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The UFC has put on events all over the world in its near-three decade history, from Abu Dhabi and Argentina to Australia and the UK. However, the UFC has never visited Africa, but that could be about to change.
The UFC now has some stellar talent from Africa, with three fighters from the continent currently holding UFC gold and several top prospects behind them.
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With UFC President Dana White discussing the idea of opening a UFC Performance Institute in Africa and looking to put on the promotion’s first African event in 2022, more talent could begin to emerge from the continent soon.
For now, though, here is a look at the top five African fighters in UFC history to date.
#1 UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou (Cameroon)
The UFC’s current heavyweight champion originally hails from Cameroon. He has already arguably staked his claim as one of the greatest heavyweights in UFC history.
Francis Ngannou made his octagon debut back in 2015 and immediately made a splash, destroying Luis Henrique with a brutal second-round knockout. Since then, a total of ten more opponents have fallen to Ngannou, eight of them winding up unconscious after feeling the brutal power of the Predator’s hands.
Nobody in the UFC hits quite like Ngannou, who only seems to have to touch an opponent to badly hurt them.
Most impressively, though, the list of Ngannou’s victims includes some of the best heavyweights of all time. That includes former UFC champions Andrei Arlovski, Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos as well as Stipe Miocic, who was knocked out by Ngannou to win the UFC heavyweight title at UFC 260.
At the moment, it doesn’t seem like any heavyweight is capable of stopping the Predator, which means his title reign could last for a while. There’s absolutely no doubt that in a list of the greatest UFC fighters to hail from Africa, Ngannou belongs near the top.
#2 UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman (Nigeria)
There’s a strong argument now that Kamaru Usman, the reigning UFC welterweight champion, is the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet.
The Nigerian Nightmare has been with the UFC since 2015 after making his name in the 21st season of 'The Ultimate Fighter'. In the years that have followed, he has been absolutely unstoppable inside the octagon.
Even before his UFC welterweight title win in 2019, Usman was dominating opponents with seemingly no problem, comfortably beating the likes of Emil Meek, Demian Maia and Rafael Dos Anjos. Since his title win, he has beaten top fighters like Gilbert Burns, Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal.
Currently, he’s on a ridiculous 14-fight winning streak, which is the second-longest in UFC history and the best overall in his weight class.
Even the legendary Georges St. Pierre – the consensus greatest fighter in UFC history – can’t match the dominance of the Nigerian Nightmare.
Judging by his recent form, there’s a strong possibility that Usman could break Anderson Silva’s record of 16 consecutive UFC wins. That would not only make him one of the UFC’s greatest African fighters, but it’d make him arguably the greatest ever. Period.
#3 UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya (Nigeria)
The UFC’s third current African champion, Israel Adesanya, has been just as dominant as both Kamaru Usman and Francis Ngannou in his weight class.
Adesanya – who fights out of New Zealand but originally hails from Nigeria – only debuted in the UFC in February 2018, knocking out an overmatched Rob Wilkinson at UFC 221.
From there, the Last Stylebender wasted no time, running through opponent after opponent until he won the interim UFC middleweight title in April 2019 and then the undisputed UFC middleweight title in October 2019.
Essentially, it took him less than two years to become the most dominant 185 lb fighter on the planet, an incredible rise by any standard.
With wins over the likes of Robert Whittaker, Yoel Romero, Paulo Costa and Kelvin Gastelum, Adesanya has cleaned out his division almost as impressively as the great Anderson Silva once did a decade ago.
While he failed in his quest to claim the UFC light-heavyweight title, the way he bounced back against Marvin Vettori in his latest UFC middleweight title defense suggests the best is still to come from Adesanya.
With pinpoint striking prowess and tons of confidence, the Nigerian fighter easily stands out as one of the UFC’s best African imports.
#4 Sodiq Yusuff (Nigeria)
One of the best featherweight prospects in the UFC right now, Sodiq Yusuff may not be unbeaten in the octagon at this moment. But he’s still almost certainly a fighter to keep a close eye on.
Like Kamaru Usman and Israel Adesanya, Yusuff was born in Nigeria, although he currently fights out of Camp Springs, Maryland.
Super Sodiq made his name in the regional circuit before earning a shot at the UFC with an impressive win in Dana White’s Contender Series. Since then, he has largely gone from strength to strength.
Yusuff has beaten four opponents in the UFC thus far, largely using his explosive speed and brutal punching power to great effect. That was particularly evident in his knockout wins over Gabriel Benitez and Suman Mokhtarian.
While in his last fight, he suffered his first UFC loss at the hands of fellow prospect Arnold Allen, there’s no disputing the fact that Yusuff has the raw athleticism and talent to make it all the way to the top.
If Super Sodiq can continue to develop his overall game, there’s every chance that he could become the UFC’s fourth African-born champion at some point in the very near future.
#5 Dalcha Lungiambula (Republic of the Congo)
The first UFC fighter to hail from the Republic of the Congo, Dalcha Lungiambula, hasn’t made quite the same impact in the octagon as the others fighters on this list. However, he has certainly got the raw potential to make it all the way to the top, based on what we have seen of him thus far.
A veteran of Africa’s biggest MMA promotion – EFC – Lungiambula made his UFC debut in 2019 and looked highly impressive. He ragdolled the overmatched Dequan Townsend en route to a third-round TKO victory.
While he was beaten by the dangerous Magomed Ankalaev in his second octagon appearance, he rebounded by dropping to 185 lbs and dominating veteran Markus Perez.
Lungiambula has all of the physical tools to make it to the top of the UFC – he’s huge, quick, powerful and hits like a ton of bricks.
With this raw talent, there is definitely a chance that if he keeps winning, we could see an all-African UFC title fight between him and Israel Adesanya at some point in the future.
