Here is a complete list of every fighter that has ever been able to call themselves a ‘UFC Champion’. This list goes right back to the first ever crowned UFC fighter, including every weight class, male & female.
This list is regularly updated.
A UFC Champion is an MMA fighter who has been given a belt by the fighting promotion called ‘UFC’ (which stands for Ultimate Fighting Championship). In order to be given a belt, an MMA fighter must challenge the current weight class ruler, and beat them in one to one mixed martial arts combat.
In some scenario’s, an ‘interim’ championship bout is scheduled. This usually happens when the active champ of a weight division has been inactive for too long, due to injury.
Therefore, in order to keep the division moving along, an ‘interim’ champion is created. When the inactive champ returns from injury, or other reason, a bout will be scheduled between the ‘interim’ champion and the current one, in order to unify the belts and leave just one champion in the weight class .
A new Champion is not only selected after beating the current one. If the current champ retires or is banned for using PEDs, then the belt will be vacant. In that case, a bout will be scheduled between the top 2 contenders in that weight division, and the winner will earn the UFC belt.
So, here it is, every single UFC champion in the history of the promotion. This list goes in ascending weight order, male then female. This list does not include interim Champions.
Date Made Champion UFC Fighter Name Country Of Origin Sep 22, 2012 Demetrious Johnson USA Aug 4, 2018 Henry Cejudo USA Jul 19, 2020 Deiveson Figueiredo Brazil Jun 12, 2021 Brandon Moreno Mexico Jan 22, 2022 Deiveson Figueiredo Brazil
Date Made Champion UFC Fighter Name Country Of Origin Dec 16, 2010 Dominick Cruz USA Jan 6, 2014 Renan Barão Brazil May 24, 2014 TJ Dillashaw USA Jan 17, 2016 Dominick Cruz (2) USA Dec 30, 2016 Cody Garbrandt USA Nov 4, 2017 TJ Dillashaw (2) USA Jun 8, 2019 Henry Cejudo USA July 12, 2020 Petr Yan Russia Mar 6, 2021 Aljamain Sterling USA
Date Made Champion UFC Fighter Name Country Of Origin Nov 20, 2010 José Aldo Brazil Dec 12, 2015 Conor McGregor Ireland Nov 26, 2016 José Aldo (2) Brazil Jun 3, 2017 Max Holloway USA Dec 14, 2019 Alex Volkanovski Australia
Date Made Champion UFC Fighter Name Country Of Origin Feb 23, 2001 Jens Pulver USA Oct 14, 2006 Sean Sherk USA Jan 19, 2008 BJ Penn USA Apr 10, 2010 Frankie Edgar USA Feb 26, 2012 Ben Henderson USA Aug 31, 2013 Anthony Pettis USA Mar 14, 2015 Rafael dos Anjos Brazil Jul 7, 2016 Eddie Alvarez USA Nov 12, 2016 Conor McGregor Ireland Apr 7, 2018 Khabib Nurmagomedov Russia May 15, 2021 Charles Oliviera Brazil
Date Made Champion UFC Fighter Name Country Of Origin Oct 16, 1998 Pat Miletich USA May 4, 2001 Carlos Newton Canada Nov 2, 2001 Matt Hughes USA Jan 31, 2004 BJ Penn USA Oct 22, 2004 Matt Hughes (2) USA Nov 18, 2006 Georges St-Pierre Canada Apr 7, 2007 Matt Serra USA Apr 19, 2008 Georges St-Pierre (2) Canada Mar 15, 2014 Johny Hendricks USA Dec 6, 2014 Robbie Lawler USA Jul 30, 2016 Tyron Woodley USA Mar 2, 2019 Kamaru Usman Nigeria
Date Made Champion UFC Fighter Name Country Of Origin Sep 28, 2001 Dave Menne USA Jan 11, 2002 Murilo Bustamante Brazil Feb 5, 2005 Evan Tanner USA June 4, 2005 Rich Franklin USA Oct 14, 2006 Anderson Silva Brazil July 6, 2013 Chris Weidman USA Dec 12, 2015 Luke Rockhold USA Jun 4, 2016 Michael Bisping England Nov 4, 2017 Georges St-Pierre Canada Dec 7, 2017 Robert Whittaker Australia Oct 5, 2019 Israel Adesanya New Zealand
Date Made Champion UFC Fighter Name Country Of Origin Dec 21, 1997 Frank Shamrock USA Apr 14, 2000 Tito Ortiz USA Sep 26, 2003 Randy Couture USA Jan 31, 2004 Vitor Belfort Brazil Aug 21, 2004 Randy Couture (2) USA Apr 16, 2005 Chuck Liddell USA May 26, 2007 Quinton Jackson USA Jul 5, 2008 Forrest Griffin USA Dec 27, 2008 Rashad Evans USA May 23, 2009 Lyoto Machida Brazil May 8, 2010 Maurício Rua Brazil Mar 19, 2011 Jon Jones USA May 23, 2015 Daniel Cormier USA Dec 29, 2018 Jon Jones (2) USA Sept 27, 2020 Jan Błachowicz Poland Oct 30, 2021 Glover Teixeira Brazil
Date Made Champion UFC Fighter Name Country Of Origin Feb 7, 1997 Mark Coleman USA Jul 27, 1997 Maurice Smith USA Dec 21, 1997 Randy Couture USA May 7, 1999 Bas Rutten Netherlands Nov 19, 1999 Kevin Randleman USA Nov 17, 2000 Randy Couture (2) USA Mar 22, 2002 Josh Barnett USA Sep 27, 2002 Ricco Rodriguez USA Feb 28, 2003 Tim Sylvia USA Jun 19, 2004 Frank Mir USA Aug 12, 2005 Andrei Arlovski Belarus Apr 15, 2006 Tim Sylvia (2) USA Mar 3, 2007 Randy Couture (3) USA Nov 15, 2008 Brock Lesnar USA Oct 23, 2010 Cain Velasquez USA Nov 12, 2011 Junior dos Santos Brazil Dec 29, 2012 Cain Velasquez (2) USA Jun 13, 2015 Fabrício Werdum Brazil May 14, 2016 Stipe Miocic USA / Croatia Jul 7, 2018 Daniel Cormier USA Aug 17, 2019 Stipe Miocic (2) USA / Croatia March 27, 2021 Francis Ngannou Cameroon
Date Made Champion UFC Fighter Name Country Of Origin Dec 12, 2014 Carla Esparza USA Mar 14, 2015 Joanna Jędrzejczyk Poland Nov 4, 2017 Rose Namajunas USA May 11, 2019 Jéssica Andrade Brazil Aug 31, 2019 Zhang Weili China April 2021 Rose Namujunas (2) USA May 7th, 2022 Carla Esparza (2) USA
Date Made Champion UFC Fighter Name Country Of Origin Dec 1, 2017 Nicco Montaño USA Dec 8, 2018 Valentina Shevchenko Kyrgyzstan
Date Made Champion UFC Fighter Name Country Of Origin Dec 6, 2012 Ronda Rousey USA Nov 15, 2015 Holly Holm USA Mar 5, 2016 Miesha Tate USA Jul 9, 2016 Amanda Nunes Brazil Dec 12, 2021 Juliana Pena USA
Date Made Champion UFC Fighter Name Country Of Origin Feb 11, 2017 Germaine de Randamie Netherlands Jul 29, 2017 Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Justino Brazil Dec 29, 2018 Amanda Nunes Brazil
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