Top 10 Current MMA Lightweights

The Lightweight division in MMA is possibly the most stacked division in all of MMA, in 2020. It is filled with incredibly skilled martial artists who put their skills and body on the line in each and every fight and in 2020 the fights have been unbelievably entertaining to watch.

In a division as competitive as the lightweight division, it’s tough to pick the best 10 fighters, and there will always be debate among fans as to who is in the top 10. Less and less people rely on the official UFC rankings to accurately reflect who the best fighters really are, due to a lot of weird movements up and down the rankings table (sometimes fighters move up the rankings when they haven’t even fought??). Also, the UFC is not the only MMA promotion and some of the world’s best lightweights fight in other promotions, such as Bellator.

Below is a list of the top 10 MMA lightweights on the planet:

• Khabib Nurmagomedov
• Dustin Poirier
• Justin Gaethje
• Tony Ferguson
• Conor McGregor
• Patricio Freire
• Michael Chandler
• Dan Hooker
• Charles Oliviera
• Kevin Lee

Kevin Lee

Kevin Lee is a loud, confident fighter from the USA. He competed for the UFC’s Interim Lightweight Belt against Tony Ferguson in 2017, where he was submitted.

He recently bounced back from an unsuccessful move up to Welterweight against Rafael Dos Anjos, by knocking out Gregor Gillespie in a very dominant display of striking.

This being said, Lee is still a dangerous challenge for any fighter in the UFC Lightweight’s top 10.

He holds wins over Michael Chiesa and Edson Barboza. Kevin is an exceptionally gifted athlete, and he can put on an airtight performance for about 10 minutes, however, after this time period he begins to fade and it’s speculated that his mental toughness is what lets him down in the later rounds.

Charles Oliveira

Charles “Do Bronx” Oliviera is a Brazilian fighter who is on a 7 fight win streak in arguably the strongest weight division in the UFC, the Lightweight division.

Like a lot of fighters, he started off competing in a different weight class before realising that he was not fighting at his most optimal weight. After a few losses to very strong opponents at Featherweight, such as Max Holloway & Jeremy Stephens, Charles made the decision to move up to Lightweight.

Moving up a weight class can seem counter-intuitive as a tactic to winning more fights to a normal person. Some would assume that by moving up in weight, you are then fighting against bigger and tougher opposition. However, it often means less of a weight cut for the fighters, so they have more energy to fight on fight day. This has been the case for famous fighters such as Dustin Poirier & Rob Whittaker.

Since moving up to Lightweight, Charles has taken on fighters such as Kevin Lee and David Teymur and won in dominant fashion. He has a huge gas tank, which allows him to put heavy pressure on his opponents and wear them out, just like he did to Kevin Lee. He is known for having world class BJJ, but his stand up striking is nothing to turn your nose up at, displayed in his 11 KO victories.

Dan Hooker

Dan “The Hangman” Hooker is a Kiwi national, fighting out of the famous Southern Hemisphere gym ‘City Kickboxing’ which is also the home gym of current UFC Featherweight Champion; Alex Volkanovski & UFC Middleweight Champion; Israel Adesanya.

Dan has been with the UFC since 2014, but it wasn’t until 2018 that he got his chance to test himself against top UFC talent, when he faced and finished Jim Miller at UFC Fight Night 128.

Since then, Dan has only fought the top of the lightweight division. He has taken out; Paul Felder, Al Laquinta and now top Weltweight Gilbert Burns. He recently put on a fight of the year contender performance with Dustin Poirier at the UFC Apex centre. Although he lost the fight, the toughness of his chin, and the heart he showed raised his perceived stock with MMA fans. Furthermore, Dustin Poirier is not known to be a walk-over himself and he has crazy knockout power in his fists.

Dan is yet to get a title shot in the UFC, however, he is only 1 or 2 wins against top 5 opponents from deserving the opportunity to fight for UFC gold.

Michael Chandler

Michael Chandler is an ex wrestler who opted out of competing as an amateur, and went straight into the professional circuit. He had a brief stint in Strikeforce before joining Bellator as a Lightweight.

Within 2 years of starting his MMA journey, he had earned himself a title shot against the then dominant Champion, Eddie Alvarez. The fight has gone down as arguably the greatest fight in MMA history, where Chandler choked out Alvarez in the 4th round to become the Bellator Lightweight champion.

Chandler spent many years in and out of being the Bellator Lightweight champion, where he beat notable figures such as Benson Hendenson & Patricky Freire. Chandler is a fighter with huge heart and determination. He bites down on his gumshield and marches forwards even when he’s receiving heavy punishment. More often than not, this grit wears his opponents down until they finally succumb to the pressure.

Michael Chandler has recently moved to the UFC (as of writing in September 2020), where he is the back-up to the Justin Gaethje v Khabib Nurmagomedov title fight. If Michael stepped in to fight, he would be making his UFC debut in a title fight, which shows you how highly rated he is in the MMA community, and by Dana White.

Patricio Freire

Patricio “Ptbull” Freire is the Bellator Lightweight Champion, as of October 2020. He recently dethroned Michael Chandler by finishing him at Bellator 221 which was a huge statement considering Chandler’s own status.

Pitbull is currently riding a 5 fight win streak in the division and utilises a fast, crisp stand-up striking style to dismantle his opponents in the cage. His last loss in Bellator was against former UFC Lightweight Champion Benson Henderson where lost to a leg injury.

Although he has not had the chance to test himself against the UFC’s elite, it’s commonly considerd that he’s talented enough to give the top 10 of the UFC’s Lightweight division a tough night.

Conor McGregor

Conor McGregor is without a doubt the biggest star in the history of MMA. His rise to global fame brought MMA into the mainstream for the 1st time in the sport’s history.

While McGregor built his career in the UFC mainly as a featherweight, he moved up to lightweight in November 2016, at UFC 205, where he became the UFCs 1st ever fighter to hold 2 World titles at the same time, coining the term ‘Double Champ’ in MMA.

This was not the 1st time that McGregor had competed at lightweight however. He was a 2 weight world champion in his time at Cage Warriors where he held both the Featherweight and Lightweight belts at the same time.

Since his fight with Floyd Mayweather, Conor has not gone back down to Featherweight. He has instead competed at Lightweight, for the title against Khabib Nurmagomedov, and at Welterweight where fought Donald Cerrone. He is however, still classed predominantly as a lightweight as of 2020.

Conor has many exciting potential match-ups in the Lightweight division, where his incredible distance management, lightning fast counters and incredible punching power could still prove deadly to any combatant.

Tony Ferguson

Tony “El Cucuy” Ferguson, otherwise known as “The Boogeyman”, is one of the most feared MMA fighters in the sport’s history. He was at one point on a 12 fight win streak in the Lightweight division, when it was the UFC’s deepest division.

He is comically known for his zany workouts which often look extremely ridiculous and dangerous. However, this shouldn’t distract from how skillful he is in the Octagon… His opponents often look like they were beaten with a sledgehammer and dragged through a thorn bush.

Tony has one of the toughest chins in the UFC, which he proved in his fight against Justin Gaethje, and his cardio is unmatched throughout the sport. His coach Eddie Bravo often brings up how Tony can train for 6 hours straight without a break. At first you think this is a joke, but when you see how fast a pace he can keep over 5 rounds, you start to wonder if he wasn’t joking at all.

On Ferguson’s 12 fight win streak, he beat the following top contenders; Kevin Lee, Anthony Pettis, Rafael Dos Anjos, Donald Cerrone, Edson Barboza, Josh Thompson and Abel Trujillo.

He is also the former UFC Interim Lightweight Champion.

Justin Gaethje

Justin “The Highlight” Gaethje is the former WSOF lightweight champion, who joined the UFC as an undefeated prospect. His first fight in the UFC was against Michael Johnson, and it was the best fight of the year.

His amazing performance against Johnson earnt him a main event spot in only his 2nd UFC fight. It was in this fight that he lost for the first time in his career, against Eddie Alvarez, in what was another fight of the year contender. He then went on a short skid, as he lost his 3rd UFC fight to Dustin Poirier (which was yet another fight of the year contender).

These 2 tastes of defeat made Justin go back to the drawing board with his coach Trevor Wittman, and adapt his fighting style. Since gaethje has adopted a more calm and calculated approach, while still always going for the kill in each of his fights, he has picked up 4 wins in a row, all ending by knockout.

His most impressive performance in his career was against Tony Ferguson, who he dominated through almost the entire fight, before finally TKO’ing Tony in the 4th round and winning the interim lightweight championship belt.

He is scheduled to fight Khabib in a title unification bout in late September 2020.

Dustin Poirier

Dustin “Diamond” Poirier is a former featherweight, who moved up to the lightweight division after being on the receiving end of a few knockout losses. This move has been very, very lucrative for Dustin, who has gone from being a top 10 featherweight, to a former interim lightweight champion in the UFC.

Dustin is predominantly a boxer who has incredible timing in his offensive striking and devastating power in his hands. He has given UFC fans some insane wars against; Eddie Alvarez, Justin Gaethje, Max Holloway and Dan Hooker, all fights which he won.

He held the interim champion belt until he lost a title unification bout against Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Khabib Nurmagomedov

Khabib “The Eagle” Nurmagomedov is the current champion of the UFC lightweight division. He is undefeated, with a perfect record of 28-0, and besides his 50/50 win over Gleison Tibau, his wins have always been very one sided. Before his fight with McGregor, it was widely accepted that he had never even lost a single round in any of his fights. However, in their memorable fight, Conor McGregor won round 3 against Khabib which shattered this non-material accolade.

As he says himself, he “mauls” people in the Octagon. He drags his opponents to the floor, ties up their legs, and then smashes them with heavy ground and pound. The scary thing is, that every fighter knows what Khabib’s game plan is going to be against them, but so far no-one has been able to figure out how to stop him implementing it.

Khabib is the most feared fighter in the UFC’s lightweight division and tops this list as the best current lightweight on Earth.