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With a pantheon of iconic trailblazers like Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, and Frank Trigg in addition to Conor McGregor, B.J. Penn, Brock Lesnar, and Georges St. Pierre, the UFC has been providing the best mixed martial arts action available for almost 30 years. The Las Vegas-based company has sponsored hundreds of contests over that time. Some of them were rather forgettable, many of them were excellent, and just a handful will be remembered as the greatest UFC fights ever.
Every year it seems like there are more legendary UFC fights added to the list, and 2021 has been no exception. Epic fights including Alexander Volkanovski and Brian Ortega, Petr Yan and Cory Sandhagen, Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler, and Max Holloway and Calvin Kattar were among the highlights of this year. However, there are a select few battles that dominate the others. We did our best to reduce that list to the top 5.
The first match between Robbie Lawler and Rory MacDonald, which the former won by a split decision in 2013, was decent but far from a masterpiece. However, the rematch between the two welterweights in 2015, this time with Lawler’s championship on the line, ended up being one of the finest fights ever, if not the best ever. The two welterweight champions immediately painted the floor of the Octagon crimson. By the time the fourth round was coming to a close, both fighters had suffered significant cuts and bruises, and the atmosphere inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena had never been greater. This was mostly because Lawler gave MacDonald a homicidal look as the round came to an end.
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The two best light heavyweights in MMA history, Dan Henderson and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua developed together in PRIDE but never fought in the ring of the now-defunct Japanese company. They ultimately met in the Octagon in 2011 after moving to the UFC, and their bout was well worth the wait. By that time, both light heavyweights had demonstrated that they had incredible stamina and knockout power, and both had displayed these qualities to the fullest in the Octagon. For five crazy rounds, the two legends sparred and continually pushed one another to the verge of defeat. Amazingly, when the battle was over, both guys were still conscious.
The 2020 strawweight title battle between Weili Zhang and Joanna Jedrzejczyk isn’t just one of the finest women’s fights of all time; it’s one of the best fights ever. Zhang from China was the current champion at the time of the match. She faced Jedrzejczyk, the most dominant champion in the history of the category, looking to extend her record-breaking winning run to 22 matches. The two best strawweight fighters began to work right away and didn’t stop until the final horn: they combined for an astounding 783 strikes. Both women suffered severe bodily damage as a result of the 25-minute gunfight; Zhang’s face was bruised and purple, while Jedrzejczyk’s terrible hematoma caused her forehead to inflate out like a balloon.
Show the 2012 featherweight fight against “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung and Dustin Poirier the next time you’re attempting to introduce someone to MMA. This battle had everything, much like Costco. Every tool in the MMA armory was on full show, from ferocious punching exchanges to blindingly quick scrambles to deft submission attempts. The fight ended with one of the most uncommon MMA submissions when Jung submitted Poirier in the fourth round with a D’arce Choke. Our one tends to get overlooked for some reason when fans discuss the greatest battles of all time, but it definitely belongs on this list.
The only fighter to make this list twice is Robbie Lawler, but Justin Gaethje came close. The American lightweight has fought in a number of memorable fights during the course of his extraordinary career, several of which are undoubtedly among the finest of all time. However, Gaethje’s greatest match of his illustrious career took place in 2017. He made his debut in the Octagon against Michael Johnson after a successful stint as the lightweight champion of the World Series of Fighting. At the time, Gaethje was undefeated and one of MMA’s most anticipated competitors. Johnson, though, came dangerously close to ruining the unbeaten star’s debut when he nearly knocked him out in the opening session.
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