Road to UFC 300: The 10 best fights since UFC 200

UFC 300 is almost here, and what a road it’s been. To put into perspective just how much has happened since the UFC’s last centennial celebration in 2016, that’s...

3,852 fights. 322 events. 148 championship bouts.

In other words: Eight years of beautiful chaos.

But which are the 10 best, most memorable, most iconic, most bone-rattling, action-packed fights since the MMA world celebrated UFC 200? MMA Fighting’s staffers put it to a vote.

Check out the countdown below, with excerpts from our team found in the video above.

10. Islam Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski 1 (UFC 284, February 2023)

“In order for a high-level fight to evolve into a great, legendary fight, it needs three things. It needs an electric crowd, it needs high stakes, and it needs two of the best fighters on planet Earth. And that is what the main event of UFC 284 delivered in spades. It was high-level martial arts at its finest, and while Islam Makhachev emerged victorious to claim that pound-for-pound No. 1 spot, no one in that arena felt cheated from what they had witnessed.” - Jose Youngs

9. Cub Swanson vs. Doo Ho Choi (UFC 206, December 2016)

“It says a lot that this makes the list as a three-round fight — it’s the only one on the list that’s a three-round fight. It’s in the UFC Hall of Fame. And this one had it all. Wild exchanges, both guys getting hurt, blood, cartwheel kicks, ankle picks, and an absolutely on-fire crowd in Toronto. The last 20 seconds of this fight is absolute freaking insanity.

“I remember watching this fight live on my cell phone and I was literally laughing out loud among a big group of people because I just could not believe what I was watching. This fight rules, and the way I describe it to people who have never seen it, it’s like the Breaking Bad of three-round fights — it starts off really good, kind of slow compared to the rest of the fight, but you could just feel it building, you know something big’s about to happen. And then once the second round starts, it is all gas and no brakes.” - Mike Heck

8. Dustin Poirier vs. Max Holloway 2 (UFC 236, April 2019)

“All you need to do is hear the names involved to know that it’s going to be an instant classic. Between the two men, they had 856 strikes attempted, 827 of them significant. Right now, here, today, still in 2024, that’s good for the third-most strikes ever attempted all-time and third-most significant strikes ever attempted all-time. Just an absolute back-and-forth war between two of our most technical and clean and exciting strikers that we have in the UFC and in all of MMA. The counters and the power of Dustin Poirier just ended up being too much for Max Holloway, but man, what an absolute battle back-and-forth, and I think if you’re somebody who experienced it at the time, if you were even lucky enough to be in the arena in Atlanta and get to see this, you were in for a special one.” - Eric Jackman

7. Robert Whittaker vs. Yoel Romero 2 (UFC 225, June 2018)

“What an emotional roller-coaster ride this build and this fight was. As longtime fans know, third-round Yoel Romero, he’s a different animal, he’s a mythical creature — which is something Robert Whittaker found out about. Scorecards and opinions aside, this fight was a grueling, nasty battle, and it showed 41-year-old Yoel Romero is a superhuman and 27-year-old Robert Whittaker is the real deal and tougher than a two-dollar steak.” - Mike Heck

6. Justin Gaethje vs. Michael Johnson (TUF 25 Finale, July 2017)

“Justin Gaethje was already lightweight’s premier chaos agent by the time 2017 rolled around, but he was also a hidden gem, a special little secret just for the hardcores, just for those of us weirdos who watched him for three straight years light that cage on fire as World Series of Fighting’s lightweight king. But good lord, the rest of the world, they found out quick. Nearly 10 minutes straight, Gaethje and Michael Johnson went hammer and tongs in one of the most breathtaking ‘welcome to the UFC’ moments we’ve ever seen. It was electric. Exhilarating. It was one of the loudest crowds I’ve ever heard live in my life. And it was pure Justin Gaethje through and through. Performance of the Night. Fight of the Night. Fight of the Year. Give it all the bonuses. Call it whatever you want — by the end of that weekend, we all knew a new boogeyman had arrived at 155.” - Shaun Al-Shatti

5. Dustin Poirier vs. Justin Gaethje 1 (UFC on FOX 29, April 2018)

“Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje are two of the most exciting fighters in MMA history, and so even not knowing what we know now, heading into UFC on FOX 29, the expectations were super high. And even by those lofty standards, this fight still delivers. This is Justin Gaethje at his most maniacal, and Poirier is just ascending into a guy who can take advantage of it — and so it’s just hell on wheels. For however long the fights goes on, they are clashing at each other, it’s absolute scenes, Gaethje is chopping the legs, Poirier is just hitting him with the hands. It’s one of the most exciting fights just minute-for-minute that you’ll ever get. Then it ends so suddenly in the fourth round, and there we have it: Dustin Poirier has truly ascended and arrived as must-see television and an elite guy. This fight is everything you want in a mixed martial arts contest in modern day MMA.” - Jed Meshew

4. Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz 2 (UFC 202, August 2016)

“People tend to scoff at this one these days, maybe because they were unhappy with McGregor winning a close decision. But bell-to-bell, this is one of the most breathtaking brawls you’ll ever see. It somehow surpassed the hype despite being one of the most highly anticipated rematches in MMA history. If you’re a fight fan, you have to still be hoping that in some way, somewhere, somehow, McGregor and Diaz will thrown down one more time.” - Alexander K. Lee

3. Israel Adesanya vs. Kelvin Gastelum (UFC 236, April 2019)

“I can tell you firsthand, this was the most insane experience I’ve ever had watching fist fights in my life. And I wasn’t the only one. The feeling after these two dudes did what they did that evening is something I will never forget. After that fight is over, [everyone on media row] is just kind of staring at each other, almost as if we are drunk from the emotional dump that fight was. The ebbs and the flows. Izzy heading into the fifth round, saying, ‘I’m willing to die in here,’ to himself before the round starts. An unbelievable event that happened, to the point where none of us could even really register it.

“And I think the thing that drives it home the most for me is, another fight that we have on this list of best fights happened later that evening. This was the co-main event. The main event was Dustin Poirier vs. Max Holloway 2, an amazing fight outright on its own, and as I watched that fight on that evening in Atlanta, I thought to myself, ‘This fight’s incredible,’ and I could not emotionally connect because all of my energy had been dumped out with what Israel Adesanya and Kelvin Gastelum had done to each other.” - Jed Meshew

2. Zhang Weili vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk 1 (UFC 248, March 2020)

“Seven hundred eighty-three strikes thrown. Three hundred sixty-six strikes landed. One entirely nightmarish creature sprouting like a demon’s horn out of a Hall of Famer’s head. Go ahead and call it the single greatest women’s fight in the history of human civilization if you want, but somehow even that doesn’t do it justice. Because what Zhang Weili and Joanna Jedrzejczyk gave us at UFC 248 in 2020 was one of the greatest fights of all-time, period. Full stop. No qualifiers needed. Twenty-five minutes straight of pure desperation, no letdown in the championship rounds, no quit, no friendly agreement to clinch if only for a half-second to let everyone in the whole damn arena be able to catch their breathe. At some point the truly great fights cease being fights and elevate into something more, and make no mistake, Zhang vs. Jedrzejczyk ascended to that higher plane.” - Shaun Al-Shatti

1. Jiri Prochazka vs. Glover Teixeira (UFC 275, June 2022)

“When these two warriors stepped in Singapore Indoor Stadium, absolute madness unfolded. Out went all technique. Out went all game plans. It was kill-or-be-killed. With every punch, with every elbow, with every flying knee, with every takedown, with every ground-and-pound, with every submission attempt, that crowd in Singapore rose higher and higher and higher. If you are a fan of perfection, this is not the fight for you. But if you are a fan of just two of the greatest fighters to ever live throwing everything but the kitchen sink at each other, then this is for you. Jiri hated his performance because he said it wasn’t perfect, but to us, the fans, it was perfect. It was what we needed. Jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai, boxing, kickboxing, just beautiful MMA at its finest. Jiri Prochazka left the champion, but Glover Teixeira left a legend. And that is why it is the single greatest fight since UFC 200.” - José Youngs

Here is how the voting for MMA Fighting’s 10 best fights since UFC 200 played out.

What did we get right? What did we get wrong? Let us know in the comments below.