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Middleweight · 2026

Best Middleweight Striking Defense

Best at avoiding shots — highest percentage of opponent strikes that miss or get blocked.

Yousri Belgaroui leads the middleweight Str Def board at 70% opp. strikes blocked , followed by Ismail Naurdiev (64%) and Donte Johnson (63%) .

Top 25 active middleweight fighters by career-window Str Def. · See full middleweight Elo rankings →

Striking Defense in all divisions →
  1. 1
    Yousri Belgaroui
    3-0-0 3 fights #15
    70%
  2. 2
    Ismail Naurdiev
    5-3-0 8 fights #36
    64%
  3. 3
    Donte Johnson
    3-0-0 3 fights #24
    63%
  4. 4
    Michael Page
    5-1-0 6 fights #12
    63%
  5. 5
    Ozzy Diaz
    1-3-0 4 fights #64
    62%
  6. 6
    Sean Strickland C
    18-7-0 25 fights #5
    61%
  7. 7
    Michal Oleksiejczuk
    10-8-0 19 fights #38
    60%
  8. 8
    Bo Nickal
    6-1-0 7 fights #16
    60%
  9. 9
    Caio Borralho
    8-1-0 9 fights #7
    60%
  10. 10
    Baisangur Susurkaev
    3-0-0 3 fights #20
    59%
  11. 11
    Nassourdine Imavov
    9-2-0 12 fights #6
    59%
  12. 12
    Kelvin Gastelum
    14-11-0 26 fights #26
    57%
  13. 13
    Andrey Pulyaev
    1-4-0 5 fights #69
    57%
  14. 14
    Abus Magomedov
    5-3-0 8 fights #32
    56%
  15. 15
    Marvin Vettori
    9-9-1 19 fights #43
    56%
  16. 16
    Marco Tulio
    2-2-0 4 fights #49
    56%
  17. 17
    Jared Cannonier
    11-10-0 21 fights #31
    56%
  18. 18
    Israel Adesanya
    13-6-0 19 fights #10
    56%
  19. 19
    Jacob Malkoun
    6-3-0 9 fights #34
    55%
  20. 20
    Brad Tavares
    16-12-0 28 fights #39
    55%
  21. 21
    Abdul Razak Alhassan
    6-7-0 14 fights #44
    55%
  22. 22
    Kamaru Usman
    16-4-0 20 fights #3
    55%
  23. 23
    Robert Bryczek
    1-3-0 4 fights #67
    54%
  24. 24
    Dricus Du Plessis
    10-1-0 11 fights #1
    54%
  25. 25
    Cam Rowston
    3-0-0 3 fights #19
    54%
Other middleweight leaderboards
Strikes Landed per Minute Striking Accuracy Lowest Strikes Absorbed Takedowns per 15 Minutes Takedown Accuracy Takedown Defense Submission Attempts per 15 Min Knockdowns per 15 Minutes Control Time per 15 Minutes
Post-fight bonus leaders most of all time · highest rate · by award type → Activity leaders busiest years · toughest schedules · octagon time → Bonus money what the awards paid, at published rates →

Career averages, calculated over a fighter's full UFC sample. Provisional fighters (fewer than 4 UFC bouts) and retired fighters are excluded so the leaderboards reflect a real career, not a one-fight outlier. Stat data sourced from UFCStats via our daily pipeline. Updated Oct 17, 2026.