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In a somewhat surprising move from the UFC, UFC 265 will now be headlined by a fight between Ciryl Gane and Derrick Lewis – with the interim UFC heavyweight title on the line.
Whether or not you like the UFC’s habit of introducing interim titles, it’s hard to deny that some of their interim title fights over the years have been stone cold classics.
Sure, becoming an interim UFC champion doesn’t mean as much to a fighter as becoming the undisputed champion, but it’s still a massive achievement. That means it’s no surprise that when an interim title is on the line, the fight for it is usually a war.
With that in mind, here are the five most memorable interim title fights in UFC history.
#5 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Tim Sylvia – interim UFC heavyweight title, UFC 81
Back in 2008, it was rare for the UFC to introduce interim titles, but they were forced to in this instance. Reigning UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture decided to walk away from the promotion following a fall-out with management.
The promotion put together a mouth-watering clash between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Tim Sylvia for the interim title. Not only did it sound like a great fight, but it also represented a dream match from the UFC’s old rivalry with PRIDE.
In the end, the fans were certainly not disappointed. Despite a reputation for some dull fights, Sylvia came out more aggressive than we’d seen him in a while, and took the fight to Nogueira on the feet.
But despite knocking him down in the first round, the Maine-iac couldn’t finish the tough Brazilian. Nogueira was used to being beaten and bloody from his PRIDE days, so taking shots from Sylvia was nothing new for him.
Indeed, when the third round came around, Minotauro managed to land a takedown on his larger foe. Moments later, the fight was over as he secured a tight guillotine choke that forced Sylvia to tap out.
The fight stood with Nogueira’s classic wars against the likes of Mirko Cro Cop and Bob Sapp, and holds up today as one of the UFC’s greatest interim title fights.
#4 Robert Whittaker vs. Yoel Romero – interim UFC middleweight title, UFC 213
In 2017, with UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping controversially on the shelf while waiting for a potential fight with Georges St. Pierre, the UFC set up an interim middleweight title clash between top contenders Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker at UFC 213.
Romero came into the clash as the favored fighter, as he’d never lost in the UFC and held wins over the likes of Jacare Souza, Chris Weidman and Lyoto Machida.
But Whittaker was on a good run of his own, coming off a win over Jacare, and walked into UFC 213 confident of getting his hands on some UFC gold.
The fight turned out to be a war for the ages. The early rounds belonged to Romero, who managed to take Whittaker down on multiple occasions – even if he couldn’t do a lot on the ground – and also landed the better strikes.
But by the third round, it was clear that the Cuban had begun to tire. Despite Whittaker seemingly carrying a knee injury, he began to push a hectic pace, forcing Romero back with heavy combinations.
In the fourth and fifth rounds, the Reaper really opened up, hurting Romero badly and leaving him on rubber legs on more than one occasion. The fight ended with Whittaker landing some nasty elbows to Romero’s head. When the judges delivered their scorecards, the Aussie was crowned the new interim UFC middleweight champion.
It was a tremendous fight by anyone’s standards, with enough back-and-forth action to keep fans guessing as to who was going to win. Incredibly, the two men topped it with an even better fight a year later at UFC 225.
#3 Tony Ferguson vs. Justin Gaethje – interim UFC lightweight title, UFC 249
2020 was supposed to be the year that we’d finally see Tony Ferguson challenge Khabib Nurmagomedov for the UFC lightweight title. But as per usual, it wasn’t to be.
The COVID-19 pandemic meant that Khabib couldn’t enter the US for his scheduled fight with Ferguson at UFC 249. Instead, the UFC set up an interim title bout between El Cucuy and Justin Gaethje.
Ferguson was no stranger to interim titles – after all, he’d submitted Kevin Lee for the interim UFC lightweight title in 2017 before being stripped of it due to injury.
But UFC 249 wasn’t to be his night. Ferguson had always been able to take a shot and survive in his previous UFC outings, but it quickly became clear that Gaethje hit much harder than anyone he’d faced before.
The Highlight nailed Ferguson with some brutal jabs and right hands throughout the fight. Even a huge uppercut from El Cucuy in the third round couldn’t slow down Gaethje’s onslaught.
Ferguson managed to survive into the fifth round, but by that point his face was a mess and he was clearly in a bad way. As Gaethje continued to unleash shots on him, he began to turn away and shake his head in an odd way – forcing referee Herb Dean to mercifully step in.
The fight was somewhat one-sided, but it was also incredibly entertaining and a seriously impressive performance from Gaethje – making it easily one of the most memorable interim UFC title fights.
#2 Israel Adesanya vs. Kelvin Gastelum – interim UFC middleweight title, UFC 236
With UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker on the shelf with an injury, it made sense for the promotion to crown an interim champion at UFC 236, matching top contenders Israel Adesanya and Kelvin Gastelum against one another.
But nobody could’ve expected that we’d be treated to an incredible, stone-cold classic of a fight that would stand up against the best title fights in UFC history.
Adesanya came in as the favorite. The Last Stylebender had overcome former champion Anderson Silva in his previous fight, and had never really been tested in the octagon, while Gastelum actually hadn’t fought in almost a year after his win over Jacare Souza.
But in the opening round, it was Gastelum who stunned everyone by pushing the action, using some smart feints to set up his striking. Not only did he land the better shots – he even dropped Adesanya at one point.
Adesanya came back and won the second and third rounds, finding his range to land his usual sniping strikes, but the fourth round saw Gastelum come roaring back by drawing him into a brawl. And that appeared to be to the TUF winner’s advantage – as he hurt Adesanya with a head kick and almost finished him off.
That left everything to play for in the fifth round. In one of the most action-packed rounds in UFC history, the two men went to war before Adesanya somehow dug deep and simply took things to another level. He hit Gastelum with combination after combination, and while he couldn’t put him away, it was clear who the winner was.
Adesanya was ruled the victor, becoming the interim UFC middleweight champion, but it wasn’t like either man came off badly after such a tremendous fight. And six months later, Adesanya would unify the titles by beating Whittaker – cementing himself as the best middleweight on the planet.
#1 Conor McGregor vs. Chad Mendes – interim UFC featherweight title, UFC 189
It might not have been as good a fight as Adesanya vs. Gastelum, but for sheer drama and spectacle, the fight between Conor McGregor and Chad Mendes at UFC 189 stands as the UFC’s most memorable interim title bout.
The fight was set up when Jose Aldo pulled out of his scheduled title fight at UFC 189 with McGregor citing an injury. The UFC understandably didn’t want to pull McGregor from the event, so they brought in former title challenger Chad Mendes and matched him with the Irishman for an interim title bout.
Sure, it only meant that the winner was guaranteed to fight Aldo somewhere down the line, but it still felt like a huge UFC title bout. The promotion treated it as such, updating their graphics for the show and even having Aaron Lewis and Sinead O’Connor sing the fighters’ entrance themes live.
All of that would’ve been for naught had the fight sucked, of course. But it was awesome in execution too.
McGregor looked confident coming in, and opened up on Mendes with a series of long punches and front kicks to the body, looking to wear him down. But Mendes quickly came back with a big takedown – finally looking to test what many fans felt would be the Notorious' Achilles heel.
McGregor did manage to escape to his feet, but not before Mendes sliced him wide open with a series of thudding elbows. However, incredibly, the Irishman didn’t look all that hurt – and went right back to working Mendes over with body shots and combinations.
When the round ended, Mendes had probably done more damage – but the body work was clearly taking its toll and he looked tired.
McGregor, on the other hand, was bloodied but seemed otherwise fine. Once he escaped another takedown in the second round, he opened up with more huge punches and finally, Mendes was badly hurt.
Like a matador stalking a bull, McGregor kept up the pressure – and eventually dropped the wrestler with a crushing left hand.
The fight was over, and not only had McGregor won his first taste of UFC gold, but he’d done it in the most dramatic way possible too. It didn’t matter that the fight was only for an interim title – at the time, it felt like the UFC didn’t get any bigger or better. In a lot of ways, the feeling was probably right.
