Striking leaderboard

Most Significant Strikes Absorbed

1
Max Holloway
Max Holloway
2,457 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 74.5/fight·58.7% def
2
Marlon Vera
Marlon Vera
1,973 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 73.1/fight·49.6% def
3
Edson Barboza
Edson Barboza
1,855 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 56.2/fight·55.5% def
4
Sean Strickland
Sean Strickland
1,842 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 73.7/fight·60.6% def
5
Donald Cerrone
Donald Cerrone
1,825 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 48.0/fight·51.6% def
6
Rafael Dos Anjos
Rafael Dos Anjos
1,728 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 46.7/fight·60.2% def
7
Robbie Lawler
Robbie Lawler
1,650 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 66.0/fight·58.3% def
8
Dustin Poirier
Dustin Poirier
1,627 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 50.8/fight·52.3% def
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9
Jose Aldo
Jose Aldo
1,600 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 69.6/fight·58.4% def
10
Pedro Munhoz
Pedro Munhoz
1,587 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 72.1/fight·56.0% def
11
Jim Miller
Jim Miller
1,554 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 33.1/fight·56.7% def
12
Marvin Vettori
Marvin Vettori
1,480 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 77.9/fight·56.4% def
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13
Calvin Kattar
Calvin Kattar
1,453 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 96.9/fight·54.8% def
14
Alex Morono
Alex Morono
1,389 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 57.9/fight·55.4% def
15
Michael Johnson
Michael Johnson
1,386 Sig. Strikes Absorbed 43.3/fight·58.8% 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.