"Defense is as important as offense.", "The best defense is a good offense.", Either quote rings true, meaning a good defense is necessary to be a successful participant in a fight. Sure, toughness and durability are great, but there's no substitute for defense, especially when considering career longevity.

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Defensive masterpieces are fun to watch. Great head movement, hands being where they need to be, and stopping any forward onslaught can win fights just as well as offensive masterclasses. On top of that, it's a great strategy to make fighters hit air. Innately, fighters seem to want to hit the defensive fighter even more than before once they miss. Defense isn't only seen with the striking. The ability to stop takedowns and/or the submissions that follow is a necessity for successful athletes.

10 Ryan Hall

Conventional defense? Not in the slightest. However, it seems to work, as Ryan Hall rarely gets marked up in his fights. Ryan Hall iminari rolls his way out of danger. Hall is very adept when it comes to grappling, but the gap in jiu jitsu prowess between Ryan and his opponents is amplified when leg entanglements are initiated.

Ryan keeps his distance with a kick-heavy attack. Hands down, kicks ranging from low to high and the fearful leg locks keep opponents from landing too much on Hall.

9 Rafael Fizeiv

UFC 265-Green vs Fiziev
Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Rafael Fizeiv is amongst the best strikers in the UFC. A rising star in the UFC, Fizeiv comes from a Muay Thai background, building quite the highlight reel for himself. Rafael is very textbook with his technique, and is caught rarely. However, he goes beyond standard defense.

Many Muay Thai fighters pull this defense that resembles the Matrix, but none better than Rafael Fizeiv. He'll often see the roundhouse kick coming and lean back as a way to avoid any contact. Only spending 15 seconds being controlled in the grappling department is another testament to how well-rounded Fizeiv is.

8 Valentina Shevchenko

Valentina Shevchenko Pistol Tattoo
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Valentina Shevchenko has proven herself to be one of the most dominant champions that the UFC has seen. Her 8 fight win streak is impressive, but the way she does it really sets a high bar.

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Valentina completely dominates her competition. A 64% significant strike defense brings an air of invincibility whenever Shevchenko puts on the gloves. She's only eaten 22 strikes in her last 22 minutes of action, which makes Valentina a defensive aficionado.

7 Jon Jones

Jon Jones vs Viktor Belfort, UFC fight
© Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

Jon Jones has been in the GOAT conversation for some time now, and it's because of how well-rounded his game is. Jon has done the most with combining his genetics with skill-set.

While Jones has been touchable lately, most of his career has been making great fighters look subpar. Jones' 64% significant strike defense has been accumulated over the course of fighting incredibly tricky strikers. On top of this, his grappling defense has been incredible also. With 95% of takedowns defended, Jon never let anyone remotely close to taking him down until his legendary fight against Alexander Gustafsson.

6 Kamaru Usman

Kamaru Usman UFC Welterweight Champion
Credit: USA Today Network

Kamaru Usman is one of the greatest talents the MMA world has seen. The current Pound-for-pound greatest and Welterweight champion, Usman is a very dominant force. While he might rest on a good chin and durability more than movement, he makes it work.

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Usman, however, has great grappling defense. While Daniel Cormier, Colby Covington and many more will disagree, Usman officially has 100% takedown defense per UFCStats.com. With that being said, it's not hard to believe that he hasn't spent as much as a second on the bottom in a grappling scenario either.

5 Khabib Nurmagomedov

Al Iaquinta vs Khabib Nurmagomedov
© Dennis Schneidler-USA TODAY Sports

Khabib Nurmagomedov has a mauling grappling attack but a peculiar approach to the stand-up department. However, Khabib has beaten many fighters on the feet. Many have been quick to criticize Khabib's awkward striking, but his opponents have collectively agreed that it works for him.

Khabib makes the most out of his best defense being his offense. Nurmagomedov has dominated most of his fights in the same way - cage wrestle, top control and smash. Every fight does start on the feet though, and Khabib has retired after 29 fights, in arguably the most competitive division, without as much as a scratch on his face.

4 Petr Yan

petr-yan-aljamain-sterling-ufc-bantamweight
© Handout Photo-USA TODAY Sports

Lately, the "best boxer in the UFC" argument has many fighters throwing their names in the hat. Max Holloway, Conor McGregor, and Dustin Poirier to name a few. Petr Yan has quickly let it be known that he's in this race. Petr has outstruck some of the best in the Bantamweight division, and has defended 62% of oncoming attacks.

Petr utilizes a high guard defense that seems to be impenetrable. Yan uses his hands to either parry oncoming shots or shell up, making landing significant strikes very difficult. Yan has also defended 89% of takedowns. Two losses, coming from split decision and a controversial disqualification show that Yan is hard to finish, thanks to a solid defense.

3 Israel Adesanya

Israel Adesanya and Yoel Romero fight at UFC 248
Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

Fights like Adesanya really emphasize the comparison between fighting and chess. Israel reads opponents really well and learns on the spot. Israel uses good footwork and a long build to amplify his core understanding of striking, letting him know what's coming and when.

Even when Adesanya gets tagged, he has the striking mastery to roll with the shots. Israel's movement either evades the shots or significantly reduces them. This striking caliber makes him a difficult test on the feet. Taking him down is no easy task either, as he defends 77% of attempted takedowns.

2 Dominick Cruz

Once again, awkward and incorrect are separated. Dominick Cruz isn't necessarily textbook, but it's unique and hard to train for. Cruz has coupled head movement and footwork very well, making it hard to find the bulls-eye shot.

Cruz made a career off of fighters missing on him. The ability to create winning scrambles off of takedown attempts have made fighters apprehensive to take Dominick down, so the swatting at air is perpetuated. Getting older is inevitable, and reflexes decline sooner or later. Cruz has been a little easier to hit lately, but the 36-year-old has adapted and still makes his unique style work for him.

1 Anderson Silva

Anderson Silva's prime is the best example of taking on the final boss in a video game. When Silva ruled the Middleweight division, he seemed as unstoppable as a champion could be. Maybe even untouchable.

Anderson would be extremely hard to hit. He'd taunt, use awkward jerking and gesturing to confuse fighters and would hide his knockout power behind his feints. Silva added to his legacy with how he'd clown contenders on the feet. Beyond this, Silva had some good grappling defense too. The wrestling wasn't the best, but only being submitted twice in 45 fights shows a great level of grappling competence.

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