There has been no shortage of top-tier talent in the UFC. Throughout the company's historic past, fans have bared witness to some of the most hard-fought battles ever held in an octagon. It is no surprise that the discussion of the greatest fighters tends to offer many familiar names to many.
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It has to be said that just because someone is an all-time great, that doesn’t mean they’re invincible. Some of the greatest fighters of all time have had glaring flaws in their game plans, move sets, and even their mindset. The ability to study those weaknesses and improve upon them is exactly what separates the great from the greatest of all time.
10 Conor McGregor
The greatest of all-time discussion isn’t complete without a mention of one of the most notorious fighters to ever step into the octagon. Conor McGregor is known for his ruthless and calculated striking. He’s quick, powerful, and being a southpaw can throw many of his opponents for a loop.
His greatest weakness comes down to his wrestling ability. Time and time again Conor is shown to have a tough time against skilled grapplers, with two of his major losses coming from grounded submissions. Two straight losses and an injury may keep fans from seeing more of McGregor for quite a while.
9 Henry Cejudo
Henry Cejudo more than deserves to be in the center of the conversation about the greatest of all time when digging into his accolades. An Olympic gold medalist in wrestling, and a simultaneous two-division champion at both flyweight and bantamweight, Cejudo is no joke. He was also the man to finally defeat Demetrious Johnson.
Another great with no clear weakness, his one weak area might be his leg conditioning when it comes to taking hard shots. As an agile competitor, the last thing he wants is to be immobilized, and even after a brief stumble against Mighty Mouse, he was able to come back for the win.
8 Ronda Rousey
It’s hard to discuss the greatest of all time without bringing up Ronda Rousey. Whether anyone is a fan or not, there’s no denying that she put women’s MMA on the map, and on her way to the top, she dominated. She did win 12 straight fights before her first loss.
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Plenty of people have speculated on what exactly her real weakness was. Some offer the fact that she bought into her own hype, but most seem to agree that her judo skills weren’t much help against an elite striker.
7 Georges St-Pierre
The iconic French-Canadian two-division champion didn’t just dominate the odd opponent, he dominated an entire division for years.GSP was the full package when it came to the octagon. Stiff strikes, expert grappling, and a never-ending gas tank.
GSP’s real weakness showed later in his career with his inability to decisively end a fight. If an opponent of relatively equal skill and even harder shots took GSP on, it’s hard to imagine the fight going well for the Canadian fighter. That in itself is a tall order, and no one like that ever came along to challenge him.
6 Anderson Silva
While the odd highlight reel of a UFC fighter goes viral, there aren’t many fighters who have had as many viral clips as Anderson Silva. He also holds the longest title reign in UFC history at 2,457 days as UFC Middleweight Champion.
Watching any Silva fight in his prime can have fans thinking that he’s an MMA genius, but the longer he fought, the more the cracks in his armor became visible. With occasionally silly overconfidence and inability to handle top-level grapplers, a fight with Silva could potentially end as quickly as it started against the right opponent.
5 Jon Jones
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Every time Jon Jones steps into the octagon, he throws everything he has at his opponent. As a two-time UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, that shouldn’t be a surprise. Jones’ biggest weakness comes from something common amongst the best UFC fighters, and that’s his overconfidence.
While there’s no denying how dominant Jones is in the octagon, he does have moments where he will go toe-to-toe in a specialist's field.Without showing a ton of significant knockout ability, trading with some of the heaviest hitters his division has to offer isn’t the best idea.
4 Daniel Cormier
Being able to call yourself a UFC champion is already rare enough, but Daniel Cormier is among an elite group in being able to say that he was a two-division champion simultaneously. While he’s brawled with some of the greatest light heavyweights and heavyweights to step into the octagon, he has had some troubles.
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What few issues Cormier faces tend to come from his defensive game. Heavy body shot’s have been hard for him to avoid, and they tend to have a relatively significant impact on a fight. That is if his opponent even has the chance before they get mauled.
3 Demetrious Johnson
There’s a reason Demetrious Johnson’s nickname is Mighty Mouse. Some credit Johnson as the only reason the flyweight division even exists today, and with a more than 2,000-day title reign, that’s hard to argue.
It’s nearly impossible to pick out a weakness for one of the greatest fighters of all time, but one could offer his inability to cope with elite-level grapplers.Henry Cejudo, an Olympic gold medalist in wrestling, dethroned Johnson with plenty of help from his grappling ability. As a person, his lack of fan-drawing power could also be a weakness.
2 Amanda Nunes
The competition in the UFC women’s divisions only continues to grow, and a huge part of that is Amanda Nunes. The first female fighter to become a two-division champion, Nunes knows what it takes to win. If she can’t put someone down in the first round, that fighter is bound to be in for a rough five-round brawl.
These days, Nunes appears to be unstoppable, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have any weaknesses. With a relatively simple game plan in each fight, someone with the strength to rival Nunes could stop her, but it doesn’t look like anyone is capable of that as of right now.
1 Khabib Nurmagomedov
Few fighters can boast about a winning record that’s in the double digits, let alone a record with absolutely zero losses. Khabib can. He stepped into the octagon 29 times and walked out victorious 29 times.Once he gets a hold of a fighter, they’re lucky to make it through the round.
Picking a weakness is tough since he never lost, but many have claimed that either his ego or his striking is his weakness. Believing too much of your own hype can lead to mistakes, and strong, but occasionally sloppy striking can do much of the same.
