# The 20 Best MMA Fighters Outside the UFC in the 2010s

> Bellator belts, ONE titles won across Asia, Strikeforce and Rizin gold: this decade's elite fought far from the Octagon, and plenty of them would have been favourites inside it.

*By YPB Team · Published November 4, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-20-best-mma-fighters-outside-the-ufc-in-the-2010s*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Vitaly Minakov** — score 1000/1000
   Russian sambo champion who won the Bellator heavyweight title against Alexander Volkov in November 2013 and was later stripped of it without losing.
2. **Michael Chandler** — score 999/1000
   Won the Bellator lightweight title three times, in 2011, 2016 and 2018, before signing with the UFC in 2020.
3. **Ilima-Lei Macfarlane** — score 800/1000
   Hawaiian who became the first Bellator women's flyweight champion in November 2017.
4. **Kevin Belingon** — score 692/1000
   Filipino bantamweight who beat Bibiano Fernandes by split decision in November 2018 to become undisputed ONE champion.
5. **Bibiano Fernandes** — score 692/1000
   Brazilian bantamweight who won DREAM titles and then held the ONE bantamweight championship from 2013 to 2018.
6. **Kayla Harrison** — score 692/1000
   Two-time Olympic judo champion who won the 2019 PFL lightweight season final.
7. **Cris Cyborg** — score 600/1000
   Brazilian featherweight who won the Strikeforce title in 2009 and the Invicta FC featherweight title in 2013.
8. **Muhammed Lawal** — score 600/1000
   Former college wrestler who took the Strikeforce light heavyweight title from Gegard Mousasi in April 2010.
9. **Alexander Shlemenko** — score 600/1000
   Russian striker and former Bellator middleweight champion who lost the belt to Brandon Halsey in 2014.
10. **Angela Lee** — score 600/1000
   Canadian-born fighter representing Singapore who became the inaugural ONE women's atomweight champion in May 2016 at age 19.
11. **Ben Askren** — score 491/1000
   Wrestler who went unbeaten outside the UFC, holding the Bellator welterweight title from 2010 to 2013 and the ONE welterweight title from 2014 to 2017.
12. **Nick Diaz** — score 491/1000
   Won the Strikeforce welterweight title in January 2010 and defended it three times before returning to the UFC in 2011.
13. **Shinya Aoki** — score 491/1000
   Japanese grappler who held the DREAM lightweight title and won the ONE lightweight championship in 2013.
14. **Eduard Folayang** — score 491/1000
   Team Lakay striker from the Philippines who took the ONE lightweight title from Shinya Aoki in November 2016.
15. **Mamed Khalidov** — score 491/1000
   Grozny-born Polish fighter who headlined KSW for most of the decade and held its middleweight and light heavyweight titles.
16. **Douglas Lima** — score 360/1000
   Three-time Bellator welterweight champion who won the promotion's welterweight Grand Prix final against Rory MacDonald in 2019.
17. **Rafael Carvalho** — score 360/1000
   Brazilian who won the Bellator middleweight title in October 2015 and held it until Gegard Mousasi beat him in 2018.
18. **Patrício Freire** — score 360/1000
   Bellator featherweight champion who took the lightweight title from Michael Chandler in May 2019 to hold two belts at once.
19. **Aung La N Sang** — score 360/1000
   Myanmar fighter who won the ONE middleweight title in 2017 and added the light heavyweight title in 2018.
20. **Kyoji Horiguchi** — score 360/1000
   Former UFC flyweight title challenger who won Rizin's bantamweight Grand Prix in 2017 and the Bellator bantamweight title in June 2019.

Tags: 2010s, fighters, mma, bellator, one championship, strikeforce