30 greatest UFC fighters of all time [UPDATED]

11. Jose Aldo

The featherweight king and one of the best fighters of our time, Jose Aldo, was recently inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame after retiring this past September. Aldo went 13-7 over his UFC career, with six performance bonuses, and defended his featherweight title seven consecutive times (a featherweight record), going 8-4 in title fights.

Aldo came over from the WEC as a champion, riding an 11-fight win streak, and was promoted to UFC champion. Aldo defended his title against Mark Hominick, Kenny Florian, Chad Mendes (twice), Frankie Edgar, Chan Sung Jung, and Ricardo Lamas until Conor McGregor showed up.

The Aldo/McGregor press conferences were something to behold back then, and all that animosity built up to a 13-second fight, where McGregor landed a left hook that slept Aldo. Aldo would later win the interim title in a fight against Edgar and get promoted back to champion when McGregor was stripped due to inactivity. Aldo then lost the title to Max Holloway, losing the rematch and going 5-4 from there on out.

Aldo would drop down to bantamweight and face Petr Yan for the vacant belt, but came up short. After going on a quick three-fight win streak against Marlon Vera, Pedro Munhoz, and Rob Font, Aldo’s last fight was against future contender Merab Dvalishvili last summer. Aldo, along with Anderson Silva, will go down as the best fighter in the UFC to come out of Brazil.