Who is the Current UFC Heavyweight Champion?

Stipe's championship victory over Cormier makes him the only UFC fighter to compete against the same opponent three times in a row. With his first reign, he defended the title three consecutive times, breaking the UFC’s prior record in that division. Currently on his second reign, it looks like Miocic’s next fight will be a title defense against Francis Ngannou, a man who he has already beaten once but has only looked scary since (bar the Derrick Lewis fight.) He is already considered the UFC’s best heavyweight of all time.

When Daniel Cormier went up to face Stipe Miocic for the heavyweight belt in the summer of 2018, he was already the light heavyweight champion. When he knocked Stipe out in the first round, that added his name to a shortlist of fighters who had held titles in two divisions simultaneously, including Conor McGregor before him. At that point, DC was 14-0 in the heavyweight division and people wondered whether this whole time, he was the best heavyweight in the world fighting at a division lower. In a favor to the UFC who needed a title fight on a card, with an injured back, he defended the title against Derrick Lewis in November of 2018. After his last fight with Stipe, DC retired from the sport.

When fans talk heavyweight greats in MMA, Werdum’s name does not come up as often as it should. After all, he is the fighter who ended the reigns of both Fedor Emelianenko and Cain Velasquez by tapping them both. When he beat the latter, he unified the interim heavyweight title that he won against Mark Hunt with the real world title and was the baddest man on the planet. His next fight was against Stipe Miocic, so there’s no shame in having no title defenses there. Today, Werdum is certainly on the tail end of his career but his most recent win against a returning Alexander Gustaffson gave him a much-needed spark.

Another two-time heavyweight champion, Cain Velasquez might always be a ‘what if’ story in MMA. That’s not entirely fair to him because of all that he did actually do in the sport, but his injuries took away so much of his prime that it’s hard not to think about what could have been. Cain first won the title in October of 2010 when he beat Brock Lesnar in an insanely dominant fight that looked like a mismatch by the end of it. He lost it just over a year later in just over a minute to Junior dos Santos, only to win the rematch in December of 2012. From there, he beat Bigfoot Silva and JDS one more time to complete his two title defenses. Even if he didn’t get to prove that he was the best or greatest of all time, it’s arguable that he was the most skilled.

JDS was on a seven-fight UFC win streak when he was matched up with Cain for the UFC’s debut on Fox. He demolished the man in just over a minute in one of the performances of his career, also winning knockout of the night. Six months later, he defended the belt against Frank Mir who he defeated by TKO in round two. He eventually lost his rematch to Cain and traded wins and losses for a few years, beating current champion Stipe Miocic along the way. As of right now, Junior is on a three-fight skid and another title shot seems distant.

Due to his pro wrestling fame, Brock Lesnar was a star before he ever stepped into the octagon. He was expected to do well, but becoming champion meant that Brock was forever an over achiever in every sense of the word. He was 1-1 in the UFC when he got his title shot and to the surprise of many, he finished Randy Couture in the second round to win the title. Brock went on to beat two interim champions in Frank Mir and Shane Carwin before losing to Cain in infamous fashion at UFC 121.

Randy Couture is the UFC’s only three-time heavyweight champion and arguably the only three-time UFC champion in any one division. His first win of the title was 1997, the year it was introduced. He beat Maurice Smith in his 4th professional MMA fight to win it and when he had a contract dispute with the UFC, he was stripped of the title the next month. In his return to the company in November of 2000, he beat the late Kevin Randleman and went on to defend the title twice, both times against Pedro Rizzo.

He later lost to Josh Barnett, who was stripped of the title due to a positive drug test. He didn’t win the heavyweight title again until March of 2007 and in that gap, he won the light heavyweight title twice. His last heavyweight title win was against Tim Sylvia and before his eventual loss to Brock, he defended the title once more against Gabriel Gonzaga.

Tim Sylvia is another name that is forgotten in so many heavyweight conversations today despite what he did in those early years. When he knocked out Ricco Rodriguez at UFC 41 to win the heavyweight belt the first time, he was 15-0 as a fighter. The same year, he beat Gan McGee, but shortly afterward he was stripped of the title after failing the post-fight drug test. He didn’t win the belt back until nearly three years later when he finished Andrei Arlovski, who he’d been tapped by a year prior. His first and only title defense on this second run was the trilogy fight with Arlovski.

Newer fans might not respect Andrei Arlovski because he’s lost nine of his last 14 fights, but in his prime he was incredible. In his first fight with Tim Sylvia in the mid-2000s, Andrei Arlovski submitted the fighter with an Achilles lock and won the interim title. Just four months later, he defended the interim championship against Justin Eilers and was then promoted to the unified champion because then-champion Frank Mir was inactive. Before losing both consecutive fights to Tim Sylvia, he beat Paul Buentello for another title defense.

When Frank Mir won the title back in June of 2004, the heavyweight division had been without a champion for 8 months after Tim Sylvia tested positive for steroids. He won the vacant title and unfortunately, suffered a motorcycle accident which meant he had to sit on the sidelines for nearly two years. The UFC stripped him and the closest he’s come to the title since is winning the interim championship against Big Nog in 2008.

Ricco Rodriguez has a whopping 82 fights, of which he’s won 54. But by far the highlight of his career is when he beat Randy Couture to win the vacant UFC heavyweight championship. That win was his last in the UFC, with him losing his next two fights in the organization, but with the win over Randy, he’s cemented in UFC and MMA history forever.