This is a list of all UFC champions. Historical notes At the time of the UFC's inception in 1993, Mixed martial arts was not sanctioned in the United States, and did not include weight classes. Instead of the traditional championship model, the UFC held tournaments with the winner receiving a permanent appellation. In response to criticism from Senator John McCain that saw the loss of its television deal and the banning of the sport in thirty-six states, the UFC increased its cooperation with state athletic commissions and introduced weight classes in 1997, starting with UFC 12, and began introducing weight-specific titles.
The original codification for weight classes introduced only two divisions: heavyweight, which grouped together all competitors above , and lightweight, which encompassed all competitors 199 pounds (90 kg) and under. At UFC 14 the lightweight division would be renamed to middleweight, though it would still encompass all fighters 199 pounds (90 kg) and under. The lightweight moniker would later return at UFC 16 with a new division consisting of those competitors and under. Two years later a fourth weight class, the bantamweight division, arrived at UFC 26 and included all fighters and under.
In 2000, the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board completely took over MMA regulation in its home state and developed new rules and weight classes that eventually became the de facto rule set for all mixed martial arts. The UFC realigned their weight classes to comply with these new regulations in 2001, beginning with UFC 31. At the time, this brought the total number of active divisions in the UFC to five: lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight.
It would be nearly ten years before the UFC would expand their divisional offerings to include any of the lower weight classes. The first additions came in late 2010 when the UFC merged with their sister organization World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC). Due to the WEC's focus on lighter weight fighters, this merger necessitated the addition of both the featherweight and bantamweight divisions to the UFC, starting with The Ultimate Fighter season 12 finale. In early 2012 the UFC decided they would delve even further into the lower weight classes when they announced the introduction of the flyweight division to their ranks, beginning with UFC on FX: Alves vs. Kampmann.
In November 2012, as a result of the forthcoming dissolution of their sister organization Strikeforce, the UFC announced they would be adding female fighters to their roster for the first time in the promotion's history. Initially, only the women's bantamweight division was brought over, with the division's premiere bout taking place at UFC 157. A little over a year later, the UFC announced they would be expanding their weight classes for female fighters with the addition of a women's strawweight division, the first bout took place at UFC Fight Night: Cowboy vs. Miller. In late 2016, a featherweight division was introduced for the women with the first bout to be for the inaugural championship at UFC 208 on February 11, 2017. In that same year the UFC announced the Women's Flyweight division would officially be added, with the winner of the 26th season of The Ultimate Fighter to be named the inaugural champion.
Current champions
Men Division Champion Since Defenses Heavyweight Ciryl Gane Sep 14, 2026 0 Light Heavyweight Carlos Ulberg Apr 11, 2026 0 Middleweight Sean Strickland May 9, 2026 0 Welterweight Islam Makhachev Nov 15, 2025 1 Lightweight Justin Gaethje Jun 14, 2026 0 Featherweight Alexander Volkanovski Apr 12, 2025 1 Bantamweight Petr Yan Dec 6, 2025 0 Flyweight Joshua Van Dec 6, 2025 2
Women Division Champion Since Defenses Bantamweight Kayla Harrison Jun 7, 2025 0 Flyweight Natália Silva Oct 3, 2026 0 Strawweight Mackenzie Dern Oct 25, 2025 1
Men's championship history Heavyweight Championship 206 to 265 lb (93 to 120 kg) The UFC Superfight Championship was unified with the UFC 11 Tournament Championship to determine the inaugural UFC Heavyweight Champion on February 7, 1997, when Mark Coleman defeated Dan Severn at UFC 12. Name Event Date Reign(total) Defenses 1 Mark Coleman UFC 12 Feb 7, 1997 170 days 2 Maurice Smith UFC 14 Jul 27, 1997 147 days 3 Randy Couture UFC Japan Dec 21, 1997 ? daysCouture was stripped of the title in January 1998, when he left the UFC due to a contract dispute. 4 Bas Rutten UFC 20 May 7, 1999 34 daysRutten vacated the title in June 1999 in order to drop down to Light Heavyweight. He retired soon after due to training injuries. 5 Kevin Randleman UFC 23 Nov 19, 1999 364 days 6 Randy Couture UFC 28 Nov 17, 2000 490 days(490+ days) 7 Josh Barnett UFC 36 Mar 22, 2002 126 daysBarnett was stripped of the title on July 26, 2002, after testing positive for anabolic steroids in a post-fight drug test. 8 Ricco Rodriguez UFC 39 Sep 27, 2002 154 days 9 Tim Sylvia UFC 41 Feb 28, 2003 229 daysSylvia was stripped of the title on October 15, 2003, after testing positive for anabolic steroids in a post-fight drug test. 10 Frank Mir UFC 48 Jun 19, 2004 419 days — Andrei Arlovski UFC 51 Feb 5, 2005 —Mir was stripped of the title on August 12, 2005, for inactivity resulting from injuries he sustained in a road accident. 11 Andrei Arlovski — Aug 12, 2005 246 days 12 Tim Sylvia UFC 59 Apr 15, 2006 322 days(551 days) 13 Randy Couture UFC 68 Mar 3, 2007 623 days(1,113+ days) — Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira UFC 81 Feb 2, 2008 — 14 Brock Lesnar UFC 91 Nov 15, 2008 707 days — Frank Mir UFC 92 Dec 27, 2008 — — Shane Carwin UFC 111 Mar 27, 2010 — 15 Cain Velasquez UFC 121 Oct 23, 2010 385 days 16 Junior dos Santos UFC on Fox: Velasquez vs. dos Santos Nov 12, 2011 413 days 17 Cain Velasquez UFC 155 Dec 29, 2012 896 days(1,281 days) — Fabrício Werdum UFC 180 Nov 15, 2014 — 18 Fabrício Werdum UFC 188 Jun 13, 2015 336 days 19 Stipe Miocic UFC 198 May 14, 2016 784 days 20 Daniel Cormier UFC 226 Jul 7, 2018 406 days 21 Stipe Miocic UFC 241 Aug 17, 2019 588 days(1,372 days) 22 Francis Ngannou UFC 260 Mar 27, 2021 659 days — Ciryl Gane UFC 265 Aug 7, 2021 —Ngannou was stripped of the title on January 14, 2023 when he left the UFC due to a contract dispute. 23 Jon Jones UFC 285 Mar 4, 2023 840 days — Tom Aspinall UFC 295 Nov 11, 2023 —Jones vacated the title when he had his retirement announced on June 21, 2025. 24 Tom Aspinall — Jun 21, 2025 450 days — Ciryl Gane UFC Freedom 250 Jun 14, 2026 —Aspinall vacated the title on September 14, 2026 due to ongoing complications from eye injuries. 25 Ciryl Gane — Sep 14, 2026 (incumbent)
Light Heavyweight Championship 186 to 205 lb (84 to 93 kg) The Light Heavyweight Championship was known as the Middleweight Championship prior to UFC 31 (May 4, 2001). The Pride World Middleweight Championship (205.03 lb) was unified with the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship on September 8, 2007, when Quinton Jackson defeated Dan Henderson at UFC 75. No.NameEvent Date Reign(Total)Defenses 1 Frank Shamrock UFC Japan Dec 21, 1997 703 daysShamrock vacated the title on November 24, 1999, when he retired from the UFC, citing a lack of competition. 2 Tito Ortiz UFC 25 Apr 14, 2000 1,260 days — Randy Couture UFC 43 Jun 6, 2003 — 3 Randy Couture UFC 44 Sep 26, 2003 127 days 4 Vitor Belfort UFC 46 Jan 31, 2004 203 days 5 Randy Couture UFC 49 Aug 21, 2004 238 days(365 days) 6 Chuck Liddell UFC 52 Apr 16, 2005 770 days 7 Quinton Jackson UFC 71 May 26, 2007 406 days 8 Forrest Griffin UFC 86 Jul 5, 2008 175 days 9 Rashad Evans UFC 92 Dec 27, 2008 147 days 10 Lyoto Machida UFC 98 May 23, 2009 350 days 11 Maurício Rua UFC 113 May 8, 2010 315 days 12 Jon Jones UFC 128 Mar 19, 2011 1,501 daysJones was stripped of the title on April 28, 2015, due to his involvement and arrest in a felony hit-and-run. 13 Daniel Cormier UFC 187 May 23, 2015 1,315 days — Jon Jones UFC 197 Apr 23, 2016 —Jones was stripped of the interim title on November 9, 2016, due to his one-year suspension related to a failed pre-fight drug test.Jones won the undisputed title at UFC 214 on July 29, 2017, but was stripped on September 13, 2017, after his win was overturned to a no-contest due to a failed pre-fight drug test. Cormier was then retroactively reinstated as champion.Cormier vacated the title on December 28, 2018, 174 days after winning the heavyweight title. 14 Jon Jones UFC 232 Dec 29, 2018 597 days(2,098 days)Jones vacated the title on August 17, 2020, citing issues with the UFC over salary negotiation and the desire to compete at heavyweight. 15 Jan Błachowicz UFC 253 Sep 27, 2020 398 days 16 Glover Teixeira UFC 267 Oct 30, 2021 225 days 17 Jiří Procházka UFC 275 Jun 12, 2022 164 daysProcházka vacated the title on November 23, 2022, after suffering a severe shoulder injury.Jan Błachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev fought to a draw for the vacant title on December 10, 2022, at UFC 282 in Las Vegas, NV, US. 18 Jamahal Hill UFC 283 Jan 21, 2023 174 daysHill vacated the title on July 14, 2023, after suffering an achilles tendon rupture. 19 Alex Pereira UFC 295 Nov 11, 2023 483 days 20 Magomed Ankalaev UFC 313 Mar 8, 2025 210 days 21 Alex Pereira UFC 320 Oct 4, 2025 189 days(672 days)Pereira announced on February 27, 2026, that he was vacating the title to move up to heavyweight. The title was officially vacated on April 11, 2026. 22 Carlos Ulberg UFC 327 Apr 11, 2026 (incumbent)
Middleweight Championship 171 to 185 lb (78 to 84 kg) The Pride World Welterweight Championship (182.98 lb) was unified with the UFC Middleweight Championship on March 1, 2008, when Anderson Silva defeated Dan Henderson at UFC 82. No.NameEvent Date ReignDefenses 1 Dave Menne UFC 33 Sep 28, 2001 105 days 2 Murilo Bustamante UFC 35 Jan 11, 2002 267 daysBustamante was stripped of the title on October 5, 2002, when he left the UFC for Pride. 3 Evan Tanner UFC 51 Feb 5, 2005 119 days 4 Rich Franklin UFC 53 Jun 4, 2005 497 days 5 Anderson Silva UFC 64 Oct 14, 2006 2,457 days 6 Chris Weidman UFC 162 Jul 6, 2013 889 days 7 Luke Rockhold UFC 194 Dec 12, 2015 175 days 8 Michael Bisping UFC 199 Jun 4, 2016 518 days — Robert Whittaker UFC 213 Jul 8, 2017 — 9 Georges St-Pierre UFC 217 Nov 4, 2017 33 daysSt-Pierre vacated the title on December 7, 2017, due to ulcerative colitis. 10 Robert Whittaker — Dec 7, 2017 660 days — Israel Adesanya UFC 236 Apr 13, 2019— 11 Israel Adesanya UFC 243 Oct 6, 2019 1,134 days 12 Alex Pereira UFC 281 Nov 12, 2022 147 days 13 Israel Adesanya UFC 287 Apr 8, 2023 155 days (1,289 days) 14 Sean Strickland UFC 293 Sep 10, 2023 132 days 15 Dricus du Plessis UFC 297 Jan 20, 2024 574 days 16 Khamzat Chimaev UFC 319 Aug 16, 2025266 days 17 Sean Strickland UFC 328 May 9, 2026(incumbent)
Welterweight Championship 156 to 170 lb (71 to 77 kg) The Welterweight Championship was known as the Lightweight Championship prior to UFC 31 (May 4, 2001).