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There have been several champions who have taken more than a year to make a UFC title defence over the years. We will take a look at the five longest, counting down from five to one.
Notable exceptions, such as Conor McGregor, are due to having not actually made a title defence by either, moving to a different weight class or retiring etc. Dominic Cruz is another who was officially a champion for over two years without actually fighting; he defended his belt against Demetrius Johnson on October 1st, 2011 and wasn't stripped until January 6th 2014, he obviously never defended his belt so doesn't make this list.
5: Anthony Pettis - 462 days
Anthony Pettis beat Benson Henderson at UFC 164, August 31st, 2013 to win the UFC lightweight title, this was a rematch from their WEC days when Pettis beat Henderson to win that promotion's strap too. Pettis was expected to defend for the first time against TJ Grant on December 14th, 2013, however, Grant hadn't recovered from a concussion injury suffered during training. Pettis would then suffer an injury, ruling him out of a proposed bout with Josh Thomson.
There was then talk of a super fight against featherweight champ, Jose Aldo, however, these talks were ended when it was announced Pettis would take part as a captain on The Ultimate Fighter opposite Gilbert Melendez.
Pettis would eventually make his defence 462 days after winning the belt when he faced Melendez at UFC 181 on December 2014, winning by a second-round guillotine.
4: Matt Hughes - 525 days
UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes won the welterweight title twice. Hughes put together two separate six-fight winning runs and defended his belt a then record seven times.
Hughes won the welterweight strap for the first time on Nov 2nd 2001, defeating Carlos Newton. He went on to defend five times until he lost the belt at UFC 46 on Jan 31st 2004 when he was submitted by BJ Penn.
The belt was subsequently vacated in a contract dispute between Penn and the UFC. This gave Hughes an opportunity to regain the belt when he faced Georges St Pierre for the vacant title at UFC 50 on October 22nd, 2004. Hughes won by an arm bar in the first round.
Hughes would then defend against Frank Trigg in April 2005 but this would be the last defence for a while.
Hughes was due to defend against Joe Riggs in November of that year however Riggs missed weight and for the first time the UFC had to call off a title bout due to weight cutting issues, the fight was now a non title bout. Hughes again won.
Next up, we would see Hughes in another non title bout against UFC pioneer and living legend Royce Gracie in May 2006. Hughes won in the first round by TKO.
525 days would pass before Hughes defended his belt against the only man who had at that point defeated him, BJ Penn. The fight took place on September 23rd 2006. Hughes went on to become the first person to stop Penn in a fight.
3: Daniel Cormier - 567 days
The current light heavyweight and heavyweight champion, Daniel Cormier has won a title in every promotion he has competed in. He first won the light heavyweight title beating Anthony Johnson for the vacant title after Jon Jones had been stripped. Cormier won by submission. He would then go on to defend against Alexander Gustafsson on October 3rd 2015, winning an epic fight by split decision.
DC was then due to face arch-rival Jon Jones, however, Jones failed a USADA drug test and was pulled leaving DC to face a last minute stand-in, Anderson Silva in a non-title fight in which he won by unanimous decision.
In December 2016, DC was due to again meet Anthony Johnson, Cormier suffered an injury in November which resulted in the bout being postponed until UFC 210.
After 567 days DC finally defended when he faced Anthony Johnson, he won by rear naked choke. There was a hint of controversy in the lead up to this fight when Cormier was 1.2 pounds over the 205 championship weight limit. When Cormier then appeared to lean on a towel to try and gain some support however he was deemed to have made weight.
2: Georges St Pierre - 567 days
GSP, a three-time welterweight champion and also a former middleweight champion is one of the sport's true legends. He held the record for most wins in title bouts and second longest combined title streak, defending nine times.
GSP first won the welterweight title defeating Matt Hughes at UFC 65. He then lost in his next match to The Ultimate Fighter winner Matt Serra.
GSP would go on to defeat Hughes again to win the interim title, this set up a rematch against Serra which he won and unified the welterweight belts in front of his home city, Montreal.
He then went on a run of defending the belt, culminating in a victory over Jake Shields at UFC 129, April 30th 2011.
GSP wouldn't fight again until UFC 154, November 17th 2012 when he defeated Carlos Condit by unanimous decision.
During this long lay off, GSP was due to meet Nick Diaz at UFC 137, however, Diaz decided to do a no-show at a press conference leading the UFC to demote him to a co-main event bout against GSP.
Carlos Condit then had the opportunity for the title shot only for GSP to suffer an injury, Condit would elect to wait for his title bout rather than face a new opponent. The UFC had other ideas though and booked the GSP-Diaz fight again for February 2012. GSP would suffer an ACL injury which would rule him out for almost a year. Condit faced Diaz for an interim title, winning to then get his shot against GSP.
1: Cain Velasquez - 602 days
Former two-time heavyweight champ, Cain Velasquez, holds the dubious honour of longest lay off between title defences.
He first won the title on October 23rd 2010, winning by first-round TKO against Brock Lesnar. He would then lose it at the first defence in the first of what would become a trilogy against Junior Dos Santos.
Velasquez would go on to win the title for a second time in December 2012 at UFC 155, again defeating Dos Santos. He would defend against Antonio Silva before facing and beating Dos Santos in a trilogy fight on October 19th 2013 at UFC 166.
We wouldn't see Cain again until June 13th 2015 when he recovered from a long injury lay off to face Fabricio Werdum, he lost the fight by guillotine in the third round.
