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The UFC Welterweight title is on the line this weekend as current champion Kamaru Usman defends against former interim champion Colby Covington in one of the biggest grudge matches in recent memory. But will the winner be considered up there with the greatest Welterweights of all time?
Quite possibly. Both Usman and Covington have tremendous records inside the UFC and have beaten some great opponents, but while a win this weekend would put them in the conversation, the UFC has been home to practically every great 170lber in MMA history – meaning ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ and ‘Chaos’ have quite a lot to live up to.
Here are the best 5 Welterweights of the last decade (2010-2019).
#5 Carlos Condit
Carlos Condit might be on a horrendous losing streak now - ‘The Natural Born Killer’ has lost his last 5 fights – but for the majority of the last decade, the Albuquerque, New Mexico native was one of the most feared 170lbers in the world. A reckless fighter capable of defeating opponents standing or on the ground, the former WEC champion gained huge popularity during his UFC career and made it all the way to the top.
Condit’s decade started in 2010 with an impressive come-from-behind win over then-hot prospect Rory MacDonald; ‘The Natural Born Killer’ was two rounds in the hole before coming back to stop the Canadian in the third round with a barrage of elbows. From there he went on to knock out both Dan Hardy and Dong Hyun Kim, setting up an interim title match with Nick Diaz at the beginning of 2012.
Condit overcame Diaz in a narrow decision in that fight to gain UFC gold for the first time, and although he was defeated in the eventual unification fight with longtime champion Georges St-Pierre, he came as close as anyone to beating the Canadian, knocking him down with a fourth round head kick.
Following his title reign, Condit was defeated by top contender Johny Hendricks, but then came back to beat Martin Kampmann and Thiago Alves to claim another title shot. And while he came up short in his fight against champion Robbie Lawler, the fight was one of the greatest ever seen in the UFC, with both men exchanging wild, heavy strikes for the full 25 minutes.
It was after that fight that Condit’s slide began; hardly surprising given the punishment he took from Lawler, but regardless, ‘The Natural Born Killer’ will definitely go down as one of the best 170lbers of the decade.
#4 Johny Hendricks
At the start of the decade, there were few 170lbers who were considered as talented as Johny Hendricks. A former NCAA Division I national champion in freestyle wrestling, ‘Bigg Rigg’ transferred to the UFC from the WEC in 2009 and won his first two fights before the turn of the decade. Once 2010 began, he put together a run of 8 wins with just one defeat – a controversial decision loss to Rick Story – to cement a title shot against champion Georges St-Pierre.
During that time, Hendricks became renowned for his ridiculous knockout power, particularly in his left hand. He used that weapon to take out top ranked contenders like Jon Fitch and Martin Kampmann, knocking both men unconscious with literally one punch.
Hendricks came up short in his challenge against ‘GSP’, but many fans felt he deserved the nod from the judges after leaving the Canadian legend battered and bruised with his heavy punches and elbows. GSP would vacate his title following the fight, going into a temporary retirement, and so Hendricks fought – and defeated – Robbie Lawler for the vacant title in March 2014.
A rematch between the two saw Lawler overcome ‘Bigg Rigg’, and from there Hendricks saw his career go into freefall; wins over Matt Brown and Hector Lombard were offset by defeats to Stephen Thompson, Kelvin Gastelum, Neil Magny, Tim Boetsch and Paulo Costa – the latter two at 185lbs after Hendricks continually failed to make 170lbs – but for the blistering start he made to the decade, the former wrestling standout deserves his place in this countdown.
#3 Robbie Lawler
For sheer excitement in his fights, no other Welterweight this decade can touch Robbie Lawler. ‘Ruthless Robbie’ had a UFC Welterweight title reign that lasted only for 18 months, but during that period of time he put on three of the greatest title fights in promotional history – winning them all – and that alone grants him a spot as one of the best 170lbers of the past decade.
Lawler actually started the decade competing as a Middleweight in StrikeForce, where he went 3-4 following the dawning of 2010. But once he moved back to the UFC in 2013, he cut back down to his more natural 170lbs, and instantly went on a tear, defeating Josh Koscheck, Bobby Voelker and Rory MacDonald to position himself as a top contender in the division.
‘Ruthless Robbie’ faced Johny Hendricks for the vacant Welterweight title in March 2014, and although Hendricks edged him on the judges’ scorecards, Lawler wasn’t willing to stop in his quest for gold. He took out Jake Ellenberger and Matt Brown to earn a rematch with Hendricks, and then defeated ‘Bigg Rigg’ in a five round thriller to finally claim his first UFC title.
Next came arguably the greatest title fight in UFC history, as Lawler defended his crown in a toe-to-toe war with MacDonald, both men taking insane amounts of damage before Lawler – who was on the verge of being finished in the fourth round – broke the Canadian’s nose in the fifth to secure a remarkable victory. His next defence, against Carlos Condit, was an equally incredible fight that saw Lawler again come away with his hand raised after taking crazy amounts of punishment.
‘The Ruthless One’ saw his run ended in his next fight, as he was knocked out by Tyron Woodley and lost his title, but after a year away from the sport, he was able to return and beat Donald Cerrone. Now on a three-fight losing streak, it appears we’re reaching the end of Lawler’s storied career – but his title reign remains unforgettable and cements his spot in UFC history as a great.
#2 Tyron Woodley
Another import from StrikeForce, Tyron Woodley went on a 5-1 run in that promotion from 2010 to 2011, with his only loss coming to Nate Marquardt. And once he entered the UFC, he showed how good he could be by destroying the likes of Jay Hieron, Josh Koscheck, Carlos Condit and Dong Hyun Kim with his brutally heavy striking game.
‘The Chosen One’ was slowed down somewhat by a pair of losses to Jake Shields – a controversial decision – and Rory MacDonald, but reached the top of the mountain in 2016, when he knocked out champion Robbie Lawler with a brutal right hand to claim the UFC Welterweight title. At the time, it felt like a new era had begun for the division.
From there, Woodley went onto have the most dominant title reign we’d seen in a number of years, turning back the challenges of Stephen Thompson (twice), Demian Maia and Darren Till to mark himself out as one of the greatest 170lbers of all time. The fights weren’t always that exciting, but nobody could deny that Woodley largely outclassed his opposition.
The former NCAA Division I All-American wrestler was beaten for the title by Kamaru Usman earlier this year, but his accomplishments prior to that fight mark him out as the second-best Welterweight of the decade; nobody else was able to put together as many successful title defences following Georges St-Pierre’s retirement.
#1 Georges St-Pierre
The greatest Welterweight of the previous decade (2000-2009), Georges St-Pierre will also go down in history as the greatest Welterweight to compete between the years of 2010 and 2019. Coming into the decade, ‘GSP’ had already held UFC gold for the best part of two years, defending it successfully on three occasions, but as 2010 dawned, we were in for an even more dominant run from the French-Canadian.
St-Pierre started the decade by defending his title against top contenders Dan Hardy and Josh Koscheck in dominant fashion, and then in early 2011, he turned back the challenge of former StrikeForce Welterweight and Middleweight champion Jake Shields, again in what was a complete shut-out.
Disaster then struck for ‘GSP’; he tore his ACL while preparing to defend his title against Carlos Condit, and found himself stuck on the shelf for over a year. But when he returned, the Canadian hadn’t slowed down at all, and he overcame the challenge of Condit – by then the interim UFC champion – to affirm his spot as the world’s best 170lber.
Two more title defences followed in 2013; first, bitter rival Nick Diaz was whitewashed at UFC 158, before top contender Johny Hendricks was narrowly outpointed at UFC 167. The Hendricks fight would be St-Pierre’s final one as a Welterweight during the decade, as he vacated his title and stepped away from the sport afterwards for a period of four years – returning in 2017 to submit Michael Bisping for the UFC Middleweight title before retiring again, this time for good.
In the end though, ‘GSP’ was the only top UFC Welterweight to go undefeated for the entire decade, and to make his run more impressive, he only ever fought the very best contenders available to him. Not only does he go down as the best Welterweight of the 2010’s, he should probably go down as the greatest fighter in MMA history, too.
