7. Jose Aldo
Long before Conor McGregor burst on the scene, Aldo established himself as the standard by which all other featherweights were judged. The Nova Uniao cornerstone has pieced together an 8-2 record in UFC title bouts and turned away a murderer’s row of would-be successors in the process: Mark Hominick, Kenny Florian, Chad Mendes (twice), Frankie Edgar (twice), Chan Sung Jung and Ricardo Lamas. Not until he was victimized by McGregor’s lightning bolt of a left hand at UFC 194 on Dec. 12, 2015 did Aldo cede the 145-pound throne. By then, he had held it for 1,848 days. Aldo went on to reclaim the title -- McGregor was stripped of the belt after moving to lightweight -- in a rematch with Edgar before surrendering the championship once again, this time in a third-round technical knockout loss to Max Holloway.
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