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Right now, it’s probably fair to say that the quality of the fighters competing in the UFC is as high as it has ever been. The promotion’s champions are among the best we’ve ever seen.
The UFC has seen plenty of great champions in its past, but could some of them compete with the promotion’s current titleholders?
The answer is almost certainly yes. Some of the all-time great champions could almost certainly hang with, if not defeat, some of their counterparts today. If they were still in their prime, they may still be ruling over their respective divisions.
Here are five legendary UFC champions who could still succeed today.
#5. Randy Couture – former UFC light heavyweight champion
Despite the fact that his feud with Dana White and the UFC’s brass means that he’s essentially been erased from the promotion’s history, there’s no denying that Randy Couture was a genuinely great champion.
‘The Natural’ held the heavyweight title on three occasions and the light heavyweight title twice. During his reign, he made a number of impressive defenses, became the first man to capture gold in the octagon after the age of 40 and pulled off a number of miracle wins during his time.
However, while Couture’s record of 19-11 is hardly the most gaudy on paper, his skills would definitely mean that he could compete in the modern era with today’s best fighters.
Would ‘The Natural’ succeed as a heavyweight? That’s unlikely due to the size of current fighters like Francis Ngannou and Ciryl Gane.
As a light heavyweight, though? It’d be hard not to make prime Couture the favorite in fights with current stars like Glover Teixeira and Jan Blachowicz.
Couture’s world-class wrestling skills and ability to abuse his opponents in the clinch were second-to-none. His top game was fantastic, too, as we saw in his clashes with top grapplers like Gabriel Gonzaga and Tito Ortiz.
More to the point, Couture’s gameplanning abilities were also fantastic, meaning he’d always come into a fight with a good idea of what to do in order to overcome his opponents.
Essentially, there’s a reason that ‘The Natural’ is such a revered legend. Despite a mediocre record, in his prime, and even slightly out of it, he was a fantastic fighter who could almost certainly still succeed today.
#4. Cain Velasquez – former UFC heavyweight champion
While Francis Ngannou is almost certainly the most terrifying heavyweight champion the UFC has ever seen, possessing knockout power that is practically unheard of even in MMA, it’s arguable that he still isn’t the most skilled big man in the promotion’s history.
That title almost certainly belongs to Cain Velasquez, who held the heavyweight title on two occasions from 2010 to 2015.
A much-hyped prospect even before he arrived in the octagon, Velasquez destroyed the likes of Brock Lesnar, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Junior dos Santos during his time with the promotion. At his best, he was seemingly unstoppable.
His mix of top-level wrestling – he was an NCAA Division I All-American at Arizona State – and brutal kickboxing skills blended together with the ability to push the pace like no other big man could. In his prime, he also appeared to have a remarkably strong chin too.
Essentially, injuries were the only thing that derailed his run at the top. Well over a year separated his title defense over Junior dos Santos and his eventual title loss to Fabricio Werdum, during which he suffered from a number of issues.
By the time he fought Ngannou in February 2019, he’d spent almost three years on the shelf. He was clearly far past his prime, making his knockout loss seem almost inevitable.
Were he still at his best, though, he likely would’ve pushed a pace too hard for ‘The Predator’ to match, forcing him to the ground and beating him into submission.
In his prime, there still hasn’t been a better heavyweight than Velasquez and he’d almost certainly still be able to succeed today.
#3. B.J. Penn – former UFC lightweight champion
The UFC’s lightweight division has arguably been the most fluid that the promotion has ever seen, with no fighter really dominating it for a lengthy period of time.
It’s probably fair to claim that the two greatest champions to step into the octagon at 155 pounds were B.J. Penn and Khabib Nurmagomedov. However, while we know that Khabib was able to dominate today’s best fighters, could a prime ‘Prodigy’ do the same?
Naturally, a lot of modern fans might scoff at the idea that even in his prime, Penn could beat current stars like Charles Oliveira, Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler. That’s because the version of ‘The Prodigy’ they likely saw was the broken shell who most recently lost to Clay Guida in 2019.
At his best, though, Penn was almost literally a force of nature. His boxing was remarkably sharp for the period in which he fought and he was one of the first fighters to really make good use of a jab in the octagon.
On the ground, meanwhile, he was a genuinely world class Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt with incredible flexibility and his wrestling was underrated too. At times he appeared impossible to take down and he managed to plant great wrestlers like Matt Hughes and Jon Fitch on their backs.
The Hawaiian’s only real weakness was his willingness to bounce around through various weight classes. Had he focussed purely on a legacy at 155 pounds, he’d probably be untouchable as the division’s GOAT right now.
So if prime Penn were to arrive in today’s lightweight division, it’s hardly a stretch to say that he could box up the likes of Oliveira and Makhachev and dominate Gaethje on the ground. At his best, Khabib aside, he’s still the best lightweight the UFC has ever seen.
#2. Anderson Silva – former UFC middleweight champion
Despite the great accomplishments of current UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, ‘The Last Stylebender’ still has a long way to go before he surpasses the great Anderson Silva in the division’s overall pantheon.
Not only did ‘The Spider’ hold the middleweight title for the best part of seven years, but he made a total of 10 successful defenses. He also put together the longest winning streak in the promotion’s history with 16 victories in a row.
Of course, though, the Brazilian’s title reign took place almost a decade ago now. So could Silva’s skills still translate into success in the modern era?
Based on what Adesanya has achieved, the answer is absolutely yes. Even ‘The Last Stylebender’ would probably be happy to admit that his style inside the octagon – with his pinpoint accurate strikes, unorthodox movement and perfect timing – is largely based on Silva’s.
However, there are a handful of questions around Adesanya’s ground game, questions that were most notably raised when he lost to Jan Blachowicz in 2021. On the other side, there were definitely none around Silva’s.
Sure, ‘The Spider’ could be taken down, but off his back he was a highly dangerous Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt who was able to submit top grapplers such as Chael Sonnen and Travis Lutter.
Therefore, if Adesanya could dominate the rest of the division today, so could Silva in his prime. If anything, at his best, ‘The Spider’ would’ve been favored against ‘The Last Stylebender’. After all, he pushed him hard in their clash in 2019 despite being 43 years old at the time.
#1. Georges St-Pierre – former UFC welterweight champion
Widely recognized as the greatest MMA fighter of all time, former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre essentially dominated the 170-pound division from when he first claimed the title in 2006 through to his initial retirement in 2013.
The likes of Tyron Woodley and Kamaru Usman have attempted to surpass the great Canadian’s legacy in the octagon, but to date, nobody has achieved it. At his best, though, could GSP dominate today’s best fighters like Usman and his great rivals Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal? It’s basically a sure thing that he could.
While Usman’s wrestling is absolutely fantastic – his takedown defense is almost impenetrable and he’s seemingly capable of overpowering any opponent – St-Pierre was able to dominate wrestlers like Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch on the mat, both of whom had stronger credentials than ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’.
While it’s probably fair to suggest that Usman carries more power in his hands than St-Pierre did, at his peak, GSP’s boxing was arguably the very best that the UFC had to offer. Not only was he remarkably quick on his feet, but he possessed a ramrod jab that he often used to pick his opponents apart.
Add in the fact that GSP rarely, if ever, became tired in his fights, and at his best, he was essentially as unbeatable a fighter as the octagon had ever seen.
Therefore, if prime GSP were still competing today, it’s not only likely that he’d be capable of holding the title he never actually lost, it’s likely that he’d dominate today’s best fighters just as he did to the best a decade ago.
