Champions come and go, it’s part of the sport, but this past year has seen an end to the reigns of some of the UFC’s most dominant champions. What if we went back in time a year ago and I told you that within the next year Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre and Renen Barao would no longer be champions in their weightclasses? You might believe me about 1 of them, maybe two – but in a million years you wouldn’t expect all 3 of these legendary champs to be dethroned, would you? Let’s take a look at some of the dominant champs who have lost their belts, and those who replaced them. Also, which weight-classes still have champs who we can expect to hold onto their belts for a while?
The New Breed
Bantamweight – Barao to Dillashaw
This was a huge surprise for most fans. Renen Barao hadn’t lost for almost a decade, but it was bound to happen eventually because he doesn’t fight safe and he’s gotten himself into deep waters in the past. Still, even people who thought he was going to lose would have expected a “lucky” punch or submission, not seeing The Baron get dominated for nearly 5 rounds. Will TJ Dillashaw go on to be a dominant champion? If he keeps fighting like he did against Barao, that’s quite possible. TJ doesn’t have an unblemished record, but his first loss to Dodson was a very early stoppage and his next loss was a questionable split decision. My bet is that we’ll see Dillashaw wearing this belt for a while, it was no fluke.
Welterweight – GSP to Hendricks
Say what you want about the scoring of Hendricks vs GSP, Johny still has the belt now. Granted, it was due to GSP stepping back rather than Hendricks beating the champion. We’ve already seen holes in Johny’s game exposed, plus he didn’t earn the belt from beating the champ, but getting past Robbie Lawler is nothing to scoff at either. It’s hard to imagine anyone being more dominant at Welterweight than GSP was, but we used to say that about Matt Hughes too. None the less, I’m predicting that this belt will be changing hands fairly often for the foreseeable future.
Middleweight – Silva to Weidman
We’ve only seen Weidman defend his belt once so far, but it was against the same man he took it from – Anderson Silva. You know, one of the most celebrated martial artists of all time? Granted, The All-American won the belt in an interesting way, to say the least – and the rematch was even more “interesting” but he still beat Silva. Twice. In a row. And whether or not Anderson was clowning, or got really unlucky, he still lost those two fights. If you want to call it lucky, you can’t deny that Weidman created his own luck. If I stepped into the cage with Anderson Silva, he sure as hell wouldn’t get knocked out or carried in a stretcher with a broken ankle.
Current Dominant Champions
Heavyweight – Cain Velasquez
There’s no doubt that Cain is head and shoulders about the rest of the Heavyweight division, but it’s really not likely that he’ll be able to hold onto the belt for as long as people in the lighter divisions simply because of the punching power that the HWs have. All it takes is one punch to end his reight. Granted, that’s true in any division, but it’s much more accentuated in heavyweight where the tides can turn much more quickly. None the less, Cain Velasquez doesn’t have many contenders to worry about unless they’re able to catch him like JDS did. Cain doesn’t fight very often, and doesn’t have a ton of title defences yet, but he makes the list because it’s hard to imagine anyone beating him at this point.
Light Heavyweight – Jon Jones
For all intents and purposes, Bones is still undefeated. He looked mortal against Gus for one fight and all of a sudden people act like he’s not the best P4P fighter on the planet. The next couple fights for Jon Jones are going to be very interesting, whether it’s Gus or Cormier up next, both of them pose a serious threat to the throne.
Women’s Bantamweight – Ronda Rousey
Like Cain, Ronda Rousey doesn’t have a ton of title defenses under her belt (no pun) yet, but she’s still undefeated with only one fight that looked even remotely competitive. She’s cleaned out the division, and the UFC is going to have to start signing new fighters to give Ronda a challenge.
Featherweight – Jose Aldo
Jose Aldo doesn’t get enough credit, but he’s undoubtedly the most dominant champ that’s left standing after 2013/2014. He’s undefeated since 2005 with just that one loss on his record, and has 9 title defenses if you include a couple in the WEC before they moved to the UFC. Featherweight is a stacked division that’s not short on contenders, so it will be interesting to see how much longer Jose can continue to dominate here.
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