Who Are The Current UFC Champions?

• Date won: March 4, 2023

Following a scarily close fight with Dominick Reyes at UFC 247, Jones eventually vacated the Light Heavyweight title, expressing his desire for big money for a move up to Heavyweight that he had been teasing since 2012. For years, the move was somewhat in limbo, with Jones claiming he was bulking up the entire time.

Finally, Jones fought at Heavyweight at UFC 285 against Cyril Gane, who he took to the ground and tapped in astonishingly rapid fashion, cementing his status as the greatest fighter of all time for many. Nowadays, people are just anxious to see if he's got another great fight in him.

• Date won: November 11, 2023

At UFC 295, Alex Pereira made history when he became a two-weight UFC champion in just 11 professional MMA fights. He did it in style, knocking out former champion Jiří Procházka in his second headlining title fight at Madison Square Garden in just a year.

Pereira is on top of the world right now, which is astonishing considering he's had just seven fights in the UFC. On the microphone after his 205-lb title win, he called out former four- time foe Israel Adesanya, who just lost the Middleweight title to Sean Strickland. Time well tell if the two are destined to meet for a fifth time, but for now, he's set to fight former champion Jamahal Hill in the main event of UFC 300.

• Date won: January 20, 2024

Du Plessis was already on a tear in the UFC, but it was his stunning win over former champion Robert Whittaker that turned a lot of heads and got Du Plessis his well-deserved title shot. In January, he won a split decision over Sean Strickland to become the 185-lb champion in Toronto. Scorecards amongst fans were mixed, but a good chunk of fans believed him to be the rightful winner.

His first title defense is up in there air at the moment, with many speculating that he'll take on Israel Adesanya at some point in the future, though he may have a rematch ahead of him first, either with Strickland or Whittaker.

• Date won: August 20, 2022

Kamaru Usman had the kind of dominant run as UFC Welterweight Champion that had people starting to mention GOAT status. He had multiple title defenses with most of them ending via knockout. Before UFC 278, it looked as though no one in the world could beat Usman… That was until he fought Leon Edwards for the second time.

Edwards was struggling throughout the fight and if the fight had gone 56 seconds longer, he would’ve lost another decision. In the fifth round he faked a jab to force Usman’s head to his right side and met it with a jaw-dropping kick, resulting in a vicious KO. The pair met for their trilogy fight in London in March where despite losing a point for repeated fouls, Leon proved he was the better man across 25 minutes. He got a second title defense under his belt against Colby Covington in 2023, winning the December fight somewhat handily.

• Date won: October 22, 2022

To those that paid close attention, it felt inevitable that Islam Makhachev would be crowned a world champion one day when he was rising up the ranks. Trained by UFC Lightweight GOAT Khabib Nurmagomedov, Makhachev’s wrestling is so exceptional that presents a real danger for any fighter around the same size.

Makhachev won the title against Charles Oliveria at UFC 280 in a dominant performance which made it look like a mismatch, with Makhachev getting the victory in the second round after an arm triangle. Since becoming champion, Islam has defended the belt twice, both times against 145lb king Alexander Volkanovski, knocking him out in quick fashion last October.

• Date won: February 17, 2024

For many people's money, Ilia Topuria was the smart pick at UFC 298 against champion Alexander Volkanovski. Despite Volk being undefeated at 145lbs up until that point, he was coming off of a knockout lost to Islam Makhachev at 155lbs just a few months prior and much was made of his age coming in.

Despite looking like he was heating up in the second round, he found his back to the cage and Ilia landed a big right hook which put the Australian out immediately. Ilia looks to headline the UFC's first event in Spain soon, with his superstar status taking off in the time since the championship win.

• Date won: August 19, 2023

Sean O’Malley has been a star in the sport from his appearance on Dana White’s Contender Series which was famously commentated by Urijah Faber and Snoop Dogg, but it was only at UFC 292 when O'Malley got the chance to fight for the title.

When he and Aljamain Sterling met in the cage, fans were pretty split on what way the bout would go, with a slight majority picking the champ, favoring his experience over the greener contender. In the second round, though, O’Malley stepped Aljo back onto a wonderfully quick overhand, putting him down and ending the fight just seconds later to become the 135lb champion. He went on to immediately call out former foe Chito Vera on the microphone and the O'Malley just knocked him off at UFC 299.

• Date won: July 8, 2023

Alexandre Pantoja had two wins over Brandon Moreno before they met at UFC 290. For the fans and oddsmakers though, Moreno’s growth and experience since that pair of bouts was enough for him to be the favorite coming into their trilogy fight.

In a grueling fight that proved to be one of the best of 2023, Pantoja proved once again that he was the better fighter by coming out on the good side of a split decision to win the 125-lb championship for the first time.

• Date won: January 20, 2024

With Amanda Nunes heading into a well-deserved retirement, the women's 135-lb belt was up for grabs for a while. The UFC booked a January title fight between ten-year UFC vet Raquel Pennington and Mayra Bueno Silva. While the fight wasn't a barnburner, Raquel did what she needed to to secure a decision win and finally capture UFC gold.

There's no confirmation yet, but it's expected that her first defense will come against former champion Julianna Peña at some point later this year.

• Date won: March 4, 2023

Coming into UFC 285, very few people gave Alexa Grasso a chance against Valentina Shevchenko, who was basically the entire division’s history at that point, racking up a title win and seven defenses in three years, losing very few rounds in the process. But MMA is one of the most unpredictable sports in the world and all it took was for the Bullet to attempt a spinning attack and Grasso jumped on the back, putting in a choke and tapping Valentina in the fourth round.

The two rematched last September with the fight ending up a draw, technically meaning that Grasso didn't defend the belt, but retained it.

• Date won: November 12, 2022

Finishing up our list of current UFC Champions is Zhang Weili, who originally won the Strawweight title in the summer of 2019, when she took the belt from Jéssica Andrade in 42 seconds in her home country. She defended the title once in one of the greatest fights in UFC history with Joanna Jędrzejczyk, before falling to Rose Namajunas’s beautiful headkick at UFC 261.

UFC 281 would prove to be Weili's shining comeback moment, as she defeated Carla Esparza for the title. She dominated the fight and took the victory after a rear-naked choke submission in the second round. In his first defense on her second run, Weili dominated Amanda Lemos at UFC 292. At UFC 300, she'll fight Yan Xiaonan.