One of the most important parts of any MMA fighter's abilities is their speed. While there are plenty of slower fighters who see success, that’s often thanks to an excellent chin and serious knockout power. A fighter with a lot of speed can approach a fight in just about any way they want to.
Being a quick fighter can mean a lot of different things. Some are quick on their feet, some have fast hands, and some have lightning-quick takedowns and submissions. If a fighter’s lucky, they’ll embody all of that speed as they tear their way through their divisions. Some of the fastest fighters in the history of MMA have also been some of the most successful.
10 Urijah Faber
Early in his career, it looked like it was going to take someone incredibly special or incredibly lucky to beat Urijah Faber. He’s one of the most talented fighters to step into a cage and has demonstrated his incredible speed both on the feet and on the mat.
There are literal moments in which he chased his opponent as they fled from him inside the octagon as he looked to finish a fight for good. Even his wider shots that have a long distance to travel connected with his opponents before they even had a chance to move.
9 Anderson Silva
While Silva is generally either remembered for his incredible skill or for his antics inside the octagon, most people tend to forget to give him credit for his incredible speed. It is fair to say that he was a calculated fighter, but not being able to hit him at all puts many fighters at a disadvantage.
Most people point to the peak of Silva’s incredible fight career being his bout with Forrest Griffin, a bout that saw Griffin struggling to land a single shot on Silva. His predictive abilities mixed with his speed makes Silva a contender for one of the scariest men to fight.
8 Georges St-Pierre
Every moment of a GSP fight was capable of being the last one. In his prime, GSP could secure a huge takedown on his opponent at a moment's notice to either begin some ground and pound or go for a submission attempt.
While that sounds fairly standard, GSP’s various takedowns would see him rushing his opponent across the cage until they were on their back and crunched down into a poor position. His ability to bully fighters with his strength and sudden speed makes him one of the quickest men in UFC history.
7 Cub Swanson
It could be said that much of Swanson’s incredible speed comes down to his ability to maneuver his opponent into tight submissions in just a matter of seconds, but another argument could be made as well. Swanson is an imposing force every time he steps into the octagon.
He’s a quick fighter that tends to dominate control of the octagon thanks to his willingness to clash with anyone. That fact keeps him ready to dodge out of the way once his opponents finally set their feet to mount some kind of offense in return.
6 Frankie Edgar
Frankie Edgar’s speed mixes with his power to make him a tough fighter to beat. His ability to move out of the way of strikes while returning a high-impact strike of his own is second to none. If strikes don’t work, his speed works in other ways.
Edgar is able to switch styles with ease to transition from knockout attempts to submission attempts faster than most fighters. Watching him dominate top control throughout a grappling exchange is always an impressive sight to behold as he does so with much greater speed than most.
5 Andrei Arlovski
A lot of Arlovski’s speed seems to stem from his incredible striking power. He had some of the quickest one-two combinations during his prime in MMA. One of his most impressive knockouts came from a strike that didn’t even look all that stiff, it was just delivered quickly.
Mixing some incredible looping punches with level changes made him hard to read, and most of the time, his fantastic combinations ended with his opponent flat on the mat before they even had time to reply with strikes of their own.
4 Demetrious Johnson
While a lot of people say his smaller size helps him be quicker than most fighters, many others point to his dedication to his training. There are a lot of reasons why Demetrious Johnson was such a successful champion, and one of the biggest reasons was his frightening speed.
Just about everything Johnson did was controlled but done with a burst of speed. Every single punch and incredible kick launched toward his opponents in a flash, leaving them little time to avoid them. His striking ability and intense speed made him a fighter no one could beat for a long time.
3 Jose Aldo
A quick look at some of Aldo’s most exciting knockouts will show anyone exactly why he’s one of the fastest MMA fighters of all time. Whether he’s countering with shockingly fast knees, incredible hooks, or simply launching toward his grounded opponent to pound them into the mat, it’s hard for anyone to deal with his speed.
His most impressive moments of speed tend to come from his knee strikes, strikes that his opponents rarely ever see coming. As soon as Aldo delivers a shot with his knee, it’s almost a certainty that his bouts are coming to a close.
2 Vitor Belfort
One of the most explosive MMA fighters of all time is undoubtedly Vitor Belfort. Regardless of the type of opponent he battled, Belfort was able to deliver some incredibly fast shots that were backed by a ton of knockout power.
Even his ground and pound seems faster than a majority of MMA fighters. One only needs to look at his clash with Bisping in 2013 for an example of how fast Belfort can transition from a head kick to a brutal assault on the ground.
1 Alexander Volkanovski
While there have been plenty of incredibly quick fighters over the years, one of the absolute quickest is also currently dominating his competition. Alexander Volkanovski somehow manages to look untouchable regardless of how late into a fight he gets.
The way he approaches his opponents is not only imposing, but he’s constantly prepared to strike at any moment. He almost looks like he’s fidgeting around, but it’s just smaller movements so that he can be prepared to tense his body in order to dodge, absorb a blow, or deliver a lightning-fast strike.