Top 10 rivalries since UFC 100

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More from this series: Best fighters | Best trash talkers | Best fights | Best walkout songs

Rivalries are the lifeblood of any one-on-one sport. And the UFC has had plenty of heated rivalries over the years.

As the sport matured in the seven years since UFC 100, there haven’t been as many high-profile rivalries, but there has been enough of them to pique fan interest for sure.

The chief among them, Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones, will see their feud played out on the biggest stage when they meet for the undisputed light heavyweight title on July 9 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in the main event of UFC 200.

Now, it would have been easy to select Michael Bisping and list every other fighter in the middleweight division. And it would have been just as easy to choose Vitor Belfort and any of a number of other guys.

But the feuds I’ve chosen were real and in most cases, there was serious bad blood between the sides. I didn’t choose Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, for instance, because I felt there was no bad blood between them and they just had a series of fights.

With that, let’s get into the top 10 UFC feuds since UFC 100:

10. Cain Velasquez-Junior dos Santos – They fought three times in this era, all of which were for the heavyweight title. Dos Santos knocked Velasquez out to win the belt at UFC on Fox 1.

Velasquez regained the title at UFC 155 and then won the rubber match at UFC 166.

Both Velasquez and dos Santos are fairly easy-going guys, though some animosity between them bubbled up later in their series.

9. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson-Rashad Evans – There was plenty of bad blood between them, enough that the UFC named them opposing coaches on “The Ultimate Fighter.”

Both used their acerbic tongues to great affect and heightened the rivalry.

They wound up fighting at UFC 114, had a heated promotion and Evans won a rather lackluster decision.

8. Rashad Evans-Jon Jones – Evans was the mentor and Jones the mentee when both were training at Jackson’s MMA in Albuquerque, N.M. Evans was training to fight Mauricio “Shogun” Rua for the title at UFC 128 while Jones was preparing to meet the then-unbeaten Ryan Bader at UFC 126.

Evans got hurt in training, and when Jones submitted Bader on Feb. 5, 2011, the UFC offered him Evans’ title shot against Rua. Evans felt betrayed and that began a bitter and lengthy feud.

It culminated at UFC 145 in Atlanta, when Jones routed Evans.

7. Michael Bisping-Luke Rockhold – The two had a sparring session in which Bisping apparently got the better of it. Rockhold was the Strikeforce middleweight champion, and so Bisping proclaimed himself, “The unofficial Strikeforce champion.”

The morning after Bisping defeated Cung Le in Macau, China, he was in the coffee shop at his hotel having a meal with his father and a friend of his father’s when they saw Rockhold.

The sides disagree on what happened – Rockhold said Bisping’s father’s friend began trash talking him, while Bisping said Rockhold simply came after him.

Whatever it was, a rivalry was born. Rockhold got a leg up at first, submitting Bisping in the second round of a fight. But after Rockhold won the middleweight title, he was supposed to defend it against Chris Weidman.

When Weidman was hurt, Bisping stepped in on less than three weeks’ notice and knocked out Rockhold. They got into it after UFC 199 had ended and haven’t stopped since. The rivalry persists.

6. Joanna Jedrzejczyk-Claudia Gadelha – They fought on a Fox-televised card which Jedrzejczyk won, barely. When Jedrzejczyk went on to defeat Carla Esparza in her next bout to win the UFC strawweight belt, Gadelha called her out.

The two began to trash talk each other repeatedly, and so the UFC named them coaches on TUF. They’ll fight on Friday, July 8, at the TUF Finale, but it’s unlikely it will end their bitter rivalry.

5. Dominick Cruz-Urijah Faber – This could easily be Cruz against Team Alpha Male, the Sacramento, Calif.-based fight camp that Faber founded.

Their feud began in the now-defunct World Extreme Cagefighting organization, when Faber submitted Cruz to retain the featherweight title.

They’ve met twice in the UFC, with Cruz defeating Faber by decision at UFC 132 and UFC 199. Cruz taunted Faber all the time and it was heightened when Cruz got a prominent position as an MMA analyst for Fox.

He routinely referred to Team Alpha Male as “Team Alpha Fail,” and had beaten team members Joseph Benavidez and T.J. Dillashaw as well as Faber.

4. Conor McGregor-Jose Aldo – This rivalry was egged on by McGregor’s constant taunts, and a lengthy media tour before they were scheduled to fight at UFC 189. That tour culminated in a raucous news conference in Dublin, Ireland, in which McGregor swiped Aldo’s belt.

Aldo pulled out of UFC 189 with injury, raising McGregor’s ire. McGregor let him have it verbally and so enraged Aldo that by the time they met at UFC 194, Aldo was a powder keg waiting to explode.

This is a feud that is far from over.

3. Anderson Silva-Chael Sonnen – After Sonnen upset Nate Marquardt at UFC 109, he unleashed a stunning verbal barrage against Silva, the middleweight champion who at the time was regarded by many as the greatest fighter ever.

They were signed to fight at UFC 117 and Sonnen turned it into a pro wrestling card. He laid into Silva with some of the most outrageous lines ever.

He then went out and dominated Silva for four full rounds and most of the fifth before Silva rallied late to win by a triangle choke.

The heat was so intense that they met in a highly anticipated rematch at UFC 148 that was among the company’s best-selling pay-per-views ever.

2. Ronda Rousey-Miesha Tate – This rivalry began in Strikeforce, when Tate was the champion and lost her belt to Rousey.

Rousey not only got into a war of words with Tate, Tate’s boyfriend, Bryan Caraway, also got into it. They coached against each other on TUF and then met at UFC 168, with Rousey winning by arm bar again.

Tate reveled in Rousey’s lowest moment, when she was stunningly knocked out by Holly Holm at UFC 193, and the champ has continued to take shots at her rival.

This is a very deep and very personal feud.

1. Jon Jones-Daniel Cormier – Cormier said he despises what Jones stands for and criticized Jones for all of his personal incidents. Jones took exception to Cormier’s comments and the feud was on.

They brawled at a news conference in the lobby of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas when Cormier shoved Jones. Jones then blew out Cormier at UFC 182 to retain his title.

After the fight, it came out that Jones had tested positive for cocaine during training camp. Cormier ripped him for that. A few months later, Jones had a hit-and-run auto accident and Cormier, a TV analyst on Fox, ripped him for that.

When the belt was stripped from Jones, Cormier won it and said his title was legitimate because Jones “disqualified himself from the competition.”

The rematch is booked for the main event of UFC 200 and the heat is as intense as ever.