Currently who are the 2 best strikers in the ufc

[Jose Beehive]

I'm not sure, most of the best kickers lick Izzy , Zabit and Wonderboy don't particularly impress me with there hands... But then most of the better boxers don't particularly impress me with feet... I'm leaning towards Volk, Conor and Ankalaev from suggestions I've seen .

Maybe Whittaker ..

If your gonna say best limited striker then Izzy and Francis I guess

 

[arcadeperfect]

 

[priester]

1.

2.

 

[cauti0n]

I'm always confused how you guys always leave Wonderboy out.

Wonderboy has never got beat the fuck up like Adesanya lol. the worst was woodley busting his nose.

 

[Iron Nick]

I'm always confused how you guys always leave Wonderboy out.

Wonderboy has never got beat the fuck up like Adesanya lol. the worst was woodley busting his nose.

To be fair, Gastelum (assuming you're speaking about him in regards to Izzy) is match up more difficult (to beat unscathed on the feet) than arguably anyone Wonderboy has fought.

That being said, i agree with you that Wonderboy is far to often left out in these discussions.
It's blatantly obvious that he's an elite striker and imo the best ever striker at his weightclass.

 

[cauti0n]

To be fair, Gastelum (assuming you're speaking about him in regards to Izzy) is match up more difficult (to beat unscathed on the feet) than arguably anyone Wonderboy has fought.

That being said, i agree with you that Wonderboy is far to often left out in these discussions.
It's blatantly obvious that he's an elite striker and imo the best ever striker at his weightclass.

Gastelum is one of the most overrated fighters on this board. Masvidal is a better striker and overall fighter than him and Wonderboy had no issue with him.

And he's in a division with a lot of wrestlers and bad stylistic matchups but other than the Woodley rematch has still been able to implement his game and not shell up. The Till fight was boring though, but that's most of Tills fights.

And he still gets points for the version of Johny Hendricks he beat, and Whittaker.

 

[omawho402]

Conor and Yair

Most effective Ngannou

 

[Iron Nick]

Gastelum is one of the most overrated fighters on this board. Masvidal is a better striker and overall fighter than him and Wonderboy had no issue with him.

And he's in a division with a lot of wrestlers and bad stylistic matchups but other than the Woodley rematch has still been able to implement his game and not shell up. The Till fight was boring though, but that's most of Tills fights.

And he still gets points for the version of Johny Hendricks he beat, and Whittaker.

Disagree (kind of).

Gastelum has some of the best hands in the whole UFC, his boxing in general is top of the notch for MMA.
Masvidal (might) have better pure boxing than Gastelum, although i'm not sure if i agree, but Gastelum has a wrestling/grappling threat, which opens opponents up more.
Besides that, Gastelum is a southpaw, so he's ALWAYS at an advantage against orthodox strikers.
Masvidal on the other hand, is orthodox.

I'm not trying to shit on Wonderboy here btw, but Izzy is better and whereas Wonderboy has faced wrestlers, none of them have the footwork, pressure and boxing of Gastelum.

 

[IsNormal]

Wonderboy has never got beat the fuck up like Adesanya lol.

Izzy took a lot of punishment, but he won.
Wonderboy dominated most of the Pettis fight but lost via KO. It's debatable which is worse.
I can see your point of view though. Anyone can get caught, sometimes owning most of the fight proves more.

But Wonderboy is 2-3-1 in his last fights and Izzy is undefeated in MMA. Not saying that's a huge argument in terms of who is the best striker, but 'winning ability' at least plays some role
(And yes, I know Izzy has lost and got KO'd in kickboxing.)

Yair

He's good but I feel like we need to see him beat another top guy before we know for sure how good.
The Korean Zomibe fight was a little bit too close for my taste. Sure, he landed a KO and probably won the first 3 rounds too (but most of them were pretty close) but now that we saw Ortega had a more dominant performance against KZ, I feel it's a bit early to call Yair the best striker in the UFC.

 

[gluehuffer1776]

colby

 

[IsNormal]

At Heavyweight
Ngannou: obviously a candidate because it seems he can simply KO most of the roster by default.

Stipe: he did beat Ngannou after all. I think many people don't think of him as a great striker because he's not a specialist, he's well rounded. But think about it - he wins a lot of battles in the stand up.
The way he kept Ngannou at bay, bobbing and weaving, managed distance etc, is a big part of the stand up game too.
And the way he went to DC's body - that's striking IQ.
Sure, he also has that KO loss to DC. And you could say many of his best wins were past prime. But overall he does quite well in the stand up.

Reem's striking offense might technically have been the best at HW for ages.
But he loses big points on his striking defense. Covers up and just stands against the cage hoping to catch punches on his arms as if he had boxing gloves on. And his reflexes and positioning isn't consistently good enough to keep him from getting KO'd every so often.

 

[cauti0n]

Masvidal (might) have better pure boxing than Gastelum, although i'm not sure if i agree, but Gastelum has a wrestling/grappling threat, which opens opponents up more.
Besides that, Gastelum is a southpaw, so he's ALWAYS at an advantage against orthodox strikers.
Masvidal on the other hand, is orthodox.

This just helps Masvidal case... And Masvidals muay thai is just as good as his boxing. Kelvin couldn't do anything and got completely shut down by the likes of Darren Till, and he's done all of this without a wrestling threat. If I was taking that into account then Khabib is the best striker.

And Masvidal has more takedowns (and better TDD) than Kelvin... With better striking stats. In fact he has some better stats than some people you posted on the last page with the same striking defense as Israel with way more fights than him.

 

[IsNormal]

Lightweight
Stacked full of geat strikers.

Conor is obviously great. Even if he fades in later rounds, and even if he ended up getting outstruck by Diaz, he at least got some great shots in early on.

Barboza: nah. He is often listed as an amazing striker who just loses cause he's lacking in other areas. I kinda disagree. I think some of his problems are in the standup. If you can't move and strike effectively under pressure - that's a problem for your stand up. I would rather take a guy with ugly striking who can strike moving backwards, than someone who has beautiful striking when opponents play their game.

Dustin could be the dark horse. He has an amazing set of wins mostly due to his striking, having TKO'd Gaethje and Alvarez - and recently adding excellt striker Hooker to the list. If he beats Conor in a striking battle it's gonna seal the deal.

 

[Doug Money]

I reallyvlike katars boxing

 

[Iron Nick]

This just helps Masvidal case... And Masvidals muay thai is just as good as his boxing. Kelvin couldn't do anything and got completely shut down by the likes of Darren Till, and he's done all of this without a wrestling threat. If I was taking that into account then Khabib is the best striker.

And Masvidal has more takedowns (and better TDD) than Kelvin... With better striking stats. In fact he has some better stats than some people you posted on the last page with the same striking defense as Israel with way more fights than him.

Gastelum is still a more dangerous match up on the feet for an orthodox elite striker (at 185 at least, due to the speed he has there relative to his peers) than Masvidal is, especially due to the fact that Gas is a southpaw.
Why do you think Till (another Southpaw) looked pretty good against him?
And before you say "well, Masvidal finished Till."
Yeah, he did so, but against a drained version of him which happened to fight at a weight where the speed for his size was almost nullified.

Guess who else went up from 170 to 185 and transformed from a good fighter to an absolute Killer.
Yeah, Whittaker.

As for Masvidal's striking defense percentage:
It's really good, but if you look at the stats which matter the most (strikes landed/strikes absorbed) you'll see that Israel, Yan etc. are far ahead of him, plus again: the first elite striker Masvidal fought at his natural weight schooled him.

 

[weaselkenievil]

Shout out to Rafael Fiziev. Short UFC resume but I love watching this guy fight.

Fkin beautiful that was, cheers. I was hugely impressed by his last fight and agree on loving watching this guy fight. Not heard anything about him for a while, hope to see him fight soon.
Edit - just looked it up, I believe he’s fighting Renato Moicano on Nov 28th.

 

[cauti0n]

Gastelum is still a more dangerous match up on the feet for an orthodox elite striker (at 185 at least, due to the speed he has there relative to his peers) than Masvidal is, especially due to the fact that Gas is a southpaw.
Why do you think Till (another Southpaw) looked pretty good against him?
And before you say "well, Masvidal finished Till."
Yeah, he did so, but against a drained version of him which happened to fight at a weight where the speed for his size was almost nullified.

Guess who else went up from 170 to 185 and transformed from a good fighter to an absolute Killer.
Yeah, Whittaker.

As for Masvidal's striking defense percentage:
It's really good, but if you look at the stats which matter the most (strikes landed/strikes absorbed) you'll see that Israel, Yan etc. are far ahead of him, plus again: the first elite striker Masvidal fought at his natural weight schooled him.

You can say the same exact thing about Khabib, yet you're not including him in much of anything because that's not how it works. It's okay to say you just like Gastelum...

I don't think highly of Darren Till at all, and he completely nullified any offense from Kelvin. So either Till is an elite striker better then Kelvin or...???

Kelvin is not a killer at MW so idk why that matters unless you're referring to Till who is not a killer at MW either. We've seen him twice at the weight class in the UFC and nothing about either performance has been 'killer'.

Masvidal has better strikes landed and accuracy than Wonderboy who you included on this list... It's also okay to say you don't like Masvidal, but saying Kelvin is a better striker than him is dishonest. Better stats and better striking performances. Better at distance and more weapons both at distance and inside and makes use of them.

 

[Aluminati]

Khamzat and Valentina

 

[Iron Nick]

You can say the same exact thing about Khabib, yet you're not including him in much of anything because that's not how it works. It's okay to say you just like Gastelum...

I don't think highly of Darren Till at all, and he completely nullified any offense from Kelvin. So either Till is an elite striker better then Kelvin or...???

Kelvin is not a killer at MW so idk why that matters unless you're referring to Till who is not a killer at MW either. We've seen him twice at the weight class in the UFC and nothing about either performance has been 'killer'.

Masvidal has better strikes landed and accuracy than Wonderboy who you included on this list... It's also okay to say you don't like Masvidal, but saying Kelvin is a better striker than him is dishonest. Better stats and better striking performances.

What do you want with Khabib the whole time?

I'm not saying Gas has necessarily better striking than Mas, but on the feet he's a more dangerous match up for ORTHODOX elite strikers.
Till is not orthodox.

Till wasn't at a stance disadvantage against Gastelum plus his approach against Gas was more defensively orientated than Izzy's.

And yes, on the feet Gas is a super dangerous guy unless you're a top notch southpaw striker (but even then) or a bigger guy who's a grappler.

As for Masvidal's stats in comparison to WB:
If you look at strikes landed/strikes absorbed, he's worse than Wonderboy.
He's literally worse at "hit and don't get hit" plus he got absolutely schooled in that match up.

 

[cauti0n]

What do you want with Khabib the whole time?

I'm not saying Gas has necessarily better striking than Mas, but on the feet he's a more dangerous match up for ORTHODOX elite strikers.
Till is not orthodox.

Till wasn't at a stance disadvantage against Gastelum plus his approach against Gas was more defensively orientated than Izzy's.

And yes, on the feet Gas is a super dangerous guy unless you're a top notch southpaw striker (but even then) or a bigger guy who's a grappler.

As for Masvidal's stats in comparison to WB:
If you look at strikes landed/strikes absorbed, he's worse than Wonderboy.
He's literally worse at "hit and don't get hit" plus he got absolutely schooled in that match up.

Because it's a bad argument in a discussion about strikers and you keep bringing it up...

And I don't really agree with much else here other than Wonderboy schooling Mas lol. Good post though, I guess.