UFC 198 Fight Card: The 5 Greatest Heavyweights in UFC History
This Saturday, UFC 198 goes down from Curitiba, Brazil. At the top of the card, Fabricio Werdum defends his UFC heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic.
At age 38, Werdum is riding the crest of an unlikely career resurgence that coincided with his second stint with the UFC. Since stepping in against Roy Nelson back in 2012, Werdum is 6-0, thanks in part to the vicious muay thai he added to his world-class jiu-jitsu.
Miocic is no slouch, either. The Cleveland native has used a sharp MMA boxing game to win his last two by knockout, and five of his last six. There's no doubt he's ready for this shot.
This mouth-watering clash got us thinking: Who are the five best heavyweights to ever set foot inside the UFC Octagon? We set to work, and herewith is that list.
Only fighters who competed in the UFC are eligible, although their non-UFC credentials can be factored in, albeit to a lesser extent than what they did within UFC borders (sorry, Cro Cop). They are also ranked more on how they fared against their peers than on how they'd do in different eras. Got it? Great. Let's get it on.
5. Frank Mir
1 of 5
Record: 18-11
Years active: 2001-Present
Notable UFC wins: Brock Lesnar, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (2x), Tim Sylvia
Among those not named Werdum, Frank Mir is probably the best grappler the UFC's heavyweight division has ever seen.
His career is marked by inconsistency, but the upshot of that is that every dip seems to lead back up to something good.
A well-documented motorcycle accident in 2004 could have ended his career, and it would have ended with him as an 8-1 champion. But back he came, eventually returning to championship status with a 2008 win over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
More recently, a dismal four-fight losing streak seemed to have his number. Then he won two straight in 2015. Both were knockouts, and both earned him UFC performance bonuses.
Now, though, he's back on the wrong side of the ledger, having lost two straight. Even gloomier, he said he has failed his second or "B" sample in a USADA drug test, which the 36-year-old has said before would cause him to retire.
"But they re-tested the ‘B' sample and it came back with the same results, as far as having trace metabolites [of a banned substance]," he said on his Phone Booth Fighting podcast (h/t MMA Fighting). "But right now, me being the lone guy that came out of the card with that situation to happen with metabolites, I don't see a situation where they are going to really look into any further, and where would I even begin to try to figure it out."
He sounds vaguely like a beaten man. But he has sounded like that before and come back. Will he do so again? Even if he doesn't, the two-time champ is in some rarefied UFC air.
4. Randy Couture
2 of 5
Record: 19-11
Years active: 1997-2011
Notable UFC wins: Tim Sylvia, Pedro Rizzo (2x), Vitor Belfort (2x), Kevin Randleman
The great wrestler, game planner and dirty boxer was also one of the UFC's great early heavyweights.
Yes, he split time between heavyweight and light heavyweight—which is why you don't see his wins over Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz in the notable wins list. But even with that split, he held UFC heavyweight titles three times: twice as a lineal belt holder and once as the UFC 13 heavyweight tournament champion.
Hard to discount those credentials.
3. Junior Dos Santos
3 of 5
Record: 18-4
Years active: 2006-Present
Notable UFC wins: Fabricio Werdum, Cain Velasquez, Shane Carwin, Stipe Miocic, Stefan Struve, Gilbert Yvel
Maybe it's just the youthful, dimpled grin, but it's hard to believe Junior dos Santos has been in this game for a full decade.
That notable win column looks a lot flashier than it really is, considering he caught Werdum before his reinvention and lost twice to Velasquez to more than balance out the flash knockout he scored to earn the belt at UFC on Fox 1.
But Werdum isn't the only heavyweight who can reinvent himself. After a tepid 1-1 record over the past two years, dos Santos faced charges that he was washed up, that his nine-plus combined rounds with Velasquez had taken too much out of him.
But he was back to his old, sharp-boxing self in April against Ben Rothwell. Can the ex-champ keep it going? That will tell a lot about his place on this list in the shorter and longer terms.
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2. Cain Velasquez
4 of 5
Record: 13-2
Years active: 2006-Present
Notable UFC wins: Junior dos Santos (2x), Brock Lesnar, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
The emotionless stare. The Mexican mariachi walkout song. The stoic demeanor. The robotic violence.
For a while there, Cain Velasquez felt like the Western Hemisphere's answer to Fedor Emelianenko.
Unfortunately for fans, Velasquez's body has betrayed his pursuit of MMA's heavyweight GOAT. Various injuries—shoulder, knee, you name it—have limited his competition to five fights in the past four years. Most recently, of course, was his fight with Werdum, in which he lost his heavyweight title.
Even so, Velasquez—when he's healthy and fighting at sea level and so on—is still capable of monstrous things. His relentless pace, irresistible wrestling, grinding clinch work, merciless ground-and-pound and deceptive punching power all combine to form a sublime fighting creature.
If he can ever get past himself, he could earn his revenge against Werdum and recapture the top spot. It's just that, at this point, that's a pretty big if.
1. Fabricio Werdum
5 of 5
Record: 20-5-1
Years active: 2002-Present
Notable UFC wins: Cain Velasquez, Mark Hunt, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Werdum reached a new level when he added a competent, if unspectacular, arsenal of kicks and punches to his game. It's amazing how few fighters do this, and how much easier it is to say it than to do it, especially later in one's career.
But that's what Werdum did, and he did it to great effect. His first UFC stretch ended with a 2-2 record and his release. The second, which began four years later, is this. Of his six wins during this run, two are by knockout, two by submission and two by decision. It literally can't get any more balanced than that.
He also cut through Velasquez like a hot knife through butter, exposing a hard-to-expose ground-and-pound artist who seemed destined to put a stranglehold on this mantle. Instead, Werdum put a stranglehold on him. And here we are.
But don't take my word for it. Take it from famed MMA coach Rafael Cordeiro, who in November called Werdum "the best heavyweight in the world."
"If your mouth says something, you have to say something correct," Cordeiro told broadcaster Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour (h/t Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting). "I don’t wanna hurt nobody, but I believe Fabricio Werdum is the best heavyweight ever. He beat legends, and he deserves all respect."
Scott Harris covers MMA for Bleacher Report. For more stuff like this, follow Scott on Twitter.
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