The interim heavyweight title will be on the line Saturday in the UFC 304 co-main event when Tom Aspinall (14-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC) puts the belt up in a rematch with Curtis Blaydes (18-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC).
The heavyweight division is at a logjam at the top while it waits for champion Jon Jones to finally defend the title against former champ Stipe Miocic. That lengthy delay resulted in the rare occurrence of an interim champ defending that title instead of having a unification bout next. But such is the history of one of the UFC’s most interesting divisions. Take a look at a chronological history of the UFC heavyweight belt.
Mark Coleman
Date: Feb. 7, 1997
Event: UFC 12
Opponent: Dan Severn
Total reign: 170 days
Title defenses: None
Maurice Smith
Date: July 27, 1997
Event: UFC 14
Opponent: Mark Coleman
Total reign: 147 days
Title defenses: Tank Abbott
Randy Couture
Date: Dec. 21, 1997
Event: UFC Japan
Opponent: Maurice Smith
Total reign: N/A
Title defenses: None
Notes: Couture was stripped of the title in January 1998 and left the promotion in a contract dispute.
Bas Rutten
Date: May 7, 1999
Event: UFC 20
Opponent: Kevin Randleman
Total reign: 34 days
Title defenses: None
Notes: Rutten won the title left vacant by Randy Couture. But he quickly vacated the belt when he dropped to light heavyweight, then retired.
Kevin Randleman
Date: Nov. 19, 1999
Event: UFC 23
Opponent: pete Williams
Total reign: 364 days
Title defenses: Pedro Rizzo
Randy Couture
Date: Nov. 17, 2000
Event: UFC 28
Opponent: Kevin Randleman
Total reign: 490 days
Title defenses: Pedro Rizzo (twice)
Notes: Couture returned to the promotion after a contract dispute and recaptured the title he held three years prior. He also went into the history books as the UFC’s first repeat heavyweight champion.
Josh Barnett
Date: March 22, 2002
Event: UFC 36
Opponent: Randy Couture
Total reign: 126 days
Title defenses: None
Notes: Barnett was stripped of the title in July 2002 after he tested positive for steroids.
Ricco Rodriguez
Date: Sept. 27, 2002
Event: UFC 39
Opponent: Randy Couture
Total reign: 154 days
Title defenses: None
Notes: Rodriguez won the belt vacated by Josh Barnett when he was stripped for a positive steroid test.
Tim Sylvia
Date: Feb. 28, 2003
Event: UFC 41
Opponent: Ricco Rodriguez
Total reign: 229 days
Title defenses: Gan McGee
Notes: Sylvia was stripped of the title in October 2003 after he tested positive for steroids.
Frank Mir
Date: June 19, 2004
Event: UFC 48
Opponent: Tim Sylvia
Total reign: 419 days
Title defenses: None
Notes: Mir’s title win is famous because he broke Sylvia’s arm. But Mir was in a motorcycle accident post-title and was on the shelf long enough to have his belt stripped in August 2005.
Andrei Arlovski (interim, then undisputed)
Date: Feb. 5, 2005
Event: UFC 51
Opponent: Tim Sylvia
Total reign: 246 days
Title defenses: Justin Eilers, Paul Buentello
Notes: Arlovski beat Sylvia, who previously was stripped for steroids, for an interim belt while Frank Mir was out with injuries from a motorcycle crash. After one defense as interim champ, Arlovski was promoted to undisputed titleholder.
Tim Sylvia
Date: April 15, 2006
Event: UFC 59
Opponent: Andrei Arlovski
Total reign: 322 days
Title defenses: Andrei Arlovski, Jeff Monson
Notes: Sylvia won the title for a second time when he beat Arlovski in a rematch. He beat him again three months later to run his record to 2-1 in their trilogy.
Randy Couture
Date: March 3, 2007
Event: UFC 68
Opponent: Tim Sylvia
Total reign: 623 days
Title defenses: Gabriel Gonzaga
Notes: In one of the most dramatic moments in UFC history, Couture started his third reign as champion and became the first fighter in UFC history to win titles in two weight classes.
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (interim)
Date: Feb. 2, 2008
Event: UFC 81
Opponent: Tim Sylvia
Title defenses: None
Notes: Nogueira won an interim belt while Randy Couture was in a contract dispute with the UFC.
Brock Lesnar
Date: Nov. 15, 2008
Event: UFC 91
Opponent: Randy Couture
Total reign: 707 days
Title defenses: Frank Mir, Shane Carwin
Notes: Lesnar at the time became the faster fighter to a UFC title.
Frank Mir (interim)
Date: Dec. 27, 2008
Event: UFC 92
Opponent: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Title defenses: None
Notes: Mir became interim champ by beating an interim champ. Then he lost a unification fight to Brock Lesmar.
Shane Carwin (interim)
Date: March 27, 2010
Event: UFC 111
Opponent: Frank Mir
Title defenses: None
Notes: Carwin became interim champ by beating an interim champ. Then he lost a unification fight to Brock Lesmar.
Cain Velasquez
Date: Oct. 13, 2010
Event: UFC 121
Opponent: Brock Lesnar
Total reign: 385 days
Title defenses: None
Notes: Velasquez lost the belt in his first attempted defense.
Junior Dos Santos
Date: Nov. 12, 2011
Event: UFC on FOX 1
Opponent: Cain Velasquez
Total reign: 413 days
Title defenses: Frank Mir
Notes: JDS needed just 64 seconds to upset Velasquez to win the title.
Cain Velasquez
Date: Dec. 29, 2012
Event: UFC 155
Opponent: Junior Dos Santos
Total reign: 896 days
Title defenses: Antonio Silva, Junior Dos Santos
Notes: Velasquez became a two-time champion and avenged his earlier loss to JDS.
Fabricio Werdum (interim, then undisputed)
Date: Nov. 15, 2014
Event: UFC 180
Opponent: Mark Hunt, Cain Velasquez
Total reign: 336 days
Title defenses: None
Notes: Werdum beat Hunt for an interim title while Velasquez was sidelined, then beat Velasquez to unify the belts at UFC 188.
Stipe Miocic
Date: May 14, 2016
Event: UFC 198
Opponent: Fabricio Werdum
Total reign: 784 days
Title defenses: Alistair Overeem, Junior Dos Santos, Francis Ngannou
Notes: Regarded as the greatest heavyweight of all time by virtue of more successive UFC title defenses than anyone else.
Daniel Cormier
Date: July 7, 2018
Event: UFC 226
Opponent: Stipe Miocic
Total reign: 406 days
Title defenses: Derrick Lewis
Notes: Light heavyweight champ Cormier became the second UFC fighter to hold two titles simultaneously.
Stipe Miocic
Date: Aug. 17, 2019
Event: UFC 241
Opponent: Daniel Cormier
Total reign: 588 days
Title defenses: Daniel Cormier
Notes: Miocic recaptured the title from Cormier in a rematch, then beat him in a trilogy fight a year later.
Francis Ngannou
Date: March 27, 2021
Event: UFC 260
Opponent: Stipe Miocic
Total reign: 659 days
Title defenses: Ciryl Gane
Notes: Ngannou became the first fighter from Africa to win a UFC heavyweight title. His win over Gane was a title unification bout. He was stripped of the title in January 2023 after a contract dispute.
Ciryl Gane (interim)
Date: Aug. 7, 2021
Event: UFC 265
Opponent: Derrick Lewis
Title defenses: None
Notes: Lost to Francis Ngannou in a title unification bout.
Jon Jones
Date: March 4, 2023
Event: UFC 285
Opponent: Ciryl Gane
Total reign: Incumbent
Title defenses: None
Notes: Beat Gane for the title vacated when Ngannou left in a contract dispute.
Tom Aspinall (interim)
Date: Nov. 11, 2023
Event: UFC 295
Opponent: Sergei Pavlovich
Total reign: Incumbent
Title defenses: None
Notes: Won an interim title after Jones went on the shelf with surgery.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC heavyweight title history: Mark Coleman, Stipe Miocic, Daniel Cormier and more
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