Lightweight UFC history could be made this weekend at UFC 311.
Islam Makhachev makes his fourth lightweight title defense against Arman Tsarukyan. The lightweight title defense record is a four-way tie between Makhachev, Khabib Nurmagomedov, BJ Penn, and Benson Henderson; Five if you include Frankie Edgar’s draw with Gray Maynard.
Each of these champions has had three defenses, and Makhachev can enter a league of his own with four with a win UFC 311. As we gear up for the monumental Californian card, which features a bantamweight title fight between Merab Dvalishvili and Umar Nurmagomedov, as well as highly-anticipated fights featuring Jiri Prochazka and Payton Talbott, it’s interesting to look back on the UFC’s undisputed lightweight champions.
To be pedantic, the inaugural UFC championship began with Royce Gracie in 1993, and the lineal title remains in the hands of Francis Ngannou in the PFL. To simplify things, we’ll start with the inaugural lightweight belt, which began with Jens Pulver at UFC 30 in 2001.
UFC lightweight champions ranked
1. BJ Penn
Penn was a pioneer of the sport and a risk-taker at that, although his career is marred with defeats. He’s tied for most title defenses with three against top competition at the time in Sean Sherk, Kenny Florian, and Diego Sanchez. In the middle of his reign, he challenged for Georges St-Pierre’s welterweight strap.
Penn shouldn’t be painted with the twilight years of his career, ‘The Prodigy’ is part-responsible for building the lightweight division into what it is today.
2. Khabib Nurmagomedov
There’s little to be said about Khabib Nurmagomedov. ‘The Eagle’ retired too early but was undefeated in 29 professional fights. Nurmagomedov’s closest fight was Gleison Tibau.
Otherwise, he steamrolled UFC competition and accumulated three lightweight title defenses against prime Conor McGregor, Justin Gaethje, and Dustin Poirier – a proper murderer’s row.
3. Islam Makhachev
Islam Makhachev is as close as it gets to becoming the lightweight GOAT. With one more defense at UFC 311 he’ll set a new record, and every fight thereafter will be legacy-defining.
That said, he’ll need to break that record to cement his spot, since his lightweight reign consists of defenses against featherweight great Alexander Volkanovski (twice), an aged Poirier, and a peak Charles Oliveira.
4. Frankie Edgar
Frankie Edgar was a small lightweight, but he made it work nonetheless. Edgar won the lightweight strap from BJ Penn, and defended it twice against Penn in a rematch, and against Gray Maynard (three times with the Maynard draw). ‘The Answer’ fought tooth and nail to keep the belt, eventually dropping it to Benson Henderson and losing a dicey rematch.
5. Charles Oliveira
Charles Oliveira’s career resurgence was the stuff of legend. ‘Do Bronx’ capped off an amazing eight-fight winning streak with a knockout over Michael Chandler to take the belt. He technically only defended it once since he lost it to the scales against Justin Gaethje.
Every Oliveira title defense was electric, with swings of momentum.
6. Jens Pulver
Jens Pulver is the inaugural lightweight champion, and technically never lost the belt since he vacated it after defending twice to pursue opportunities in other promotions. The level of competition was lower in his time, but that doesn’t diminish the fact he pioneered the whole division.
7 Anthony Pettis
Anthony Pettis became the poster boy of the UFC primarily because of his flashy style. He defeated Benson Henderson to become the champ and defended his belt against Gilbert Melendez, a very dangerous challenge at the time. Pettis brought plenty of eyes to the sport.
8. Benson Henderson
Benson Henderson was nigh unstoppable in his WEC and early UFC days, where his only kryptonite was Pettis. ‘Hendo’ is the fourth champion with three defenses, but being the king of split decisions, they weren’t all the best performances.
9. Rafael dos Anjos
Rafael dos Anjos won the belt in 2015 and is still going to this day. His reign was short-lived, dropping the belt to Eddie Alvarez within seven months.
10. Conor McGregor
While McGregor is arguably the highest-profile fighter on the list, he won the belt from Alvarez and kept it hostage for almost two years while he chased double-champion status. McGregor never defended the belt either.
11. Eddie Alvarez
It’s incredible that Eddie Alvarez knocked out RDA to claim the belt, but he had an even shorter title reign, dropping the fight to McGregor just four months later.
12. Sean Sherk
Sean Sherk is incredibly underrated, but his lightweight title reign consisted of outpointing Kenny Florian for the belt, and then being stripped of the title for performance-enhancing-drugs.