Striking leaderboard

Most Significant Strikes Absorbed

31
Brandon Moreno
Brandon Moreno
1,313 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 62.5/fight·59.9% def
32
Vicente Luque
Vicente Luque
1,306 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 50.2/fight·51.6% def
33
Jared Cannonier
Jared Cannonier
1,277 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 60.8/fight·55.9% def
34
BJ Penn
BJ Penn
1,239 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 45.9/fight·56.9% def
35
Diego Sanchez
Diego Sanchez
1,238 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 38.7/fight·56.5% def
36
Ross Pearson
Ross Pearson
1,238 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 47.6/fight·62.2% def
37
Brian Ortega
Brian Ortega
1,233 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 88.1/fight·49.3% def
38
Court McGee
Court McGee
1,229 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 49.2/fight·60.1% def
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39
King Green
King Green
1,227 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 38.3/fight·61.4% def
40
Kelvin Gastelum
Kelvin Gastelum
1,222 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 47.0/fight·57.3% def
41
Dan Hooker
Dan Hooker
1,213 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 48.5/fight·49.0% def
42
Brad Tavares
Brad Tavares
1,209 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 43.2/fight·54.9% def
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43
Tony Ferguson
Tony Ferguson
1,186 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 49.4/fight·55.4% def
44
Glover Teixeira
Glover Teixeira
1,186 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 51.6/fight·51.0% def
45
Nasrat Haqparast
Nasrat Haqparast
1,181 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 73.8/fight·62.1% def

UFC fighters ranked by total significant strikes absorbed across all tracked fights.

About Significant Strikes Absorbed

This leaderboard ranks UFC fighters by the significant strikes their opponents landed on them across all tracked bouts — the mirror of the strikes landed board. Each figure is taken from the opponent's own stat line in the same bout. Significant strikes are every strike landed at distance, jabs included, plus the power strikes landed in the clinch and on the ground.

Key Metrics Explained

  • Total Sig. Strikes Absorbed: The cumulative number of significant strikes opponents landed on the fighter across all fights with available statistics.
  • Per-Fight Average: Average significant strikes absorbed per bout.
  • Def %: Striking defense - the share of the opponents' significant-strike attempts that missed, (attempted − landed) ÷ attempted. Higher is harder to hit.
  • Absorbed of Faced: On the per-fight view, the strikes that landed out of all the significant strikes thrown at the fighter.

Methodology

Fighters must have at least 3 fights in which both corners have recorded statistics (8 on the per-fight view) and must have faced at least 100 opponent significant-strike attempts to appear on this leaderboard. All statistics are sourced from official UFC fight stats and updated after each event.

Limits worth knowing

A strike total is a count, not a damage score. Every significant strike absorbed adds one to the tally whether it was a glancing calf kick or the head kick that ended the night, so this board measures incoming traffic rather than harm. It also says nothing about what a fighter landed in return; for that, read it beside the strikes landed board.

Volume is also a function of time in the cage. A fighter who regularly goes 15 or 25 minutes has far more time to absorb strikes than one whose fights end early, which is why the Per Fight tab, or strikes absorbed per minute, is often the fairer read, and why striking defense is the better measure of how hard a fighter is to hit. Per-round statistics are recorded for roughly 8,750 of the 8,800-plus bouts in our database, so a small number of fights, mostly from the earliest era, contribute nothing to any figure here.

Because a division view counts only the bouts contested at that weight, the figures for anyone who changed division divide between their divisions rather than repeating in each. To rank fighters by quality of opposition, our ELO ratings are the better tool, and each career breaks down in full on the fighter profiles. The rest of our UFC statistics put this number in context.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does significant strikes absorbed measure?
It counts every significant strike an opponent landed on the fighter, read from the opponent's own stat line in the same bout and summed across a UFC career. Significant strikes are all strikes landed at distance, jabs included, plus power strikes in the clinch and on the ground, so the figure measures meaningful incoming traffic rather than every touch.
Does absorbing a lot of strikes mean a fighter has poor defense?
Not on its own. A career total rewards longevity and a style that lives in exchanges, so long-serving volume fighters who trade in the pocket absorb a lot simply because they spend so many minutes in range. The defense percentage on each row, the share of incoming strikes that missed, separates a fighter who is easy to hit from one who has just been in a lot of fights.
Why use a per-fight average alongside the career total?
A career total rewards longevity, so a 20-fight veteran can top this list without being unusually easy to hit. The per-fight average normalizes for career length, and the strikes absorbed per minute board goes one step further by dividing by actual octagon time.
How does fight time affect these totals?
Strikes absorbed are heavily shaped by how long fights last, so fighters who routinely go 15 or 25 minutes absorb more than fighters whose bouts end early, win or lose. When comparing two names here, factor in average fight duration, or use the per-minute board, which removes it.
Most Significant Strikes Absorbed - top 10 (MMA.SOCIAL): 1. Max Holloway (2,457), 2. Angela Hill (2,164), 3. Marlon Vera (1,973), 4. Edson Barboza (1,855), 5. Sean Strickland (1,842), 6. Donald Cerrone (1,825), 7. Rafael Dos Anjos (1,728), 8. Robbie Lawler (1,650), 9. Dustin Poirier (1,627), 10. Jose Aldo (1,600)
Most Significant Strikes Absorbed - top 10, updated Oct 29, 2026.
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Most Significant Strikes Absorbed: top 10

The top 10 as one image. Free to share, updated after every UFC card.