The 30 best MMA fighters of the 2010s

With a swift left kick to the head on Nov.14, 2015, Holly Holm  became a household name by defeating Ronda Rousey, the previously “baddest woman on the planet” who appeared to be an unstoppable force until that fateful evening. Following the best night of her professional career, Holm failed to successfully defend the bantamweight title she won from Rousey, and she posted a professional record of 2-5 from March 5, 2016, through November 2019. Nevertheless, that one win made Holm a draw worthy of earning a trio of championship bouts even after she lost her strap. 

When all is said and done, Brock Lesnar  will go down as one of the most important fighters in MMA and UFC history. The World Wrestling Entertainment personality held an official record of 2-1 when he defeated Randy Couture at UFC 91 in November 2008 to become the UFC heavyweight champion.  Per Business Insider, that fight drew over one million PPV buys, a number Lesnar topped on three occasions before he retired in 2019 . Could Dana White convince The Beast to return in 2020 for a match with Stipe Miocic? Money talks. 

Robbie Lawler ’s second UFC stint began in February 2013 with a TKO victory over the outspoken Josh Koscheck. In December 2014, the “Ruthless” one avenged a previous defeat to Johny Hendricks to win welterweight gold in an instant classic that  could’ve gone either way. Lawler twice retained his championship before he was dominated  by Tyron Woodley at UFC 201 in June 2016. The former champion was 28-14 (one no contest) as of Nov. 22. 

Every great champion needs an antagonist. Ali-Frazier. McGregor-Diaz. In both Strikeforce and the UFC, Miesha Tate served as Ronda Rousey’s first bitter rival, and the two helped put women’s MMA on the map. Tate never caught her “white whale,” as she went 0-2 vs. the Rowdy one before Rousey's UFC departure.  After Tate's second defeat to Rousey, she notched four consecutive victories to earn a bantamweight championship match vs. Holly Holm at UFC 196 on March 5, 2016. “Cupcake” choked Holm out to win her first UFC title, but she lost her only championship defense and a November 2016 contest before she retired as one of the most important figures in the history of women’s MMA. 

From March 6, 2010, through December 2016, Dominick Cruz accumulated an eight-bout win streak before he met up with Cody Garbrandt for the UFC bantamweight championship at UFC 207. The 10-0 Garbrandt won by unanimous decision to seemingly end one era and start another via a “Fight of the Night ” performance. That proved to be Garbrandt’s highlight of the 2010s, though, as he dropped a pair of contests vs. T.J. Dillashaw before he fell to Pedro Munhoz in March 2019. 

Throughout the opening half of the 2010s, bantamweight Renan Barao defeated all who stood in his way in both the WEC and UFC, and he held the interim and, later, undisputed  UFC championship in that division. Following a win over Urijah Faber at  UFC 169, Barao improved to a career 32-1 record. He was on pace to earn fighter of the decade honors until T.J. Dillashaw shocked the MMA world with a commanding and powerful performance to take Barao’s gold at UFC 173. Dillashaw won the rematch via TKO in July 2015, and Barao failed to return to a championship level.

Rose Namajunas was hardly a buzzsaw heading into her strawweight championship fight vs. the 14-0 Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 217. Not only was Namajunas a massive underdog on Nov. 4, 2017, but many expected “Thug” couldn’t hang for five rounds vs. “Joanna Champion,” the best women’s striker in the world at that time. Namajunas didn’t need five rounds, as she knocked Jedrzejczyk down  on multiple occasions and then won the title with a punishing left hook. Namajunas successfully defended the championship in a rematch against Jedrzejczyk in April 2018, but the champ suffered a surprise loss to Jessica Andrade in May 2019.  In November 2019, Namajunas told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani she reclaimed a lost passion for fighting months after her final loss of the 2010s. Here’s hoping the Thug of old returns in 2020. 

Australian-born Robert Whittaker broke into the UFC through the reality-television program “The Smashes ,” and he won that competition via a victory over Bradley Scott in December 2012. While Whittaker dropped two of his next three contests, he eventually found his form and confidence, and a seven-match win streak earned him a shot at the interim middleweight championship vs. Yoel Romero in July 2017.  According to Stuff , Whittaker made history in defeating Romero by becoming the first Australian or New Zealander to hold UFC gold. Whittaker won the rematch vs. Romero the subsequent January, but he lost his title to Israel Adesanya in October 2019. 

From February 2009 through the bulk of 2015, middleweight Chris Weidman  added numerous recognizable names to his win list. Uriah Hall, “Filthy” Tom Lawlor, and Demian Maia all fell to Weidman before July 2013, when the “All-American” handed  Anderson Silva  his first UFC loss with the title on the line. The 10-0 Weidman retained his gold that December after Silva suffered a brutal and gruesome broken leg while delivering a low kick, and the champ accumulated two more successful title defenses before he fell to Luke Rockhold via fourth-round TKO in December 2015. 

T.J. Dillashaw is one of the “say it isn’t so” stories from the list. From March 2010 through the end of 2018, Dillashaw won 17 of 20 bouts, and his upset victory over Renan Barao at UFC 173 was one of the biggest MMA shocks of the first half of the 2010s. Dillashaw reclaimed the bantamweight title by finishing Cody Garbrandt in the second round on Nov. 4, 2017, and Dillashaw then stopped Garbrandt in the first round the following August. However, Dillashaw relinquished his championship in March 2019 after he failed a USADA test. He ended the decade serving the first half of a two-year suspension.

In September 2011, Luke Rockhold won the first significant title of his fighting career when he upset Jacare Souza for the Strikeforce Middleweight Championship. Rockhold held the strap until the UFC absorbed Strikeforce in January 2013 , and a loss to Vitor Belfort that May could’ve halted any momentum had by the one-time champion. Rockhold responded well, though, as he earned four straight wins before he ended Chris Weidman’s unbeaten run at  UFC 194 . Rockhold’s title reign lasted less than half a calendar year, though, as Michael Bisping stopped Rockhold via TKO in the first round of their June 2016 bout. 

Frankie Edgar’s 2010s began with two lightweight championship fights vs. B.J. Penn. The April 2010 match went to the judges, and Edgar earned the decision even though some who watched the fight disagreed. Edgar’s second (August 2010) and third (July 2014) victories over Penn weren’t as controversial.  “The Answer” moved to featherweight in the summer of 2012 after a pair of losses to Benson Henderson. Over the next eight years, Edgar beat well-known opponents such as Cub Swanson (twice), Urijah Faber, Chad Mendes, Jeremy Stephens, and Yair Rodriguez. As explained by  Sherdog, Edgar accepted a January 2020 bantamweight fight at 38 years old. 

On April 23, 2016, Henry “The Messenger” Cejudo  was a 10-0 fighter who, simply put, wasn’t ready to face Demetrious Johnson, one of the greatest pound-for-pound MMA specialists of the past few decades. Following that humbling one-sided loss and a December 2016 defeat to Joseph Benavidez, Cejudo got back on his feet, won a pair of bouts and then  surprised many by beating “Mighty Mouse” Johnson at UFC 227. In June 2019, Cejudo became a champ-champ  when he won the vacant bantamweight crown via a third-round TKO of Marlon Moraes.

Brazilian Fabricio Werdum  was a heavyweight with a career’s worth of experience under his belt when he began a second run in the UFC in February 2012. Already respected for previous wins over Alistair Overeem, Aleksander Emelianenko, and Fedor Emelianenko, Werdum won four straight contests before he stopped Mark Hunt in the second round of their UFC 180 bout to win the interim heavyweight title. Werdum became the undisputed champion by defeating Cain Velasquez in June 2015, but he was no match for Stipe Miocic the following May.

The all-time great of the division went 3-2 in post-title matches before a two-year USADA suspension banned him from September 2018 through May 2020. 

When Joanna Jedrzejczyk stepped into the Octagon on Nov. 4, 2017, to defend her strawweight championship vs. Rose Namajunas, the 14-0 “Joanna Champion” was understandably a heavy favorite. Arguably the greatest all-around striker in the history of any women’s division at the time, Jedrzejczyk had successfully defended her strap five times leading up to her showdown with Namajunas. As Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie wrote, Jedrzejczyk set records in her May 2017 takedown of Jessica Andrade. Then, Namajunas steamrolled Jedrzejczyk. Just like that, the former champion’s aura disappeared overnight. After her first loss to “Thug,” Jedrzejczyk finished the 2010s with a 2-2 record and an 0-2 mark in championship contests. 

One problem with ranking Jose Aldo in any list of the best fighters of the 2010s is that the first thing many remember when they see or hear his name is the famous 13-second knockout  loss he suffered to Conor McGregor at UFC 194. Before Aldo lost the featherweight championship that fateful December 2015 contest, he had won 18 consecutive bouts, including title defenses vs. Urijah Faber, Mark Hominick, Kenny Florian, Chad Mendes (twice), and Frankie Edgar. Aldo ends the 2010s considered one of the  greatest featherweights ever. 

During the second half of the 2010s, Dana White, critics and even fans bashed Tyron Woodley  for being too boring and too safe in the cage. While such comments were fair, there was little that was dull about Woodley dismantling Robbie Lawler with a first-round blitz to win welterweight gold on July 30, 2016. Woodley began 2019 with a legitimate opportunity to break into the top 10 of this list, but a convincing unanimous loss to Kamaru Usman at UFC 235 dropped him out of contention. 

The tale of Joanna Jedrzejczyk may cause one to shy from “overrating” Valentina Shevchenko  at the end of the 2010s. While Shevchenko dropped three of 14 bouts over the decade, a September 2017 loss to Amanda Nunes could’ve gone either way on the  official scorecards . Shevchenko left no doubt in December 2018 when she downed the previously mentioned Jedrzejczyk via unanimous decision to win the flyweight championship. “Bullet” finished the decade with victories over Jessica Eye and Liz Carmouche. 

If Jose Aldo is the greatest featherweight in history, to date, then Max Holloway  entered the final month of the 2010s as the heir apparent to the throne. Holloway put together a nine-fight win streak and an overall record of 16-3 when he won the interim featherweight title via a TKO finish of Anthony Pettis on Dec. 10, 2016, and he twice beat Aldo (one of those contests  unified the championship) the following year. On July 2017, 2019, Holloway defeated Frankie Edgar via decision for a third-straight successful title defense. 

According to Business Insider, the Oct. 23, 2010, heavyweight title fight between then-champion Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez drew over 1 million buys. Those who tuned in witnessed Velasquez smash  Lesnar into submission. However, the new champ lost his belt to Junior Dos Santos in November 2011. Thirteen months later, Velasquez avenged that result and reclaimed his title, and he notched successful defenses versus Antonio Silva and Dos Santos before he fell to Fabricio Werdum in June 2015.  Injuries prevented Velasquez from making a third run at the championship, and he was a shell of his former self (and probably already considering a pro-wrestling career) when he lost to Francis Ngannou in February 2019.

Cris Cyborg is as complicated a mainstream fighter as any from the 2010s. For the bulk of the decade, no woman could stand toe-to-toe with Cyborg or withstand her crushing and powerful blows. A 2012 doping violation tarnished Cyborg’s reputation for years, and her inability/unwillingness to drop from 145 pounds to the 135-pound division cost her a dream fight vs.s Ronda Rousey. 

Strikeforce and Invicta opponents couldn’t touch Cyborg in the cage, and she signed with the UFC in 2015. As explained by MMA Weekly, Dana White created the organization’s 145-pound division specifically for Cyborg. She didn’t disappoint, as she won her first five bouts before she was knocked out by Amanda Nunes on Dec. 29, 2018. 

Ronda Rousey is a pioneer, but Amanda Nunes  is the G.O.A.T. women’s competitor from the 2010s. After Nunes lost to Cat Zingano in September 2014, she amassed a three-bout win streak to earn a July 2016 bantamweight title fight vs. Miesha Tate. “The Lioness” bloodied and massacred Tate, and Nunes then knocked Rousey all the way to WWE on Dec. 30 of that year.  One belt wasn’t enough for Nunes. Following successful championship defenses vs. Valentina Shevchenko and Raquel Pennington, Nunes knocked Cris Cyborg out in 51 seconds at UFC 232 to win the featherweight championship. That result made Nunes the  first female to simultaneously hold UFC championships in multiple weight classes. 

If Tyron Woodley was the pound-for-pound most boring winner of the second half of the 2010s, then Georges St-Pierre is the godfather of such performances. GSP may also be the greatest MMA fighter ever as of Jan. 1, 2020. Between the start of 2010 and the end of 2013, GSP participated in only six welterweight title defenses, all wins, before he embarked on a hiatus that lasted nearly four years. He returned to the UFC in November 2017 and choked Michael Bisping out for a third-round middleweight championship victory. As of the posting of this piece, GSP isn’t scheduled to ever fight competitively again. Per Tom Webber of the Sporting News , St-Pierre and Jon Jones were tied at 13 for the most title-match victories in UFC history heading into 2020.

Could Khabib Nurmagomedov draw over 2 million PPV buys  without having Conor McGregor as an opponent? Probably not, but one can’t argue with perfection. Nurmagomedov will end the 2010s the UFC lightweight champion with an unblemished 28-0 record. After “The Eagle” defeated Conor McGregor in October 2018 and Dustin Poirier in September 2019, he left his division battered, broken and without any real challengers. 

Do you believe Daniel Cormier  ever lost to a “clean” Jon Jones? If your answer is no, then you may name Cormier as your best fighter of the 2010s and, potentially, your G.O.A.T. UFC performer. From Sept. 25, 2009, through the end of 2018, Cormier built an official record of 22-1, and he was the reigning light heavyweight champion when he defeated Stipe Miocic for the heavyweight title at UFC 226. As  Brian Campbell of CBS Sports wrote, Cormier submitted Derrick Lewis in November 2018, a victory that made the champ-champ the first UFC fighter to hold and defend two world titles simultaneously. Cormier’s run ended when he lost to Stipe Miocic via fourth-round TKO in August 2019. 

Stipe Miocic’s legacy is set in stone regardless of what happens next decade. The Cleveland native is the greatest heavyweight in MMA history and the first fighter to successfully defend the UFC heavyweight championship in three consecutive bouts, which he accomplished at UFC 220. We eventually learned his loss to Daniel Cormier in July 2018 was but a blip on the radar, as Miocic reclaimed his belt 13 months later. Miocic doesn’t draw as did Lesnar, Rousey and McGregor throughout the 2010s. Blame UFC marketing for that. The champ’s record speaks for itself and his place among the all-time legends of the sport. 

All current and future women’s MMA fighters who earn over seven figures owe Ronda Rousey for their successes. As Jordy McElroy wrote for Bleacher Report in 2012, Dana White wasn’t shy about admitting the UFC embraced women’s MMA because he believed Rousey could become a generational star who sold PPVs to new audiences. Rousey met and exceeded White's expectations. She had model good looks, an unbreakable armbar submission and the will to play the game. Rousey knew when to be a heel and when to act like a smiling baby face at press events. We can only guess where women’s MMA would be in 2020 had she flopped. 

Need further proof that winning, alone, doesn’t draw? From Sept. 22, 2012, through the morning of Aug. 2, 2018, Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson reigned over the UFC flyweight division as its unbeatable champion and the top pound-for-pound fighter on earth. Yet every victory he earned was met with stories about how the UFC undervalued someone the company didn’t view as a big-money fighter. As ESPN’s Marc Raimondi wrote, Johnson’s record of 11 straight UFC championship defenses didn’t prevent the organization from trading him to ONE Championship after he lost his title to Henry Cejudo.

Conor McGregor wasn’t just the most successful UFC athlete of the 2010s. He’s the most successful MMA fighter ever, and there’s no close second. In November 2016, the outspoken and controversial McGregor became the first individual to simultaneously hold two UFC championships. Per Adam Hill and Gilbert Manzano of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the August 2017 boxing match between McGregor and Floyd Mayweather generated over four million PPV buys. As mentioned earlier, McGregor’s loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov set a record for UFC PPV purchases. 

Physically speaking, Jon “Bones” Jones is the greatest MMA fighter in history — a man who didn’t taste defeat during the 2010s and who finished the decade as UFC light heavyweight champion with an official record of 25-1. He’s also a multitime USADA offender, as Marc Raimondi wrote for MMA Fighting in September 2018, who apparently will receive any figurative get-out-of-jail card the UFC can provide so long as he continues winning and selling tickets and PPVs. Jones deserves to be on any MMA Mount Rushmore regardless of what’s been in his system at different points of the last 10 years. In his prime, he had no equal.