How Many Pull Ups Can A UFC Champion Do?

How many pull ups can a UFC world champion fighter do? We'll start with Conor Mcgregor because he has been a big calisthenics practitioner for a long time and there are a lot of videos of him doing not only pull ups, but also, muscle ups on bar and rings. What's great is that there's videos of him doing pull ups from many years ago as well as in recent time, so he continues to work on his calisthenics craft, which as a calisthenics practitioner myself this is really cool to see.
Conor mcgregor is a former 2 division world champion at the weight classes of featherweight which is 145 lbs and Lightweight which is 155 lbs. He was the first person to ever hold 2 titles in 2 weight classes at the same time. He also also accomplished the feat of being a double champ of the same weight classes in cage warriors which is an MMA organization based in London, England and many other notable fighters competed for cage warriors such as michael bisping dan hardy, Dennis siver, Gegard mousasi, and paddy pimblett to name a few. Conor has headlined all of the 5 highest selling ppvs in the history of the UFC and was the 1# highest paid athlete on the Forbes list in 2021 in which the vast majority of his earnings came from outside ventures including the sale of his Whiskey company among other endorsements.
Next is Khabib Nurmegomedov who is a former 155 pound champion and he was the longest-reigning UFC Lightweight Champion ever holding the title from April 2018 to March 2021. With a record of 29-0 he retired undefeated and has a win over conor mcgregor and is one of the best fighters of all time.
Now we have Jon Jones who is a former light heavyweight champion which is the 205 lbs weight class and the current heavyweight champion of the world which has a weight limit of 265 lbs He became Heavyweight champion when he beat Ciryl Gane for the vacant heavyweight title after francis ngannou vacated the belt and left the UFC. Jones is one of the most accomplished fighters of all time and also on the short list of greatest fighters of all time. He holds the record for the youngest UFC champion and the most light heavyweight title defenses among other accomplishments. He has an incredible record of 23-1-1 with his lone loss coming in the form of a disqualification when he used illegal 12-6 downward elbows on his opponent and his no contest came from a title fight where he won via ko from a head kick with follow up punches, but because he tested positive for a banned anabolic steroid metabolite the win was overturned to a no contest.
Aljamain funkmaster Sterling is the current bantamweight champion which is the 135 lbs weight class. Aljamin also has a number of videos of himself doing pull ups and posted as far back as 2015 which is when these first 2 videos were taken. Sterling holds the record for most wins, most consecutive wins, and the most consecutive title defenses in UFC Bantamweight history. Additionally he has the record for the most control time and strikes landed in UFC's Bantamweight division. He has a current record of 23-3 with 11 of his wins coming by way of stoppage by either KO or submission. Aljamin has a background in wrestling and was a two-time NCAA Division III All-American with a record of 87-27. Interestingly Aljamin and Jon jones went to the same college and wrestled for the same team and Jon helped encourage Aljamain to train MMA with him which accelerated the start of his MMA career.
Next is Frankie Edgar. Edgar is a former UFC lightweight champion. Edgar captured the Lightweight title in 2010 and defended it three times before losing it in 2012. Edgar would then move down to Featherweight which is 145 pounds, where he competed for the Featherweight title twice and the interim title once before again moving down to the Bantamweight division in 2020. He is tied for most Fight of the Night bonuses in UFC history with eight. He has the second longest total fight time in UFC history with 7:57:10 spent fighting in the octagon and he is tied for second most unanimous decision wins in UFC history.
Eddie Alvarez is a former UFC and Bellator Lightweight champion and he was the first fighter in history to get world titles in both organizations and is considered one of the best lightweights in MMA history. He would end up losing his UFC lightweight title to conor mcgregor by TKO and he now competes in Bare knuckle Fighting Championships where he is 1-0 after beating chad mendes who was a former ufc title challenger.
Michael Bisping is a former Middleweight or 185 pound champion of the UFC and winner of The Ultimate Fighter Season 3 where he would end up losing his title to Georges St Pierre via submission. Next is Usman Nurmagomedov who is a cousin of Khabib and younger brother Umar. Usman is the current Bellator Lightweight champion with a current record of 17-0
Aljamin fights sugar sean O'malley at UFC 292
Lastly as a bonus Dana white the president of the ufc
Thanks for watching and please like and subscribe!! :)

[@bendover7841]

Fighters train more for explosiveness rather than pure form.

[@mmafanaticsfr]

Dana and Aljo had the best range of motion 😂

[@ubeeeet]

You should do a video on how many push up ufc fighters can do

[@claytonpuranen]

I will look into it!

[@Anonymous-jf2gy]

I don’t think data will be there for that because push-ups are way too easy for comparison. I don’t see why a fighter would want to do 80 push ups in a row

[@drmitofit2673]

I train calisthenics and finally got up to 60 body weight pull ups in a row to match my age (this is a cut & paste from an older post). I weigh 153 lbs, BMI of 22, and also do intense hill repeat cycling with a focus on mitochondrial biogenesis and type IIA muscle fibers. I was stuck in the low 50's for a long time, but then added a 20 lbs weighted vest that got me to 60 body weight pull ups in a row. Without the vest it feels like I am flying up. For the first 20-25 reps I have zero grip tension at the top for a split second, which helps blood flow during a no tension micro rest. Resting at the bottom doesn't work for me. Full range of motion. No kipping. More detail: 60 clean pull ups in a row, full range of motion, chin over the bar, no kipping, continuous, one set/no rest, no rest hanging at the bottom. The world record is 651 (Japanese Navy diver), so my numbers are puny and not even that guy's warm up. The World Pull Up Championship 70kg weight class record (at their events in Europe) is 97 pull ups in a row (judged). Too bad there is no senior division since I am 60 years old. I started training seriously when I retired a year and a half ago with a baseline of 4 pull ups way out of shape. Did pull ups and push ups every other day to failure and bicycling every other day, alternating. Training to complete muscle failure is the key. Gradually progressed until I was doing two sets of a total 100 pull ups (52+48=100) every other day, but started to be no fun and gains slowed, so I added a 20lb weighted vest with single sets every other day. Progressed from 40 weighted pull ups in a row to 50 (personal best) over 6 weeks or so. Then I attempted a new body weight PB and got to 60 pull ups in a row (PB). Still training single sets with 20 lb weighted vest, since I reached my fitness goal and now I am in maintenance mode (but at an elite level of conditioning for my age). Younger people could do more sets for faster gains. I don't expect to get much better, but maintaining this level for 5-10 years would be nice. The advice is to go to complete failure (most can't tolerate that amount of discomfort), to hyperventilate before and during to maximize aerobic zone, fast down, "bounce" off the bottom instead of pausing at bottom, zero weight on grip at top of the pull up for first 20-25 reps for micro rests, push ups ab roller and back rows for muscle balance, intense hill repeat cycling for cardio (it's mainly about blood flow at high reps), maximizing mitochondrial biogenesis and Type IIA muscle fiber development for fatigue resistance, never missing an exercise day, dropping BMI ( I went from 25 to 22), and lean body type.

[@claytonpuranen]

Very impressive!

[@drmitofit2673]

@@claytonpuranen Update: I turned 61 years old this week and I just cranked out 61 pull ups in a row. So I am good to go until I have to get to 62 in one year.

[@KrisVal-tu5li]

Amazing..great work.. I'm almost 50 and my highest was 51 straight. Looking forward to hitting 60 and a clean muscle up. May take time.

[@drmitofit2673]

When I stopped progressing in the low 50’s, I added the 20 lb weighted vest and after progressing from 40 reps weighted to about 47 reps, I broke through to 60 body weight pull ups at age 60. To break through plateaus one has to change something like more sets or more weight.

[@claytonpuranen]

Well done!! 💪💪💪

[@drmitofit2673]

I wouldn’t expect cage fighters to have the best pull up numbers primarily because they are always nursing injuries and any minor injury or tendinitis along the chain would reduce rep numbers. And they are often weak from cutting weight or overweight between fights.

[@Anonymous-jf2gy]

Tbf Jon was doing extremely wide pull ups

[@dieselzanzibar9661]

Damn I can do more than all of them 37 most I’ve ever done was 42 but form wasn’t perfect just did 165 bw+110x2 the other day I think Usman can do more than 30 tho

[@whoknows8223]

2:31 that kipping is awful to watch

[@deBrawnyo]

Fighters train for explosiveness, not muscle building. If you watch training footage of fighters doing squats or even bench press, those are also very bouncy and explosive.

[@greymonwar9906]

For a calisthenics guy sure, but Khabib has insane back strength, this allows him to kip up (explosive pullup) for higher rep counts. Actually, kipping whilst training his back isn't all that bad for him.

[@robinschuler9108]

Can anyone please Tell me waht IS better for fighting, doing 3 Sets of 12 pullups or rather doing 3 Sets of 5 weightet pullups? Thanks for any answare

[@adadadada6713]

i think maybe its not about numbers or weight，its about the speed when you do pull ups，these just my thought.

[@claytonpuranen]

My guess is a being able to do more reps as a fighter is more beneficial than weighted pull ups. Strength is important but not as important as endurance in a fight, especially at the top level. Just my opinion.

[@Anonymous-jf2gy]

@@claytonpuranenPerhaps. But if you can do 3 sets of 12 then you are probably close to 20 as a max. Also George St Pierre (the MMA GOAT) used to do 100 lbs weighted triples of chin ups in an explosive manner and circuit form with other exercises (like explosively benching 120 lbs dumbbells for 3 reps). So strength/explosiveness matter a lot too

[@rxf5920]

@@Anonymous-jf2gyi train normal pull ups and weighted, and I thought, would learning the explosive part of a muscle up be noticeably beneficial in fighting??

[@Anonymous-jf2gy]

@@rxf5920I don’t think it’s a big deal tbh. I would get good at pull ups first (like a max of 10-12 pull ups), then do weighted. Once you’re good at that, you can try explosive concentrics (the up part) If you’re curious about how strength and conditioning is like for fighters then I have three things to recommend to you: 1) Joel Jamieson’s Ultimate MMA Conditioning (it’s a book) 2) An analysis about GSP’s strength and conditioning routine from this channel called “Power Training” on KZbin 3) Search “GSP Jon Chaimberg” on KZbin and you can see how Chaimberg trains GSP. Last, and most important disclaimer: you’re fussing too much over the small details. These don’t really matter much in the grand scheme of things. Strength and conditioning for MMA fighters is just a means to improve their power/speed/endurance/strength (in different phases) and is SECONDARY to actual skills work and MMA training. Especially as a beginner, training and technique matters far more

[@sherlockholmes2591]

McGrwgor makes tutorial for pullups, then proceeds to do chinups. 😂

[@claytonpuranen]

Very true 😅

[@Rick-lq6hz]

At 195 I got 12 absolutely perfect pullups 2 with 100 lbs

[@Rick-lq6hz]

Thanks 👍

[@Anonymous-jf2gy]

If you can do 2 with 100 lbs then you should be able to do way more than 12 bw pull ups.

[@gameboylady5552]

they all wiggle a lot when doing it

[@borgy7085]

not conor

[@xoxo-yp1fc]

9:55 that was awful

[@Lozwave]

The form ain’t amazing tho

[@tarekboinaheri3559]

i do 40 in a row