Undefeated UFC Fighters: Who's Still Perfect Right Now

Staying unbeaten in the UFC is a different animal from staying unbeaten almost anywhere else in combat sports, because every name on the schedule already won on the regional circuit before the UFC signed them. There’s no easy voice on the résumé. That’s why the list of fighters who have never heard the final horn go against them is short, and why it keeps getting shorter — 2026 alone knocked three widely-hyped unbeaten runs off the board. Here’s exactly who’s still perfect, who isn’t anymore, and the numbers behind each one.

Undefeated UFC Fighters at a Glance (as of August 2026)

Records shift after every event; treat this as an August 2026 snapshot, not a permanent ranking.

How We Ranked This List

The names below are ordered by career win total among fighters who have genuinely never lost a professional MMA fight, with one deliberate exception: Islam Makhachev, whose single loss came in an amateur-adjacent bout outside the UFC in 2015 and who has never lost inside the promotion itself. Draws and no-contests don’t break a streak, so Aliaskhab Khizriev’s record still counts despite a no-contest result. Anyone who has taken an official loss — even a legend like Khamzat Chimaev or Ilia Topuria — is excluded from the named list and covered separately below, because this page is about who’s still perfect right now, not who used to be.

1. Khabib Nurmagomedov — 29-0-0 (Lightweight, Retired)

Nobody has come close to matching Khabib Nurmagomedov’s résumé. He walked away from the sport in October 2020 having never lost a single round on any judge’s scorecard across his entire UFC run, let alone a fight. He defended the lightweight title three times, including a dominant unanimous decision over Justin Gaethje in his final bout, and retired at the top rather than risk the zero. His 29-0 mark remains the standard every undefeated fighter on this list is measured against, and no active fighter is within nine wins of catching him.

2. Islam Makhachev — 28-1-0 Overall, Undefeated in the UFC (Welterweight Champion)

Makhachev is the most accomplished fighter currently active who has never lost inside the Octagon. He won the lightweight title, defended it four times — the most in divisional history — then moved up and beat Jack Della Maddalena to become a two-division UFC champion. His only professional loss came in a 2015 bout before he’d established himself, which is why he’s tracked as UFC-undefeated rather than career-undefeated. He trained in the same Dagestani wrestling room as Khabib and has denied repeated retirement rumors through 2026, saying he wants to keep chasing records rather than protect the one he has.

3. Movsar Evloev — 20-0-0 (Featherweight, #1 Contender)

Evloev holds the longest true unbeaten streak of any active UFC fighter. He pushed his record to 20-0 in March 2026 with a five-round win over a previously undefeated Lerone Murphy, ending Murphy’s own perfect run. Before that, he beat Arnold Allen and former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling back to back without dropping a round. He’s next in line for a featherweight title shot against Alexander Volkanovski, and a win there would make him the first fighter since Khabib to reach a UFC title while genuinely unbeaten.

4. Shavkat Rakhmonov — 19-0-0 (Welterweight, Sidelined)

Rakhmonov built his 19-0 record on a rare finishing rate for a welterweight — eight knockouts and ten submissions, meaning most of his wins ended before the judges got involved. His last outing was a decision win over Ian Machado Garry in December 2024. A knee injury has kept him out since, with a return not expected before winter 2027, but his zero is still intact and he remains ranked among the division’s elite.

5. Michael Morales — 19-0-0 (Welterweight, Top Contender)

Morales has emerged as one of the UFC’s most talked-about prospects, running his record to 19-0 with wins over Gilbert Burns and Sean Brady, the latter a first-round finish that earned him a third straight Performance of the Night bonus. His record briefly showed a discrepancy across tracking sites in January 2026 before being corrected back to a clean mark. He’s been publicly linked to a future title fight with Islam Makhachev, which would be the first time two truly undefeated UFC fighters met for a belt.

6. Farid Basharat — 16-0-0 (Bantamweight)

Basharat is the last fighter with a perfect record left in the UFC’s bantamweight division, and he owns the division’s longest active win streak. The Afghan fighter extended his mark to 16-0 with a unanimous decision over John Garza at UFC 329 in July 2026. He’s currently ranked in the bantamweight top 10 and, with several other unbeaten contenders in his weight class losing their zeroes in recent years, has quietly become one of the safer bets to reach a title shot without a loss on the books.

7. Luke Riley — 14-0-0 (Featherweight)

Riley is one of the newer names to watch, improving to 14-0 with a first-round TKO over Kai Kamaka III at UFC 329. Nine of his career wins have come by knockout, a 69% finish rate that’s unusually high even by UFC prospect standards. He’s a training partner of Paddy Pimblett’s, and while his UFC resume is still short, the finishing rate has drawn Dana White’s attention as a fighter worth fast-tracking toward ranked competition.

8. Aliaskhab Khizriev — 14-0-0, 1 NC (Middleweight)

Khizriev’s record technically includes a no-contest — his February 2024 bout with Makhmud Muradov was ruled a no-decision after an accidental eye poke — but because it wasn’t scored as a loss, his unbeaten streak stands. He hasn’t fought in the UFC since that result, making him the most inactive name on this list. If and when he returns, he’ll still carry one of the cleaner records in the middleweight division.

9. Jacobe Smith — 12-0-0 (Welterweight)

Smith has finished all three of his UFC opponents, the most recent a TKO over Josiah Harrell at a February 2026 Fight Night card in Houston. Nine of his twelve career wins have come by knockout and one by submission, so he’s rarely needed the scorecards. He’s still building name recognition, but a perfect finishing rate at 12-0 tends to get a fighter moved up the card quickly.

10. Mario Pinto — 12-0-0 (Heavyweight)

Pinto is a rare heavyweight who has stayed unbeaten deep into a UFC run, moving to 12-0 with a March 2026 decision win over Felipe Franco in London. His finishing breakdown — six knockouts, four decisions, one submission — shows a fighter who can win multiple ways rather than relying purely on power, which matters in a division where one bad exchange can end a streak in seconds. He’s positioned for a step up against ranked heavyweight competition next.

The Zeroes That Didn’t Survive 2026

Staying undefeated is a moving target, and 2026 was proof. Lerone Murphy lost his perfect record to Movsar Evloev in March. Khamzat Chimaev, who’d won the middleweight title while still unbeaten in October 2025, was upset by Sean Strickland by split decision in May, ending his run at 15-1. Ilia Topuria, who’d become the first undefeated two-division champion in UFC history by knocking out Charles Oliveira for the lightweight belt, was stopped by Justin Gaethje in June, finishing at 17-1. All three were counted among the sport’s best undefeated fighters just months earlier — proof that “unbeaten” isn’t a permanent label until a fighter retires with it intact.

Why an Undefeated UFC Record Means So Much

Every fighter on this list has done something the most UFC wins leaders mostly haven’t: won without a single loss on the ledger, against a roster where every opponent already proved themselves before reaching the Octagon. Reaching a title while still unbeaten is rarer still — Khabib did it, Makhachev did it, and both Chimaev and Topuria did it before losing their zeroes later. Understanding how records like these get built also means understanding the weight classes fighters are climbing through; a full breakdown of each is in our UFC weight classes guide and our wider MMA weight classes explainer. For fighters who’ve defended a belt the longest without needing a perfect record, see our list of most UFC title defenses.

We dig into a related angle in Bare-Knuckle Boxing Rules, Explained.