Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Flyweights

9. Ian McCall

McCall was a talented fighter who never quite reached his potential and retired a day before his 34th birthday. Yet, in a very young weight class lacking many champions, the fact that McCall was one half of the UFC’s first-ever flyweight bout and fought Demetrious Johnson to a draw—which should have been sent to an overtime round and would have been, if not for a horrible gaffe by the Australian commission in charge of the event—goes a long way. Honestly, the match could have gone either way, and it's the shining triumph of McCall's career. It wasn't the only one, though. After losing to the greatest bantamweight ever, Dominick Cruz, McCall dropped down to flyweight and had considerable success, handing Jussier Formiga, whom we will see later on this list, his first defeat, and then doing the same to Dustin Ortiz, before submitting Darrell Montague. McCall would lose the rematch to Johnson and was then defeated by Joseph Benavidez, another legendary flyweight we will discuss later. McCall would recover with nice wins over Iliarde Santos and Brad Pickett, before losses to John Lineker, Manel Kape and Kyoji Horiguchi to end his career. McCall consistently fought the very best, and for a while, was winning more than he lost against them.

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