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The UFC is all set to crown its latest interim champion in August, as Ciryl Gane faces Derrick Lewis at UFC 265 with the interim UFC heavyweight title on the line.
The UFC has crowned plenty of interim champions over the years in almost all of its divisions, but not all of them have been successful.
Many of them have failed in their attempt to unify their interim title with the full championship by losing to the incumbent champion in a unification bout.
With that in mind, here are five interim UFC champions who failed to unify the titles.
#5 Frank Mir – interim UFC heavyweight champion
The situation around the UFC heavyweight title in 2007 and 2008 was definitely a strange one. It began when champion Randy Couture abruptly decided to walk away from the UFC in December 2007 following a clash with UFC management.
Concerned about a potential lawsuit, the promotion couldn’t strip him of his title outright – and so they crowned an interim UFC heavyweight champion in Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, who defeated Tim Sylvia.
Couture returned a year later and promptly lost his title to Brock Lesnar. By that point, the UFC had used a series of TUF to build a fight between Nogueira and Frank Mir for the interim title.
And so the promotion chose to roll with that, and were probably glad they did when Mir knocked out Nogueira to become the new interim champion.
Why were they so happy? Because Mir’s win allowed them to set up a rematch between him and Lesnar with the undisputed UFC heavyweight title on the line. The fight would headline UFC 100 and was quickly built as one of the biggest in MMA history.
However, when it came to the fight, Mir couldn’t repeat the victory he’d claimed over Lesnar at UFC 81. Instead, he succumbed to a second round TKO – meaning he failed to unify the titles and walked away a beaten man.
#4 Carlos Condit – interim UFC welterweight champion
The UFC’s welterweight division was one of its steadiest for years, with champions like Pat Miletich and Matt Hughes going on lengthy title reigns. That didn’t change when Georges St. Pierre claimed the UFC welterweight title in 2008.
GSP started as an interim champ himself after beating Hughes, but managed to unify the titles by stopping reigning champ Matt Serra at UFC 83. From there, he turned back all challengers.
By 2011, St. Pierre had reeled off six straight title defenses and was expected to make his seventh against Carlos Condit at UFC 137.
However, a knee injury sidelined him, and when the injury was revealed to be more serious than initially expected, the UFC booked Condit into an interim title fight with Nick Diaz at UFC 143.
Condit duly outpointed Diaz in what was one of the more controversial fights of 2012, claiming UFC gold for the first time in his career. But before he could defend his interim title, St. Pierre was back – meaning the UFC could set up a unification bout.
Despite GSP coming back from over a year on the shelf, the Canadian survived a third-round onslaught to eventually grind down and outpoint Condit, ensuring he remained the undisputed champion.
Despite his failure to unify the titles, Condit gained plenty of respect for his performance – which would be recognized as his high point in the UFC.
#3 Shane Carwin – interim UFC heavyweight champion
Then-UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar’s battle with diverticulitis in late 2009 meant he had to face another interim champion in 2010. Lesnar had been pegged to fight Shane Carwin at UFC 106 that November, but was forced out due to the disease, with a return date unknown.
This meant that the UFC could crown an interim champion. Evidently, they were hoping it would be Frank Mir again, as a trilogy fight with Lesnar likely would’ve outdone even UFC 100 in terms of a pay-per-view buyrate.
However, when it came to it, Mir couldn’t defeat Carwin. The two giants clashed at UFC 111, and Carwin – arguably the heaviest hitter in the division – destroyed Mir with the bricks that he called fists, becoming the interim champ in the process.
The unification fight took place just four months later at UFC 116. Early on, it looked like Carwin’s heavy hands would take him all the way to the undisputed title. He battered Lesnar in the opening round to the point where many referees would’ve stopped the fight.
Josh Rosenthal chose to let it go though, allowing Lesnar to survive. As the two fighters headed back to their corners, it was clear who the fresher man was.
Carwin looked exhausted, sucking in enough air to deprive the front row of oxygen. Sure enough, Lesnar tackled him to the ground in the opening seconds of the second round, and applied an arm-triangle choke to submit him.
The win cemented Lesnar as the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion – and left Carwin, who failed to unify the titles, rueing what could’ve been.
#2 Dustin Poirier – interim UFC lightweight champion
Over the years, the UFC has tended to crown interim champions for two reasons. Firstly, when a champion is injured, and secondly – and more sinisterly – when the promotion falls out with a champion who then chooses to sit on the shelf.
Curiously, neither was the case when Dustin Poirier defeated Max Holloway for the interim UFC lightweight title in April 2019.
Quite why the UFC felt the need to crown an interim champ when undisputed champ Khabib Nurmagomedov had only fought six months earlier and was scheduled to return in September was anyone’s guess.
Regardless, Poirier fought Max Holloway in a full-blooded clash at UFC 236 to claim the title, which essentially made him a souped-up #1 contender. There would be no defenses of the interim title for the Diamond – just a date with Khabib set in stone.
Despite his best efforts, Poirier ended up joining the list of interim UFC champions who failed to unify the titles. At UFC 242 he was basically whitewashed by Khabib, who never allowed him to impose his hard-hitting striking game for a second.
By the time Poirier submitted in the third round, there was no question who the real champion was – meaning the Diamond’s brief run as interim champ was largely pointless.
#1 Justin Gaethje – interim UFC lightweight champion
Despite the debacle that was Dustin Poirier’s reign as interim UFC lightweight champion, it didn’t take the promotion long to crown another one.
This time it was a little more justified. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020 – putting question marks over UFC lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov’s ability to leave Russia and defend his title – it made sense to crown an interim titleholder.
Many fans were hoping that Tony Ferguson would get his hands on the title to finally set up a date with Khabib. Instead, it was Justin Gaethje who claimed the gold, battering Ferguson at UFC 249 in the UFC’s first show during the pandemic.
Thankfully, 'The Highlight' didn’t have to wait too long for his shot at the undisputed title.
With the pandemic beginning to slow down towards the end of 2020 and the UFC able to use Abu Dhabi’s ‘Fight Island’ rather than flying overseas fighters into the US, a clash between Khabib and Gaethje was set up for UFC 254 in October.
However, Gaethje’s fate would be the same one that Poirier suffered. He was choked unconscious in the second round of a one-sided fight, and never came close to unifying the titles – instead simply becoming another notch on Khabib’s belt.
