5 best light heavyweight title fights in UFC history

The UFC’s light heavyweight title has long been recognized as one of the promotion’s most storied. Over the years, we’ve seen some classic wars for this crown.

Which light heavyweight title fight is the best in the promotion’s history, though? There are a number of candidates.

Here are the five best UFC light heavyweight title fights of all time.

#5. Frank Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz – UFC 22

The UFC’s early years tended to feature largely crude fights, meaning that for a long time, Frank Shamrock’s light heavyweight title bout with Tito Ortiz was considered the best in the promotion’s history.

The ‘rope-a-dope’ gameplan innovated by boxing legend Muhammad Ali in his bout with George Foreman always seemed risky for the world of MMA. However, in this instance, Shamrock pulled it off to perfection.

The longtime champion was largely outsized by Ortiz, who had cut a large amount of weight for the fight. Knowing he couldn’t really stop the takedown of ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’, Shamrock instead decided to look to wear him down by allowing him to tire himself from the top, largely avoiding too much damage.

Sure, the champ ended up with a bad cut, but despite being on the bottom for most of the first three rounds, it was clear that he was never out of the fight.

Indeed, the minute that Ortiz seemed to really slow down in the fourth, Shamrock turned up the heat. Immediately reversing from the guard, he escaped to his feet and unloaded with a combination on the challenger.

Ortiz tried to fire back, but he had nothing left and when he tried a desperation takedown, this time Shamrock stopped it – and hammered him with punches until the referee had to step in.

It was a truly remarkable performance from Shamrock, who cemented his legend by walking away from the UFC with his unbeaten octagon record intact afterwards. Ortiz played his part, but Shamrock’s gameplan made this fight legendary, and considering it took place back in 1999, it’s still remarkably entertaining today.

#4. Forrest Griffin vs. Rampage Jackson – UFC 86

Rampage Jackson’s brief reign as UFC light heavyweight champion saw him become a major superstar for the promotion, and if anything, it felt like he had the gold for longer than just over a year.

However, his time as titleholder ended in the summer of 2008 against a surprising opponent – TUF 1 champion Forrest Griffin – and came in truly dramatic fashion.

Despite Griffin’s win over former PRIDE star Shogun Rua, few fans actually gave him a shot of dethroning Rampage, who, at that stage, was still lean and hungry. However, the ensuing fight proved that idea entirely wrong.

The first round clearly belonged to Jackson, who dropped Griffin with a short uppercut and nearly put him out with the follow-up blows, but the challenger just about did enough to survive.

In the second, though, Griffin turned the tables. He landed a pair of low kicks that had Rampage buckling, then him down and utterly dominated him on the ground. While he couldn’t finish the champ, it sent a message that he was very much still in the fight.

From there, the final three rounds were hard to separate, as both men landed some huge shots, did damage standing and on the ground, and in his trademark fashion, Griffin ended up covered in blood.

When the final buzzer sounded, it seemed impossible to pick a winner, but in a big upset, Griffin received a unanimous verdict from the judges.

Quite why the UFC didn’t book an immediate rematch remains a mystery to this day, as this fight remains a stone-cold classic and stands as one of the promotion’s all-time great title bouts.

#3. Daniel Cormier vs. Alexander Gustafsson – UFC 192

Given that he only claimed the title in 2015 in the absence of Jon Jones, who beat him convincingly earlier in the year, Daniel Cormier’s time as light heavyweight kingpin feels like a footnote in some ways.

However, ‘DC’ did produce one of the all-time great 205-pound title fights during his time as champion, as he defended against Alexander Gustafsson five months after choking out Anthony Johnson to claim the gold.

Prior to the fight, many fans scoffed at the booking as ‘The Mauler’ was coming into his title challenge off the back of a loss. However, they were quickly quietened when the action got going.

The two men went back-and-forth over five truly wild rounds, with both coming close to finishes on numerous occasions.

Cormier punished Gustafsson with huge punches from the clinch and on the ground, bloodying him up, while in the third round, the Swede nearly put ‘DC’ down for good with a brutal knee to the jaw.

By the end of the fifth round, both men looked bloodied and battered. While Cormier walked away with the win and his title, Gustafsson regained any respect he’d lost, too.

The two fighters never rematched, and ‘The Mauler’ never came this close to claiming gold again, but it remains one of the best light heavyweight title bouts in history either way.

#2. Jiri Prochazka vs. Glover Teixeira – UFC 275

The most recent addition to this list took place in 2022. While the gutter-war between champion Glover Teixeira and Jiri Prochazka certainly didn’t warrant any awards for technical excellence, the heart and determination shown by both made it an all-time classic.

Headlining the promotion’s first visit to Singapore since 2019, both Prochazka and Teixeira came in to throw down, eschewing defense in order to basically throw everything they had at one another.

For the majority of the fight, it seemed like Teixeira was heading for a victory. The Brazilian abused Prochazka on the ground and beat him bloody with ground-and-pound. While ‘BJP’ got his shots in too, he was clearly down on the scorecards in the later rounds.

However, Teixeira simply couldn’t put the Czech native away no matter how hard he tried, and in a wild fifth round that saw both men continue to exchange despite being exhausted, Prochazka managed to gain top position.

With the seconds on the clock finally ticking away, ‘BJP’ somehow managed to sink a fight-ending choke, and forced Teixeira to tap out for the first time in his career.

It was a remarkable end to a truly remarkable fight, with the only negative being that a rematch never happened before Teixeira’s retirement this year. There’s no doubt that it stands as one of the very best light heavyweight title bouts in UFC history.

#1. Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson – UFC 165

Ignoring all the controversies surrounding him, there’s no disputing that Jon Jones is the greatest 205lber in MMA history. Between 2011 and 2020, he held a UFC light heavyweight title on three occasions, and put together a record 11 successful defenses.

However, while Jones largely destroyed the majority of the opponents he faced off with, even greats like Daniel Cormier and Lyoto Machida, one man pushed him to the limit.

That man was Alexander Gustafsson, and their clash at UFC 165 stands as the greatest light heavyweight title bout in octagon history. In fact, it stands as the only light heavyweight title fight to be inducted into the promotion’s Hall of Fame.

The story of the fight was that Gustafsson surprised everyone – Jones included – by not only being able to outbox the champ, but avoid his wrestling, too. At one point, he even took ‘Bones’ down.

By the fourth round, Jones was bloodied up, and looked like he was on his way to his first defeat, disqualification against Matt Hamill notwithstanding.

However, with seconds remaining in the round, the champion dug deep, and stunned the Swede with a spinning elbow, hurting him badly and coming close to a finish.

Remarkably, it was enough for Jones to be able to prise a victory from the jaws of defeat, as he took the bout to Gustafsson in the final round and just about escaped with his title intact.

The fight was not only the first time Jones had ever looked human in the octagon, but it was a star-making performance from Gustafsson, who quickly became a headliner for the promotion in his own right.

While their rematch some five years later didn’t come close to these heights, this one stands as one of the greatest title fights in octagon history – and stands as the best light heavyweight title clash ever.