5 Best UFC Light-Heavyweight Champions in History
The UFC Light-Heavyweight Championship, as it is known today, actually originated as the Middleweight title way back in December of 1997 at the inaugural UFC Japan event.
The Championship was the second after the Heavyweight title to be added to UFC cards following outside political pressure on the organisation to add stricter rules and regulations to its events.
Weight classes were a small part of the revolution and the new title was contested for the first time between Frank Shamrock and Kevin Jackson as they vied to become the first ever Light-Heavyweight Champion in the history of UFC.
Shamrock was victorious that night and embarked on a long reign as Champion.
The title was renamed in May 2001 when it ceased to be the Middleweight Championship and became the Light-Heavyweight title. A brand new Middleweight title was added to UFC events the following September with a lighter weight limit. Dave Menne was the very first Middleweight Championship under the new lineage.
There have been 12 different Champions in the 21 year history of the Light-Heavyweight title with only one man, "The Natural" Randy Couture winning the belt more than once.
For a period in the mid 2000's the Light-Heavyweight Championship was actually a much bigger draw than the Heavyweight title, with battles between Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock, Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture, and Liddell and Jeremy Horn all drawing in excess of 100,000 buys on pay per view.
In 2018, the Light-Heavyweight Championship remains a hugely important title in UFC as it continues to main event pay per view events and draw well on pay per view.
The following slideshow sees SK revisit the five finest Light-Heavyweight Champions in UFC history.
#5 Daniel Cormier
One Reign
Three Defences
Current Light-Heavyweight Champion, Daniel Cormier began his long reign as Champion back in 2015 when he defeated Anthony Johnson in a match for the vacant title after Champion Jon Jones was stripped of the belt due to a hit and run controversy.
Cormier forced Johnson to submit to become the new Champion at UFC 187. The Champion has defended his title successfully on three different occasions since then, in a re-match with Johnson, and also versus top contenders Alexander Gustafsson and Volkan Oezdemir.
However, Cormier's reign hasn't all been plain sailing. He competed against former title holder, Jones at UFC 214 with the title on the line, and was knocked out decisively by a head kick and punches.
The decision was later overturned when the troublesome Jones failed a drug test and the result of the bout was made a No Contest and the title was returned to Cormier.
Despite his difficulty beating Jones and his not having found a way to overcome his great Light-Heavyweight rival in two separate fights, Cormier should still be regarded as one of the finest Champions in the history of the title
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