5 reasons why it's time for the UFC to put champ vs. champ fights on ice
This past weekend at UFC 299, Sean O’Malley successfully defended his bantamweight title against Marlon Vera. It was a masterful performance from ‘Sugar’, with many observers labeling it one of the best title defenses in octagon history.
The next top contender to the bantamweight division appears to be set. Merab Dvalishvili has won 10 straight bouts in the UFC, including wins over Jose Aldo, Henry Cejudo and Petr Yan.
However, after this weekend’s bout, O’Malley instead suggested that his next fight ought to be against newly crowned featherweight champion Ilia Topuria in a champ vs. champ fight instead.
This should not have come as a surprise given the current trend within the UFC of titleholders demanding fights against champions in other weight classes.
Even Topuria has suggested that he could move up to 155 pounds to challenge lightweight champ Islam Makhachev, despite only having won his own title in February.
The history of champ vs. champ fights in the octagon dates back to 2009, when lightweight titleholder B.J. Penn stepped up to challenge welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre. However, it was Conor McGregor’s eventually successful quest to become a double champion in 2016 that really opened the floodgates.
Since ‘The Notorious’ downed Eddie Alvarez to claim the lightweight crown to go with his featherweight title, the UFC has seen no fewer than six champ vs. champ bouts, with varying results
But do these so-called superfights really benefit anyone? Or is it time for the promotion to finally move on from them, and encourage champions to stay in their own weight divisions?
There’s definitely a big argument for avoiding them, and here are five reasons why.
#5. There’s no real proof that a champion vs. champion fight draws any extra interest for the UFC
Ever since its acquisition by the WME group in 2016, the UFC has shown that it is now less sport-focused than it once was and is now far more focused on making as much money as possible.
This tonal shift has meant that deserving contenders have often been leapfrogged in favour of more marketable ones, and it’s also a likely driver of the trend of putting together champ vs. champ fights.
However, is there any proof that a champion vs. champion bout draws any extra interest, or money, than a regular title fight?
Surprisingly, the answer would appear to be no.
Sure, Conor McGregor’s champ vs. champ fight with Eddie Alvarez in 2016 drew huge interest, but that was more due to the popularity of ‘The Notorious’ than anything else.
Outside of that, it’s hard to find any examples of a huge interest spike.
Stipe Miocic’s heavyweight title fight with light heavyweight kingpin Daniel Cormier only drew a similar pay-per-view number to his previous clash with Francis Ngannou, for instance. The same could be said for Israel Adesanya’s attempt to become a double champ in 2021.
If these fights aren’t boosting the promotion’s bottom line hugely, then, they’d probably be better off trying to build stars in separate weight classes – a method that has been proven successful in drawing money.
#4. Sudden moves in weight can harm the career of a fighter
While the difference in the UFC’s weight classes often only amounts to 10 or 15 pounds, a fighter who jumps in weight in that way still risks an adverse effect on their career.
Sure, it’s true that there have been plenty of examples of fighters who were either too big or too small for their weight and had to move, but that isn’t usually the case in champ vs. champ fights.
These bouts usually see a fighter either gaining weight rapidly, or attempting to lose it just as quickly in order to hit the mark for a title bout in their new – often temporary – division.
Unfortunately, we’ve seen more than one example of a champion who moved division to try to win a second title, and appeared to harm their career in the process.
2019 saw bantamweight champ T.J. Dillashaw drop to 125 pounds to chase the flyweight title. However, not only was his quest unsuccessful, as he was violently stopped by Henry Cejudo, but he also used banned substances to help him make weight, and was subsequently suspended for a lengthy period.
The incident essentially ended his career as a top fighter.
Alexander Volkanovski, meanwhile, challenged for the lightweight title twice last year while still defending his featherweight crown.
‘Alexander the Great’ was violently knocked out by Islam Makhachev in their second clash, and then didn’t look the same in his first fight back at 145 pounds. He was knocked out by Ilia Topuria, ending his reign as champ in the process.
Based on this evidence, then, it’d surely be better for champions to remain in their own weight class, rather than risk the potential consequences of moving around.
#3. Champ vs. champ fights mean fewer dominant title reigns
If you ask any longtime UFC fan about the promotion’s greatest-ever champions, they’ll probably bring up names like Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre, Jon Jones and Ronda Rousey.
What links those names together? The fact that all of them won a title and then embarked on a lengthy, dominant reign as champion that usually encompassed multiple defenses against various foes.
None of those four fighters attempted to become a two-division titleholder during their reigns, instead focusing their energy on dominating their own weight class. Naturally, it turned them into legends.
For current champions like Ilia Topuria and Sean O’Malley, then, surely it would be a better idea for them to focus on becoming dominant in their own weight division before attempting to move in order to chase a second title.
After all, there have still only been four simultaneous double champions in UFC history, meaning it isn’t easy to pull off. Given the risks involved, it’s simply better for champions to stay where they are – something that Dana White and company ought to encourage.
#2. Simultaneous double champions can be difficult for the UFC to book
Part of the reason why the UFC ought to discourage champion vs. champion fights is the problems that arise when a fighter manages to become a simultaneous double titleholder.
Over the course of UFC history, there have been four such champions; Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, Amanda Nunes, and Henry Cejudo. Of those four, only Nunes proved to be relatively easy to book.
‘The Lioness’, who held gold in the bantamweight and featherweight divisions, actually defended both of her titles on a regular basis before retiring in 2023, meaning that for the most part, both divisions could continue as normal.
McGregor, on the other hand, did not defend either of his titles, largely leading to havoc when it came to moving the featherweight and lightweight divisions forward.
Cormier and Cejudo, meanwhile, ended up vacating one of their two titles, but only after a lengthy period of time, during which confusion reigned in the light heavyweight and flyweight divisions respectively.
Essentially, any fighter who becomes a simultaneous double champion has achieved a monumental feat, but they’re also likely to cause further problems for the promotion. With that in mind, it’d be better for Dana White and company to avoid the situation arising entirely.
#1. Champ vs. champ fights cause bottlenecks in weight divisions
The biggest reason that the UFC ought to avoid booking any more champion vs. champion fights is the fact that they bottleneck two weight classes.
This often leads to deserving contenders having to either sit on the shelf for a lengthy period to wait for their own title shot, or to take other fights, risking their own position and title shot in the process.
Take the most recent champ vs. champ series, for instance. That saw featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski face off with lightweight kingpin Islam Makhachev, and while it didn’t have a detrimental effect at 145 pounds, it has done at 155 pounds.
Fighters like Charles Oliveira, Arman Tsarukyan, and Justin Gaethje have all been stuck waiting for a potential crack at Makhachev, and at the time of writing, no lightweight title bout is booked for the near future.
If the promotion were to acquiesce and book a champ vs. champ bout between Ilia Topuria and Sean O’Malley, meanwhile, the likes of Brian Ortega, Movsar Evloev, Merab Dvalishvili, and Cory Sandhagen would all be stuck in a holding pattern.
With that considered, unless there’s a genuine reason for it – like the existing rivalry between B.J. Penn and Georges St-Pierre back in 2009 – it’d be best for the UFC to put the trend of champ vs. champ bouts on ice.