UFC Current Champions: Who is the most dominant belt holder?

When the first UFC event took place in 1993 at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado; fighters from all different weight classes fought against each other.

But just four years after that, at UFC 12, fighters competed in two weight classes of heavyweight, for the fighters who weighed 200 pounds and above, and lightweight, for those who weighed 199 pounds and under.

As time went on, with the arrival of UFC 31, the competition was held according to a total number of five active weight categories in the promotion including Lightweight, Welterweight, Middleweight, Light Heavyweight, and Heavyweight.

Afterwards, in 2010, at the time of the convergence of UFC with its sister organization World Extreme Cagefighting, the weight categories were developed to contain lower divisions of the Featherweight and Bantamweight.

In 2012, the separation of UFC’s sister promotion Strikeforce resulted in the inclusion of women to the UFC roster for the first time in the organization's history.

At the moment, UFC fighters compete in a total of 12 divisions, 8 for the men and 4 for the women. Here we would get to know the

current UFC champions 2021

in each of these 12 weight classes.

 But one of our current Champions managed to achieve championships in two different divisions while she actively holds them. So here we would have 11 fighters listed in our UFC current champions.

UFC Current Champions: Who is the most dominant belt holder?

We would feature the list of the UFC current champions on the basis of the promotion's official rankings.

Rose Namajunas

• Division

  : Strawweight

• Won title

  : April 24, 2021

• Outcome

  : TKO1 over Zhang Weili (UFC 261)

• Defences

  : 0

• Record Career

  : 10 W- 4 L- 0 D

As an American MMA fighter who is also recognized as the Thug Rose and has expertise in Taekwondo, Karate and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, she currently competes in the women’s strawweight category of UFC and is the two-time and current UFC Women's Strawweight World Champion.

To be exact, much to the chagrin of many fans, in 2017, she managed to knock out strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk so as to become the new champion, while she expressed her intention to use her new champion status for raising awareness on mental illness at the time of her winning.

Then she went on to defend her title successfully in a rematch with Jedrzejczyk in 2018 while their bout turned out to be among

.

But unfortunately, Rose was beaten by Jessica Andrade at UFC 237. Yet when Andrade lost it to Zhang Weili at UFC Fight Night: Shenzhen, China; Weili went on to beat Joanna Jedrzejczyk in her first title defence and achieved victory via split decision at UFC 248.

As a result, Rose Namajunas coped with Zhang Weili at UFC 261 on April 24, 2021, and astonishingly knocked her out via head kicks to win the Strawweight title for the second time and became the first woman in UFC history who managed to regain a championship title after losing it.

While this fight saw her grab the Performance of the Night award, she spectacularly set the record of taking out three former UFC Women's Strawweight Champions - Joanna Jędrzejczyk, Jéssica Andrade, and Zhang Weili.

Earning the third spot in the UFC women's pound-for-pound rankings, as of April 26, 2021, on a myriad of occasions, she has managed to perform her best, in her biggest moments.

Valentina Shevchenko

• Division

  : Flyweight

• Won title

  : Dec. 8, 2018

• Outcome

  : UD over Joanna Jedrzejczyk (UFC 231)

• Defences

  : 5

• Record Career

  : 21 W- 3 L- 0 D

As a Kyrgyzstani-Peruvian professional MMA and former Muay Thai fighter, she fights in the women's Flyweight category of UFC.

While she is considered to be one of the current and all-time UFC Champions in Women's Flyweight, she is also ranked #2 in UFC women's pound-for-pound rankings as of November 23, 2020.

Precisely speaking, when she beat Jędrzejczyk at UFC 231 with a unanimous decision, she managed to win the vacant Flyweight title and since then the Bullet successfully defended the title 5 times.

In her first flyweight title defence, she confronted Jessica Eye in the co-main event at UFC 238 on June 8, 2019, and she came out ahead with a head kick knockout in the second round so as to grab the Performance of the Night award as well.

Then in her fight against Liz Carmouche that occurred on August 10, 2019, at UFC on ESPN+ 14, she grabbed triumph via unanimous decision, although previously she had been beaten by Carmouche in a regional match.

In her third title defence, she fought against Katlyn Chookagian on February 8, 2020, at UFC 247 and achieved victory via TKO in the third round.

Afterwards, in a bout against Jennifer Maia that took place on November 21, 2020, at UFC 255, she gained the palm and defended her title for the fourth time.

She even countered Jéssica Andrade on April 24, 2021, at UFC 261, and toppled her in in the second round via elbows from crucifix position so as to make 5 title defences so far.

She is set to meet Lauren Murphy on September 25, 2021, at UFC 266 to perhaps make her sixth title defence.

Amanda Nunes 

• Division

  : Bantamweight and Featherweight

• Won bantamweight

  : July 9, 2016

• Won featherweight

  : Dec. 29, 2018

• Outcome (bantamweight

  ): SUB1 over Miesha Tate (UFC 200)

• Outcome (featherweight

  ): TKO1 over Cris Cyborg (UFC 232)

• Defences (bantamweight)

  : 5

• Defences (featherweight)

  : 2

• Record Career

  : 21 W- 4 L- 0 D

As a Brazilian professional MMA fighter, she competes in the bantamweight and featherweight division of UFC, being the reigning champion of these categories.

While she earned the spot #1 in the UFC women's pound-for-pound rankings, as of June 2, 2020, she is widely revered as

.

That is to say, she beat Miesha Tate with a submission via a rear-naked choke in the second round at UFC 200 in 2016, so as to win the bantamweight title and has managed to successfully defend the title five times.

While she holds the record of the longest combined UFC title reign of all time (2897+  days), in her five successful bantamweight defences, she edged out Ronda Rousey (UFC 207, TKO), Valentina Shevchenko (UFC 215, split decision), Raquel Pennington (UFC 224, TKO), Holly Holm (UFC 239, TKO), and Germaine de Randamie (UFC 245, unanimous).

When she took out Chris Cyborg for the Featherweight title at UFC 232 in 2018 via TKO in 51 seconds of the first round, she became honoured to be the first woman to hold two women’s division titles in UFC.

Then he went on to defend her Featherweight title for the first time against Felicia Spencer at UFC 250 and the second against Megan Anderson at UFC 259. With this victory, she became the first-ever fighter in UFC history to make two title defences while she consecutively holds them.

After all, as one of the current and all-time UFC champions, she has nosed out every woman to hold championship gold in the UFC Bantamweight and Featherweight divisions.

Brandon Moreno

• Division

  : Flyweight

• Won title:

  June 12, 2021

• Outcome

  : SUB3 over Deiveson Figueiredo (UFC 263)

• Defences

  : 0

• Record Career

  : 19 W- 5 L- 2 D

As a Mexican professional mixed martial artist who currently fights in the flyweight category of UFC, he is the reigning Current UFC Champions 2021 and took the #11 position in the UFC men's pound-for-pound rankings, as of July 12, 2021.

Becoming professional since 2011, he spent a span of his career at Legacy Fighting Alliance, as he was the LFA Flyweight champion.

To be specific, in their rematch against Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 263, he established dominance in the striking and grappling exchanges and eventually submitted him with a rear-naked choke in the third round so as to make history with grabbing the Flyweight title.

While the victory saw him earn the Performance of the Night award, he even became the first Mexican-born UFC champion with this triumph.

It is to be said, that their first bout was such a tightly competitive match that had become a fight of the year candidate in 2020, earning both fighters the Fight of the Night award as Deiveson Figueiredo had retained his belt in a five-round majority draw against our UFC current champion at UFC 256.

Their trilogy rematch for the UFC Flyweight Championship is set to occur on December 11, 2021, at UFC 269, thereby it remains to be seen whether Moreno would retain his title or not.

Aljamain Sterling

• Division

  : Bantamweight

• Won title:

  March 6, 2021

• Outcome

  : DQ4 over Petr Yan (UFC 259)

• Defences

  : 0

• Record Career

  : 20 W- 3 L- 0 D

As an American mixed martial artist, he fights in the bantamweight division of the UFC while he is also one of the 

UFC current champions.

He even managed to be champion in the bantamweight division of Cage Fury Fighting Championships while he defended this title three times.

But back to his UFC career, Aljamain Sterling became bantamweight champion when he fought against Petr Yan at UFC 259 on March 6, 2021.

Strictly speaking, Yan intentionally throw an illegal knee at Sterling in the fourth round to such an extent that Sterling was unable to continue the bout anymore owing to concussion and therefore with the doctor recommendation, the fight was brought to a halt.

As Sterling had suffered from a terrible injury, the judge declared it to be a disqualification against Yan, while even before that, two of the three scorecards were in favour of Sterling.

Therefore, the fight resulted in his grabbing the UFC Bantamweight championship while he has become the only UFC champion who has ever won a championship by disqualification.

Likewise, a rematch with Yan is scheduled to occur on October 30, 2021, at UFC 267 and undoubtedly, the champions' fans are smacking their lips to see him defend his Bantamweight title.

Alexander Volkanovski

• Division

  : Featherweight

• Won title

  : December 14, 2019

• Outcome

  : UD over Max Holloway (UFC 245)

• Defences

  : 1

• Record Career

  : 22 W- 1 L- 0 D

As an Australian professional MMA fighter, he currently competes in the Featherweight category of the UFC while being honoured to be included in the list of UFC champions.

Moreover, in his illustrious career, he was the Featherweight champion of the Australian Fighting Championship (AFC), as he has grabbed the fourth spot in the UFC men's pound-for-pound rankings as of June 14, 2021.

When he toppled Max Halloway with a unanimous decision at UFC 245 on 14 December 2019, he won the UFC Featherweight title and was honoured to become the first Australian-born UFC featherweight champion.

Then he went on to successfully defend his title in a rematch against Max Halloway that occurred on 11 July 2020 at UFC 251, but this time he prevailed in the competition via split decision so as to remain among the Current UFC Champion 2021.

Yet the results of this fight was a bit controversial amongst media outlets and MMA personalities. Therefore in order to cement his position of the featherweight champion, he is bouncing off the walls to coped with Halloway in their trilogy.

In the meantime, he is set to fight against Brian Ortega on September 25, 2021, at UFC 266 for the UFC Featherweight Championship.

Charles Oliveira

• Division

  : Lightweight

• Won title

  : March 15, 2021

• Outcome

  : TKO2 over Michael Chandler (UFC 262)

• Defences

  : 0

• Record Career

  : 31 W- 8 L- 0 D

As a Brazilian professional MMA fighter, he fights in the Lightweight category of the UFC, being included among the

UFC current champions

earlier this year.

But since 2008, before showcasing stellar performances in UFC, he tended to compete in small Brazilian promotions.

He succeeded to earn the UFC Lightweight Championship when he confronted the former three-time Bellator Lightweight Champion Michael Chandler at UFC 262 on May 15, 2021, as the title was remained vacant due to the retirement of Khabib Nurmagomedov.

To be exact, notwithstanding his being dropped in the first round, he took the charge of the game in the second and won the fight via technical knockout after just a few moments of Round two was elapsed.

With this triumph not only did he cement his place on the list of UFC champions, but also he set the record of the most finishes (17) in UFC history as it saw him earn the Performance of the Night bonus award.

Likewise, among a long list of accolades and honours, he holds several outstanding records; take for example his earning the most submission wins in the organization's history at 14, while he also has been granted 11 Performance of the Night awards until now. Besides, he has earned the spot #10 in the UFC men's pound-for-pound rankings as of June 14, 2021.

Kamaru Usman

• Division

  : Welterweight

• Won title

  : March 2, 2019

• Outcome

  : UD over Tyron Woodley (UFC 235)

• Defences

  : 4

• Record Career

  : 19 W- 1 L- 0 D

As a Nigerian-American professional MMA fighter, he competes in the welterweight category of the UFC, while he is considered to be among one of the

current and all-time UFC champions

, earning the spot #2 in the UFC men's pound-for-pound rankings as of March 23, 2021.

Being widely revered as one of the

he tends to either knock out his

rivals or achieve victory by decision.

In his glorious career, he was beaten only once back in 2013 in his second pro-fight. Therefore it is of little surprise to see him get the Welterweight title shot against Tyron Woodley at UFC 235 following being unbeaten for around 6 years.

That is to say, when he defeated Woodley by unanimous decision, he became the first-ever Nigerian-born champion in UFC history and remains to be among the Current UFC Champions 2021, as he defeated the title four times until now.

Precisely as saying, in his first title defence, he countered Colby Covington at UFC 245 and achieved mastery by TKO. Afterwards, he fought against Jorge Masvidal at UFC 251, to earn victory by unanimous decision and defend his title for the second time.

In his third title defence against Gilbert Burns at UFC 258, he gained the palm via technical knockout in the third round, and thereby shattered the record of the former UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre for the largest win-streak in the division with thirteen, while the victory saw him earn the Performance of the Night award.

Then in a rematch against Jorge Masvidal at UFC 261, he defended his title for the fourth time, as he knocked out Masvidal in the second round, to become the first one to do so in the UFC, earning his fourth Performance of the Night award as well.

Israel Adesanya

• Division

  : Middleweight

• Won title:

  October 6, 2019

• Outcome

  : TKO2 over Robert Whittaker (UFC 243)

• Defences

  : 3

• Record Career

  : 20 W- 1 L- 0 D

As a Nigerian-born New Zealand professional MMA fighter, he is among the UFC current champions in the division of the Middleweight.

While he earned the spot #3 in the UFC men's pound-for-pound rankings as of June 14, 2021, he is held in the highest esteem by MMA fans for having one of the best striking abilities.

In his short MMA career, he made his UFC debut in 2018 and quickly after a year in 2019, he achieved the middleweight interim title at UFC 236 by defeating Kelvin Gastelum.

Then he went on to unify the title by defeating Robert Whittaker at UFC 243, to become the undisputed middleweight championship while he managed to make three title defence so far.

In his first title defence, he coped with three-time UFC title challenger Yoel Romero on March 7, 2020, UFC 248 as he came out ahead via unanimous decision.

Then he fought against fellow unbeaten fighter Paulo Costa on 27 September 2020 at UFC 253 as he managed to gain the palm via technical knockout in the second round.

While this victory saw him earn his fifth Performance of the Night award, the fight drew considerable attention, since it was the first time two male undefeated MMA fighters fought in a title fight since 2009.

Afterwards, in his third title defence, he coped with Marvin Vettori in their rematch at UFC 263 on June 12, 2021, which resulted in his winning the fight via unanimous decision.

Jan Blachowicz

• Division

  : Light Heavyweight

• Won title

  : September 27, 2020

• Outcome

  : TKO2 over Dominick Reyes (UFC 253)

• Defences

  : 1

• Record Career

  : 28 W- 8 L- 0 D

As a Polish professional mixed martial artist, he fights in the Light Heavyweight category of UFC as he is honoured to be among the 

UFC current champions.

Being the first male Polish champion and the second Polish champion in UFC history after Joanna Jędrzejczyk, he earned the spot #7 in the UFC men's pound-for-pound rankings.

Blachowicz joined the UFC in 2014 after an outstanding 7-year career in the European KSW as he was honoured to be KSW Light Heavyweight Champion as well.

In the face of Jon Jones' controversial salary negotiations with the UFC, he vacated his Light Heavyweight title on August 17th.

Therefore, Błachowicz fought against Dominick Reyes on September 27, 2020, at UFC 253, in pursuit of earning the vacant UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.

While he successfully managed to win the bout via TKO in the second round and became the new UFC Light Heavyweight champion, he also grabbed the Performance of the Night award for this match.

Then he went on to defend his title of the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship in a fight against the current UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya that occurred on March 6, 2021, at UFC 259.

Winning the bout via unanimous decision, he became the first person to ever beat Adesanya in his mixed martial arts career.

He is also set to defend his title for the second time, on October 30, 2021, at UFC 267. Let's see whether he would manage to remain on the 

list of UFC champions

or not.

Francis Ngannou

• Division

  : Heavyweight

• Won title

  : March 27, 2021

• Outcome

  : KO2 over Stipe Miocic (UFC 260)

• Defences

  : 0

• Record Career

  : 16 W- 3 L- 0 D

As a Cameroonian MMA fighter, he currently fights in the heavyweight category of UFC, as he managed to be their reigning Heavyweight Champion as well.

Being widely revered as the hardest recorded puncher in history, he has grabbed the position #5 in the UFC men's pound-for-pound rankings as of June 14, 2021.

While he has grown up in Cameroon, he coped with an awful lot of hardships to get into the UFC, as he had to work in sand mines and had several failed escapes to Europe, therefore he could not start his MMA career until he was 25 years old. Be that as it may, he proved himself qualified enough to be the heavyweight champion of the world.

Around six years after that he made his UFC debut at UFC on Fox 17 in 2015, he managed to beat Stipe Miocic at UFC 260 on 27 March 2021, winning the bout via knockout in round two so as to earn the UFC Heavyweight Championship as well as Performance of the Night award.

In this fight, he succeeded to showcase the best of his power, his incredible takedown defence and outstanding kickboxing ability in a world-class performance.

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