5. Alexander Gustafsson
Incredibly, this is the first Sherdog top 10 that Gustafsson has cracked, and it's the top half of the list. While he experienced one of the fastest slides of any top fighter in the heavier weight classes, in his prime Gustafsson was legitimately great. He was a huge, rangy light heavyweight with terrific striking, especially with his hands, and some of the best takedown defense in the sport, which was certainly tested. Gustafsson lost early into his UFC career by first-round submission to then-undefeated Phil Davis, a future Bellator champion and excellent fighter to this day. The Swede responded by simply getting better, going on an outstanding 6 fight win streak, four by stoppage, which saw him reach the pinnacle of the sport. He knocked out skilled wrestlers Matt Hamill and Vladimir Matyushenko before winning decisions against Thiago Silva and former champion Mauricio Rua. This gained Gustafsson a shot at the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport, the seemingly unbeatable Jon Jones. In one of the greatest fights ever, Gustafsson had considerable boxing success and pushed Jones to the absolute limit, something that no one had ever seen before. A sizable minority had it for the Swedish challenger, but in the end, Jones retained his title by unanimous decision.
Gustafsson then went 3-2 in his next five fights, though one has to consider the competition. He knocked out elite contender Jimi Manuwa in the second round, won an easy decision over one future UFC light heavyweight champion in Jan Blachowicz, then recorded a fifth-round knockout of another in Glover Teixeira. One loss was by knockout to one of MMA's greatest knockout artists, Anthony Johnson, and the other was a close decision to all-time legend and future two-division champ Daniel Cormier, though it shouldn't have been split. While only 30 years old at the time of the Teixeira win, Gustafsson hasn't triumphed since, very rapidly declining. He lost a rematch against Jones in one-sided fashion, which is forgivable, but then suffered big upsets back-to-back against Anthony Smith and Fabricio Werdum, both of whom almost instantly tapped him when the fight hit the ground. Most recently, he fought Nikita Krylov in 2022 and was knocked out in just 67 seconds. Nevertheless, Gustafsson was one of the best in all of MMA for five years, and certainly one of the greatest never to win UFC gold.
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