The 5 greatest UFC Welterweights of the decade (2010-2019)
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.