Khabib Nurmagomedov
Stipe Miocic
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Dead even across the measured categories. Our all-time ranking places Khabib Nurmagomedov at #4 and Stipe Miocic at #12.
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The case for Khabib Nurmagomedov
The most dominant grappler the sport has known, Khabib retired flawless at 29-0, having barely lost a round across his entire career. A multiple-time combat sambo world champion from Dagestan, he built a smothering, cage-crushing wrestling style — 'send them off,' as his father put it — that no opponent solved. He won the vacant lightweight title against Al Iaquinta at UFC 223 in 2018, then defended it in the biggest fight in company history, submitting Conor McGregor by neck crank in the fourth round at UFC 229 before roughly 2.4 million pay-per-view buyers. He followed with submissions of Dustin Poirier and, in his final bout, a third-round triangle choke of Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 in 2020. He retired immediately afterward, honoring a promise to his mother following his father's death, walking away perfect.
The case for Stipe Miocic
The most accomplished heavyweight in UFC history, Miocic set the record for most consecutive successful heavyweight title defenses with three, a mark that stood alone in the sport's most volatile division. A working firefighter and paramedic, he won the title by knocking out Fabricio Werdum in Brazil at UFC 198 in 2016, then defended against Alistair Overeem, Junior dos Santos and Francis Ngannou. After dropping the belt to Daniel Cormier he reclaimed it in their 2019 rematch at UFC 241, avenging the loss. Built on crisp boxing, an underrated clinch and championship-round cardio, his reign gave heavyweight a rare stretch of stability. His career sits around 20-5, with the closing chapters — a knockout loss to Ngannou in 2021 and a stoppage by Jon Jones at UFC 309 in 2024 — coming against two of the hardest hitters the division has ever seen.