The 30 Best Winning Streaks in the UFC

Jones is so good at what he does, bringing up any of his recent wins is almost a futile effort at conversing with anyone about MMA. However, some of those fights in that streak made for many memorable moments. After his one-loss (which is a disqualification) Jones beat the likes of Brandon Vera, Vladimir Matyushenko, and Ryan Bader before even winning the title from Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in 2011. His fights with Daniel Cormier and the first one with Alexander Gustafsson made for memorable career highlights, and now he is moving to heavyweight.

Silva is nearing the end of his career but fought as recently as October of last year. While his streak ended in 2012, his rise to building his streak and becoming champion began in 2006. Of his 34 wins, 23 come by way of knockout out, and some are over other knockout artists like Chris Leben and Vitor Belfort. His rival with “The American Gangster,” Chael Sonnen is one of the more memorable ones in UFC history. 

The current welterweight champion now includes three title defenses, the most recent at UFC 258 against former teammate, Gilbert Burns.  Pulling off a third-round TKO against an opponent that not only is a threat to the rest of the division but also very familiar with Usman was no easy feat. Add that to not tasting a loss since his second professional fight in 2013 not only makes for a great streak, but puts him in the category of another popular welterweight, and the next one on this list.

There is a reason the UFC Hall of Famer keeps getting called out by other fighters that can fight in the range of welterweight to middleweight. The two-time welterweight champion left the UFC on his win-streak as a champion of his division in 2013 and returned in 2017 to capture the middleweight title as well. Holding black belts in both Kyokushin Karate and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, along with fantastic wrestling ability, made St-Pierre the model of the complete mixed martial artist. 

In MMA, a winning streak is difficult to keep going in the beginning. A fighter can get to 10 or 11 fights before suffering their first loss, or they can get it out of the way early or midway through their career. Rarely does a fighter go through their career never tasting defeat in their pro-fight endeavors. Nurmagomedov seems to have done just that. He announced his retirement from the MMA on March 18th; his 13-fight streak in the UFC includes wins over Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier, and Rafael Dos Anjos. His overall record is 29-0.

Nothing can start a streak like a loss. For Holloway, his 2013 loss to Conor McGregor would fuel him to do more than bounce back. His very next bout was not only a win, but a knockout that won “Knockout of the night” at UFC Fight Night 34. The streak that followed would get him an interim featherweight title with a win over Anthony Pettis and eventually featherweight champion. He defended the title twice before moving up to lightweight for a chance to be a “champ-champ” and picked up a loss that would break the streak. Holloway’s very good at 145 pounds so maybe another streak is coming.

The original “King of the Flies”, when Johnson moved from bantamweight to flyweight he built his streak to win the inaugural flyweight title and successfully defend it 11 times before losing a split decision to Henry Cejudo. In his defenses, he would pick up victories over other well-known flyweights like Cejudo in their first fight, Kyoji Horiguchi, and highlight-reel-worthy submission over Ray Borg. No longer with the UFC, Johnson is starting another streak over at ONE Championships where he is currently 3-0 with the Singapore-based promotion.

“El Cucuy” has training methods that can be considered otherworldly. The wiry, long-limbed lightweight is currently ranked number five in the UFC lightweight rankings and was an interim lightweight champion. His rise in the lightweight ranks featured some of the best counter striking and submissions in the division at the time. The fight that seems to have gotten away was Ferguson versus Nurmagomedov which was booked a total of four times but always fell apart for various reasons. The last being the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. His streak would end with Justin Gaethje who filled in for Nurmagomedov at UFC 249.

Nunes picked up win number 12 at UFC 259 when she submitted former Invicta FC featherweight champion in the first round. She made that win seem flawless and has victories over some of the toughest women in the sport. In her streak, she picked up wins over Miesha Tate, Ronda Rousey, Holly Holm, and Cris “Cyborg” Justino. Nunes was under-marketed when she started building this streak and is the perfect example of how no matter how marketing tends to work in combat sports if you’re the best at what you do, the wins will speak for themselves. 

Anyone that has been following the sport of mixed martial arts as long as it has been around knows about Royce Gracie. He is the original UFC champion, before weight classes and before the unified rules that helped shape the sport as fans know it today. Gracie’s streak began with the UFC and the fact that many of them are clumped together in the same night will always put him in a category by himself. 

The current UFC featherweight champion won and defended his title against Holloway who is destined to share the cage with him a third time. Volkanovski’s streak outside of the UFC would put him higher on this list considering he has not lost a fight since 2103. On top of his two victories against Holloway, he also holds wins over Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes. Of his 22 wins, half come by way of knockout. 

Oddly enough, as this list was being made Adesanya’s streak ended at UFC 259 when he attempted a move up to light-heavyweight. Still, where he is king and holds the title, the UFC middleweight champion racked up wins almost as fast as he got into the UFC. Often Adasanya will say, “look at what I’ve done” when reflecting on his career and it is because he did a lot in a short amount of time. Adesanya made his UFC debut in 2018 and in a little over a year he would win the interim middleweight title, then win and unify the title not long after by defeating the next man on this list.

Former middleweight champion Whittaker’s streak comes with several performance of the night bonuses in his path to the title. His last two fights against Yoel Romero may have taken more out of him than everything leading up to him becoming middleweight champion but Whittaker certainly cemented a legacy for himself in the weight class before losing to the current champion in Adesanya. He picked up wins over Ronaldo Souza, Derek Brunson and Uriah Hall in building his streak that is certainly one for the record books.

Weidman’s win streak is memorable not only because it includes a run at the middleweight title which he won, but who he won it from. Weidman was the man to break the streak of the number two man on this list (Silva) and was able to do it twice. Along with the two victories over Silva, Weidman holds wins over Vitor Belfort, Demian Maia and Lyoto Machida. Weidman beat them in their prime before breaking the streak in a loss to Luke Rockhold at UFC 194. After a brief attempt at light heavyweight, he returned to the middleweight division where he picked up a win last summer. 

The former UFC heavyweight champion has traded blows with some of the most dangerous fighters in the weight class. His wars for the title against Cain Velasquez are worth watching because they seemed to bring the drama and action of something out of a Hollywood movie about MMA that has yet to be made. While his streak would end in those wars, his rise to champion leading up to them had him collect wins over Mirko “Cro cop” Filipovic, Roy Nelson, and a title defense against Frank Mir.

Oliveira may not be on the radar of the casual MMA fan but he soon will be. His recent, dominant win over Tony Ferguson has him in the lightweight title contender conversation. Oliveira’s win streak began in 2018 when he submitted Clay Guida and he has been tapping out fighters and racking up wins since. Of his 30 wins, 19 come by way of submission. 

Edwards has been having a rough time getting a fight booked since COVID-19 began. His current win streak will get the ultimate test when he faces Belal Muhammad on March 13, but at the time of this post, he is still collecting wins in the welterweight division. His streak includes wins over Donald Cerrone, Rafael Dos Anjos and Vicente Luque. At 29-years old, Edwards is entering his prime and has a good chance to add more wins to the streak this year.

Prazeres had a rocky start to his UFC career but once he got going, he was able to shake things up in building his win streak. His wins while building his streak include familiar names like Josh Burkman, Desmond Green, and a decision win over recent welterweight title challenger, Gilbert Burns. Prazeres has bounced between the lightweight and welterweight classes and has some issues making contracted weight for 155 but the wins still count. Unfortunately, Prazeres tested positive for anabolic agents in 2020 and is currently sitting out a two-year ban.

For a while, Jędrzejczyk was known as “Joanna Champion” when she held the UFC strawweight title, afterward, “Joanna Violence” because she is one of the few fighters in the sport that seem to increase their output as the rounds go on. Her streak includes winning the title from Carla Esparza at UFC 185 and five title defenses after that before losing to Rose Namajunas at UFC 217. 

Romero is no longer with the UFC but the streak of wins he earned there are the wins that made him a middleweight contender and one of the more feared fighters in the sport. While his streak never won him a title, it certainly got him the opportunity to fight for one. His streak ended when he and Whittaker faced one another for the interim middleweight title. Romero is also an Olympic Silver Medalist in freestyle wrestling from the 2000 Olympic games and will make his debut in Bellator this April.

Cerrone is known for his “I know a guy” response to accepting fights on short notice when an opponent is being sought out. For those that don’t get the reference, Cerrone is the guy that seems almost willing to step in against anyone on short notice. Whether that is good or bad for him he certainly comes prepared and never was he more prepared than when he went on his winning streak. Cerrone built his reputation in his streak when he picked up wins over Eddie Alvarez, Jim Miller, and Benson Henderson. It should be noted that he also picked up multiple bonuses during the streak too that included knockout of the night (Adriano Martins in 2014), and submission of the night when the streak began at UFC 167. The streak ended with his lightweight title shot against Rafael dos Anjos.

Maynard has parted ways with the UFC but the bulk of his career was spent fighting some of the best lightweights in his era. Maynard picked up wins over some of the toughest lightweights in the division in the early 2000’s like Frankie Edgar, Roger Huerta and Nate Diaz. He would face Edgar several times during his streak eventually having it broken at UFC 136 when he and Edgar would fight for the title.

Machida is one of the few karate-based fighters that have been able to showcase their art in a sport dominated by wrestlers, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu stylists, and Muay-Thai strikers. Machida’s win streak is actually more than what appears here if you include his wins before arriving in the UFC. During his streak he was able to pick up victories over Tito Ortiz, win the light-heavyweight title from Rashad Evans and defend it against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua but would break the streak and lose in the following rematch. Machida is no longer with the UFC but will make his debut in Bellator in April.

Fitch has an MMA career that almost spans the history of the sport’s beginnings. What Machida represented for Karate in the UFC, Fitch likely did the same for wrestling. His UFC win streak began at UFC Fight Night 2 in 2005 and would get him to a welterweight title shot against Georges St-Pierre at UFC 87. St-Pierre who accompanies Fitch on this list would emerge the victor but it should be noted that he went the distance and lost by decision against a Prime St-Pierre. 

There are few names that come to mind when asking longtime fans of the sport who got them to watch UFC events, Liddell is one of those names and with good reason. His streak in the UFC is not as long as some other names on this list, but not many have built two streaks of the same length in the UFC. Liddell has two very memorable rivalries during his time in the UFC. One with Randy Couture who broke his first streak, and another with Tito Ortiz that is so memorable there is an ESPN: 30 for 30 about it.

Oddly enough Yan’s streak just ended at UFC 259 when he struck Aljamain Sterling with an illegal knee. The disqualification cost him his title and his win streak but what a streak it was. Beginning in the UFC in 2018, Yan quickly climbed the bantamweight ranks to earn the shot at the title against the legendary Jose Aldo. Yan was able to finish Aldo in the final round of a tough fight. He and Sterling are likely to rematch soon because of how things went at UFC 259.

The 27-year old British mixed martial artist entered the UFC in 2015 and has not lost yet. He last fought in January of 2020 when he picked up a unanimous decision against Nik Lentz. While building this streak he also was able to win against Gilbert Melendez at UFC 239. Allen is scheduled to face Sodiq Yusuff in April so he will have a chance to bump up his number.

Covington might be the welterweight fans love to hate but that should not take away from the talent he brings in the cage and his UFC win streak is proof of that. His win streak includes decisive victories over Demian Maia, Rafael dos Anjos and Robbie Lawler. His streak ended when he faced Usman who is number 3 on this list.

Olympic Bronze medalist and former UFC Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight Champion is probably one of the most accomplished men in combat sports and likely a future UFC Hall of Famer. His streak began when he submitted Anthony “Rumble” Johnson to win the vacant light-heavyweight title. After that, Cormier would face and defeat the best in two of the toughest weight classes in combat sports. His victories include Stipe Miocic in their first match, the heavy-handed Derrick Lewis, and Anderson Silva. His streak would end with a loss to Jon Jones.

The first UFC showed that Brazilian Jiu-jitsu was and is still a necessary ingredient for anyone wanting to be a complete mixed martial artist. It’s why Royce Gracie is on this list and is in the company of another great ambassador for the art in MMA in Maia. Even when predictable, Maia was able to get many top-level, younger well-rounded competitors to the ground and drown them in his grappling game. Of his 28 wins, 14 came by way of submission during his streak he submitted the likes of Matt Brown, Carlos Condit, and Neil Magny.