Best UFC Lightweight fighters

49 ELO points separate Khabib Nurmagomedov from Islam Makhachev at the top of the UFC Lightweight fighter ranking, after 2406 duels.

Khabib Nurmagomedov holds first place with 1488 ELO points, winning 65% of his 320 duels. Islam Makhachev follows at 1439 points, while Charles Oliveira rounds out the podium at 1435. The sharpest drop in the ranking appears between Oliveira and Dustin Poirier: 77 ELO points separate third from fourth place, marking a decisive break between the elite tier and the rest of the field. Poirier sits at 1358 points after 317 duels, with Conor McGregor completing the top 5 at 1320 points. McGregor has faced 323 duels and maintains a 62% win rate, demonstrating sustained community support despite his lower position. At the bottom, the picture shifts dramatically. Gregor Gillespie languishes at 820 ELO points with just a 16% win rate across 214 duels, while Rafael dos Anjos holds 970 points at rank 11. The gap between the top contenders and the bottom of the ranking reveals how sharply the community divides fighters into distinct tiers of preference.

This ranking draws from 2406 duels submitted by 91 players, who compared 12 contenders head-to-head. The data was last updated on 11 October 2026. The lightweight division continues to generate strong opinions, and your vote can shift the standings. Head to the ranking page to cast your duels and see how your preferences stack up against the wider community.

Updated on October 11, 2026

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.

How our rankings are made →