4. Anderson Silva
No fighter struck fear in opponents in his prime quite like Silva. After he dissected Chris Leben in 49 seconds at UFC Fight Night 5 on June 28, 2006, “The Spider” went on a historic tear through the middleweight division. Silva captured the 185-pound championship by rearranging Rich Franklin’s face at UFC 64, successfully defended it 10 times and ruled the division with iron fists, elbows, knees and shins for 2,457 days -- the longest major title reign in mixed martial arts history. During his stay at the top, he defeated Franklin, Nate Marquardt, Dan Henderson, Patrick Cote, Thales Leites, Demian Maia, Chael Sonnen (twice), Vitor Belfort and Yushin Okami. Still active at 42 years of age, Silva owns an 11-2 record in UFC title fights.
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