Anderson Silva held the middleweight championship for 2,457 days and in that time defended the title ten times. That’s once every 245 days which isn’t bad when you consider injuries for the champion and potential challengers.
Demetrious Johnson, the current flyweight champion, has 1,353 days with the title and 8 defenses, which is an astonishing one defense every five months.
Ronda Rousey beat 6 women in 1,074 days meaning every five months she defended her title. Haters still give her crap about being “overrated”.
Jon Jones defended 8 times in 1, 501 days which translates to once every six months. Compare this to the ten fighters that made this list and you will see why these guys aren’t as great as we thought when it comes to title reigns.
Do you see a pattern here? Great champions, fighting champions like Chuck Liddell are the ones who prove their worth because they go out there to prove a point. They want to show the world they are the best at their weight class.
On the flip side…Here are, in our opinion, the top ten fighters with the worst title defense to title held time in UFC history for various reasons.
Note: We didn’t count any of the Superfight champions. We also only allowed one entry per person on this list. The list is not in order of days without defense, but rather the level of disappointment we feel in those runs as champions.
Let’s do this.
#1 Daniel Cormier
The next big thing was supposed to be Daniel Cormier and while we will admit he is a good fighter he hasn’t defended his title like fans hoped. The light heavyweight title is one of the most coveted in the company by loyal viewers and DC has only given us 1 defense in 380 days. That’s over a year and unforgivable when you consider the champs in the past and how they actively defended it.
#2 Matt Hughes second title run
For the longest time, before Georges St. Pierre, Matt Hughes was called the greatest UFC champion to ever step in to The Octagon, but on his second reign he fell short. After losing to BJ Penn in shocking fashion, Hughes would eventually regain the belt and defend it proudly…with 2 defenses in a whopping 757 days. That’s once a year when you break it down.
#3 Matt Serra
After crushing GSP in devastating fashion we expected Serra to defend his welterweight title against all comers, but the UFC did not want it that way. Realizing that their cash cow welterweight king GSP needed to be headlining PPV’s again, and knowing he would defeat Matt, they made Serra wait for a rematch, which gave us 378 days with no defenses.
#4 Anthony Pettis
This one is ridiculous. Pettis was also the next big thing in the lightweight division, except nope. After winning the belt he held it 560 days with only one defense to his credit.
#5 Dominick Cruz first run
Look up injury prone in the dictionary and it says “See Dominick Cruz”. Mr. Cruz held the bantamweight championship for 1,117 days and only defended it twice. That’s once every eighteen months…
#6 Cain Velasquez second run
When Velasquez regained his heavyweight title he managed to defend it only twice in 896 days. That’s once every 14 months! His first run was 385 days with ZERO defenses making this entry a thorough disappointment.
#7 Rampage Jackson
Another one and done here. Quinton Rampage Jackson defeated Chuck Liddell and defended the light heavyweight championship once in 406 days translating to one of the least memorable championship reigns in light heavyweight history.
#8 Sean Sherk
Not to be outdone by Jackson, lightweight champion Sean Sherk defended his title only once in 420 days. Mix that with a failed drug test and most fans of today couldn’t tell you who he was which is a shame.
#9 Rafael Dos Anjos
RDA is the current lightweight champion and he has been the champ for 450 days with a single defense to his obligatory Wikipedia entry. Should he lose to his next opponent he may go the way of champions in the past who clung to their title without defending it as long as they could.
#10 Shogun Rua
The “greatest light heavyweight in the world” in his Pride days, according to hardcore PrideFC fans, never defended his title in almost a full year and when he did he got destroyed by Jon Jones. Rua will go down as the champ who should have been more, and given us more as fans.
Do you agree? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, both in experience and number of fights, you have Christian Lee over at One Championship, who has had 5 first round finishes in the past 6 months, all at the ripe old age of 17.