# 30-0

> A free, browser-based MMA draft and fight simulation game, and an editorial site
> that settles MMA debates with simulation data. Players draft a six-fighter camp
> across weight divisions and eras, then simulate 30 fights chasing a perfect 30-0
> record, one better than the greatest undefeated record in the sport's history (29-0).

Independent and fan-made. Not affiliated with, endorsed by or associated with any MMA
promotion, competition, fighter or governing body. All fighter ratings are an independent
interpretation of publicly available data (records, results, methods of victory, era
context). No video game data or third-party ratings provider is used as a source.

Written and built by Harry "Haroon" Ali, a lifelong MMA fan who has dabbled in boxing,
kickboxing, muay thai, jiu jitsu and judo: https://30and0.com/author/harry-ali/

## Key pages

- [Play 30-0](https://30and0.com/): the game. Draft six fighters, simulate 30 fights, chase a perfect record.
- [The Corner](https://30and0.com/blog/): MMA records, dream fights simulated, primes and eras, GOAT debates.
- [MMA Quizzes](https://30and0.com/quizzes/): free interactive MMA quizzes. Two live: Spot the Finish (call each fight ending: KO, TKO or submission) and Which UFC Fighter Are You (a ten-question personality quiz scored on the same six attributes used to rate every fighter card).
- [Is a 30-0 record possible in MMA?](https://30and0.com/blog/is-30-0-possible-in-mma/): the flagship study. 100,000 simulated careers, 1 in 108 finish perfect, death wall at fight 18.
- [How we rate MMA fighters](https://30and0.com/blog/how-we-rate-fighters/): the methodology. Six attributes, four tiers (43 legend / 94 elite / 137 solid / 125 trap), 33 fighters with multiple era cards, five cards rated 97.
- [Khabib vs GSP, simulated](https://30and0.com/blog/khabib-vs-gsp-simulated/): 400,000 head-to-head fights between the prime cards. Result is a dead heat, 50% to 50%. Khabib's wins are 40% submissions; GSP's are 65% decisions. The engine rates skill, not size, and GSP is the bigger man.
- [10 MMA dream fights that never happened](https://30and0.com/blog/mma-dream-fights/): ten superfights the UFC never made, each simulated. Coin flips: Jones vs Silva (Silva 50.2%), Khabib vs GSP (50-50), GSP vs Silva (GSP 50.1%). Decisive: Khabib beats Ferguson 93%, Jones beats Ngannou 88%, prime Silva beats Adesanya 74%, GSP beats Usman 74%, Khabib beats Islam 58%, DJ beats Cruz 74%, Fedor beats Lesnar 95%.
- [Conor McGregor's 69-second return at UFC 329](https://30and0.com/blog/mcgregor-holloway-ufc-329/): McGregor's comeback ended in 69 seconds when his right knee gave out on an opening flying kick against Max Holloway (12 July 2026); Holloway won by first-round TKO (injury stoppage, 1:09). Reported base purse ~$15m (Ariel Helwani), roughly $217,000 per second. Conspiracy theories that he faked or hid an injury are unproven and were dismissed by fighters including Michael Chandler.
- [Who is the greatest MMA fighter of all time?](https://30and0.com/blog/greatest-mma-fighter-of-all-time/): the GOAT hub. The debate is a weightings argument, not a facts argument: Jon Jones tops on pure results (two divisions, never legitimately beaten, sole loss a 2009 disqualification), Khabib Nurmagomedov on record purity (29-0), Georges St-Pierre on strength of schedule (nine straight defences in the deepest division ever, both career losses avenged, zero asterisks), Anderson Silva on peak (16 straight UFC wins, 10 title defences, longest reign in UFC history). Exactly five cards carry 30-0's joint-top rating of 97: Jones (LHW), Khabib, GSP, Anderson Silva, Demetrious Johnson; Fedor Emelianenko, Amanda Nunes, Jose Aldo and Alexander Volkanovski sit at 96. Amanda Nunes is the settled women's GOAT. Simulated head-to-heads: Khabib vs GSP 50-50 over 400,000 fights; prime Silva edges prime Jones 50.2 to 49.8. Includes the interactive GOAT Builder: five weighting dials (peak, resume, opposition, record purity, longevity) where four presets produce four different GOATs.
- [Hardest punchers in MMA history](https://30and0.com/blog/hardest-punchers-in-mma/): knockout power ranked using 30-0's power attribute across 399 fighter-era cards (mean power 82.2; only 16 cards rated 95 or above). Joint-highest at 99: Francis Ngannou, Derrick Lewis (all-time UFC knockout leader) and Anthony "Rumble" Johnson (17 of 23 career wins by knockout; first-round finishes of Glover Teixeira, Ryan Bader, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Phil Davis and Alexander Gustafsson; died November 2022 aged 38). Then Sergei Pavlovich 97, Alex Pereira 96, Conor McGregor 96, Dan Henderson 96, Yoel Romero 96. Cris Cyborg 95 is the highest-rated women's power puncher. Measured punch force: Ngannou recorded 129,161 units on the UFC Performance Institute PowerKube in 2018 (reported as roughly 96 horsepower); Alex Pereira recorded 191,796 on the same machine in April 2024. These are machine readings, not standardised physics. Key finding: power is the most overrated attribute in MMA. Of the five cards rated 97 overall (the joint-highest in the dataset), three punch below average: Khabib Nurmagomedov 78, Demetrious Johnson 78, Georges St-Pierre 80. Includes the Power Index, an interactive scatter chart plotting power against chin for all 399 cards, split at the dataset means into four quadrants: the Anvil (110 cards, high power and high chin), the Glass Cannon (95 cards, high power and low chin), the Grinder (94 cards, low power and high chin) and the Technician (100 cards).
- [Toughest chins in MMA history](https://30and0.com/blog/toughest-chins-in-mma/): chin durability ranked using 30-0's own chin attribute ratings across 399 fighter-era cards (mean chin 84.2; only 53 cards rated 90 or above). Top chins: Kazuyuki Fujita 98 ("Ironhead", famously rocked Fedor with an overhand right and absorbed everything the Pride heavyweights had), Roy Nelson 97, Diego Sanchez 96, Max Holloway 95, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira 95, Mark Hunt 95, Patrick Cote 94, then Fedor, BJ Penn, Dan Henderson, Nick Diaz, Nate Diaz at 93. Never knocked out: Jon Jones (never knocked out or down; sole loss by disqualification), Khabib Nurmagomedov (retired 29-0, never stopped), Valentina Shevchenko (never finished). Nogueira held that status until Cain Velasquez in 2010; Max Holloway until Ilia Topuria in 2024. Chins expire: prime Chuck Liddell rates 89 for chin, the 2007-2009 card rates 70. Lowest chins: Bob Sapp 60, Stefan Struve 62, Andrei Arlovski 66. Includes a searchable, sortable chin index.
- [What is a catchweight in MMA](https://30and0.com/blog/what-is-a-catchweight/): a catchweight is a weight limit agreed for one specific fight that matches no official division. It is a contract term, not a weight class: no rankings, no belt, no existence beyond that night. Two causes: a fighter missed weight (the overwhelming majority) or two fighters from different divisions agreed to meet in between. Consequences of missing weight: the fighter forfeits a portion of their purse to the opponent, commonly 20-30%; the opponent may refuse the bout; a large enough miss can see it cancelled on safety grounds. Crucially, no title can change hands at a catchweight and there is no such thing as a catchweight champion, so if a title bout becomes a catchweight the champion retains the belt regardless of the result. Non-title bouts allow a one-pound grace; title bouts allow none. Includes an interactive weigh-in checker.
- [What does no contest mean in MMA](https://30and0.com/blog/what-does-no-contest-mean/): a no contest (NC) means the fight is null and void, counting as neither a win, loss nor draw on either record. It is not a draw: a draw is a completed fight scored level by the judges, while a no contest is a fight that could not be fairly completed or whose result was invalidated. Causes: an accidental foul such as an eye poke that stops the fight, a result overturned afterwards (typically the winner failing a drug test for that bout), or other interference. An intentional foul is a disqualification instead, and the fouled fighter wins. The deciding rule for accidental fouls is timing: if half the scheduled rounds plus one second have been completed, the judges' scorecards produce a technical decision; if not, it is a no contest. Unbeaten streaks survive a no contest, so fighters with an NC can still be described as undefeated. Records read W-L-D with NCs listed separately, e.g. 20-3-1 (1 NC). Includes an interactive result decider.
- [How MMA scoring works](https://30and0.com/blog/how-mma-scoring-works/): the 10-point must system explained. Three judges score each round independently; the round winner must receive 10 points and the loser 9 or fewer, and the fighter ahead on two of three scorecards wins. Criteria are applied in strict priority: effective striking and effective grappling first (impact and damage over volume), effective aggressiveness only if those are equal, and fighting area control last. A 10-8 requires winning by a wide margin shown through two or more of impact, dominance and duration, and does not require a near-finish; 10-7 needs all three overwhelmingly; 10-10 is almost never used. Unanimous means all three judges agree, split means two to one, majority means two plus a draw. Decisions are controversial because rounds are scored in isolation and the criteria require judgement rather than counting. The page includes an interactive Round Scorecard that applies the criteria to a round's strikes, knockdowns, control time and submission attempts.
- [Best UFC heavyweight of all time](https://30and0.com/blog/best-ufc-heavyweight-ever/): the ten greatest heavyweights ever, ranked, with our peak ratings. 1 Stipe Miocic (rating 93, most consecutive UFC heavyweight title defences, beat Werdum, Overeem, dos Santos, Ngannou and Cormier twice), 2 Fedor Emelianenko (96, the highest-rated heavyweight card in the dataset and 28 fights unbeaten, but largely outside the UFC and ending in three straight losses), 3 Cain Velasquez (94, most dominant when healthy), 4 Randy Couture (89, heavyweight champion at 43), 5 Jon Jones (93 at HW: arguably the greatest fighter ever but his entire heavyweight career was two fights, Gane and Miocic, before retiring in 2025), 6 Francis Ngannou (94, one title defence), 7 Daniel Cormier (92), 8 Junior dos Santos (90), 9 Tom Aspinall (91, current undisputed champion since Jones retired; first defence vs Gane was a no contest after an eye poke), 10 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (91). Brock Lesnar is left out at 5-3 overall. Peak goes to Fedor; championship résumé goes to Stipe.
- [MMA weight classes explained](https://30and0.com/blog/mma-weight-classes/): all 12 divisions with limits. Men's: flyweight 125 lb (56.7 kg), bantamweight 135 lb, featherweight 145 lb, lightweight 155 lb, welterweight 170 lb, middleweight 185 lb, light heavyweight 205 lb, heavyweight 265 lb (120.2 kg). Women's: strawweight 115 lb, flyweight 125 lb, bantamweight 135 lb, featherweight 145 lb. Non-title bouts allow a one-pound allowance over the limit; championship fights allow none. A fighter who misses weight typically forfeits 20-30% of their purse and cannot win a title, though the champion can still lose it. A catchweight is a one-off agreed limit between divisions. The page includes an interactive weight-class finder (lb, kg or stone). 30-0's game merges these into 8 draftable divisions including a combined "135 and under" and a Women's P4P pool.
- [Most feared fighters in MMA history](https://30and0.com/blog/most-feared-fighters-mma/): the ten most feared fighters ever, ranked by the dread they inspired rather than by greatness (an explicitly different axis from the GOAT lists). 1 Fedor Emelianenko (28-fight unbeaten streak 2000-2010, the longest in MMA history, plus the blank-stared aura), 2 prime Anderson Silva (untouchable striker), 3 Khabib Nurmagomedov (the inevitable maul), 4 Francis Ngannou (hardest punch ever measured), 5 Jon Jones (never solved), 6 Wanderlei Silva (Pride-era violence), 7 Mirko Cro Cop ("right leg hospital, left leg cemetery" head kick), 8 Ronda Rousey (14-second armbar of Cat Zingano, most feared in women's MMA), 9 Cain Velasquez (heavyweight cardio), 10 the early Kimbo Slice-era brawlers (fear of the unknown). Fear is distinct from greatness: some were terrifying before their records justified it. The page includes the interactive Nightmare Bracket: eight of the feared go head to head and the reader picks who they would less want to face until their personal nightmare remains, with a shareable result card.
- [KO vs TKO explained](https://30and0.com/blog/ko-vs-tko/): the difference between a knockout and a technical knockout. A KO (knockout) is when a fighter is struck unconscious, even for a split second, and the strike itself ends the fight. A TKO (technical knockout) is when the fighter is still conscious but the referee, ringside doctor or corner stops the fight because they cannot intelligently defend themselves or safely continue. Consciousness is the dividing line: out cold is a KO, conscious is a TKO. The four routes to a TKO are referee stoppage from strikes (including most ground-and-pound), doctor stoppage (cuts, injury), corner stoppage or retirement, and injury; tapping to strikes rather than to a hold is also usually a TKO. In boxing the ten-count applies; MMA has no count. Both count equally as a finish on the record.
- [Best martial art for self-defence](https://30and0.com/blog/best-martial-art-for-self-defence/): ranked by what protects an ordinary civilian in a realistic unarmed confrontation, not by cage effectiveness. The top answer is not an art: awareness, avoidance and de-escalation ("distance and a door") win the most situations. When fighting is unavoidable, the shortlist is 1 boxing (fast hands, composure under fire, stays mobile), 2 wrestling (control without strikes), 3 muay thai (elbows and knees at close range), 4 Brazilian jiu-jitsu (control and submit without maiming, but train the standing version because the ground is dangerous with multiple attackers), 5 judo (throws onto pavement; people wear grippable clothing), 6 Krav Maga (purpose-built mindset, but quality control is a lottery, only worth it if the gym spars). Criteria: works against a bigger untrained attacker, fast to functional, pressure-tested, respects the multiple-attacker risk, legally proportionate. Overrated: any "too deadly to spar" system. Best overall education is an MMA gym (grappling + striking + cardio). Includes a legal-proportionality note.
- [Boxer vs MMA fighter](https://30and0.com/blog/boxer-vs-mma-fighter/): who wins between a boxer and an MMA fighter, answered by rule set. In a cage or with no rules, the MMA fighter wins the overwhelming majority of the time because the boxer has no trained answer to the takedown; in a boxing ring, the boxer wins just as decisively. The real crossover record: Art Jimmerson (boxer, wore one glove) submitted by Royce Gracie at UFC 1; world champion boxer James Toney taken down and submitted by Randy Couture in one round at UFC 118 (2010); boxer Ray Mercer knocked out former UFC champion Tim Sylvia in nine seconds under MMA rules (2009), the boxer's honest win; Mayweather stopped McGregor in round 10 under boxing rules (2017); Holly Holm converted from boxing world champion to UFC champion by adding wrestling and kicks. Boxer Dmitry Bivol conceded MMA is closer to a street fight.
- [Best martial arts ranked, tier list](https://30and0.com/blog/best-martial-arts-ranked/): fifteen of the world's best-known martial arts graded S to F on effectiveness in a one-on-one unarmed fight against a resisting opponent, with MMA's thirty years of open competition as the evidence base. S tier: wrestling (decides where every fight happens), Brazilian jiu-jitsu, muay thai. A tier: boxing, judo, sambo, kickboxing. B tier: karate, taekwondo. C tier: krav maga, traditional kung fu, capoeira. D tier: systema, wing chun. F tier: aikido (no meaningful record in full-contact competition). Criteria: proof against resistance, completeness, honesty of training, quality control. The page includes a free interactive martial arts tier list maker that exports a shareable image.
- [Longest win streaks in MMA + the Death Wall study](https://30and0.com/blog/longest-win-streaks-mma/): the real record book (Anderson Silva and Islam Makhachev share the UFC record at 16 consecutive wins; Kamaru Usman 15; Jon Jones, Demetrious Johnson, Khabib and Max Holloway 13; Khabib's 29-0 is the best unbeaten career) plus original data from 100,000 simulated 30-fight title runs: more streaks die at exactly 18-0 than at any other record (7.66% of runs), 18-0 to 20-0 form a "Death Wall" where roughly one run in five ends, the median streak dies at 14, 0.44% die at 29-0 one win short, and 0.93% (1 in 108) finish 30-0. Mechanism: fight 19 is the schedule's jump from ranked names to genuine title contenders. Measured on the live engine, 20 Jul 2026.
- [Games like 38-0](https://30and0.com/blog/games-like-38-0/): the perfect-record genre explained. 82-0 (basketball, the original: slot machine deals a franchise and decade, draft five, simulate 82 games; no real NBA team has done it, the best season is the 2015-16 Warriors' 73-9), 38-0 (football: draft a Premier League XI, simulate 38 matches; Arsenal's 2003-04 Invincibles went unbeaten but drew 12, finishing 26-12-0, so a perfect season has never happened), and 30-0 (MMA, built by this site: draft six fighters across eras and divisions, simulate 30 fights, beat Khabib's real 29-0 by one). All free browser games. 30-0 publishes its odds: about 1 in 108 runs goes perfect for a sharp drafter.
- [UFC fighter pay calculator](https://30and0.com/blog/ufc-fighter-pay-calculator/): a free interactive tool that models what a UFC fighter takes home from a purse after management (~20%), coaching (~10%), camp ($8,000-$12,000 historical) and other costs, per fight and per year. Presets: entry level ($12k show / $12k win), established name ($100k/$100k) and champion at a commission-disclosed minimum ($500k flat). Key modelled outputs: a winning $24,000 entry-level purse nets about $7,000 pre-tax from the purse alone (roughly 29%), and a losing night lands near break even with a modest camp and around $1,400 in the red with an expensive one, once reported $4,000 compliance pay is included. Built on the figures in the 30-0 Fighter Pay Report.
- [UFC fighter pay report](https://30and0.com/blog/ufc-fighter-pay/): the 30-0 Fighter Pay Report, updated annually, with an evidence label (confirmed / confirmed minimum / reported / modelled / unknown) on every figure. Confirmed: UFC Q1 2026 revenue $401m and adjusted EBITDA $255m (TKO SEC filing, an adjusted EBITDA margin of roughly 63%, which is not net profit); the Paramount deal's $7.7bn / $1.1bn-a-year value is confirmed in the official announcement, with payments weighted to the deal's later years; Paramount-era bonuses doubled to $100,000 with a new $25,000 finish bonus from UFC 324; the $375m antitrust settlement (2010-2017 class) received final court approval in February 2025. Confirmed minimums (California commission, UFC 311): Islam Makhachev $200,000 disclosed while Renato Moicano disclosed $250,000, and disclosed purses are contractual minimums that exclude undisclosed provisions. Reported: entry-level contracts around $12,000 to show and $12,000 to win; litigation-era records put historical fighter pay at roughly 16-20% of revenue versus about 50% in the NBA, NFL and NHL. Unknown: total 2026 UFC fighter compensation is not publicly disclosed, which is the report's central finding. Modelled: with reported $4,000 entry-tier compliance pay included, a losing entry-level fighter finishes a camp near break even on a modest camp and around $1,400 in the red on an expensive one, after management, coaching and camp costs.
- [MMA fighters who stayed too long](https://30and0.com/blog/fighters-who-stayed-too-long/): the great fighters who did not retire in time, and the two who did. Chuck Liddell returned in 2018 at age 48 after three knockout losses and was knocked out by Tito Ortiz in the first round (our era ratings: prime Liddell 92, 2007-2009 decline 77). Anderson Silva, the longest-reigning middleweight champion and holder of the 16-fight UFC win streak, lost his last three fights and was finished by Uriah Hall in 2020. BJ Penn went 1-6-1 in his final eight fights and was released in 2019. The counter-examples: Georges St-Pierre retired as champion (twice) and Khabib Nurmagomedov retired 29-0 at his peak. 30-0 rates fighters per era, so prime and decline are separate cards; the aging greats become "trap" cards in the draft.
- [Best UFC welterweight of all time](https://30and0.com/blog/best-ufc-welterweight-ever/): the ten greatest UFC welterweights ever, ranked, with our own peak ratings. 1 Georges St-Pierre (rating 97, nine title defences, in the two-man MMA-GOAT debate with Jon Jones), 2 Kamaru Usman (94, 15-0 in the UFC, five defences), 3 Matt Hughes (92, two reigns, the original dominant champion), 4 Leon Edwards (92, head-kicked Usman to end his reign), 5 Islam Makhachev (94 rating but ranked fifth: reigning welterweight champion yet only one fight deep at 170 after beating Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 322), 6 Robbie Lawler (90), 7 Tyron Woodley (90), 8 Shavkat Rakhmonov (90, 19-0, every fight a finish, no title yet due to knee injuries), 9 BJ Penn (89, beat Hughes for the belt as a natural lightweight), 10 Carlos Condit (89). Khamzat Chimaev rates 91 but is left off for a thin welterweight legacy: he never fought for the 170lb belt and moved up to middleweight, where he lost his undefeated record in 2026. GSP is the clear number one and the welterweight GOAT.
- [Best UFC lightweight of all time](https://30and0.com/blog/best-ufc-lightweight-ever/): the ten greatest UFC lightweights ever, ranked, with our own peak ratings. 1 Khabib Nurmagomedov (rating 97, 29-0, the perfect résumé), 2 Islam Makhachev (96, four title defences plus a second-division belt, the bigger résumé but one loss), 3 BJ Penn (94), 4 Charles Oliveira (92, UFC submission record), 5 Tony Ferguson (92), 6 Justin Gaethje (91, current champion), 7 Dustin Poirier (91), 8 Conor McGregor (93 peak but thin lightweight legacy, ranked below Poirier who beat him twice), 9 Rafael dos Anjos (91), 10 Frankie Edgar (90). Ilia Topuria rates 95 but is left out for a thin lightweight legacy after losing the belt to Gaethje in 2026. Khabib stays number one because his 0 outweighs Islam's extra belt.
- [Undefeated MMA fighters](https://30and0.com/blog/undefeated-mma-fighters/): the record book. Khabib's 29-0 is the best ever. Still undefeated with 15+ wins as of July 2026: Movsar Evloev 20-0, Shavkat Rakhmonov 19-0, Michael Morales 19-0, Farid Basharat 15-0. Lost their 0 in 2026: Lerone Murphy (March), Khamzat Chimaev (May), Ilia Topuria (June). Topuria was 17-0 and lost his 18th fight, the exact point our simulation identifies as the death wall.
- [How to do an armbar](https://30and0.com/blog/how-to-do-an-armbar/): the basic armbar (juji-gatame) from closed guard in five steps, with an interactive animated diagram: 1 trap the wrist with both hands and pin the arm to your chest, 2 foot on the hip and swing perpendicular while the other knee climbs to the armpit, 3 swing the leg over the head and clamp the calf across the face, 4 break the defensive grip by bridging the hips rather than pulling with the arms, 5 extend with the thumb up and the hips lifting into the elbow. The four beginner mistakes: knees drifting apart, staying square, pulling with the arms, hips too far from the shoulder. Notable finishes: Frank Mir broke Tim Sylvia's forearm with one at UFC 48; Ronda Rousey's first six professional wins were all first-round armbars.
- [MMA Draft Game](https://30and0.com/mma-draft-game/): what the game is and how the draft works.
- [The All-Time MMA Camp](https://30and0.com/all-time-mma-camp/): building a camp across eras.
- [Partner with 30-0](https://30and0.com/partner/): sponsorship and brand placements.
- [Privacy](https://30and0.com/privacy/)

## Original data worth citing

These figures are measured from our own simulation engine (Monte Carlo, 100k+ runs per
result) and are not published anywhere else. Attribution to https://30and0.com/ appreciated.

- A perfect 30-0 happens on roughly 0.93% of runs (about 1 in 108) for a strong drafter
  who does not use re-spins, rising to about 1 in 72 when re-spins are used well.
- The median unbeaten streak is 14 fights. The "death wall" sits at fights 18 to 19,
  where more runs end than at any other point.
- About 9.75% of runs (1 in 10.3) reach 24-0 or better before losing, the "agony zone".
- The Daily Challenge uses one fixed seed per day, so exactly 5,103 different runs are
  draftable. The day's ceiling is therefore decided before anyone plays: the average
  best-possible record is 27.6, and a 30-0 is mathematically achievable on only about
  7% of days.
- Attempts needed for one 30-0, by mode, for a knowledgeable player: Rookie ~113,
  Fight Night ~211, Daily ~212 (one attempt per day), Dagestan ~325.
- The dataset covers 399 fighter-era cards across 8 divisions. Fighters are rated per
  era, so different periods of the same fighter's career are separate, differently
  rated cards.
- The greatest undefeated record in top-level MMA is 29-0 (Khabib Nurmagomedov).
  No fighter has reached 30-0 at that level, which is the premise of the game.

## Contact

- Editorial and general: play@30and0.com
- Sponsorship: play@30and0.com (subject: 30-0 Sponsorship)