Current Current & Best Pound-for-Pound MMA Fighters 2025

Islam Makhachev is the current UFC lightweight champion, and the current pound-for-pound best MMA fighter in the world. The Russian has dominated every opponent he has faced with his elite wrestling skills and dangerous submissions from half guard and side control. 

In 28 pro fights, he has lost just once and that came ten years ago. Since then, he has amassed a 15-fight win streak with his most recent victory, and lightweight title defence, coming in quick fashion (first-round) against Renato Moicano at UFC 311. This win saw him break the record for the most consecutive UFC lightweight title defences in history (4).

Ilia Topuria//Getty Images

Ilia Topuria's quick rise in the UFC has been spectacular. Since his UFC debut in 2020, the Georgian fighter has won six of his eight fights by finish. Topuria has explosive boxing and some great Greco-Roman skills to go with it. On top of that, he is extremely durable.

Topuria currently sits at the top of the UFC featherweight throne after knocking out Alex Volkanovski for the title back at UFC 298. His first title defence came against another 145-pounds legend, Max Holloway, at UFC 308, where he became the first man to score a knockdown or knockout against the American.

Alex Pereira//Getty Images

Alex Pereira is one of the most loved MMA fighters out there today. He is a flat out killer with striking, and he is arguably the greatest striker or kickboxer the UFC has ever seen. The Brazilian has zero tell on any of his kicks, which makes it very difficult for his opponents to read when an attack is coming. On top of that, he has a bone-crushing left-hook and right-uppercut.

“Poatan” has only had four years in the UFC, and yet he's achieved so much already. He is a two-weight UFC champion (former UFC middleweight champ, current UFC light-heavyweight champ), and he continues to put on exciting performances for the fans.

Jon Jones is arguably the greatest MMA fighter to ever live. But the reason he ranks outside the top three is because he just isn't as active as the other three above him. Nevertheless, we cannot forget Jones’ legacy; he is a two-weight UFC champion (former UFC light-heavyweight champion, current UFC heavyweight champion). 

During his time in the 205-pounds weight class, Jones stacked wins on wins against some of the biggest names MMA has witnessed, such as: Mauricio Rua, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, Rampage Jackson etc. This helped Jones set the record for most successful title defences in UFC light-heavyweight division history (11). And to forget, he still holds the record for being the youngest champion of all time being just 23 years and 242 days old.

Most recently, Jones won the vacant UFC heavyweight belt against Ciryl Gane. And after a long lay-off, Jones eventually defended his title against Stipe Miocic and he sent the consensus greatest UFC heavyweight of all time into retirement after a powerful spinning back-kick to the body ended their fight at UFC 309.

Alexandre Pantoja has excellent technical skills when it comes to striking and grappling. The Brazilian is a huge submission threat as soon as the fight hits the mat, as we all saw at UFC 310, against Kai Asakura, during his third successful defence of his UFC flyweight belt.

Pantoja has not lost in five years, which is a great achievement in itself in the highly competitive 125-pounds weight class.

Tom Aspinall could end up jumping straight into the top three on this list if he indeed gets a shot at the full version of the UFC heavyweight title. The Englishman is the current UFC interim heavyweight champ, and he has been chasing down a title shot against Jon Jones for months now.

Aspinall has only lost once in his UFC career, and that came in an unfortunate way when he tore his knee ligaments merely seconds into his first fight against Curtis Blaydes. After a successful surgery and recovery period, Aspinall has continued to flatten everybody he's faced in quick fashion. The Manchester-based fighter currently holds the shortest average fight time in UFC history (2:02).

Francis Ngannou deserves a spot on this list because of his recent achievements in both the UFC and PFL. Ngannou was the last fighter to win the UFC heavyweight title off someone; he destroyed then-champion Stipe Miocic at UFC 260. Then, he defended his belt against Ciryl Gane at UFC 270 before vacating the title upon leaving the company over a contract dispute.

After a couple of pro boxing bouts, Ngannou made his PFL debut in October 2024 where he became the first ever PFL heavyweight champion by defeating Renan Ferreira.

Merab Dvalishvili is one of the toughest fighters on the UFC roster. He can take heavy shots and plough straight through them. And, he has insane cardio which allows him to keep a very high pace and high volume of striking and wrestling.

The Georgian won the UFC bantamweight title when he dominated Sean O'Malley at UFC 306. More recently, he successfully defended his title for the first time against Umar Nurmagomedov where he grinded his opponent down and depleted his gas tank, which is now a trademark in Dvalishvili's fights.

Belal Muhammad has received plenty of criticism over the years due to his lack of finishes throughout his UFC career. Nevertheless, that should not take anything away from his ability to chain wrestle and grind out victories, and that's exactly how he won the UFC welterweight title against Leon Edwards.

Since training with team Khabib, Muhammad has improved even more as a fighter and as an athlete. His boxing has improved, his takedown entries have become more smoother, and his cardio has gotten better.