong on the list at all. To those people I say greatness is greatness….and Cyborg would whoop your ass. I got Cris Cyborg at #21.
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