Starting with 1993(UFC 1)-1998
Royce Gracie. The man who was the first star of this sport and introduced the world to jiu jitsu and it’s practicality in a fight.
1998-2003=TIE Jeremy Horn(In 1999 alone Horn went 20-1 with 18 finishes, including the only man to submit Chuck Liddell) and Matt Hughes. Hughes debuted in 1998, and by the end of 2003, Hughes was a 5 time defending UFC Champion.
2008-2013=Close between Anderson and GSP. GSP did not lose in this time period, where as Anderson had his first UFC lost late 2013, I give Anderson the edge because this was the end of Prime Anderson Silva, and in this time period this was Georges Safe Pierre, the decision non risk taker, not the Georges Rush Pierre, the killer.
2013-2018=Demetrious Mighty Mouse Johnson. 11-1 in this time period with his only loss being controversial split decision to Cejudo. Personally I think that should have been a draw or win for Johnson. Regardless, Johnson is one of the most skilled martial artist of all time and this time period highlighted some of his best moments.
2018-2023=Alexander Volkanovski. Went 9-1 in this time period with 6 of those fights having a belt on the line. His lone loss being a very close(should’ve been a draw) controversial loss to the champion in the weight class above.
Who came to my mind in that time period was Aldo, Edgar, Cain,
Khabib I feel only started facing top competition consistently around 2017. I don’t put Darrell Horcher in 2016 as someone who is a noteable win over.
Khabib fought 9 times, Demetrious fought 12
In that time period Mighty Mouse beat Benevidaz, and finished Cejudo(and arguably beat him a 2nd time, and was pulling off highlight reel finishes with 5th round final minute armbars in a fight he was dominating and one of the sickest armbars we have ever seen.
Wanderlei in that time period had 24 fights
Wins against
Eugene Jackson
Guy Mezger
Kashushi Sakuraba(2x)
Hidehiko Yoshida
Rampage Jackson
Jeremy Horn had 72 fights in that timespan, literally fighting three times as much as Wanderlei
Horns wins in that time period include-
Chuck Liddell(Finished)
John Marsh
Eugene Jackson @DanTheWolfman Theodore
Gilbert Yvel
Travis Fulton
Vernon Tiger White
Forrest Griffin
Dean Lister
Okay well I will be honest and say I thought about mentioning both of those guys, however I bet you would agree I left off guys on Horn’s list as well and the guys I mentioned for Horn, I bet you wouldn’t say are less noteable than Schrider.
I purposely left off Wanderlei b/c that was a short notice fight that Pride was known for screwing fighters with and Wanderlei was training(forgot who got injured) so they subbed in last minute Dan who still went the distance in a non dominant victory for Wanderlei.
I don’t see how you skip over Jones considering he’s the GOAT. And I don’t think Silva was the best fighter in the world from 2010-2013. He was in his late 30s and the first Sonnen fight really sticks out as a terrible performance. I think he loses to some of the Strikeforce guys that later came in.