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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 Donte Johnson (63%) and Ozzy Diaz (63%) .

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
    Donte Johnson
    3-0-0 3 fights #22
    63%
  3. 3
    Ozzy Diaz
    1-2-0 3 fights #54
    63%
  4. 4
    Sean Strickland C
    18-7-0 25 fights #4
    61%
  5. 5
    Michal Oleksiejczuk
    10-8-0 19 fights #36
    60%
  6. 6
    Bo Nickal
    6-1-0 7 fights #16
    60%
  7. 7
    Caio Borralho
    8-1-0 9 fights #7
    60%
  8. 8
    Baisangur Susurkaev
    3-0-0 3 fights #20
    59%
  9. 9
    Nassourdine Imavov
    9-2-0 12 fights #6
    59%
  10. 10
    Andrey Pulyaev
    1-3-0 4 fights #62
    57%
  11. 11
    Kelvin Gastelum
    14-11-0 26 fights #24
    57%
  12. 12
    Abus Magomedov
    5-3-0 8 fights #29
    56%
  13. 13
    Marco Tulio
    2-2-0 4 fights #47
    56%
  14. 14
    Marvin Vettori
    9-8-1 18 fights #37
    56%
  15. 15
    Jared Cannonier
    11-10-0 21 fights #28
    56%
  16. 16
    Israel Adesanya
    13-6-0 19 fights #10
    56%
  17. 17
    Jacob Malkoun
    6-3-0 9 fights #31
    55%
  18. 18
    Robert Bryczek
    1-2-0 3 fights #55
    55%
  19. 19
    Brad Tavares
    16-12-0 28 fights #38
    55%
  20. 20
    Abdul Razak Alhassan
    6-7-0 14 fights #42
    55%
  21. 21
    Kamaru Usman
    16-4-0 20 fights #3
    55%
  22. 22
    Dricus Du Plessis
    10-1-0 11 fights #1
    54%
  23. 23
    Christian Leroy Duncan
    8-2-0 10 fights #14
    54%
  24. 24
    Cam Rowston
    3-0-0 3 fights #19
    54%
  25. 25
    Ateba Gautier
    5-0-0 5 fights #11
    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
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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 Aug 15, 2026.