Opinion: An Alarming Trend with UFC Champions

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Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.

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A recent trend in the Ultimate Fighting Championship has been the voluntary vacating of titles. It isn’t like the former champions are just sick of fighting and up and leave, but there’s no denying that it has become a movement of late. For instance, voluntary vacating of UFC titles—either moving to a different division or retirement—in the 2010s resulted in a total of two vacations, both courtesy of Georges St. Pierre. I’m not counting Conor McGregor’s inactivity and his being stripped, as he never voluntarily surrendered the belts, nor am I counting Jon Jones being stripped multiple times.

However, since 2020, there have been eight such exits, and that number will grow to nine with Weili Zhang at the end of October. Some of those—Khabib Nurmagomedov, Amanda Nunes and Henry Cejudo—were due to retirement but most have been due to fighters vacating their thrones to move up a division. After the issue of inactivity that came with the champ-champ era, the UFC recently implemented an unofficial policy that fighters must first vacate the title of their current division if they hope to pursue gold in a different weight class. While it’s an improvement over the champ-champ era and has eliminated the logjam in the divisions that arose with the inactivity, it has produced another issue that might only rear its head down the road.

The legitimacy of titles comes into question when there’s constant turnover. The best example is the lightweight division. The current champion is Ilia Topuria. He beat former champion Charles Oliveira to claim the title in June, but he did not beat the man who everyone believes is the best lightweight in the world. As good as Oliveira is, he lost the title back in 2022 and also went on to lose to Arman Tsarukyan. Of course, Tsarukyan hasn’t fought since beating Oliveira in 2024, but he’s not the one Topuria needs to beat to clear up any qualms about who is truly the best lightweight today. That would be Islam Makhachev, who vacated the title to move up to welterweight and challenge Jack Della Maddalena for the 170-pound championship in November.

Will we ever see Topuria and Makhachev clash? I’m of the opinion that there’s too much money on the line for Makhachev, not to mention the damage it would do to his reputation since it would undeniably be seen as his ducking Topuria. While I believe we’ll see it, will there be caveats? Will it take place at 155 pounds? Will it be a catchweight? If it is a catchweight, it feels like it would inevitably favor Makhachev, so would there be an asterisk if he wins? If it is at 155, would the title be on the line? Regardless of where it is fought, how long will the welterweight division be held up should Makhachev beat Della Maddalena? It will inevitably take away a title shot from someone if that’s the case, as that slot will be going to the superfight between Makhachev and Topuria.

This trend also creates questions regarding legacies. For instance, St. Pierre is seen as the greatest welterweight of all-time, as he beat the old guard at 170 pounds and then proceeded to turn away all the newcomers at the top of the division prior to vacating his title. Jon Jones did the same thing at light heavyweight. Controversy may surround each of their last defenses in their respective weight classes, but the rest of the body of work doesn’t alter the perception of their greatness given that they ruled the divisions for so long. Anderson Silva is still regarded as the middleweight GOAT despite having lost his title to Chris Weidman after a historic reign. Demetrious Johnson has a similar legacy. The champions who are now vacating their titles for what they see as greener pastures aren’t affording themselves that same opportunity. As great as Randy Couture was, I don’t see many involving him in GOAT conversations despite multiple reigns as both the light heavyweight and heavyweight champion.

Conor McGregor, LeBron James and Diminished Legacies

Topuria may have wrested the featherweight title from Alexander Volkanovski and defended it against Max Holloway, two men in the GOAT conversation at 145 pounds. However, that’s the extent of his title fights. Given that it could be argued that both Volkanovski and Holloway were past their peaks doesn’t help Topuria’s case. In fact, the featherweight that Topuria beat who was closest to his prime was Bryce Mitchell. McGregor’s popularity aside, no one talks about his being in the conversation in terms of the featherweight GOAT because he never defended his title.

Ultimately, it feels like most of these fighters are vacating their championships to pursue boosting their legacies. Not having to cut additional weight plays another large part of it, but everyone seems so focused on building a legacy. The unfortunate part of looking at the wider picture is they often tend to overlook the immediate challenge in front of them in favor of checking boxes. Sometimes, some of those boxes don’t get checked. For instance, Makhachev will likely be an all-time great if he defeats Della Maddalena. Would he be in the GOAT conversation? Probably. However, given that no one can be sure if he’s the best lightweight ever, his case will have a severe crimp in it—a crimp that may have been ironed out if he stayed around a little longer. There’s something to be said for cleaning house, something no one seems willing to do any longer.

One last anecdote. The greatest example of looking at a legacy as opposed to the immediate challenge ahead involves LeBron James. Fearing his legacy would be incomplete without titles, he negotiated with close friend Dwyane Wade to abandon Cleveland to form a super team in Miami. For many, that marked the moment James would never exceed Michael Jordan as the basketball GOAT. Forget that James has taken more teams to the finals. Forget that James has greater longevity or greater statistics. James sought the easy road for his titles rather than forge ahead with a team that built everything around him. James does have his supporters, but there’s no denying the Jordan camp is much larger.

I know there’s going to be plenty who disagree with me, and I’m happy about it. This sport is far more enjoyable to talk about when there’s genuine but respectful disagreement. However, the continual short-circuiting of lineal championships in favor of greener pastures doesn’t seem like the surefire road to greatness everyone assumes it to be. Of course, only time will tell.