UFC Best of the Best: The Best Fighter of All Time in Each Weight Class

Who is the best UFC fighter of all time? The lists are endless, the debates are maddening, and you never get through any argument without the words "pound for pound" being thrown around.

That's why when I look at the best of the best of all time, I always have to settle on two or three and they are always at different weight classes. So, to be fair and spread the love around, here is my list of the best fighter of all time in each weight class of the UFC.

Bantamweight: Miguel Torres

There is little to no history in the UFC bantamweight division so this slide goes against the norm because this champion is now in the UFC, but all prior history is from other promotions so those performances must count in the review. 

I narrow the 135-pound-fight to current stars Miguel Torres and champion Dominic Cruz.

Torres is 39-3 in his career and ruled the division from 2007 until 2010.  His strengths are lethal Muay Thai striking, Brazilian Jiu jitsu, and a tremendous length in his limbs that lend perfectly to his stand up and his ground game. 

He has been beaten of late by Bowles and Benevidez but won a fairly conservative decision victory in his UFC debut vs.Antonio Banuelos in February.

Dominick Cruz is the best bantamweight in the world right now. He is 17-1 and has yet to step foot in the Octagon. He makes his UFC debut on May 28, at UFC 130, and comes into the fight the defending champion carrying the belt from the WEC.

I give it to Torres, and that is hard to say now, as he has struggled in the last couple years, but this is best of all time, not best of right now, and the record and the run take the title.

Featherweight: Urijah Faber

The featherweight division is the same as the bantamweight division in that all of the history comes from other promotions. Nothing wrong with that because the UFC is just a title here. This one is a no-brainer but I will again pit two guys against each other here and throughout the article to show who is in the running.

This one is between another current champion, Jose Aldo (19-1), and long time fighter and fan favorite Urijah Faber (24-5).

Yes, these two have fought and Aldo won, but they were in different stages in their careers and the greatest fighter ever in this division is hands down Faber. He held the title for over two years in the WEC and became the face of the smaller weight divisions.

Aldo is on a quick pace to dethrone Faber of this title soon, but in my opinion he is not there yet.

Lightweight: BJ Penn

You have to look closely at four fighters in this division to determine who is the greatest of all time. It is a very close match-up between American fighters BJ Penn ( 16-7-1) and Jens Pulver (24-14-1), and Japanese stalwarts Shinya Aoki (27-5), and Takanori Gomi. (32-7)

All men have impressive career records and all men have reached lofty heights for lengths of time in the division. Aoki has not faced the other three, is more one dimensional and the competition in his career is on a slightly lower level in my opinion, so he is out

Pulver beat Penn once and then lost to him in the return bout. Gomi beat Pulver, Penn beat both Gomi and Pulver. It is a vicious circle in this division but at the end of the day, I believe that BJ Penn was a step up from the others in all aspects of the game. He has also moved up in weight many times, and represented the lightweight division vs. the bigger boys very successfully.

Penn gets my vote.

Welterweight: Matt Hughes

The welterweight title comes down to sheer dominance.

Matt Hughes (45-8) dominated the division from 1996 until 2006 and then George St. Pierre (22.2) has dominated since then. They fought three times and George won twice, but nothing can really compare to Hughes' dominant reign. 

Hughes gave thrilling performances during his time as champion, and his wrestling, farm strength and intimidating calmness left guys rattled in their shorts. He also delivered what I would call my favorite fight of all time vs. Frank Trigg.2. His fights have been more exciting than GSP's and therefore he takes the title.

Honorable mention goes to Royce Gracie.

Middleweight: Anderson Silva

The middleweight division is not close at all.

Anderson "The Spider" Silva (28-4 is the current champion and the runaway winner of division king. He has ruled the division in the UFC since 2006 and his devastating length and Muay Thai strength are by far the most dominant of any current champion.

If you consider the other promotions over the years, Wanderlei "Thje Axe Murderer" Silva should get some mention. He has a record of 33-10-1 and he has a famous reign of dominance in Japan from 2000 to 2004.

I'm looking forward to the day that some guy can stand and hang with Anderson and test his will even more than Sonnen did. Until then, he is the undisputed king of the middleweights..

Lightheavyweight: Chuck Liddell

The light-heavyweight division is a tough one to call. There are a couple fighters who have recently retired, and a couple who appear to be on the down side of their careers who jump out and make this an interesting title to call.

The two fighters on the downside are Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, who holds a 19-5 lifetime record which is worth mentioning. However, he is only 3-3 in the UFC promotion and most of his success has come in the Pride organization. The same can be said for Dan Henderson (27-8), who also deserves mention in the conversation due to his record outside of the UFC.

With the title of this slideshow being "UFC Best of The Best" I have to leave those two champions behind and turn to the two others whose successful and thrilling careers took place mainly under the UFC banner.

As it often does in this division, the battle comes down to Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell (21-8), and Randy "The Natural" Couture (19-10). Couture had a stellar enough career to be mentioned here, but his record is not as dominant, he never had a dominant consecutive fight run in the division and he came out on the wrong end of a trilogy vs. Liddell.

On the other hand. "The Iceman" did dominate the division from 2004 to 2006 and took two of three epic battles against Couture to seal his title as the all time best of the best.    

Heavyweight: Frank Mir

In looking at this division for this article, it is very clear to see right away that historically, the heavyweight division is the weakest in the UFC.

Arguably the top 5 heavyweights of all time had most of their fights and success in other promotions throughout their careers, while only making brief or smaller stops in the UFC. I'm talking about Fedor, Big Nog, Cro Cop, and Barnett. Even Mark Coleman is worthy enough to be mentioned in this conversation.

The heavyweight landscape is changing, and with the purchase of Strikeforce, the best are most if not all under the UFC banner these days.

When you breakdown the careers of UFC heavyweights based on records, relevancy and titles, the reluctant winner of this title has to be none other than Frank Mir.

Please hear me out.

His record is 12-5 in the UFC, he has held the title twice, and he has been relevant in the UFC division the longest, even though there are better current heavyweights and his relevancy is slipping now.

Keep in mind that his prime and time as title holder was interrupted for full year 2005 by injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident. He would have defended and held the title for that time had he been healthy.

Thanks for reading!