Who are the greatest 30 fighters in UFC history?

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This years marks the National Basketball Association’s 75th birthday.

In honor of this occasion, the league recently revealed its top 75 players. As you can imagine, this has led to a lot of debates and hot takes (some hurt feelings, too).

And so, that got me thinking? Who are the best fighters in UFC history?

This is an apropos time to ask this question because the UFC turns 28 next month (on Nov. 12 to be exact).

So, I’ve compiled a list of all the candidates. For the sake of this exercise, I’m rounding up to 30 because, well, 28 seems like a weird number.

But I need your help finishing the list because this was a lot harder than I anticipated.

A few things to note:

These are only fighters who have competed in the UFC, so people like Fedor Emelianenko don’t count. As for legends who fought in, say, Pride and the UFC, this doesn’t account for their runs in Pride. So, for example, someone like Mirko Cro Cop, who didn’t have the best UFC run, doesn’t make the list. Also, I am not penalizing anyone who tested positive for PEDs. All that’s out the window, just for this.

Also, ignore the numbers next to each name. Those were just so I could count. I’m not ranking the fighters, these are just the top fighters, in no particular order.

Alright, here’s what I have so far: