Records are always an interesting thing to study, whichever field you might be examining.
Whether it’s the most points or goals scored in the history of a sports league or just the biggest number of doughnuts eaten in 60 seconds, records are always a fun piece of trivia, which is why, today, I am going to talk about records. More precisely, MMA records.
Fighters with the most wins in MMA history:
- Travis Fulton (257)
- Dan Severn (101)
- Jeremy Horn (91)
- Travis Wiuff (77)
- Luis Santos (65)
- Tony Lopez (64)
- Ikuhisa Minowa (64)
- Yuki Kondo (61)
- Jeff Monson (60)
- Alexey Oleynik (60)
I have already had a similar article about the UFC, one specific MMA organization, but firstly, the UFC isn’t the only one, and, secondly, MMA is a much broader term that encompasses much more than just UFC.
That is why I am going to focus on one specific record within the MMA – most career wins by a single fighter.
Introduction
Since MMA is a rather broad term and the fights are organized by several organizations, it’s not always easy to keep a record of all the numbers.
You have ranked fights, non-ranked fights, sanctioned and non-sanctioned ones, etc., but the general idea is that the numbers are big, dispersed, and not easy to keep up with.
That is why it wasn’t easy to get a hold of them and we had to put in a significant effort to corroborate the data coming from different sources.
Having said that, I have to stress out that different sources give different numbers for each fighter. It’s not a big difference (c. 3-5), but it goes to show how difficult it is to monitor the numbers in MMA.
I have managed to do that for you as I am going to present you the numbers collected from three sources:
and compare them for your pleasure and enjoyment.
Who Has the Most Wins in MMA History?
The record holder for most wins in the MMA, according to all three sources is – Travis “The Ironman” Fulton, a 42-year old American MMA fighter whose career began way back in 1996.
Fulton does not only have the most wins in MMA history, he’s also the current record holder when most career fights are concerned.
Despite this, sources differ when Fulton’s numbers are concerned, although not by much.
Wikipedia lists his win tally at 253 out of a total of 315 fights.
Sherdog.com goes to 255 out of 320 wins.
While his best numbers can be found on Fight Matrix, where he is listed as having 257 wins from 321 fights.
As you can see, the numbers are generally similar, with only small differences and I can undoubtedly confirm that despite the discrepancies, Travis Fulton is the record holder for most wins and fights in the MMA.
Fighters with the Most Wins in MMA History
Fulton’s streak is not only a record, but it is – practically – undisputed. Namely, Fulton’s numbers (both wins and fights) are so large that the margin between him and his closes competitors is practically insurmountable.
There is currently no fighter on the list that comes even close to Fulton’s records so it’s safe to say that his record is there to stay. For a while, especially considering the fact that Fulton’s still an active fighter. But now let’s see how the others line up in this field.
Fulton’s closest follower is Dan Severn, a semi-retired veteran who is, by all three sources, listed as having 101 career wins out of 127 fights.
Severn is 61 so it’s hard to imagine he will be beating Fulton’s record, but the fact that the next in line is 61 and has around 120 wins and around 180 fights less than Fulton is pretty amazing. If your second is so low, then your record is pretty safe for a while.
Severn is also the only one on the list, beside Fulton, of course, who has more than 100 career wins, although not the only one with more than 100 career fights.
The third on the list, Jeremy Horn, has somewhere between 116 and 119 fights, depending on the source, but his total win tally is 91 (or 90, according to Wikipedia).
Travis Wiuff, in fourth place, has exactly 100 career fights (although Wikipedia lists the number at 89, but it is highly possible that the numbers are just outdated), 77 (or 70, according to Wikipedia) of which have been wins.
Brazilian Luis Santos, who’s on place five, is the first on the list with less than 100 career fights. Wikipedia’s probably outdated list doesn’t even include his name, while the two other sources state that Santos has 65 career wins out of 78 fights.
According to Fight Matrix, Tony Lopez and Japanese Ikuhisa Minowa share the 6th place with 64 wins each, with Minowa having more career fights than Lopez; Wikipedia lists Minowa as having 59 wins and does not include Lopez on the list, while sherdog.com states that both Lopez and Minowa have 62, rather than 64 career wins.
Wikipedia’s relatively outdated list (it does show some good information about the best ones, but the lower part of the list is pretty outdated) doesn’t list any more fighters with more than 60 wins, which is why I refer to Fight Matrix for the lot.
Japanese Yuki Kondo’s listed as 8th with 61 wins, while the last two fighters on the list, Ukrainian Alexey Oleynik and American Jeff Monson, both have 60 wins.
Sherdog.com, though, lists Oleynik as having 58 career wins and Monson as 60.
And that concludes our list of the ten MMA fighters with the most career wins. Keep in mind that the numbers may vary, but still – I think the list is a pretty credible point of reference for all those interested in such things.
Now that I have analyzed the fighters and the numbers in textual form, I am going to give you a small overview of what I have talked about in table form so that you can have a better view of it all.
Legend: W – Wikipedia; S – sherdog.com; FM – Fight Matrix
Rank | Fighter | Nationality | Data #1 (W) | Data #2 (S) | Data #3 (FM) | Win % (avg.) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Wins | Fights | Wins | Fights | Wins | Fights | ||||
1 | Travis Fulton | USA | 253 | 315 | 255 | 320 | 257 | 321 | 79.7 % |
2 | Dan Severn | USA | 101 | 127 | 101 | 127 | 101 | 127 | 79.5 % |
3 | Jeremy Horn | USA | 90 | 116 | 91 | 118 | 91 | 118 | 77.2 % |
4 | Travis Wiuff | USA | 70 | 89 | 77 | 100 | 77 | 100 | 77.5 % |
5 | Luis Santos | Brazil | N/A | 65 | 78 | 65 | 78 | 83.3 % | |
6 | Tony Lopez | USA | N/A | 62 | 94 | 64 | 96 | 66.2 % | |
Ikuhisa Minowa | Japan | 59 | 102 | 62 | 113 | 64 | 115 | 56.1 % | |
8 | Yuki Kondo | Japan | 57 | 94 | 61 | 106 | 61 | 106 | 58.5 % |
9 | Jeff Monson | USA | N/A | 60 | 87 | 60 | 87 | 68.9 % | |
Alexey Oleynik | Ukraine | N/A | 58 | 72 | 60 | 74 | 80.8 % |
And that’s it for today’s analysis. Stay tuned for more of the same and see you next time.