UFC’s Longest Win Streaks — and a Five-Way Tie for Third

Who Holds UFC’s Longest Win Streak?

One record, and a five-way pile-up right behind it

**Islam Makhachev’s decision win over Ian Machado Garry at UFC 330 (Aug 15, 2026) stretched his UFC winning streak to 17, breaking the record Anderson Silva had held since 2013. Third place isn’t a single fighter — Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Demetrious Johnson, and Max Holloway are all locked at 13 wins apiece. A “win streak” here counts UFC-bout wins only: a loss, a draw, or a no contest ends it, which is exactly what closed Jon Jones’s run in 2017.**

What the Ranking Shows:

• **Makhachev stands alone at the top: 17 straight wins across two weight classes, active since 2016 and still running.**
• **Silva’s 16-win record lasted 13 years: Set from 2006–2013, it survived every challenger until Makhachev matched it in 2026, then broke it days later.**
• **Third place is a genuine five-way tie: Jones, GSP, Khabib, Demetrious Johnson, and Holloway each finished with 13 consecutive UFC wins.**
• **Two champions never actually lost the streak: GSP and Khabib both retired while their streaks were still active — no loss ever ended them.**

Key Numbers:

• **Longest Active Streak: 17 wins — Islam Makhachev**
• **Previous Record: 16 wins — Anderson Silva (2006–2013)**
• **Fighters Tied for Third: 5**
• **Makhachev’s Career Record: 29–1**

**Streak records in the UFC rarely last — Silva’s stood for over a decade because no one else combined that level of dominance with staying active long enough to keep it going. Makhachev’s now sits at 17 and is still active, which means the number on this list most likely to change again is the one at the very top.**

Overview

A Ranking Led by One Fighter and Crowded at the Top

**Twelve fighters make up the list of the longest winning streaks in UFC history, and the gap between them tells its own story. Islam Makhachev’s active run of 17 straight wins sits alone at the top, one win clear of Anderson Silva’s 16-fight record that stood from 2013 until UFC 330 in August 2026. Below that, the list compresses fast: Kamaru Usman and Merab Dvalishvili hold the next two spots outright, but from there on it’s ties all the way down — a five-way logjam at 13 wins, then a three-way tie at 12. A win streak here means UFC-bout wins only; a loss, a draw, or a no contest closes it out, regardless of weight class, which is the rule that keeps this list honest and comparable across eras.**

#1 Islam Makhachev — 17 Straight Wins, UFC’s Longest Streak Ever

**Makhachev’s streak began the fight after his only UFC loss — a first-round KO to Adriano Martins at UFC 192 in October 2015 — and hasn’t stopped since. He won the lightweight title, defended it repeatedly, moved up to welterweight, and beat Ian Machado Garry by unanimous decision at UFC 330 on August 15, 2026 for his 17th straight win, passing Anderson Silva for the record outright.**

UFC’s Longest Win Streak · 17 Straight Wins

17

**No fighter in UFC history has strung together more consecutive wins than Islam Makhachev’s current run. It passed Anderson Silva’s 16-fight record at UFC 330 in August 2026 and is still active, which means every future Makhachev win extends a number no one else on this list can currently touch.**

Just One Loss, Ever · 29–1 Career Record

29–1

**Makhachev’s full MMA record stands at 29–1. That single loss came in October 2015, a first-round knockout to Adriano Martins — the fight that, indirectly, set the clock running on the streak that just broke UFC history.**

A Decade Without Losing · Streak Running Since 2016

10 Years and Counting

**Makhachev hasn’t lost a fight since 2015, meaning his active streak has now run for roughly a decade across two different weight classes. Anderson Silva’s old record took seven years to build; Makhachev has kept his going for ten and shows no sign of stopping.**

Makhachev by the Numbers

• Wins Clear of the Old Record 1 Win Ahead Makhachev’s 17 wins beat Anderson Silva’s long-standing 16-fight record by exactly one, at UFC 330 on August 15, 2026.
• Weight Classes Spanned 2 The streak started at lightweight and now includes a welterweight title reign — Makhachev is the only fighter on this list to build his record across two divisions.
• First Welterweight Title Defense 1 st Defense UFC 330 marked Makhachev’s first defense of the welterweight belt he added to his lightweight title, making the record-breaking win a two-division statement.

Methodology

What Actually Counts as a UFC Win Streak

The rule behind this ranking is simple and applied the same way to all twelve fighters: only consecutive wins inside the UFC count, and a loss, a draw, or a no contest ends the run — no matter what weight class it happens in. That last part matters more than it sounds. Jon Jones is the clearest example: his in-cage record looked even longer, but his 2017 win over Daniel Cormier was overturned to a no contest after a failed drug test, and a no contest closes a streak under the UFC’s own bookkeeping just as a loss would. His official streak closes at 13, not the 17 it would read informally. Max Holloway’s case cuts the other way — some recaps count his featherweight-only run at 14, but tracked across every division the way every other fighter here is counted, his streak stands at 13, ended by a lightweight bout loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 236 in April 2019. Keeping the counting method identical across every row is the only way a ranking like this means anything.

Middleweight

#2 Anderson Silva — The 16-Win Standard That Stood for 13 Years

**Anderson Silva’s streak is the one every fighter on this list, including Makhachev, had to measure themselves against. It ran from a June 2006 TKO win over Chris Leben through seven years of middleweight title defenses, and by the time Chris Weidman knocked him out at UFC 162 in July 2013, Silva had gone 16 fights without a loss — a number nobody came within two wins of for over a decade.**

**What made the streak remarkable wasn’t just its length but its era: Silva built it as champion, defending the middleweight title against ranked contenders rather than padding the count with lower-stakes bouts, which is why it held as the sport’s benchmark long after his own career had ended.**

Welterweight

#3 Kamaru Usman — Beaten by the Same Man Who Started His Streak

**Kamaru Usman’s 15-fight run began with a decision win over Leon Edwards in December 2015 — years before either man held a title — and carried him through a welterweight championship reign that included title defenses against Colby Covington, Jorge Masvidal twice, and Gilbert Burns. It’s one of the sport’s more unusual bookends: the streak ended almost seven years later, in August 2022, when the same Leon Edwards knocked him out at UFC 278 to take the belt Usman had defended so many times.**

Bantamweight

#4 Merab Dvalishvili — The Most Recent Name to Fall Off the List

**Merab Dvalishvili’s 14-fight streak is the newest entry to end, and it ran longer than anyone else currently active in the sport’s title picture. It started with a September 2018 decision win over Terrion Ware and carried him to the bantamweight title, built almost entirely on volume — Dvalishvili’s fights are wrestling-heavy grinds that wear opponents down over five rounds rather than finish them early. Petr Yan ended the run by decision at UFC 323 in December 2025, just months before Makhachev’s own streak overtook the record above it.**

The Crowded Middle

The Five-Way Tie for Third — 13 Wins, Five Legends

No single fighter holds third place on this list — five of the sport’s most decorated champions are locked together at 13 consecutive wins apiece, and how each of their streaks ended says as much about the sport as the number itself.

Jon Jones · Closed by a No-Contest Ruling

**Jones won his 13th straight fight, a decision over Ovince Saint Preux, in April 2016. His next win, over Daniel Cormier at UFC 214 in July 2017, was overturned to a no contest after a positive drug test — and under the UFC’s own counting rules, that closes a streak exactly like a loss would, freezing his official total at 13.**

Georges St-Pierre · Retired Unbeaten

**GSP’s streak started with a decision win over Josh Koscheck in August 2007 and never ended in the cage — he retired after submitting Michael Bisping at UFC 217 in November 2017, walking away undefeated in his final 13 fights rather than losing the streak to an opponent.**

Khabib Nurmagomedov · Retired 29–0

**Khabib’s run began with a submission win over Kamal Shalorus in January 2012 and closed the same way, with a submission of Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 in October 2020 — his 13th straight UFC win and the final fight of a career that ended 29–0, never once defeated.**

Demetrious Johnson · Ended by a Split Decision

**“Mighty Mouse” built his streak on a June 2012 decision win in his rematch with Ian McCall and defended the flyweight title through it, until Henry Cejudo edged him by split decision at UFC 227 in August 2018 — the closest kind of finish to end a run this long.**

Max Holloway · Ended in a Different Division

**Holloway’s streak opened with a decision win over Will Chope in January 2014 and ran through a full featherweight title reign, but it ended one weight class up: Dustin Poirier stopped him at UFC 236 in April 2019, in an interim lightweight title fight Holloway had moved up to take.**

Rounding Out the Top 10

The Three-Way Tie at 12 Wins — Rounding Out the List

Alexander Volkanovski · Ended by the Streak Leader Himself

**Volkanovski’s run began with a TKO win over Yusuke Kasuya in November 2016 and carried him to the featherweight title, until the one man on this list still building his own streak, Islam Makhachev, beat him by decision at UFC 284 in February 2023 — the loss that ended Volkanovski’s run also became a data point in Makhachev’s.**

Amanda Nunes · A Two-Division Champion’s Longest Run

**Nunes opened her streak with a submission win over Sara McMann in August 2015 and used it to become a simultaneous bantamweight and featherweight champion, before Julianna Peña stopped her by TKO at UFC 269 in December 2021 in one of the sport’s biggest upsets.**

Tony Ferguson · A Streak Built Without a Title Shot

**Ferguson’s run started after a 2013 loss to Michael Johnson and became the longest active streak in the UFC’s lightweight division for years, notable because he built it through interim title wins and top contenders without ever landing a lightweight unification fight — until Justin Gaethje stopped him at UFC 249 in May 2020.**

UFC 330 · August 15, 2026

16, Tied. Then 17, Alone. The Record Broke in One Night.

UFC 330

How Islam Makhachev Broke the Record at UFC 330

**UFC 330 landed at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia on August 15, 2026 — the promotion’s first numbered event in the city since UFC 133 back in August 2011 — and the main event carried the record with it. Islam Makhachev defended his welterweight title for the first time, beating Ian Machado Garry by unanimous decision across three scorecards of 49–46, 49–46, and 48–47. It was his 17th consecutive UFC win, moving him past Anderson Silva’s 16-fight mark that had stood since 2013 and that Makhachev himself had only tied a few months earlier.**

**The card’s co-main event carried its own title defense: Mackenzie Dern beat Gillian Robertson by unanimous decision to defend the women’s strawweight title she’d won the year before. But the number that mattered most belonged to the main event — Makhachev’s only loss in the UFC remains a first-round knockout to Adriano Martins at UFC 192 in October 2015, and the win streak that just rewrote the record books began with the very next fight after that.**

Retired Unbeaten

Why Two Champions Never Actually Lost Their Streak

Nine of the twelve streaks on this list ended the same way every sports fan expects — a loss inside the cage. Two didn’t. Georges St-Pierre and Khabib Nurmagomedov both walked away from the sport with their win streaks still technically active, retiring rather than losing. GSP stepped away in 2017 right after a 13th straight win, and Khabib finished 29–0 for his entire career, retiring in 2020 after honoring a promise to his mother following his father’s death. Neither man’s streak has a losing opponent attached to it in the record books — just a decision to stop fighting while still on top, which is a different kind of ending than anyone else on this list got to choose.

The Takeaway

Why the Number at the Top Is the One Most Likely to Move

Every other entry on this list is a closed number — Silva, Usman, Dvalishvili, and the eight fighters tied below them all have streaks that stopped, frozen at whatever total they reached before a loss, a no contest, or retirement ended the count. Makhachev’s 17 is the one exception. It’s an active streak, extended as recently as UFC 330, which means the record this post is built around could already be a different number by the time it’s read.

That’s the nature of a ranking like this one: it’s a snapshot of a sport that keeps fighting. Silva’s record looked permanent for 13 years, right up until it wasn’t. The next challenge to Makhachev’s 17 is already somewhere on the UFC’s roster — the only question the data can’t answer yet is which fighter it turns out to be.