This weekend Brock Lesnar pretty much cemented his status as the top heavyweight inside the UFC. As always Dana White was asked about Fedor Emelianenko during the post fight press conference. To everyone’s surprise the UFC president responded in a way that makes the Lesnar vs. Emelianenko match up seem like an actual possibility. If this fight were to take place, the linear UFC Heavyweight Championship would be unified with the actual belt for the first time.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane…
Ken Shamrock won the first incarnation of the crown by defeating Dan Severn to become the first ever UFC Superfight champion. Shamrock eventually lost the title to Severn, who in turn lost to Mark Coleman in a match to determine the first UFC Heavyweight champion. From there, it is a long winding road that ends with Fedor Emelianenko.
The Linear UFC Heavyweight Championship Title History
Ken Shamrock defeated Dan Severn 7/14/1995 (UFC)
-defended against Oleg Taktarov (draw) 9/8/1995 (UFC)
-defended against Katsuomi Inagaki 12/14/1995 (Pancrase)
-defended against Yoshiki Takahashi 1/28/1996 (Pancrase)
-defended again Kimo Leopoldo 2/16/1996 (UFC)
Dan Severn defeated Ken Shamrock 5/17/1996 (UFC)
-defended against Doug Murphy 7/7/1996 (VTJ)
-defended against Dennis Reed 9/1/1996 (BATB)
-defended against Mario Neto 10/22/1996 (UVF)
-defended against Mitsuhiro Matsunaga 11/17/1996 (U-Japan)
-defended against Steven Goss 11/23/1996 (EC)
Mark Coleman defeated Dan Severn 2/7/1997 (UFC)
Maurice Smith defeated Mark Coleman 7/27/1997 (UFC)
-defended against Tank Abbott 10/17/1997 (UFC)
Randy Couture defeated Maurice Smith 12/21/1997 (UFC)
Enson Inoue defeated Randy Couture 10/25/1998 (VTJ)
-defended against Soichi Nishida 4/29/1999 (PRIDE)
Mark Kerr defeated Enson Inoue 1/30/2000 (PRIDE)
Kazuyuki Fujita defeated Mark Kerr 3/1/2000 (PRIDE)
Mark Coleman defeated Kazuyuki Fujita 5/1/2000 (PRIDE)
-defended against Igor Vovchanchyn 5/1/2000 (PRIDE)
-defended against Allan Goes 3/25/2001 (PRIDE)
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira defeated Mark Coleman 9/24/2001 (PRIDE)
-defended against Enson Inoue 2/24/2002 (PRIDE)
-defended against Sanae Kikuta 8/8/2002 (UFO)
-defended against Bob Sapp 8/28/2002 (PRIDE)
-defended against Semmy Schilt 11/24/2002 (PRIDE)
-defended against Dan Henderson 12/23/2002 (PRIDE)
Fedor Emelianenko defeated Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (PRIDE)
-18 straight defenses by Fedor Emelianenko
Keeping track of linear championships is much more common in boxing since their alphabet soup has created multiple champions and multiple title histories. For the most part MMA titles have been simple, so there has been no need. However, it is fitting that today’s most dominate and number ranked champion get some recognition as the linear champion of one of the sport’s oldest titles. Fedor in the UFC would of course be a treat, but it will be even sweeter as another title unification bout.