Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Flyweights

7. Jussier Formiga

We now return to a genuinely great fighter who absolutely deserves to be on the list, even higher than seventh, in my opinion. Formiga is one of the greatest mixed martial artists never to be the champion of a major organization, though he is surpassed in that regard by someone later on this list. Formiga had phenomenal grappling, both wrestling and BJJ, and developed very good striking, though not quite on the level as some of those he tangled with later in his career. Formiga began his career 9-0 and was already beating excellent foes, including decision triumphs over Shinichi Kojima, who is one spot behind him, and a young Alexandre Pantoja. Then, he was defeated by Ian McCall, hardly a shameful loss. Formiga recovered with five straight wins, beginning with an easy decision over Mamoru Yamaguchi, who somehow ended up ahead of Formiga on this list. More on this in the next entry.

Formiga finally joined the UFC in 2012 and was knocked out in his debut by John Dodson, who absolutely should have been on this list. Formiga came back to beat Chris Cariaso but was then knocked out by another flyweight legend in Joseph Benavidez. Formiga would then embark on his best stretch, going 8-2 against superlative opposition, choking out Scott Jorgenson and defeating Zach Makovsky, Wilson Reis, Dustin Ortiz, Yuta Sasaki and Ben Nguyen. Formiga's last two wins are the most impressive, being decisions over future Bellator bantamweight champion Sergio Pettis and future UFC flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo, the latter's first loss. His only two losses during that time were a split decision against Henry Cejudo, which admittedly was a very clear win for the Olympic gold medalist, and a competitive decision loss to Ray Borg. Alas, the streak of success ended the way it began, being knocked out by Benavidez. Formiga would lose his next two, the first to yet another fighter we will see on the list, Brandon Moreno, before being finished with leg kicks in the first round by Alex Perez, signaling that at 35 years old and with countless wars on his odometer, Formiga was past his prime. Still, he's had a truly great career.

Continue Reading » Number 6