During a recent episode of The Fighter and The Kid, former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub made a remarkably inaccurate claim about the size of the UFC’s fighter roster throughout history.
While discussing the exclusivity of professional sports with co-host Bryan Callen, Schaub confidently stated that there have only been “600” UFC alumni total, comparing this supposed scarcity to baseball’s much larger historical roster.
“You know how many UFC alumni there are? They would fill maybe a VIP suite. As far as all the UFC alumni, there’s 600,” Schaub declared during the podcast.
When pressed for confirmation, he doubled down: “I’m not comparing it to baseball, I’m just saying for the alumni, there’s about 600.”
This statement appears to follow a familiar pattern for Schaub, who has been accused of copying talking points from Joe Rogan. The claim bears resemblance to Rogan’s frequent assertion that “there’s only 1000 comedians in the world,” seemingly designed to make one’s profession appear more exclusive and special than it actually is.
However, Schaub’s numbers are wildly off base. The UFC currently employs over 600 active fighters on its roster alone, completely contradicting his claim about total historical participation. According to FightMatrix, approximately 8,163 matches have been logged in UFC history, which translates to roughly 16,326 individual appearances.
Given that the average UFC career spans 3-3.5 fights, this would indicate somewhere between 4,600 and 5,500 unique fighters have competed in the organization since its inception in 1993.
The actual scope of UFC participation becomes even clearer when considering recent legal proceedings. Schaub himself was part of an antitrust lawsuit against the UFC that included over 1,100 fighters making claims.
Conservative estimates suggest at least 3,000 people have competed in the UFC through early 2024, making Schaub’s figure off by a factor of five. This dramatic undercount raises questions about either his knowledge of the sport he once participated in professionally, or his tendency to make bold claims without proper research.
The error is particularly notable given Schaub’s background as a former UFC heavyweight who competed in the organization from 2009 to 2010. His brief but memorable stint included losses to notable fighters like Shane Carwin and Roy Nelson, making his fundamental misunderstanding of the UFC’s size all the more puzzling.
