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Although the UFC began in Colorado, USA, it wouldn’t be unfair to call Brazil the true birthplace of MMA. After all, it was in the heart of Brazil where the earliest mixed martial arts fights – in the form of no-holds-barred Vale Tudo – took place, and of course, it was the country that brought Gracie Jiu-Jitsu to the world and enabled the style to rule over the earliest UFC events.
It’s no surprise that over the near-25 year history of the UFC, some of the promotion’s greatest champions and fighters have hailed from Brazil. The list is only growing, too, partly helped by the foothold that the UFC now has in the country, as they put on numerous events there each year.
It’ll take a lot from any young Brazilian fighter to gain a slot on the pantheon of legends, though – here are the top five Brazilian fighters in UFC history, along with a handful of honourable mentions.
Honourable Mentions:
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira – In the pantheon of Brazilian MMA legends, ‘Minotauro’ would almost certainly sit somewhere right near the top. In his prime, he was the greatest Heavyweight in the sport and an argument could still be made for him belonging in a top five of all time in his division.
But despite winning the Interim Heavyweight title in the UFC, his greatest successes – wins over Mark Coleman, Heath Herring, Mirko Cro Cop et al – came in PRIDE, as did his greatest championship run. He did well in the UFC, but he’d probably admit himself that he was past his best when he arrived there.
Murilo Bustamante – One of the founding members of the legendary Brazilian Top Team, Bustamante was a fighter somewhat before his time in that he blended excellent boxing and wrestling in with his world-class jiu-jitsu.
He parlayed those skills into a run as UFC Middleweight champion in the early Zuffa-run days but left the company after just one title defence following a contract dispute. If he’d stuck around then who knows, he could well have made the top five – he certainly had the skills.
Junior Dos Santos – One of the Nogueira brothers’ many protégés, Dos Santos came into the UFC looking unstoppable – he took out his first eight opponents to win the UFC Heavyweight title from Cain Velasquez – a man considered unbeatable at the time.
A successful defence followed, but then Velasquez regained his title in a rematch and then defeated JDS in a rubber match to cement his status as the top dog. Dos Santos was never the same after the Velasquez fights, but the blistering beginning to his UFC career gives him a spot here.
Lyoto Machida – Machida brought a completely unique game into the UFC with his karate-based style, and for a while it was perfect for him – he defeated six opponents and then dethroned Rashad Evans to win the UFC Light-Heavyweight title, and carrying an unbeaten record, it looked like he’d be a tricky man to topple.
Less than a year after his reign began, though, he was beaten by ‘Shogun’ Rua and then never really got back to the top. Still, his incredible list of victims – Tito Ortiz, Evans, Randy Couture, Ryan Bader and Dan Henderson amongst them – as well as his unique style means he goes down as a true Brazilian legend.
#5 Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua
‘Shogun’ is a truly curious case in the UFC as his time at the very top was fleeting, but the fact that he made it to the top at all means he warrants a spot on this list. He first shot to fame in PRIDE in 2005, where he won their Middleweight (205lbs) Grand Prix and became considered by many as the top Light-Heavyweight in the world.
Two years – and a handful of serious injuries – later, and a more bloated-looking Rua made his UFC debut, where the cardio and striking skill that had served him so well in PRIDE appeared to have vanished. He was choked out by Forrest Griffin in a pretty embarrassing entry, and the days of him being considered a top fighter appeared to be gone.
Following the Griffin defeat, Shogun took over a year off to get knee surgery, and upon his return, he defeated the aged Mark Coleman in a sloppy match. A win over the equally shot Chuck Liddell followed – a nice name win, but nothing that would suggest he could go on to win the UFC’s Light-Heavyweight title. Indeed, when he was matched with Lyoto Machida, the feeling was that he was simply a big name for Machida to defeat.
But Rua proved his doubters wrong by finally recapturing his great PRIDE form, arguably beating Machida before the judges decided to vote the other way. So strong was Shogun’s case that an instant rematch was booked, and in that fight he left no doubt, knocking out Machida to claim the UFC title. In doing so, he returned to the top spot in the division.
Injuries then reared their head again – Shogun was forced onto the shelf for a year, and when he returned he was destroyed by Jon Jones in his first title defence. Since then it’s been a career of ups and downs, with some good wins and some bad losses too. But the fact that he was written off but managed to resurrect his career enough to win the UFC title means he belongs on this list. He’s one of the best 205lbers of all time.
#4 Vitor Belfort
One of the most controversial figures in UFC history, it’s hard to believe really that Vitor has now been fighting in the UFC for two decades, and yet he’s still ticking along. In that time frame, he’s fought a laundry list of UFC and MMA legends – Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Anderson Silva, Wanderlei Silva, you could go on for days. And he’s reinvented himself on numerous occasions and until basically the last two years or so, he’s never been too far away from the UFC title picture.
Belfort debuted back at UFC 12 and burst onto the scene by winning the Heavyweight tournament at that show. The word was that he was a jiu-jitsu based grappler, but instead he shocked anyone by displaying boxing skills and hand speed largely unseen in the UFC at the time. A loss to Randy Couture proved he wasn’t unbeatable though, and then a run in PRIDE followed, where Vitor reinvented himself as a wrestling-based fighter.
When he returned to the UFC, he brought back his striking style and opened up a cut on Marvin Eastman that looked like Eastman had been hit with a machete. That was enough to earn him a Light-Heavyweight title shot against Randy Couture, and it was this shot that saw Vitor claim his only UFC title, although it was largely a fluke win and Couture regained his title soon after.
A bad run of results saw Vitor in the wilderness outside the UFC from 2005 to 2009, but he returned again and was able to take out the likes of Rich Franklin and Yoshihiro Akiyama, earning unsuccessful title shots at Middleweight and Light-Heavyweight.
His final great run came as a 185lber in 2013, but was largely fuelled by testosterone replacement therapy – making him hugely controversial – and since the ban on TRT, he’s looked close to retirement. But for sheer longevity, he’s definitely one of the true Brazilian legends.
#3 Jose Aldo
One of the UFC’s truly dominant champions, despite the fame of Conor McGregor and the current brilliance of Max Holloway, most MMA observers would still consider Aldo the greatest 145lber of all time – you simply can’t argue with seven successful UFC title defences – and that would’ve been nine had the UFC integrated the division from its sister promotion WEC a couple of years earlier.
As it was, Aldo came into the UFC as the already-crowned champion when the lighter weight classes were imported from the WEC and was immediately pushed as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters on the planet. Aldo more than lived up to his side of the bargain, showing off his unparalleled striking skill as well as his unbelievable takedown defence in his early defences against the likes of Kenny Florian and Mark Hominick.
The only knock on Aldo? The fact that he didn’t fight quite as much as most fans would’ve hoped, due to a susceptibility to injuries. Indeed, he was forced out of a total of five scheduled fights due to various ailments, the most infamous either being UFC 176 (which was cancelled due to Aldo withdrawing from his fight with Chad Mendes) or UFC 189 (which saw him withdraw from his huge fight with McGregor).
Ignoring that, though, and you can’t deny the dominance of his run at 145lbs. Up until his loss to McGregor in 2015, nobody had really come close to beating Aldo – not strikers, wrestlers, submission artists or a mix of all three. And even post-McGregor saw him recapture his title with an imperious win over Frankie Edgar before Holloway came knocking. On his day, Aldo was probably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and not many can say that.
#2 Royce Gracie
The original UFC legend, most observers would argue that Royce Gracie changed the way that people looked at “real” fighting. He introduced the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu style to the world, and showed that a smaller, less physically-imposing man could defeat much larger opponents with relative ease, all by taking them to the ground and catching them in chokes or joint locks.
It was Royce who introduced before-unknown terms like the guard, the rear-naked choke and the armbar. It could even be argued that he’s the most important martial artist of all time.
If the first UFC tournament – held in Denver, Colorado back in 1993 – was almost an infomercial to show off the prowess of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, the same could not be said for the subsequent tournaments that Royce won.
Much larger, aggressive opponents like Ken Shamrock, Kimo Leopoldo and Dan Severn were all defeated by the skinny Brazilian in the gi, and when all was said and done, Royce came away with a total of 11 UFC wins – all by submission – and three tournament victories.
His initial UFC career ended in a ‘Superfight’ with Ken Shamrock that was eventually declared a draw after a largely uneventful 36 minutes, and with that Royce decided to step away, having succeeded in his goal of proving Gracie Jiu-Jitsu the best style to win a fight with very few rules.
When he returned in 2006 for a one-off fight with Matt Hughes, the world had changed entirely. MMA was now an established sport, everyone knew Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and Royce was a relic of the past who was easily beaten.
Even then, though, everyone from Hughes to the UFC brass like Dana White gave the Brazilian his credit – after all, if it wasn’t for Royce Gracie, none of it would’ve been possible. That’s why, over two decades on from his emergence, he remains one of the greatest Brazilian fighters of all time.
#1 Anderson Silva
Despite the current controversy surrounding his potential use of performance-enhancing drugs, Anderson Silva still stands head and shoulders above all of the other Brazilian greats inside the UFC. Until this October he held the record number of UFC title defences with ten, and he would still jointly hold the record had Travis Lutter made weight for their Middleweight title fight.
He won his first sixteen UFC fights – a figure that will likely never be topped – and only went to decision twice. And on three occasions he made excursions up to 205lbs from his usual 185lbs and was unbeaten there, even stopping former Light-Heavyweight champ Forrest Griffin in one of his greatest ever performances.
But it wasn’t his amazing accomplishments that made Silva so great – it was the way in which he fought. At his peak, Silva fought like a character from The Matrix, moving and striking in a way that other fighters could only dream about. His knockouts of Griffin, Vitor Belfort and Yushin Okami remain jaw-dropping to this day. He wasn’t just better than his opponents – he was moving in another dimension.
And he was well-rounded, too, submitting noted ground fighters Travis Lutter, Dan Henderson and Chael Sonnen to defend his title when they took him down to avoid his deadly striking. Admittedly, he had a tendency to play with his food at times – his fights with Thales Leites and Demian Maia, in particular, were dire – and that meant that the fans didn’t always love him. But one flashy performance later and everyone was back on side.
Silva’s seven-year run of dominance ended in 2013 when he was knocked out by challenger Chris Weidman, and in the rematch, he suffered a horrific leg break. Most observers agree that it was his desire to return from such a terrible injury that turned his head to PEDs. He’s tested positive twice since the injury, and it’s no surprise that at 42, he now appears to be a shadow of his former self.
Of course, everyone gets old – even legends like Silva. And when we look back in years to come, will anyone really hold the drug test failures late in his career – and the losses to the likes of Michael Bisping and Daniel Cormier – against him? It’s doubtful.
It’s more likely that they’ll think back to his victories over Henderson, Belfort, Sonnen, Griffin and Franklin, and still recognise him as the greatest UFC fighter to ever hail from Brazil. Nobody comes close really.
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