Longest Winning Streak in the UFC

10 Longest UFC Win Streaks (Overall and by Weight Class)

When watching the sports section or comments on TV, or reading about them in the media, you always hear that some people are best in one thing, some are best in another and there are, of course, those that are simultaneously best at the same thing, which is impossible.

Martial arts are no exception and it is very difficult to objectively state that someone is or was the best fighter in their category.

In today’s article, I shall discuss some of the numbers in the UFC, namely – who has the longest UFC win streak?

Anderson Silva holds the record for the longest winning streak in the UFC. He won 16 fights in a row over a period of 6 years.

In the rest of the article, I will say a bit more about Anderson Silva’s winning streak, show you the rest of the 10 longest UFC win streaks, and give you some interesting information about winning streaks in the UFC; like the longest winning streak by the weight class.

Who Has the Longest Winning Streak in the UFC?

As already mentioned, Anderson Silva holds the record for the longest winning streak in the UFC. He won 16 fights in a row over a period of 6 years, from June 28, 2006, to July 6, 2013, when he lost to Chris Weidman.

Silva was primarily a middleweight fighter and he totaled 24 UFC fights in his career, with a total record of 17-1-6.

Interestingly enough, when Silva lost his first UFC match on July 6, 2013 – after having had 16 wins before that fight – he managed to win just one UFC fight (in 2017) up to now. His winning streak was as follows:

FightDateOpponentMethod
1June 28, 2006Chris LebenKO (knee)
2October 14, 2006Rich FranklinKO (knee)
3February 3, 2007Travis LutterSubmission
4July 7, 2007Nate MarquardtTKO (punches)
5October 20, 2007Rich FranklinTKO (knees)
6March 1, 2008Dan HendersonSubmission
7July 19, 2008James IrvinKO (punches)
8October 25, 2008Patrick CôtéTKO (knee injury)
9April 18, 2009Thales LeitesDecision (unanimous)
10August 8, 2009Forrest GriffinKO (punch)
11April 10, 2010Demian MaiaDecision (unanimous)
12August 7, 2010Chael SonnenSubmission
13February 5, 2011Vitor BelfortKO (kick and punches)
14August 27, 2011Yushin OkamiTKO (punches)
15July 7, 2012Chael SonnenTKO (knee)
16October 13, 2012Stephan BonnarTKO (knee)
Source: Wikipedia

Silva ultimately lost to Chris Weidman on July 6, 2013, and what was his first loss after 16 consecutive wins. Weidman would go on to defeat Silva in their rematch several months later, thus effectively finishing Silva’s record-breaking career. 

Longest UFC Win Streaks

FighterDivisionBeganEndedWinning Streak
Anderson SilvaLHW / MWJun 28, 2006Jul 6, 201316
Kamaru UsmanWWJul 12, 2015Active13
Jon JonesLHWMar 21, 2010Jul 29, 201713
Demetrious JohnsonFLWJun 8 ,2012Aug 4, 201813
Georges St-PierreWW / MWAug 25, 2007Retired13
May HollowayFTW / CW Jan 4, 2014Apr 13, 201913
Khabib NurmagomedovLW / CWJan 20, 2021 Retired13
Tony FergusonLWOct 17, 2013May 9, 202012
Amanda NunesW-FTW / W-BWMar 21, 2015Active11
Royce GraiceOWNov 12, 1993April 7, 199511

Now that I have answered the big question, I am about to give a brief analysis of the other fighters that have been or are close to Silva’s record. 

So, I’ve stated that Silva’s record holds at 16 consecutive wins.

The next best series of wins is 13, which again demonstrates the difficulty of having an incredibly successful UFC career.

There are six fighters who’ve managed to achieve 13 consecutive wins in the UFC, but only three of them could potentially elevate that record. Those are Kamaru Usman, GSP, and Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Sadly, Khabib and GSP are retired at the moment so they’ll go down in history as ending their career with a 13-win run, but you never know when they might decide to return. It’s happened before, so why should it not happen now?

One fighter has 12 consecutive wins, American Tony Ferguson.

Amanda Nunes is also next in line, as she has a streak of 11 wins, a record she shares with retired Brazilian fighter Royce Gracie, who managed to win 11 consecutive fights between 1993 and 1995. 

One thing I would like to add over here. Although Jon Jones has one defeat in the UFC, that loss came by disqualification from 12-6 illegal elbows usage in a fight against Matt Hamill which Jon was clearly winning.

So, when I talk about the longest winning streaks in the UFC, fans of Jon like to mention that he is technically undefeated inside the Octagon with 20 consecutive undefeated fights (not wins, as he has one NC against Daniel Cormier).

Longest Winning Streak in Each UFC Divison (Weight Class)

As an interesting piece of trivia, I can also give you a short table of the most consecutive wins in each weight category in the UFC and by gender.

This is a larger table as it doesn’t just list the best overall, but rather the best for each category, meaning that you can see for yourselves how the records evolved for each of them. 

The table is as follows:

Division Fighter Nationality Start End Wins
Heavyweight Junior dos Santos Brazil October 25, 2008 December 29, 2012 9
Light Heavyweight Jon Jones United States March 21, 2010 July 29, 2017 13
Middleweight Anderson Silva Brazil June 28, 2006 July 6, 2013 13
Welterweight Kamaru Usman Nigeria Jul 12, 2015 Active 13
Lightweight Tony Ferguson United States 2013 Active 12
Featherweight Max Holloway United States January 4, 2014 April 13, 2019 13
Bantamweight Renan Barao Brazil May 20, 2011 May 24, 2014 7
Raphael Assuncao Brazil August 27, 2011 July 9, 2016
Flyweight Demetrious Johnson United States June 8, 2012 August 4, 2018 13
Women’s Featherweight Cris Cyborg Brazil July 29, 2017
December 29, 2018 3
Women’s Bantmaweight Amanda Nunes Brazil March 21, 2015 Active 9
Women’s Flyweight Valentina Shevchenko Kyrgyzstan February 3, 2018 Active 5
Women’s Strawweight Joanna Jedrzejczyk Poland December 13, 2014 November 4, 2017 8

What Next?

That’s it for today. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading and if you have more questions about the UFC, check out our beginner’s guide to the UFC where you will probably find the answer!

Vladimir Vladisavljevic has been training in the art of kickboxing for over seven years, holds a Taekwondo black belt, and has a master's degree in sports and physical education. He's also a huge mixed martial arts fan. He's a big deal in Bulgaria as a mixed martial arts commentator, analyst, and podcaster.
Article by

Vladimir Vladisavljevic

Vladimir Vladisavljevic has a master's degree in sports and physical education. He has been training in kickboxing for over seven years and holds a Taekwondo black belt. He's also a huge mixed martial arts fan. Vladimir is a big deal in Bulgaria as a mixed martial arts commentator, analyst, and podcaster. He was known as The Bulgarian Cowboy in the Western world. In addition, he has a YouTube channel where he talks about his love of esports, one of the fastest-growing fields in the world. Our testing and reviewing method.
Scroll to Top