UFC Win-Streak Records: Makhachev’s 17 and the All-Time Leaders
Compare the longest UFC winning streaks, from Makhachev’s 17 to the five-way tie at 13, and see why unbeaten runs and title defenses differ.
Islam Makhachev holds the UFC record with 17 consecutive wins, one ahead of Anderson Silva’s 16. Kamaru Usman follows with 15, then Merab Dvalishvili with 14. Those are the leading marks in the UFC Record Book as checked on November 11, 2026.
The important word is consecutive: this measures an uninterrupted sequence of official UFC victories, not total career wins, an unbeaten run or consecutive title defenses.
Longest UFC winning streaks
The table uses the UFC Record Book’s unfiltered, all-fighter leaderboard—not its active-fighter filter. It compares each fighter’s longest recorded run, whether that run has ended or remains open. The record book’s stated bout pool is UFC 28 to the present, across weight classes.
| Rank | Fighter | Consecutive UFC wins |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Islam Makhachev | 17 |
| 2 | Anderson Silva | 16 |
| 3 | Kamaru Usman | 15 |
| 4 | Merab Dvalishvili | 14 |
| =5 | Georges St-Pierre | 13 |
| =5 | Jon Jones | 13 |
| =5 | Demetrious Johnson | 13 |
| =5 | Khabib Nurmagomedov | 13 |
| =5 | Max Holloway | 13 |
| =10 | Amanda Nunes | 12 |
| =10 | Tony Ferguson | 12 |
| =10 | Alexander Volkanovski | 12 |
Source for all ranks and counts: UFC Record Book, checked November 11, 2026. Ties mean the top-10 ranking positions contain 12 fighters. These counts establish the length of each run, not how difficult it was.
How the leading runs compare
Makhachev’s run began with a decision over Chris Wade on September 17, 2016, following his knockout loss to Adriano Martins in October 2015. His official bout history lists 17 straight victories from Wade through Ian Machado Garry.
The Machado Garry win came at UFC 330 on August 15, 2026. Makhachev retained the welterweight championship by unanimous decision and moved beyond Silva’s benchmark. The official event report explicitly identifies it as his 17th straight UFC victory.
A change of division did not reset that promotion-wide sequence: the run spans lightweight and welterweight. That makes it different from a streak restricted to one weight class.
Silva’s 16-win run began with his UFC debut against Chris Leben on June 28, 2006, and ended with his loss to Chris Weidman at UFC 162 on July 6, 2013. It also crossed divisions: alongside his middleweight victories, Silva beat James Irvin, Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar at light heavyweight. The UFC’s Hall of Fame announcement distinguishes his 16 consecutive wins from his 10 successful title defenses.
Usman’s 15-win sequence ran from Hayder Hassan in July 2015 through Colby Covington in November 2021. Leon Edwards ended it with a fifth-round knockout at UFC 278 in August 2022, according to Usman’s UFC bout history. Dvalishvili’s 14 is also a historical best rather than a current winning run: his official history records a loss to Petr Yan at UFC 323 in December 2025 after the Sandhagen victory that completed the sequence.
Amanda Nunes has the highest women’s mark on the overall leaderboard, at 12. Her run began against Shayna Baszler in March 2015 and reached Megan Anderson in March 2021 before Julianna Peña ended it at UFC 269. It included victories at both women’s bantamweight and featherweight, as shown in Nunes’s official results.
Why “unbeaten” can produce a different number
Jon Jones illustrates the distinction. His record-book winning streak is 13, even though he went much longer without an official defeat.
Counting the results in Jones’s UFC history, he won 13 straight bouts from Brandon Vera in March 2010 through Ovince Saint Preux in April 2016. His next appearance, against Daniel Cormier at UFC 214, was overturned to a no contest. It was not a loss, but it was not a victory either. The subsequent wins form a separate winning sequence.
For this comparison, a loss, draw or no contest interrupts consecutive victories. An unbeaten run can include draws and no contests; a winning streak cannot. Likewise, pre-UFC victories do not enlarge a UFC-only mark: Nurmagomedov’s place here is based on his 13 UFC wins, not his entire professional career.
Finally, championship activity is a separate measure. A winning streak can include ordinary bouts, title captures and defenses. It neither requires a belt nor counts only fights in which a champion retains one. Use title-fight wins versus defenses for that distinction, or total UFC wins when the question is cumulative success rather than an uninterrupted run.