Fighters with 5 or more Top 10 Ranked UFC Wins

This is only counting UFC rankings from Feb 5, 2013 when they began. I’m not going to include rankings before this time to keep it simple. This is an imperfect list since many fighters having big wins before the rankings were introduced, top fighters outside the UFC (Mousasi, Rory, Bader etc) and of course some controversial fights that require context. But it’s still an interesting look at the last 6 years.

I looked at fighters that have a lot of hype behind them due to activity and/or win streaks like Khabib, Holloway, Cerrone and Ferguson as well as listed the guys that had 5+ Top 10 wins like Werdum and Cormier.

I am not including guys ranked #10 cause if you include the champion, the 10th guy is actually 11.

I didn’t count fights like Diaz/Conor or Cormier/Silva because they weren’t fought at the weight class the fighters were ranked at.

(In Alphabetical Order)

Alistair Overeem 5 Top 10 – 2 Top 5 wins:

Fabricio Werdum #1

Mark Hunt #8

Andrei Arlovski #5

Junior Dos Santos #2

Roy Nelson #8

Notable Pre-rankings victories (everyone listed in this section here and below was at the very least Top 10 on Fight Matrix): Brock Lesnar, Fabricio Werdum 2, Brett Rogers, Vitor Belfort x2, Sergei Kharitonov 1

Anthony Johnson 5 Top 10 – 3 Top 5 wins:

Glover Texeira #2

Ryan Bader #4

Jimi Manuwa #7

Alexander Gustafsson #1

Phil Davis #5

Chris Weidman 5 Top 10 – 4 Top 5 wins:

Kelvin Gastelum #8

Vitor Belfort #3

Lyoto Machida #3

Anderson Silva #1

(c) Anderson Silva

Notable Pre-rankings victories: Mark Munoz, Demian Maia

Conor McGregor 4 Top 10 – 3 Top 5 wins:

(c) Eddie Alvarez

(c) José Aldo

Chad Mendes #2

Dustin Poirer #5

Note: including champion Poirer would be #6, so not counting him for top 5. All #5 ranked fighters in this post are not counted as a Top 5 win

Daniel Cormier 9 Top 10 – 6 Top 5 wins:

Derrick Lewis #2

(c) Stipe Miocic

Volkan Oezdemir #2

Anthony Johnson #1

Alexander Gustafsson #2

Anthony Johnson #1

Dan Henderson #6

Roy Nelson #9

Frank Mir #6

Notable Pre-ranking victories: Josh Barnett, Bigfoot Silva (people listed in Notables throughout this post are all at the very least top 10 ranked by Fight Matrix)

Demetrious Johnson 9 Top 10 – 7 Top 5 wins:

Ray Borg #3

Wilson Reis #3

Henry Cejudo #2

John Dodson #1

Kyoto Horiguchi #7

Chris Cariaso #6

Ali Bagautinov #4

Joseph Benavidez #1

John Moraga #4

Notable Pre-rankings victories: Benavidez 1, Dodson 1, Ian McCall and Miguel Torres.

Donald Cerrone 4 Top 10 wins:

Rick Story #9

Benson Henderson #5

Myles Jury #8

Jim Miller #7

Note: Eddie Alvarez was making his UFC debut and ranked at #14. Following the loss to Cerrone, he would be ranked #9 in his next fight. In worldwide rankings Alvarez was consensus top 10 and as high as top 5 depending on the ranking publication. To keep the tally consistent Cerrone’s win over Alvarez has not been counted.

Cerrone tested positive pre-UFC (for people that care about this stuff I’m gonna put this at the bottom of each fighter as there’s a few that have popped that are listed)

Fabricio Werdum 6 Top 10 – 3 Top 5 wins:

Marcin Tybura #8

Travis Browne #6

(c) Cain Velasquez

Mark Hunt #4

Travis Browne #3

Big Nog #8

Notable Pre-rankings victories: Fedor, Gabriel Gonzaga 2

Werdum tested positive in 2018

Frankie Edgar 5 Top 10 – 3 Top 5 wins:

Cub Swanson #4

Yair Rodríguez #7

Jeremy Stephens #7

Chad Mendes #3

Cub Swanson #2

Notable Pre-rankings victories: Grey Maynard 3, BJ Penn 1 and 2, Sean Sherk

Jacare Souza 6 Top 10 – 3 Top 5 wins:

Chris Weidman #3

Derek Brunson #8

Vitor Belfort #3

Gerard Mousasi #7

Francis Carmont #8

Yushin Okami #3

exhales

Jon Jones 6 Top 10 – 5 Top 5 wins:

Anthony Smith #3

Alexander Gustafsson #2

Ovince Saint Preux #6

Daniel Cormier #2

Glover Teixeira #2

Alexander Gustafsson #1

Notable Pre-rankings victories: Rashad Evans, Lyoto Machida, Rampage Jackson, Shogun Rua, Ryan Bader

Tested positive on more than one occasion and continues to

Jose Aldo 6 Top 10 – 5 Top 5 wins:

Renato Moicano #4

Jeremy Stephens #4

Frankie Edgar #2

Chad Mendes #1

Ricardo Lamas #2

Korean Zombie #5

Notable Pre-rankings victories: Chad Mendes 1, Kenny Florian, Mark Hominick, Manny Gamburyan, Urijah Faber, Mike Brown

Note: Frankie Edgar moved down from lightweight to fight Aldo as well as the rankings not being in affect yet. Frankie’s next fight he would be ranked #3 at featherweight.

Joseph Benavidez 7 Top 10 – 1 Top 5 wins:

Dustin Ortiz #8

Henry Cejudo #2

Zach Makovksy #8

John Moraga #5

Tim Elliot #8

Jussier Formiga #5

Darren Uyenoyama #8

Notable Pre-rankings victories: Ian McCall, Yasuhiro Urushitani, Wagney Fabiano, Miguel Torres, Rani Yahya

Holy fuck never knew Benavidez’s resume is insane. Probably up there for best fighter never to win a major title

Khabib Nurmagomedov 4 Top 10 – 2 Top 5 wins:

Conor McGregor #1

Edson Barboza #4

Michael Johnson #6

Rafael dos Anjos #5

Marlon Moraes 4 Top 10 – 2 Top 5 wins:

Raphael Assuncao #3

Jimmie Rivera #4

Aljamain Sterling #8

John Dodson #8

Note: a lot of guys had 4 top 10 wins. I included Moraes cause he’s only had 5 fights in the UFC, and all were top 10 opponents. His debut being the first fight with Assuncao, who was ranked #3 at the time as well as in the rematch.

Max Holloway 8 Top 10 – 3 Top 5 wins:

Brian Ortega #1

José Aldo #1

(c) José Aldo

Anthony Pettis #5

Ricardo Lamas #5

Jeremy Stephens #8

Charles Oliveira #7

Cub Swanson #5

Note: I am including champion as the true “#1” so everyone moves down one ranking, which moves Lamas, Pettis and Swanson to #6 when tallying the top 5 wins.

Michael Bisping 2 Top 10 – 1 Top 5 wins:

(c) Luke Rockhold

Anderson Silva #5

Note: I am including champion as the true “#1” so everyone moves down one ranking, which moves Anderson Silva down to #6 when tallying the top 5 wins.

Nicco Montano 0 Top 10 – 0 Top 5:

(lol sorry. didn’t mean to do the Navajo Queen like that. in fairness, Roxanne Modafferi was top 5 at the time on Fight Matrix, but at the same time many many women were not at flyweight yet choosing instead to drop to 115 or move up to 135)

Rafael dos Anjos 6 Top 10 – 4 Top 5 wins:

Robbie Lawler #2

Neil Magny #6

Donald Cerrone #2

(c) Anthony Pettis

Benson Henderson #1

Donald Cerrone #6

Rafy dos Nachos the fucking WEC killer shit man. And only the first Cerrone fight was somewhat close, and even then Cerrone got knocked down in round 1

Note: RDA fought Nate Diaz #14. Diaz’s previous fight he was ranked #8 and beat #5 Grey Maynard. Diaz didn’t fight for a year and was dropped to #14 when he came back vs. RDA.

Robbie Lawler 8 Top 10 – 4 Top 5 wins:

Donald Cerrone #6

Carlos Condit #4

Rory MacDonald #2

(c) Johny Hendricks

Matt Brown #5

Jake Ellenberger #5

Rory MacDonald #3

Josh Koscheck #8

Notable Pre-rankings victories: Melvin Manhoef (#8 at the time!), Falaniko Vitale (#9 at the time), Chris Lytle (though this was in 2003, so obviously doesn’t hold as much weight as say… post-Pride/UFC purchase MMA) but still fuck Robbie been at this for a long ass time and still relevant

Note: Manhoef shot up the rankings with a win over top 10 ranked Kazuo Misaki (beat Dan Henderson, won Pride GP as an injury replacement)

Stipe Miocic 7 Top 10 – 5 Top 5 wins:

Francis Ngannou #1

Junior Dos Santos #4

Alistair Overeem #3

(c) Fabrício Werdum

Andrei Arlovski #2

Mark Hunt #5

Roy Nelson #5

Note: Again, UFC Chanpions are “#1” so all rankings move down one. Hunt and Nelson become #6 when tallying the top 5 wins.

TJ Dillashaw 7 Top 10 – 6 Top 5 wins:

Cody Garbrandt #1

(c) Cody Garbrandt

John Lineker #2

Raphael Assuncao #3

Renan Barão #1

(c) Renan Barão

Mike Easton #7

Fucking deep resume. Deep Jewels Impact 69th Ring level of deep

“Adverse findings” at the time of posting

Tony Ferguson 5 Top 10 – 1 Top 5 wins:

Anthony Pettis #8

Kevin Lee #7

Rafael dos Anjos #2

Edson Barboza #6

Josh Thomson #9

Tyron Woodley 6 Top 10 – 5 Top 5:

Darren Till #2

Damian Maia #1

Stephen Thompson #1

(c) Robbie Lawler

Kelvin Gastelum #7

Carlos Condit #2

Yoel Romero 5 Top 10 – 4 Top 5 wins:

Luke Rockhold #2

Chris Weidman #2

Jacare Souza #2

Lyoto Machida #4

Tim Kennedy #6

Soldier of God no for gay unranked opponents. Currently on a 6 fight streak of fighting Top 5 ranked opponents and will extend it against Jacare. Pretty much on a champion’s schedule.

BONUS! Anthony Showtime Pettis vs Stephen Wonderboy Thompson

Showtime 4 Top 10 – 2 Top 5 wins:

Michael Chiesa #9

Charles Oliveira #6

Gilbert Melendez #1

(c) Benson Henderson

Notable Pre-rankings victories: Donald Cerrone (Joe Lauzon just missed the cut with #11 rank when he fought Pettis)

Wonderboy 4 Top 10 – 3 Top 5 wins:

Jorge Masvidal #4

Rory MacDonLd #1

Johny Hendricks #2

Jake Ellenberger #9

Yeah yeah… I know, some of you think he got “robbed” against Till but can’t officially count it

Follow me if you wish @tranypanda