A Definitive List of UFC Double Champions Across Multiple Weight Classes

• Bantamweight title: Defeated Miesha Tate at UFC 200, held from July 9th 2016 to December 11th 2021
• Featherweight title: Defeated Cris Cyborg at UFC 214, held from July 29th 2017 to June 20th 2023

Nunes won the Bantamweight championship at UFC 200 when she choked out Miesha Tate in the first round. She defended it three times before taking the challenge at Featherweight against Cris Cyborg, who she beat in the first round. At UFC 250, she defended her Featherweight title against Felicia Spencer, who she outclassed over the distance.

Amanda is special amongst the names on this list because she has been the only double champion to defend her titles while still holding them both. That’s a kind of dominance we haven’t seen in any of the men’s divisions. Dominance is really the only word to describe Amanda’s entire career. Up to this point, she has beaten every single woman to have ever held the UFC Bantamweight title and both the women who held the UFC Featherweight title. She finished former 135lb champions Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate, and Holly Holm, all in the first round. When they met in 2018, Cris Cyborg hadn’t lost a fight since 2005. It took Amanda all of 51 seconds to dismantle her. Amanda also boasts not one but two wins over the current Women’s Flyweight champion, Valentina Shevchenko. There’s really no reason to debate that Amanda Nunes is the greatest women’s fighter in MMA history, and it will be many years before anyone comes close.

• Featherweight title: Defeated José Aldo at UFC 194, held from December 12th 2015 to November 26th 2016
• Lightweight title: Defeated Eddie Alvarez at UFC 2015, held from November 12th 2016 to April 7th 2018

The man who coined the term ‘Champ Champ,’ Conor McGregor, as we mentioned earlier, was the first fighter to ever hold UFC belts in two weight divisions at the same time.

Conor’s run at Featherweight was something you’ll never forget if you’re lucky enough to have witnessed it in real-time. He came into the UFC already feeling like a superstar, already a double champion in his former promotion, Cage Warriors. Perhaps we should have been privy to what he was going to attempt all along.

Fight after fight, he would be brash in his attitude leading up to a fight, making bold predictions about what he was going to do to his opponent, then he would do it. He had one of the quickest rises to the top in MMA history. He debuted in the UFC in April of 2013, and just two years and five wins later, he had a fight scheduled with José Aldo, a man who was on an 18-fight win streak. Aldo pulled out, and instead, Conor fought Chad Mendes on short notice. It was supposed to be a nightmare matchup for him, a high-level wrestler with good striking who had gone 5 rounds with Aldo in the "Fight of the Year" the year prior. All of that made no difference to McGregor, who finished Mendes in the second round.

Conor eventually fought Aldo in December of 2015, if a fight is what you even call what happened. The man who was unbeaten in 13 years lost the title in just 13 seconds. We didn’t know it at the time, but it was the last time we’d ever see Conor at 145lb pounds. Almost immediately, he was scheduled to fight then-Lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos. Once again, a Brazilian champion got injured and pulled out on Conor, which led to the famous pair of Nate Diaz fights. Legendary in their own right, they were but a detour for the Irishman. By the time Conor actually fought at Lightweight, Eddie Alvarez was the champion, and Conor made him look like an amateur fighter, putting on the performance of a lifetime at UFC 205 to become the promotion’s first dual-champion.

• Light Heavyweight: Defeated Anthony Johnson at UFC 187, held from May 23rd 2015 to December 28th 2018
• Heavyweight: Defeated Stipe Miocic at UFC 226, held from July 7th 2018 to August 17th 2019

When DC came over to the UFC from Strikeforce, it was tough to know what we could expect from him. He was a former Olympian that had his first fight at 30-years-old and was clearly talented, but at 11-0, despite an incredible showing in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, fans were waiting to see what he would look like in the UFC.

Of course, after beating Frank Mir and Roy Nelson, he moved down to 205lbs because he refused even to consider the notion of fighting his friend and teammate Cain Velasquez, who was the Heavyweight champion at the time. If there was any doubt about how he would look at Light Heavyweight, he did away with it with his first two performances there. Cormier finished Patrick Cummins early in the first round and threw Dan Henderson around like he owed him money. At 15-0, it was time to see what he could do against Jon Jones.

Jones beat Cormier fairly handily over five rounds, taking down the former Olympian multiple times in the process, and it seemed the rivalry was done for good. Although he was unbeaten in MMA until that point, one of Jones’ many losses outside the cage came after that fight. He was stripped of the title three months later after his infamous hit and run, and suddenly, the UFC needed a new champion at 205lbs. It only made sense that DC would step up to fight Anthony Johnson.

He won the belt that night and went on to defend it against Alexander Gustaffson and Rumble before Jones made his way back to their rematch. Jones finished him the second time around, but the fight was overturned to a no-contest after Jones tested positive for a banned substance. Cormier was once again champion, although he wouldn’t feel like it again until he got another win under his belt, which he did at UFC 220 against Volkan Oezdemir.

With Cain out of the title picture at Heavyweight now, Cormier felt it was time to go back up to his original weight division to try to become a double champion. Poetically, almost a year to the date of the KO loss to Jon Jones, DC finished Stipe Miocic in the first round to become a two-weight champion. It was the stuff of dreams.

• Flyweight: Defeated Demetrious Johnson at UFC 227, held from August 4th 2018 to February 29th 2020
• Bantamweight: Defeated Marlon Moraes at UFC 238, held from June 8th 2019 to May 24th 2020

Both of Henry Cejudo’s title wins come after he reinvented himself in 2017. After winning three fights in the UFC in 2015, he lost a pair of fights in 2016. The first was to Demetrious Johnson, who stopped him in the first round. The second was to Joseph Benavidez, who won a split decision against him. These were two massive steps back for Cejudo at Flyweight, and he needed to make a change.

He took 9 months off before returning against Wilson Reis in September of 2017. He came out with a wider stance and looked far more polished than we’d seen before, winning the Performance of the Night bonus against Reis. Just three months later, he met Sergio Pettis, who he won a unanimous decision against. In a division suffering from the dominant reign of DJ, those two wins were enough to earn him another title shot.

When Cejudo and Johnson met for the second time, Cejudo did enough to take the fight on two judges’ scorecards, bringing an end to DJ’s 13-0 win streak. Next, he wanted to do what DJ never would and fight another UFC champion. 135lb king T.J. Dillashaw dropped down from Bantamweight in his own attempt to become a double champion, but he was humbled in just 32 seconds. Now, it was time for Cejudo to make his own attempt at the same feat. After their fight, Dillashaw tested positive for a banned substance, and as a result, the UFC Bantamweight Championship was vacant. Henry stepped up to fight Marlon Moraes in a star-making performance where he had to persevere beyond belief through a leg injury. He TKO’d Moraes in round three to add the UFC’s Bantamweight title to his collection of gold.

• Light Heavyweight: Defeated Maurício Rua at UFC 128, held from March 19th 2011 to April 28th 2015
• Heavyweight: Defeated Cyril Gane at UFC 285, held from March 4th 2023 to now

Jonny Bones Jones started his career at Light Heavyweight, where it took him 7 fights to earn a title shot – one where he stepped in for his teammate and future foe Rashad Evans on short notice. At just 23-years-old, going up against Mauricio Rua was a tough task; although you’d never know it from how Jones made it look. He opened the fight in flashy fashion, showing that he wasn’t going to cower to the moment. 3 rounds in, he stopped Shogun with punches and knees to become the youngest UFC champion of all time.

From then on, he went on a tear and one of the greatest runs we’ve ever seen in the sport, coming out victorious over legends like Daniel Cormier, Vitor Belfort and Lyoto Machida. He ended up vacating the title after a close fight with Dominick Reyes, announcing that he intended to move up to heavyweight. Interestingly, he was publicly pondering a move up to heavyweight for his entire run and likely could have become the first ever double-champion years before Conor McGregor even attempted it.

It took him more than a decade to finally move up to heavyweight and contest for gold but when he did so, he did so in the fashion that made fans wonder if he was right to wait all along. Jones fought Cyril Gane in March to win the vacant title in just a few minutes, putting the Frenchman in a guillotine. With that, he added his name to the shortlist of fighters who have won weight class titles in two divisions.

• Welterweight: Defeated Matt Hughes at UFC 65, held from November 18th 2006 to April 7th 2007
• Middleweight: Defeated Michael Bisping at UFC 217, held from November 4th 2017 to December 7th 2017

It took GSP three separate title fights to truly become the fighter he was destined to be. In his first shot, he lost to Matt Hughes who tapped him with 1 second left in the 1st round. Over the next few years, he worked his way up to another title shot, besting the likes of Frank Trigg and B.J. Penn to get a chance to even the score with Matt Hughes. He did just that, beating Hughes in even quicker fashion than Hughes beat him to finally become the Welterweight Champion.

Unfortunately, his first defense was up against another man by the name of Matt who beat GSP in one of the biggest upsets in the sport’s history. Georges tapped to strikes in the first round and Serra had done the unthinkable.

This time, it took GSP just two more fights to earn his way back to interim gold, settling the score with Matt Hughes in the meantime. He ended up unifying the title against Serra and going on what we know today to be one of the more memorable streaks in MMA history, proving to be no worse than the 3^rd best fighter of all time.

Following a shockingly close fight against Johnny Hendricks, St-Pierre revealed that he was stepping away from the sport for the foreseeable future to take some time for himself. The 170lb title was vacated. The next time he would return was 4 years later against Michael Bisping at middleweight, where he put Bisping to sleep to win his second weight class title in his final MMA fight.

• Lightweight: Defeated Joe Stevenson at UFC 80, held from January 19th 2008 to April 10th 2010
• Welterweight: Defeated Matt Hughes at UFC 46, held from January 31st 2004 to May 17th 2004

To newer fans, B.J. Penn might just be the guy who went 1-9-1 in his last eleven fights in the UFC, but it’s truly hard to overstate just how unbeatable he looked in his prime. There’s a reason that Anderson Silva calls B.J. the best fighter he’s ever seen.

Incredibly, despite starting out his career at lightweight in 2001 and getting two separate title shots there, the Hawaiian’s first taste of UFC gold came at welterweight in 2004 when he beat Matt Hughes by submission in the 1^st round. Unfortunately, a contract dispute meant that he would leave without ever getting the chance to defend it.

After a slew of fights in K-1, he lost his comeback fights in the UFC at welterweight, which had him move back down to 155lbs. There, he avenged his loss to Jens Pulver and earned a title fight against Joe Stevenson to win the vacant lightweight title, making him a two-weight world champion.

• Light Heavyweight: Defeated Chuck Liddel at UFC 43, held from June 6th 2003 to January 31st 2004
• Heavyweight: Defeated Maurice Smith at UFC 14, held from December 21st 1997 to January 1998

As we outlined in our article about the history of the UFC Heavyweight Championship, Randy Couture holds a record for being a 3-time champion in the division, beating Maurice Smith in 1997, Kevin Randleman in 2000 and Tim Sylvia in 2007.

Between the latter two heavyweight title wins, Couture actually had another title attempt against Ricco Rodriguez that he lost. That loss saw him make a change in his career, going down to light heavyweight where he won the interim title against Chuck Liddell in his debut and unifying it against Tito Ortiz just 3 months later. With that win, he became the first fighter to ever win gold in two different weight divisions.

What might surprise you even further is that along with 3 separate UFC Heavyweight Championship wins, Couture also has 2 separate Light Heavyweight Championship wins. His first was the aforementioned one and his second came against Vitor Belfort at UFC 49.

• Middleweight: Defeated Israel Adesanya at UFC 281, held from November 12th 2022 to April 8th 2023
• Light Heavyweight: Defeated Jiří Procházka at UFC 295, held from November 11th 2023 to now

Of all of the fighters on this list, Alex Pereira had his two weight class wins the earliest in his career. Poatan won his first UFC title in his eighth MMA fight and his second UFC title in his eleventh.

When he first arrived in the UFC, most doubted he'd ever even make it to a title fight at all, unless he were fast tracked. Though he's always been an incredible kickboxer, fans were skeptical about how it's translate into the highest level of MMA. In his fourth UFC fight, Poatan met former two-time foe Israel Adesanya at Madison Square Garden and stopped him late in the fight, after Israel essentially coasted through the earlier portion.

Israel would finally get his revenge and make the record 1-3 between them, with Alex dropping the title in April of '23. The cut to middleweight was proving too much for him, so he announced a move to light heavyweight and got a title fight against former champion Jiří Procházka at UFC 295. The pair met in a ferocious clash which Alex walked out of a champion in just the second round. It made him a two-weight UFC champion with less than a dozen pro MMA bouts to his name.