In the main event at UFC 311 this coming Saturday, Islam Makhachev will defend his lightweight title against Arman Tsarukyan in a rematch six years in the making.
After their first meeting at UFC Russia in 2019, it seemed inevitable that one day, Islam Makhachev and Arman Tsarukyan would meet again with higher stakes attached.
At UFC 311 this coming Saturday, Makhachev has the chance to break a UFC record that has stood for over 15 years. Currently, the Russian is tied with four fighters for the most amount of title defenses in UFC lightweight history.
BJ Penn kicked off his lightweight reign with a picture-perfect flying knee KO
In 2008 at UFC 80: Rapid Fire, BJ Penn took on Joe Stevenson for the vacant UFC lightweight title after Sean Sherk was stripped of it after testing positive for steroids.
‘The Prodigy’ was looking to join Randy Couture as only the second man in the promotion’s history to win a title in two different weight classes, a feat that has since been conquered multiple times.
After submitting Stevenson in round two, Penn joined Couture in making UFC history and began his reign as the lightweight champion.
The Hawaiian then made the first defense of his title against the returning Sherk just four months later, in what ended up being an incredible three rounds of action. After a back-and-forth fight, Penn landed a jab that stumbled Sherk to the cage, then flew in with a picture-perfect knee that rendered the former champ unconscious.
After an unsuccessful move back up to welterweight where he was beaten by Goerges St-Pierre, Penn moved back down to 155lb and successfully defended his title against both Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez, totting up three title defenses.
Frankie Edgar provides ‘The Answer’ and dethrones BJ Penn
At UFC 112: Invincible, Frankie Edgar successfully dethroned Penn despite being a huge underdog, picking up the unanimous decision win.
Just four months later, ‘The Answer’ put a stamp on their rivalry when they rematched at UFC 118 and Edgar once again won via unanimous decision.
In January 2011, Edgar retained his lightweight title after an incredibly close fight against Gray Maynard that ended in a split draw.
At UFC 136, ‘The Answer’ rematched Maynard but this time, didn’t leave it up to the judges when he knocked him out in the fourth round.
Benson Henderson’s UFC lightweight title reign wasn’t so ‘Smooth’
Edgar was looking to break the UFC lightweight title defense record when he met ‘Smooth’ Benson Henderson at UFC 144 in 2012.
An impressive performance saw Henderson become the new champion. Just six months later, the two rematched with Henderson once again getting the better of Edgar, successfully defending his title for the first time.
Four months later, looking to remain active, Henderson successfully defended his title against the budding UFC star at the time, Nate Diaz.
In April 2013, he then took on Diaz’s teammate, Gilbert Melendez, once again picking up a close split decision victory.
Khabib Nurmagomedov goes down as one of the most dominant champions of all time
After years of the lightweight title changing hands pretty regularly, Khabib Nurmagomedov competed for it at UFC 223 after it was vacated by Conor McGregor.
‘The Eagle’ was originally scheduled to take on Tony Ferguson after years of rivalry with ‘El Cucuy’ but unfortunately another freak incident caused the fight to fall through.
Khabib went on to dominate late-notice step-in, Al Iaquinta, in a controversially put-together main event, marking the beginning of his title reign.
The undefeated Russian then went on to defend his title against McGregor in what will go down as the biggest feud in combat sport’s history. Following the fight, Khabib was suspended for 9 months after he caused a post-fight brawl with members of the Irishman’s team.
During Khabib’s time off, the promotion introduced an interim title which was won by Dustin Poirier. In the unification fight at UFC 242, Nurmagomedov maintained his undefeated record.
Shockingly just over a year later, Nurmagomedov announced his retirement from the sport after a successful title defense against Justin Gaethje, equalling the record set by Penn, Edgar, and Henderson.
At UFC 311, Makhachev will hope to break the trend of lightweight champion’s only accumulating three title defenses.