Prior to UFC 31 in 2001, the Light Heavyweight division was known as the Middleweight division. However, after being unified with Pride’s Middleweight division, it eventually became officially known as the Light Heavyweight division. Thus allowing us to crown a new UFC Champion.
The UFC’s Light Heavyweight weight class has given us some of the greatest ever MMA fighters, who have delivered some of the best ever UFC fights; Jones v Gustaffson 1, DC v Gustaffson, Griffin v Bonnar 1, Henderson v Rua 1.
In particular, it has been the divisional home of 2 of the greatest MMA fighters of all time; Jones “Bones” Jones & Daniel “DC” Cormier.
Jones & Cormier had one of the most famous rivalries in all of combat sports. However, before they fought each other for the first time, they were both (technically) undefeated and they were decorated athletes in their own right.
DC had been undefeated as both a Light Heavyweight and as a Heavyweight. At the same time, Jones had become the youngest ever UFC Champion at 23 years old & he had never lost a fight (except 1 DQ loss to Matt Hamill, a fight which he was winning comfortably).
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Current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion
Glover Teixeira is the current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. He won the title belt when he submitted Jan Blachowicz at UFC 267, on October 30th, 2021.
UFC Light Heavyweight Champions
| 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 |
