Best boxers in MMA of all time

Being highly regarded as the purest form of fighting, boxing is the most popular fighting style across the world in the history of combat sports.

Even if recently its popularity might have been on the verge of being overshadowed by the sport of MMA, one reason behind it is the impressive influence it plays in MMA itself.

While boxing is widely regarded as Sweet Science, all of those who might deem it limited or even useless in comparison to other martial arts like Muay Thai, should have known that boxing is a lot more than using only fists to strike an opponent.

That is to say; two fists are more than enough to end any fight because not any other fighting style would equip a fighter with better standup skills than boxing as it makes miracles to a fighter's footwork, head movement, and of course, punching techniques.

While these are the binding skills that any MMA fighter must possess in order to compete at any level of MMA, boxing would spark off self-defence as well.

Not to mention that it helps fighters to be more balanced when moving around the cage, and more importantly, it is fascinating that there is no worry about having a kick being caught and one could avoid the probable takedown.

Best boxers in MMA of all time

While many giant fighters have been armed with great boxing skills who have enjoyed their share of success inside the cage, what better than to take a look at the Best boxers in MMA of all time.

Cody Garbrandt

One of the

best boxers in MMA of all time

is Cody Garbrandt (12 wins, 5 loses) who is entitled to a lot more credit for his boxing skills than he receives currently following that he was smashed in three straight matches via knockout, which was at a time before he managed to knock out Raphael Assuncao.

Even if he went on to concede two more fights after that victory, perhaps it is due to his lackadaisical defence, showmanship, and rage that he has been sidelined a bit and has been inclined to brawl rather than the skill he is superb in, boxing.

No doubt, he put on show the pinnacle of his capabilities when he toppled Dominick Cruz down so as to gain the bantamweight championship, and more importantly, it was at the time when Cruz who is one of the

, was at prime heyday of his career and had remained unbeaten back then.

Among MMA fighters, Garbrandt is considered to have one of the slickest head movements and hand speed, while with his terrific clinical strikes, he can always threaten his rivals with legitimate one-punch knockout power, as he is still young and has a long way ahead of him.

Notwithstanding his recent defeats to TJ Dillashaw and Pedro Muhnoz, he still is widely regarded as one of the best boxers in MMA of all time, especially with having in mind how he can be focused on defending as much as swinging along with his other boxing skills in the game.

Junior dos Santos

When it comes to the best boxers in MMA of all time, Junior dos Santos's standout skill in making reads, setting traps, and leading his opponent onto his best punches is by no means ignorable.

At the height of his career, there was not a shadow of a doubt that JDS had in possession perhaps the cleanest MMA boxing technique around, especially with taking into account his straight, uppercut, and overhand jabs he has regularly thrown with perfect accuracy and efficiency.

He tends to primarily establish dominance just with his reach and his incredible boxing, to the point that once in a blue moon, he has ever used kicks in his fights.

Still, he has managed to anchor his name to one of the

, when he beat Mark Hunt at UFC 160 before confronting Cain Velazquez.

In fact, it was due to this fight that he earned the UFC heavyweight title fight in 2011, in which he managed to topple down Velazquez early in the first round so as to be the new heavyweight champion.

His performance in the aforementioned fights coupled with how he coped with Stipe Miocic, was something unparalleled in the history of MMA as he showcased the immense power of his hands as well as his wonderful distance management and timing.

Moreover, some other giants like Fabricio Werdum, Stefan Struve, and Frank Mir just to name a few, were also the victims of his mind-blowing boxing techniques.

Even if he is a bit sidelined due to his age and undesirable wrestling techniques, the former champ isn’t the fighter he once was, yet he still is highly revered as one of the

best boxers in MMA of all time

.

Diaz brothers

While the Diaz brothers are widely recognized as two of the fearless

, they are also skilful at throwing a continuous flurry of punches that devastates their opponents.

Being inclined to focus on working the body more than many other MMA fighters, the Diaz brothers have put on show their fantastic boxing technique all of their own.

Nate Diaz

Whereas it is to be said that the younger brother, Nate Diaz is on a level above, he tends to amazingly use his lengths to outbox his rivals to the end of taking the fight to the mat, where he is a BJJ black belt.

As a high-volume striker, he rarely swings “Hail Maries”, and instead of knocking out his opponents with a single punch, he tries to penetrate to their defence round after round, picking them apart gradually.

In the light of his phenomenal hands and his excellent boxing footwork, he can easily get into the desired positions, so as to be widely heralded as one of the best boxers in MMA of all time 

and perhaps that is the reason why his trilogy with MacGregor is one of

.

Even with the help of his volume, pressure, and constant variation, he picked up the honour to overcome former champion BJ Penn on points.

Nick Diaz

The older brother, Nick Diaz, has in his possession perhaps one of the most standout styles of MMA boxing, while he owes it a lot to training with a number of great world-class partners as the likes of Andre Ward, Joe Schilling, and, more importantly, his brother Nate Diaz.

While many fighters are not that much great in terms of endurance, his playing the stamina game works miracles for him as he gradually enhances his tempo and the power of his punches as the fight goes on.

That is to say, as soon as his rivals are overwhelmed by fatigue, he besieges them with a raft of insane body punches whose power would intensify as he brims with confidence.

Therefore owing to his being a cardio machine as well as his use of volume punches in breaking down his opponents later in their exhaustion, he is blessed with one of the most entertaining boxing styles, that seems to work out well for him.

Holly Holm

Any list of the best boxers in MMA of all time would be incomplete without the presence of one of the

, Holly Holm.

Being widely recognized for her incredible kickboxing skills, unlike many other MMA fighters, Holly Holm was the world champion in both boxing and MMA.

Many MMA fans are even unaware that the former UFC champ was the holder of the WBC, WBA, and IBF world titles in boxing too, so she could be considered as one of the best boxers of all time.

While she had piled up 30 victories inside a boxing ring before heading into the cage, she had also landed herself a spot among the 10th best woman boxer of all time by BoxRec and was dubbed as the Fighter of the Year two times by The Ring magazine too.

In the light of her boxing skills, it took not a long time that she could work herself up the UFC women’s bantamweight ranking to the point that finally she could earn herself a shot against then-champion Ronda Rousey.

In what was went down as one of

, she amazingly managed to pick apart Rousey with her terrific boxing skills. That is to say, at the moment in their title fights, Holm landed such an intense punch to Rousey that she lost her balance and fell to her knees.

Even if Rousey ended up conceding the fight via grazing her incredible head kick, how Holm put on to show her boxing skills is by no means forgettable.

Although Holm has lost her belt during her next fight against Miesha Tate and has never reclaimed it again, still she is regarded as one of the best UFC boxers of all time.

Jorge Masvidal

As an incredible striker, Jorge Masvidal exactly knows how to punch, how to take hits, evade, ride punches, and defend himself, all quite just like a great boxer.

In other words, as one of the

, on rare occasions, he takes any severe damage in his fights while he is one of the hardest fighters who hit clean.

With his sharp and fluid combinations, his often pretty intelligent punch selection as well as his tactical fight approach, he is undoubtedly one of the best boxers in MMA of all time.

With his insane knockout of Darren Till, and then with his first-round knockout victory over Ben Askren, which went down as one of the fastest knockouts in UFC history, he is now considered to be among the biggest superstars in MMA for years now.

It is also interestingly notable for suggesting that he was initially a street boxer, who has never fought professionally as a boxer, yet after years of training with Dan Lambert, he managed to earn himself a spot among the best boxers in MMA of all time.

Alexander Gustafsson

While Alexander Gustafsson used to be a successful amateur boxer, it is no wonder to see him among the

best boxers in MMA of all time

too.

With keeping his boxing ability sharp and after training with Phil Davis to develop his grappling skills and takedown defence, he could grab a chunk of back and forth triumph in MMA as well.

It goes without saying how well he confronted Jon Jones in their epic first match that went down among the

.

Much to your consternation, he made Jones go through the biggest challenge of his entire career since he did not let Jones easily get a takedown or do much of anything with punches.

Even if Jones was a nine-to-one favourite before heading into the UFC 165, Gustafsson terrifically cut Jones with a right hand and took him down, what Jones’ previous UFC opponents had failed to do in 16 efforts. Although Gustafsson conceded that fight, how he performed in that fight is by no means ignorable.

Being one of the tallest fighters in his weight category, he takes advantage of his long and lanky height so as to have an upper hand in combat while he keeps his rivals at the end of his punching range all when he stays away from theirs.

Just consider how he threw combinations at Glover Teixeira and how he could land an uppercut anytime he desired to.

Much similar to Georges St-Pierre, who is among the

and is our honourable mention in the current list, Gustafsson tends to land a raft of jabs to the body, technical striking, and clean punch combinations.

T.J. Dillashaw

As a well-rounded fighter, he mixes his punches and kicks so as to make a formidable offensive game. Notwithstanding having a kickboxing striking style, his hands are insanely vicious by their own.

With his fast hands, he throws numerous combinations all with “fluid movements.” He has put on show brilliant boxing tactics inside the Octagon.

For instance, just consider how he doges under his opponent’s punches so as to then quickly come back up to land a hook, putting all of his weight in the direction of the punches to increase its intensity.

He came to the spotlight when he smashed Renan Barao to gain the UFC bantamweight championship and went on to even defend his title later.

Dillashaw tends to change level to freeze his rivals and afterwards pops up to land a powerful rear hand at the time when his opponent is vulnerable.

He even once fought with Vasyl Lomachenko, who is an excellent professional boxer who is currently one of the

best boxers in the world

and this is another piece of evidence to prove that Dillashaw is one of the 10 Best Boxers in MMA of All Time.

Conor McGregor

Undoubtedly Conor McGregor is one of the Best UFC boxers of all time the world has ever observed. Even if has come from a small MMA community in Ireland, Conor McGregor has risen as an international superstar who could manage to grab UFC’s lightweight and featherweight championship.

By blending his boxing styles with Muay Thai and other martial arts he is mastered, he is considered to be one of the more unorthodox fighters in MMA.

But, he owes a vast majority of his success to his boxing skills. In the light of his left-hand trademark move, which is considered to be among the

, he has toppled down a raft of the best fighters in the UFC’s featherweight and lightweight divisions as the likes of Nate Diaz, Eddie Alvarez, and Jose Aldo.

Even if he is most effective in his southpaw stance where he is capable of snapping out that signature move, at the same time he is blessed with a versatile striking skillset, allowing him to change his stance so as to add sneaky kicks to his vicious punches.

Whenever he has left in the gas tank, he would be very successful in a straight striking matchup, while as soon as he feels that his rival has started to wither, it is game over for them due to the fact that he would land a rush of insane combo.

With competing in a boxing fight against Floyd Mayweather, who is one of the

best boxers of all time

, he still is regarded as the only MMA fighter who has stepped into a boxing ring against one of the best boxers in the world, proving that he is arguably one of the 10 Best Boxers in MMA of All Time.

Anderson Silva

It is no wonder to see a versatile player in all aspects of striking like Anderson Silva, who has anchored one of the

which is the longest winning streak to his name, would be regarded as one of the

best UFC boxers of all time

too.

In the light of his masterful head movement, distance management, as well as his precise punches, not only he is included among the

10 best boxers in MMA of All Time

, but also he could take advantage of the counters that have turned him the most lethal finisher in MMA history.

As a muay Thai fighter and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black-belt, The Spider's hands are so powerful that have created some of the most memorable moments in the octagon.

Even before McGregor, it was with Anderson that the talks of having an MMA fighter confronting with professional boxer arouse when he was set to cope with Roy Jones Jr. in a boxing match.

At the prime heyday of his career, Anderson made wonder at rolling with the punches to minimize its effect as well as easily dodging his head out of harm’s way.

Even if his punches may not be so much intense, they are so exact that has made him blessed with the ability to smash fighters by clipping some MMA giants like James Irvin, Forrest Griffin, and Yushin Okami right on the “button". 

 Read More:

Follow

for the