So UFC has 600+ fighters under contract at the moment. No clue how many thousands upon thousands have been signed to the promotion since the creation of the first HW title in 97. A lot of thousands.
Anyway, 107 times the undisputed men’s titles have been won and they are defended on average 1.6 times.
Once you remove the eight champs who had the most defenses in each weight class from the equation then the pack of other 99 title wins has only averaged 1.0 title defenses per title win.
The eight fighters to win and then have the most defenses of the title in each weight class before losing it averaged 7 title defenses before losing it in the cage or being stripped of it.
I see no chance for the current FLW, WW, MW and LHW champs to break the title defense records for their weight classes but O’Malley has a shot, Volk is only 3 wins away from breaking Aldo’s record and Makhachev is two wins away from holding the LW record. Aspinall could have a good shot to break Stipe’s record but they have to stop letting Jones and Stipe from holding the division up for him to get the undisputed belt first.
Anyway, its a damn shame we didn’t get to see how many defenses Johnson could have had.
As it stands now, I expect Makhachev and Aspinall to hold the records for their divisions soon and likely Volk as well if he does not head back to LW and mess with his chances.
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I would be shocked if anyone ever broke DJ’s, GSP’s, Anderson’s, or JBJ’s records for title reigns as champs in their respective divisions
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Case in point; Sean Strickland. He looked like an absolute world beater against Izzy. Izzy was being compared to Anderson, and Strickland made him look like an amateur. Then in his first title defense, Strickland loses a close fight
And Poatan knocked Strickland like it was walk in a park 
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55 fighters (men’s MMA) have managed to win and defend a UFC title since 1997. Thats it.
8 men have been able to win belts at two weights in the UFC.
DC became the first fighter to win and defend belts in two weight classes in 2018. Cejudo followed in 2019.
Randy, Penn, Jones and GSP defended at one weight class and Conor and Pereira have no defenses though Pereira just got here.
I think thats what makes Jones/UFC’s attempt to let Jones try to defend the HW title vs a fighter who has not won a fight in four years so bad…
Fighters like Randy would face active killers running through guys when they tried to win and defend titles in different weight classes. When Volk just tried to win and then defend the LW title he went after one of the greatest LW’s ever who is right in his prime.
Imagine if Volk won the LW title and then demanded to defend vs Eddie Alvarez instead of Makhachev, Charles or Gaethje.
How UFC has handled things with the Jones situation the past four years is just gross.