5 longest winning streaks in UFC history
UFC 220 last weekend saw two of the more impressive winning streaks in the promotion end when both Francis Ngannou – unbeaten over two years and six fights – and Volkan Oezdemir – unbeaten for a year and three fights – lost their respective title fights. Basically, all undefeated streaks tend to end at one point or another.
Some last for far longer than Ngannou’s or Oezdemir’s though, and go down in history, making the fighter on the streak into a true UFC legend. Here are the five longest winning streaks in UFC history.
#5 Max Holloway – 4 years, 12 fights
The current UFC Featherweight champion and Hawaii’s favourite son, Max ‘Blessed’ Holloway is also on one of the most impressive win streaks in UFC history. Since the beginning of 2014, he’s torn through twelve opponents, going from men at the very bottom of the UFC roster like Will Chope and Clay Collard, to the very top of the tree with his two wins over Jose Aldo.
There are a number of different things that make Holloway’s winning streak impressive. Firstly, the consistency in which he’s fought – while other top fighters spend months on the shelf, Holloway’s averaged three fights a year since his streak began, although admittedly he’s slowed down slightly since moving into title contention in 2016. But his next title defence is already booked – against Frankie Edgar in March – and that alone makes him one of the UFC’s more active champs.
Secondly, his finishing rate is phenomenal. Of the twelve wins on his streak, he’s finished nine of them before the final buzzer – two submissions to go with seven wins by KO or TKO, too, proving he’s a well-rounded fighter and not just a knockout artist. At just 26 years old and seemingly improving with every fight, the scariest thing about Max Holloway is that this streak could go on for some time, moving him even further up this list.