What is an Interim Champion? A Guide to the Concept in the UFC

Interim championships initially appeared in scenarios where the current champion of any given division was forced to sit out for a long time, likely due to an injury. The first ever UFC Interim Champion was Randy Couture, who beat Chuck Liddell at UFC 43 in 2003 and that interim title bout was set because then-champion Tito Ortiz was out for an extended period of time. Historically, if the interim champion couldn’t attempt to unify the belts by fighting the UFC champion anytime soon, they’d go on to truly be a placeholder champion in the division, defending the belt. A great example of this is Renan Barão, who won the interim belt when Dominick Cruz was forced out of action. He defended it twice before being promoted to the undisputed champion.

This was the justification for most interim title fights until this modern era of the UFC. Nowadays, the UFC believes that title fights add value to PPV events and so there’s some extra incentive for adding extra belts into the mix when possible. It only takes a champion being out for a shorter amount of time, or fighting in another weight class, for an interim championship fight to be booked today. It’s looked at these days as more of a #1 contender belt than anything and even if you’ve been watching the UFC for the best part of a decade, you’ll struggle to remember a time when this hasn’t been the case.

• Date of championship won: June 6^th, 2003.
• Why they’re notable: Randy Couture was the first ever UFC Interim Champion.

• Date of championship won: February 5^th, 2005.
• Why they’re notable: Andrei Arlovski was the first UFC Interim Champion to be promoted to undisputed champ without a title unification fight.

• Date of championship won: April 13^th, 2019.
• Why they’re notable: In the current era where title defences determine how many gems are on your UFC belt, Israel Adesanya has made the case that interim champions who win their title unification bouts should have those fights count as title defences, since they’re defending the interim belt which eventually became the unified belt.

• Date of championship won: July 21^st, 2012.
• Why they’re notable: Renan Barão is the only UFC Interim Champion to have defended the interim championship multiple times; once against Michael McDonald and once against Eddie Wineland. He was later promoted to the undisputed champion and defended that belt once more, against Urijah Faber. 

• Date of championship won: April 23^rd, 2016.
• Why they’re notable: Jon Jones was the first fighter ever to be stripped of a UFC Interim Championship, with Tony Ferguson and Colby Covington following him a few years later. He was stripped due to a failed drug test.