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Middleweight · 2026

Best Middleweight Striking Defense

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

Ismail Naurdiev leads the middleweight Str Def board at 65% opp. strikes blocked , followed by Ozzy Diaz (63%) and Sean Strickland (61%) .

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

Striking Defense in all divisions →
  1. 1
    Ismail Naurdiev
    4-3-0 7 fights #40
    65%
  2. 2
    Ozzy Diaz
    1-2-0 3 fights #54
    63%
  3. 3
    Sean Strickland C
    18-7-0 25 fights #3
    61%
  4. 4
    Bo Nickal
    6-1-0 7 fights #15
    60%
  5. 5
    Caio Borralho
    8-1-0 9 fights #6
    60%
  6. 6
    Robert Whittaker
    17-7-0 24 fights #7
    60%
  7. 7
    Baisangur Susurkaev
    3-0-0 3 fights #17
    59%
  8. 8
    Nassourdine Imavov
    9-2-0 11 fights #5
    59%
  9. 9
    Michal Oleksiejczuk
    10-7-0 17 fights #32
    58%
  10. 10
    Andrey Pulyaev
    1-2-0 3 fights #50
    57%
  11. 11
    Kelvin Gastelum
    14-11-0 25 fights #22
    57%
  12. 12
    Jared Cannonier
    11-9-0 20 fights #25
    56%
  13. 13
    Marco Tulio
    2-2-0 4 fights #46
    56%
  14. 14
    Marvin Vettori
    9-8-1 18 fights #36
    56%
  15. 15
    Abus Magomedov
    4-3-0 7 fights #35
    56%
  16. 16
    Israel Adesanya
    13-6-0 19 fights #11
    56%
  17. 17
    Jacob Malkoun
    6-2-0 8 fights #27
    55%
  18. 18
    Robert Bryczek
    1-2-0 3 fights #55
    55%
  19. 19
    Abdul Razak Alhassan
    6-7-0 13 fights #43
    55%
  20. 20
    Brad Tavares
    16-12-0 28 fights #38
    55%
  21. 21
    Cam Rowston
    3-0-0 3 fights #16
    54%
  22. 22
    Ateba Gautier
    5-0-0 5 fights #12
    54%
  23. 23
    Gerald Meerschaert
    12-14-0 26 fights #48
    54%
  24. 24
    Roman Kopylov
    7-5-0 12 fights #31
    53%
  25. 25
    Armen Petrosyan
    3-4-0 7 fights #49
    53%
Other middleweight leaderboards

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 Jun 20, 2026.