Author: Jonathan Snowden

From its earliest days, determining the best MMA fighter in the world has never been a particularly easy task. Even as Royce Gracie dominated the initial UFC tournaments in 1993 and 1994, challengers to his throne emerged overseas, his own brother Rickson at the front of the pack.

As the years have gone by and the sport has become more diverse—in size, technique and geography—winnowing a pool of hundreds down to one has become more and more difficult. How do you compare lightning-quick submission ace Rumina Sato with Ukrainian slugger Igor Vovchanchyn? Would Frank Shamrock’s cardio and smarts outlast the creative flair of Japan’s Kazushi Sakuraba?

Separated by continents, weight classes and promotional affiliation, there was no definitive method of determining who stood alone atop the heap. Unlike team sports, time-tested metrics to discern an athlete’s worth were virtually nonexistent. Even today, most MMA stats are quantitative.

Fight Metric and others tally the number of strikes landed, submissions attempted or takedowns denied. But they do little to tell us which strikes really mattered or distinguish between failing to take down an Olympic medalist or failing to take down an overweight journeyman. 

While statistics have their place—and we’ve used them in a supplemental role to establish baseline standards of quality—ultimately, rating fighters is a subjective process. Right now, numbers alone can’t tell the tale. Our team, including Hunter Homistek, Steven Rondina and Bleacher Report MMA editor Brian Oswald, watched thousands of hours of fights to determine where each of the world’s top fighters stood in four key categories: wrestling, grappling, striking and fight IQ/intangibles. You can read more about the process here.

After breaking down each weight class, from the minuscule flyweights to the gargantuan heavyweights, we’ve now turned our attention to the grander picture. Many sites have a pound-for-pound top 10; ours now extends beyond 100 fighters.

Presented for your consideration, here is the MMA 125—the 125 very best male fighters in mixed martial arts. 

Disagree with any of our placements? Concerned by our calculations or the complete dearth of MMA math? Please feel free to provide feedback in the comments. 

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For years, light heavyweight has been the UFC’s marquee division. While there is a certain cache in being the heavyweight champion of the world, with due respect to the likes of Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski, this was the division that mattered most.

Frank Shamrock got the stone rolling nicely with a memorable dark-ages reign. But it was Tito Ortiz who brought the sport into the light, dominating in the cage and becoming the first star of the Zuffa era. His were enormous shoes to fill, but Chuck Liddell managed nicely, both athletically and promotionally.

“The Iceman” reinvented how wrestling could be used in the cage. His collegiate background was used primarily to keep the fight standing, enabling his crowd-pleasing knockouts. Liddell, half-Cro-Magnon, half-accountant, became the face of MMA—a role he still maintains in many ways to this day.

Jon Jones is next in this evolutionary chain. In the cage, he’s exceeded both Ortiz and Liddell. Outside of it, he’s failed to capture the fans’ emotions in quite the same way his predecessors did. The UFC has never seen his physical and athletic equal.

The sport of the everyman is now ruled by the kind of uber-athlete we used to dream would one day step into the cage. Jones is the new breed. Hopefully, in time, fans will come to embrace that—and everything that comes with it.

This list is not a ranking based on past performance. MMA math does not apply here. Instead, these ratings are a snapshot of where these athletes stand right now compared to their light heavyweight peers. We’ve scored each fighter on a 100-point scale based on his ability in four key categories. You can read more about how the ratings are determined here. 

Disagree with our order or analysis? Furious about a notable omission? Let us know about it in the comments.

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Like at welterweight, a looming shadow has finally been lifted at middleweight. Anderson Silva’s seven-year reign, one in which he amassed 14 stoppages and 10 title defenses, was particularly brutal. Not only did he terrorize every fighter in the world at 185 pounds, but he jumped up to light heavyweight to pick off two UFC Hall of Famers.

Along the way he polarized fans with his cocky demeanor and trash-talking nonchalance in the cage. For years, despite his athletic excellence, he failed to wow at the box office. Only Chael Sonnen, the American wrestler who channeled his professional wrestling heroes, managed to make Silva a true star.

His eventual conqueror, the milquetoast Chris Weidman, has shown great potential in the cage, if not on the microphone. Just 11 fights into his professional career, the 30-year-old champion is a work in progress. As funny as it sounds, the man who beat the man is still a bit of a mystery as a fighter. 

Before catching an aging Silva with his hands down and clowning, Weidman’s most impressive career accomplishments were wins over Mark Munoz and Demian Maia. Considering Munoz’s subsequent career immolation and Maia’s drop down to 170 pounds, those wins are hardly the stuff of legend. 

In truth, Weidman is the least battle-tested champion in the UFC. It’s unclear what to expect from him when the going gets tough and he’s matched with someone who is his physical and mental equal. By next year, we’ll know a lot more about his heart and will.

Is he the next Silva? Or simply a stopgap until someone better comes along? We take a look here at both the UFC champion and the other 14 best fighters in the division.

This list is not a ranking based on past performance. MMA math does not apply here. Instead, these ratings are a snapshot of where these athletes stand right now compared to their middleweight peers. We’ve scored each fighter on a 100-point scale based on his ability in four key categories. You can read more about how the ratings are determined here. 

Disagree with our order or analysis? Furious about a notable omission? Let us know about it in the comments.

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For the first time in years, the welterweight division is wide open. After almost a decade on top, Georges St-Pierre has finally relinquished his death grip on the weight class, leaving the sport and his championship belt in the wake of injury and discontent. 

While we’ll miss one of the sport’s all-time greats, his departure allows a new crop of fighters to contend for UFC gold. Before his body betrayed him and his interest waned, St-Pierre was like MMA‘s David, the perfect prototype of what a professional fighter should be. 

He was spectacular standing and tactically brilliant, with the best wrestling in the sport’s short history and a bevy of slick submissions. His heirs, the men who are now contending for the top spot, lack his polish. They might equal or exceed him in certain areas, but no one is the total package the way the Canadian star was. 

It’s those flaws that make things so interesting. When St-Pierre was at his best, the result of a title fight was a foregone conclusion. Today you can see the title being passed around like a hot potato. Right now it’s in Johny Hendricks’ hands—but there are several guys who are more than capable of taking it away.

Whether that resonates with the fans remains to be seen. The transcendent St-Pierre was MMA’s best box-office attraction. The promise of compelling fights between lesser lights has, thus far, not proven up to the challenge economically. The first pay-per-view championship fight between his successors—UFC 171’s showdown between Hendricks and veteran journeyman Robbie Lawler—was a bust with the fans.

Keep in mind that this list is not a ranking based on past performance. Instead, these ratings are a snapshot of where these athletes stand right now compared to their welterweight peers. We’ve scored each fighter on a 100-point scale based on their abilities in four key categories integral to MMA success. In the result of a tie, our team decided subjectively where to place a fighter in the rankings. You can read more about how the ratings are determined here. 

Disagree with our order or analysis? Let us know about it in the comments.

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