Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest MMA Grapplers

1. Khabib Nurmagomedov

Sherdog's greatest lightweight ever and seventh greatest fighter pound-for-pound garners another top spot here, though it was far from unanimous, as he received four first-place votes out of 11. One of those was mine, and for me this was easy. Nurmagomedov was simply the perfect storm of grappling mastery. I mentioned before how complete Georges St. Pierre’s grappling was, but Nurmagomedov took it to a new level. Not only did he have amazing wrestling from both a shot and inside the clinch to gain the initial takedown, but he had a suite of other skills that was the envy of even world-class grapplers. First, he could endlessly chain-wrestle. Defending against one, two or even three attempts wasn't enough, as Nurmagomedov just kept cycling from one position to another and eventually found success, as Dustin Poirier discovered. Once on top, Nurmagomedov's top control was second to none, as even heavyweights learned he was suffocating in practices, thanks to crushingly heavy hips and being a master of technique, especially his phenomenal wrist control and the famous Dagestani leg trap. Nurmagomedov's ground-and-pound was vicious and unrelenting, and his submissions also among the very best, with him being able to attack any part of the body. Doing all this requires tremendous energy, but luckily, despite how much weight he cut to make 155 as one of the largest lightweights ever, Nurmagomedov still had outstanding cardio, being able to administer beatings for all five rounds.

Like Souza and Maia, Nurmagomedov revolutionized and evolved the state of MMA grappling, but he did so at a later point in time, when more was already discovered and the level was much higher, a far more difficult, impressive task. Among his triumphs was a first-round demolition of Thiago Tavares, a shellacking of then recent UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos, utter domination and then submission of mercurial but highly talented grappler Michael Johnson, 25-minute beatings of Edson Barboza and Al Iaquinta, and of course, dominant submissions of Conor McGregor, Poirier, and Justin Gaethje, all men who were masters of neutralizing grappling. For me, there is absolutely no question that Nurmagomedov is the greatest grappler ever and no one else really comes close.