The 72 fighters with the most first-round finishes in the UFC
Every fighter on this list is ranked on one number: wins by knockout or submission in the first round. Nothing else is weighed, and the figures each ranking rests on are in the table. These are UFC bouts only.
| # | Fighter | Years | First-round finishes | Finishes | KO/TKO | Submission |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jim Miller | 2008–2026 | 12 | 18 | 6 | 12 |
| 2 | Frank Mir | 2001–2016 | 10 | 13 | 5 | 8 |
| 3 | Vitor Belfort | 1997–2018 | 9 | 14 | 12 | 2 |
| 3 | Anthony Johnson | 2007–2017 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 0 |
| 3 | Andrei Arlovski | 2000–2024 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 2 |
| 3 | Vicente Luque | 2015–2026 | 9 | 14 | 8 | 6 |
| 3 | Amanda Nunes | 2013–2026 | 9 | 10 | 7 | 3 |
| 8 | Joe Lauzon | 2006–2019 | 8 | 13 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | Matt Hughes | 1999–2011 | 8 | 13 | 8 | 5 |
| 8 | Gabriel Gonzaga | 2005–2016 | 8 | 11 | 7 | 4 |
| 8 | Donald Cerrone | 2011–2022 | 8 | 16 | 10 | 6 |
| 8 | Charles Oliveira | 2010–2026 | 8 | 19 | 4 | 15 |
| 8 | Francis Ngannou | 2015–2022 | 8 | 11 | 10 | 1 |
| 8 | Michał Oleksiejczuk | 2017–2026 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 0 |
| 15 | Anderson Silva | 2006–2020 | 7 | 14 | 11 | 3 |
| 15 | Demian Maia | 2007–2021 | 7 | 12 | 1 | 11 |
| 15 | Cain Velasquez | 2008–2019 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 0 |
| 15 | Dustin Poirier | 2011–2024 | 7 | 14 | 9 | 5 |
| 15 | Drew Dober | 2014–2026 | 7 | 12 | 11 | 1 |
| 15 | Derek Brunson | 2012–2023 | 7 | 9 | 7 | 2 |
| 15 | Derrick Lewis | 2014–2026 | 7 | 16 | 16 | 0 |
| 15 | Sergei Pavlovich | 2018–2026 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 0 |
| 15 | Johnny Walker | 2018–2026 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 1 |
| 15 | Terrance McKinney | 2021–2026 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 2 |
| 25 | Josh Koscheck | 2005–2015 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 3 |
| 25 | Chuck Liddell | 1998–2010 | 6 | 10 | 10 | 0 |
| 25 | Roy Nelson | 2009–2017 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 0 |
| 25 | Evan Tanner | 1999–2008 | 6 | 9 | 5 | 4 |
| 25 | Tito Ortiz | 1997–2012 | 6 | 10 | 8 | 2 |
| 25 | Ronaldo Souza | 2013–2021 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 4 |
| 25 | Travis Browne | 2010–2017 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 1 |
| 25 | Alexey Oleynik | 2014–2022 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 7 |
| 25 | Ovince Saint Preux | 2013–2024 | 6 | 11 | 5 | 6 |
| 25 | Marcos Rogério de Lima | 2014–2024 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 2 |
| 25 | Nikita Krylov | 2013–2026 | 6 | 10 | 5 | 5 |
| 25 | Jéssica Andrade | 2013–2025 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 3 |
| 25 | Dominick Reyes | 2017–2026 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 1 |
| 25 | Jalin Turner | 2018–2026 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 3 |
| 25 | Anthony Smith | 2016–2025 | 6 | 11 | 6 | 5 |
| 25 | Tyson Pedro | 2016–2024 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 2 |
| 25 | Glover Teixeira | 2012–2023 | 6 | 13 | 6 | 7 |
| 25 | Islam Makhachev | 2015–2026 | 6 | 11 | 3 | 8 |
| 25 | Alonzo Menifield | 2019–2026 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 2 |
| 25 | Edmen Shahbazyan | 2019–2026 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 1 |
| 25 | Tom Aspinall | 2020–2025 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 2 |
| 25 | Carlos Ulberg | 2021–2025 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 1 |
| 25 | Uroš Medić | 2021–2026 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 0 |
| 25 | Jailton Almeida | 2022–2025 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 4 |
| 49 | Matt Brown | 2008–2023 | 5 | 13 | 11 | 2 |
| 49 | Junior dos Santos | 2008–2020 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 0 |
| 49 | Rich Franklin | 2003–2012 | 5 | 10 | 9 | 1 |
| 49 | B.J. Penn | 2001–2019 | 5 | 11 | 7 | 4 |
| 49 | Ben Saunders | 2008–2019 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 3 |
| 49 | Chris Leben | 2005–2013 | 5 | 8 | 6 | 2 |
| 49 | Cheick Kongo | 2006–2013 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 0 |
| 49 | Melvin Guillard | 2005–2014 | 5 | 8 | 8 | 0 |
| 49 | Tony Ferguson | 2011–2023 | 5 | 11 | 5 | 6 |
| 49 | Bobby Green | 2013–2026 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 3 |
| 49 | Sam Alvey | 2014–2022 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 1 |
| 49 | Thiago Santos | 2013–2022 | 5 | 11 | 11 | 0 |
| 49 | Conor McGregor | 2013–2026 | 5 | 8 | 8 | 0 |
| 49 | Ronda Rousey | 2013–2016 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 3 |
| 49 | Ilir Latifi | 2013–2023 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| 49 | Dan Hooker | 2014–2026 | 5 | 9 | 7 | 2 |
| 49 | Jack Hermansson | 2016–2025 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 3 |
| 49 | Tai Tuivasa | 2017–2026 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 0 |
| 49 | Volkan Oezdemir | 2017–2025 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 1 |
| 49 | Abdul Razak Alhassan | 2016–2025 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 0 |
| 49 | Ion Cuțelaba | 2016–2026 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 1 |
| 49 | Kevin Holland | 2018–2026 | 5 | 10 | 6 | 4 |
| 49 | Joanderson Brito | 2022–2026 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 3 |
| 49 | Valter Walker | 2024–2026 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 5 |
How this list is made
Ranked on first-round finishes: wins by knockout or submission in the first round. Fighters are ranked on that number alone and on nothing else. Where two are level they share a rank, and the list runs past fifty when fiftieth place is shared, because splitting a tie would mean choosing between them on no stated basis.
These are UFC bouts and nothing else. A fighter’s record in other promotions is not counted, so someone with a long career elsewhere can appear here with a short one. This is not a career record and does not claim to be.
406 of the 16,988 bout records carry no round. A finish in one of those cannot be placed in the first round or anywhere else, so it is not counted here. The finishes column counts them, which is why it can exceed what this list shows.
312 bout records carry no usable result and are counted in nothing — not as a win, a loss or a bout. A bout record is one fighter’s side of one fight, so a fight between two fighters who each have a page here appears as two of them.
Bout results from the UFC event articles on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, and fighter identities from Wikidata (public domain).