Consensus Rankings:   Official  |  Member Designed  |  This Ranking Updated 5 months ago  |  All By iAmCerberus

1. 1

   

   Jon Jones

   "Bones"

   27-1-0, 1 NC

   Imho, He's the Smartest, Most intelligent MMA Fighter ever -- and I don't know if he can be anything other than #1.
   

2. 2

   

   Georges St-Pierre

   "Rush"

   26-2-0

3. 3

   

   Fedor Emelianenko

   "The Last Emperor"

   40-7-0, 1 NC

4. 4

   

   Anderson Silva

   "The Spider"

   34-11-0, 1 NC

   If he didn't have those occasional 'lapses in judgement', where he was being "reckless/not-being-intelligent" (like in Silva vs. Weidman)...
   He'd probably be #2-3.
   

5. 5

   

   Khabib Nurmagomedov

   "The Eagle"

   29-0-0

   Khabib was infinitely smarter than he gets credit for.
   SOO much of what made him so dominant--revolved around his Fight IQ, and with how he used "traps/setups"; Like, if you think of the way Great Strikers like Silva, Izzy, Machida, etc.--would use Feints/traps-so they could exploit/counter their opponents...
   Khabib would do the exact same thing, via his Grappling; Like, he would make you think he was going for your back/a rear naked choke--and get you to put your arms in a certain position--but that 'attempt' would be a total diversion--just to get you into a worse position for a different Sub.
   (The Gaethje Sub is a perfect example.)
   Khabib could get his opponents to *literally*-**put themselves-in inescapable positions**--using zero strength, and zero technique;
   To me, that is the epitome of "Ring IQ".
   

6. 6

   

   Conor McGregor

   "The Notorious"

   22-6-0

   His Fight IQ is *extremely* underrated.
   

7. 7

   

   Daniel Cormier

   "DC"

   22-3-0, 1 NC

8. 8

   

   Lyoto Machida

   "The Dragon"

   26-12-0

   To me, Machida was a lot like Anderson; And although he might not have been the "MMA Genius" that Silva was... He also didn't have those moments of recklessness that Anderson had.
   

9. 9

   

   Dominick Cruz

   "The Dominator"

   24-4-0

10. 10

    

    José Aldo

    "Junior"

    31-8-0

11+

11. 11

    

    Israel Adesanya

    "The Last Stylebender"  |  24-3-0

12. 12

    

    Stipe Miocic

    20-4-0

13. 13

    

    Dustin Poirier

    "The Diamond"  |  30-8-0, 1 NC

14. 14

    

    Max Holloway

    "Blessed"  |  26-7-0

15. 15

    

    Leon Edwards

    "Rocky"  |  22-3-0, 1 NC

16. 16

    

    Petr Yan

    "No Mercy"  |  17-5-0

17. 17

    

    Demetrious Johnson

    "Mighty Mouse"  |  25-4-1

18. 18

    

    Alexander Volkanovski

    "The Great"  |  26-4-0

19. 19

    

    Kazushi Sakuraba

    "The Gracie Hunter"  |  26-17-1, 2 NC

20. 20

    

    Cain Velasquez

    14-3-0

21. 21

    

    Matt Hughes

    45-9-0

22. 22

    

    Valentina Shevchenko

    "Bullet"  |  23-4-1

23. 23

    

    Mirko Filipović

    "Cro Cop"  |  38-11-2, 1 NC