For all intents and purposes, the UFC is the cream of the crop. The UFC is the world's premier mixed-martial-arts organization and there's not exactly a close second yet. While there have been competitors over the years such as PRIDE Fighting Championships and Strikeforce that have put a dent in the UFC's domination, they haven't had a close competitor for years.
With all that known, most fighters jump for the UFC the first opportunity they get. However, there were a few amazing talents that never went to the UFC, or at the very least have yet to step into the Octagon as of now.
10 Kayla Harrison
Kayla Harrison is one of the most accomplished judokas of all time, having won gold at the Olympics in 2012 and 2016. Harrison announced a move to MMA following the 2016 Olympics and signed with the newly redubbed PFL, and Harrison has not looked back.
Harrison sits at 11-0 and is already a PFL Lightweight Tournament Champion, despite only being three years into her career she's arguably the greatest woman to have never fought in the UFC, and already has fans clamoring for an Amanda Nunes cross-promotional fight.
9 Yaroslav Amosov
Yaroslav Amosov at the young age of 28 is already one of the greatest fighters on the planet. Amosov is currently sitting at 26-0, and the Ukrainian fighter has already begun wrecking the Bellator welterweight division despite only signing with the promotion in 2018.
Amosov has already dominated the likes of Douglas Lima, Ed Ruth, Erick Silva, and Gerald Harris en route to capturing the Bellator welterweight championship, and he only continues to get better.
8 Gina Carano
Gina Carano is not only one of the pioneers of woman's fighting, she's one of the best women to never step into the UFC octagon. Carano was notable for having been a part of a lot of firsts for women fighting, having been a part of the first women's fight in Nevada, she was also a part of the first nationally televised women's MMA fight.
Her 7-1 record is good but also deceiving, having defeated notable fighters such as Tonya Evinger, Julie Kedzie, and Kaitlin Young. Her sole loss also came to Cris Cyborg for the Strikeforce Featherweight Championship in what wound up being her last appearance for the cage. Carano did get close to signing with the UFC to fight Ronda Rousey in 2014, but the bout never materialized.
7 AJ McKee
AJ McKee is one of the first real athletes born and bred for MMA. The son of Antonio McKee, McKee has had quite the rise in Bellator MMA. McKee debuted in 2015 as a 20-year-old fresh-faced kid and has dominated every single bout he's been a part of since then, with nobody really coming close.
Now 25 years old, McKee is 18-0 and the current Featherweight Champion for Bellator after winning the whole Bellator featherweight Grand Prix. He won the belt after dominating and submitting one of the Bellators GOATs, Patricio Pitbull at Bellator 263.
6 Joe Warren
Joe Warren for a very brief period of time had a claim to be not only the greatest featherweights on the planet, but one of the best bantamweights on the planet. Warren was a young wrestler heading into the Bellator season two featherweight tournament, despite being just a 2-1 fighter he won the whole tournament and won the Featherweight Title after defeating Joe Soto. Warren lost his belt a few fights later to Pat Curran, before deciding to move on down to bantamweight and claimed the 135-pound bantamweight crown after defeating Eduardo Dantas at Bellator 128.
While Warren's 15-8 record won't stand out, his resume with wins over the likes of Patricio Pitbull, Norifumi Yamamoto, Chase Beebe, Marcos Galvão, and the aforementioned Soto and Dantas is one of the best that you'll see outside of the UFC.
5 Sergei Kharitonov
Sergei Kharitonov, like his fellow countryman Fedor Emelianenko is known for having never made the journey to the UFC. Kharitonov is also known for having also having fought everywhere but the UFC , as Kharitnov has fought in PRIDE, DREAM, Strikeforce, and now Bellator.
Kharitonov did not win any actual championships in any of those promotions, but across his 21-year career, he has defeated the likes of Alistair Overeem, Andrei Arlovski, and Fabricio Werdum, just to name a few.
4 Douglas Lima
Douglas Lima for well over a decade now, has had the reputation as arguably the best welterweight outside of the UFC. The multi-time Bellator Welterweight Champion has defeated some of the best fighters on the planet, like Rory MacDonald, Andrey Koreshkov, Michael Page, Paul Daley, and Lorenz Larkin.
It is worth noting that while Douglas has never stepped into the UFC octagon, his brother Dhiego Lima has been a part of the roster since 2017.
3 Shinya Aoki
Japan's Shinya Aoki is known as one of the greatest grapplers in the history of the sport, and it's incredible that across his 57 fight career he has never stepped into the UFC's octagon. Aoki has spent much of his career in Asia-based promotions such as RIZIN and ONE, and along the way, he's defeated some fellow greats of the sport.
Sporting a 47-9 (1) record, he has wins over the likes of Eddie Alvarez, Kazushi Sakuraba, Caol Uno, and Eduard Folayang.
2 Patricio Pitbull
Patricio Pitbull is commonly looked at as the greatest fighter in Bellator history and has been the greatest featherweight outside of the UFC for quite a long time. The former two-weight champion for the promotion was unbeaten for five years from 2016-2021 until he lost to AJ McKee at Bellator 263, and during that time he had one of the best stretches of the sport.
Pitbull defeated Daniel Straus, Daniel Weichel, Emmanuel Sanchez twice, Michael Chandler, Juan Archuleta, and Pedro Caravalho across that five-year span to become a two-weight world champion, in a run that won't be replicated for quite a while.
1 Fedor Emelianenko
Fedor Emelianenko is one of the greatest fighters of all time, and despite coming close on multiple occasions to signing with the UFC, it never came to fruition. Despite this, he still has arguably the greatest resume ever, across all weight classes.
Emelianenko has wins over seven former UFC champions (Nogueria, Sylvia, Arlovski, Mir, Rampage, Coleman, and Randleman), and in addition to that has beaten other amazing fighters such as Mirko Cro Cop, Mark Hunt, Gary Goodridge, and Chael Sonnen. Emelianenko is without a doubt, the greatest fighter to never fight in the UFC.