The lightweight title was on the line June 1 in the UFC 302 main event, and dominant champion Islam Makhachev (26-1 MMA, 15-1 UFC) survived some testy moments against former interim champ Dustin Poirier (30-9 MMA, 22-8 UFC) for his third title defense.
Makhachev tied the UFC record for most lightweight title defenses. Take a look at a chronological history of the UFC lightweight belt.
Jens Pulver
Date: Feb. 23, 2001
Event: UFC 30
Opponent: Caol Uno
Total reign: 393 days
Title defenses: Dennis Hallman (UFC 33), B.J. Penn (UFC 35)
Notes: Pulver was the UFC’s first lightweight champion. After two title defenses in less than a year, he was stripped of the belt in March 2002 after he left the promotion in a contract dispute. Pulver was inducted into the Pioneer Wing of the UFC Hall of Fame in 2023.
Sean Sherk
Date: Oct. 14, 2006
Event: UFC 64
Opponent: Kenny Florian
Total reign: 420 days
Title defenses: Hermes Franca (UFC 73)
Notes: The title remained vacant for years after Pulver left the UFC in part thanks to a draw in the final of a four-man tournament for the belt in 2003. Sherk was stripped of the title in December 2007 after a positive steroid test result.
B.J. Penn
Date: Jan. 19, 2008
Event: UFC 80
Opponent: Joe Stevenson
Total reign: 812 days
Title defenses: Sean Sherk (UFC 84), Kenny Florian (UFC 101), Diego Sanchez (UFC 107)
Notes: Penn, a member of the 2015 UFC Hall of Fame class, remains the standard bearer for lightweights. He has more lightweight title fights than anyone in UFC history. He went on to win the welterweight title after his lightweight reign.
Frankie Edgar
Date: April 10, 2010
Event: UFC 112
Opponent: B.J. Penn
Total reign: 687 days
Title defenses: B.J. Penn (UFC 118), Gray Maynard (draw at UFC 125; win at UFC 136)
Notes: Edgar ended Penn’s lengthy reign, then beat him again in a rematch before two fights with Maynard. Edgar, an 11-time bonus winner, will be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame next month.
Benson Henderson
Date: Feb. 26, 2012
Event: UFC 144
Opponent: Frankie Edgar
Total reign: 552 days
Title defenses: Frankie Edgar (UFC 150), Nate Diaz (UFC on FOX 5), Gilbert Melendez (UFC on FOX 7)
Notes: Henderson, a former WEC lightweight champion, picked up another piece of hardware with an upset of Edgar to end his reign. Along with Khabib Nurmagomedov and Edgar, he’s tied at the top for most lightweight title defenses with three.
Anthony Pettis
Date: Aug. 31, 2013
Event: UFC 164
Opponent: Benson Henderson
Total reign: 560 days
Title defenses: Gilbert Melendez (UFC 181)
Notes: Pettis stopped Henderson’s lengthy title reign, which included a division-best three successful defenses. Pettis’ win over Henderson was his second in a title fight in less than two years. He also beat him to win the WEC title in that promotion’s final event in 2010.
Rafael dos Anjos
Date: March 14, 2015
Event: UFC 185
Opponent: Anthony Pettis
Total reign: 481 days
Title defenses: Donald Cerrone
Notes: Dos Anjos became the first non-American to win the UFC’s lightweight title when he upset “Showtime” during Pettis’ Wheaties box cover days. RDA turned in a quick first-round finish of “Cowboy” Cerrone for his lone title defense.
Eddie Alvarez
Date: July 7, 2016
Event: UFC Fight Night 90
Opponent: Rafael dos Anjos
Total reign: 128 days
Title defenses: None
Notes: Alvarez’s reign as champion is the shortest in the division’s history and one of the shortest in UFC history, regardless of weight class. The former Bellator lightweight champ won the belt in just his fourth UFC fight.
Conor McGregor
Date: Nov. 12, 2016
Event: UFC 205
Opponent: Eddie Alvarez
Total reign: 511 days
Title defenses: None
Notes: McGregor famously became the first fighter in UFC history to hold two titles at the same time when he took out Alvarez to add the lightweight title to his featherweight belt. But then he infamously never defended either and was stripped of both.
Tony Ferguson (interim)
Date: Oct. 7, 2017
Event: UFC 216
Opponent: Kevin Lee
Notes: Ferguson won an interim title while Conor McGregor took a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather. He later was stripped of the interim belt due to injury.
Khabib Nurmagomedov
Date: April 7, 2018
Event: UFC 223
Opponent: Al Iaquinta
Total reign: 1,077 days
Title defenses: Conor McGregor (UFC 229), Dustin Poirier (UFC 242), Justin Gaethje (UFC 254)
Notes: Nurmagomedov was supposed to fight Tony Ferguson, who pulled out. Then-featherweight champ Max Holloway stepped in, but was pulled on weigh-in day. Because of Conor McGregor’s bus incident two days prior, multiple fighters were in the wind. Anthony Pettis needed a new opponent, but was over weight. Paul Felder was rejected by the New York commission. So instead, Iaquinta fought Nurmagomedov instead of Felder for what was in essence a vacant title – though McGregor hadn’t been stripped for inactivity yet.
Dustin Poirier (interim)
Date: April 13, 2019
Event: UFC 236
Opponent: Max Holloway
Notes: When Khabib Nurmagomedov was suspended for nine months for his part in the UFC 229 post-fight brawl with Conor McGregor, Poirier beat then-featherweight champion Holloway to win the vacant title. He lost to Nurmagomedov later that year in a unification fight.
Justin Gaethje (interim)
Date: May 9, 2020
Event: UFC 249
Opponent: Tony Ferguson
Notes: When Khabib Nurmagomedov couldn’t leave Russia due to air travel restrictions early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Gaethje stepped in on short notice and dominated Ferguson to win the interim belt. He lost a title unification fight later that year to Nurmagomedov, who retired after the bout – ultimately leaving the belt vacant yet again.
Charles Oliveira
Date: May 15, 2021
Event: UFC 262
Opponent: Michael Chandler
Total reign: 357 days
Title defenses: Dustin Poirier (UFC 269)
Notes: Oliveira was stripped of the title May 2, 2022, when he missed weight for a title defense against Justin Gaethje. Oliveira won the fight, but could not win the belt back and it became vacant.
Islam Makhachev
Date: Oct. 22, 2022
Event: UFC 280
Opponent: Charles Oliveira
Total reign: Incumbent
Title defenses: Alexander Volkanovski (UFC 284), Volkanovski (UFC 294), Dustin Poirier (UFC 302)
Notes: Makhachev beat Oliveira to win the belt Oliveira had to vacate for missing weight. Then he stopped back-to-back attempts by Volkanovski to become a two-division champion. He got a solid test against Dustin Poirier, despite Makhachev as a huge 6-1 favorite, but he finished Poirier with a fifth-round D’Arce choke. The longtime Khabib Nurmagomedov training partner and close family friend is regarded as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC lightweight title history: Jens Pulver, Islam Makhachev, Khabib, Conor and more
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