5 of the longest spells of inactivity from a UFC champion

One of the most frustrating parts of being a UFC fan in recent years has been the constant creation of Interim titles to replace the real, “undisputed” thing when a champion faces a spell on the sidelines. Quite often, the original champion isn’t even out for that long – in 2010 for instance, Shane Carwin won an Interim Heavyweight title in March and only held it for 4 months before he faced the original champion Brock Lesnar in a unification match.

Sometimes though, UFC champions have been sidelined for far longer. Fans have criticised Conor McGregor for his current layoff, but in reality, he only just makes the top five in terms of lengthy periods of inactivity. So here are the five longest spells of inactivity from a UFC champion in promotional history.

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#5 Conor McGregor & Randy Couture – 1 year and 3 months

Randy Couture sat for a year and 3 months on the sidelines with a contract dispute

While Conor McGregor still officially holds the UFC Lightweight title – meaning he’ll probably move up this list unless he’s stripped in April when Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson fight – right now he’s only joint-fifth on the list of UFC champs with lengthy inactive spells.

Conor’s reasoning was a bit frustrating for MMA fans – he went into boxing to fight Floyd Mayweather and is currently in contract negotiations – but wasn’t quite as interesting as the man who he shares the spot with.

Randy Couture won the UFC Heavyweight title in March 2007, defeating champion Tim Sylvia to begin his third title reign in the division. He quickly made a defense against Gabriel Gonzaga in August 2007, but two months later he decided to “resign” from the UFC citing problems with Zuffa’s management.

Reading between the lines, Couture wanted to fight Fedor Emelianenko – who refused to sign with the UFC – and felt that he should be able to book the fight outside of the promotional umbrella.

The UFC, of course, held fast and a legal battle ensued, meaning the UFC couldn’t strip Couture, and so an Interim title was of course created and won by Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. When it became clear that Couture had no chance of winning a legal fight, he went back to the UFC and defended his title a year and three months after the Gonzaga fight, losing not to Interim champ Nogueira, but Brock Lesnar in a hastily booked fight.

Couture stands as one of the only examples of an active UFC champion who tried to lock horns with the promotion’s management.

#4 Anthony Pettis – 1 year and 4 months

Injuries and a stint coaching TUF with Gilbert Melendez kept Anthony Pettis on the shelf for over a year

Former UFC Lightweight champion Anthony Pettis’s case is perhaps the most fascinating of all because it’s the only one on this list that didn’t see the UFC create an Interim title while the champ was on the shelf.

‘Showtime’ captured the Lightweight title from Benson Henderson in August 2013 and his first title defense was immediately booked against Josh Thomson in December, just four months later. A knee injury forced him out of the defense, though, and suddenly Thomson’s title challenge went by the by.

Thomson lost to Benson Henderson in January 2014 and rather than book a Henderson/Pettis rematch, the UFC instead offered the next title shot to Gilbert Melendez, who was in sticky contract negotiations – playing the UFC off Bellator and vice versa.

Melendez accepted the UFC’s offer, which meant that he and Pettis would coach the 20th season of The Ultimate Fighter prior to clashing in the Octagon.

Sadly for fans of Pettis, the show wasn’t due to start filming until the summer and wasn’t going to air until the winter, which pushed the Pettis/Melendez title fight all the way to UFC 181 – in early December 2014, a year and four months after Pettis had initially captured the title from Henderson.

Pettis would defend the title by submitting Melendez, but lost it to Rafael Dos Anjos in his next defense just three months later.

#3 Georges St-Pierre – 1 year and 7 months

GSP missed the majority of 2011 and 2012 with a knee injury

After defeating Matt Serra to begin his second Welterweight title reign in April 2008, Georges St-Pierre was one of the UFC’s most consistent champions. Up to April 2011 he made six title defences, with his longest layoff being eight months between July 2009 and March 2010.

After defeating Jake Shields at UFC 129, his next defense was booked against Nick Diaz – who was then removed and replaced by Carlos Condit - at October 2011’s UFC 137.

St-Pierre ended up withdrawing from that fight with a knee injury, and in a strange turn of events, Diaz then defeated BJ Penn in the main event.

That put Diaz back in line for a shot at GSP, but when the fight was booked for February 2012’s UFC 143, the champion was again forced out with a more severe knee injury, sidelining him for most of the year. Condit stepped in and fought Diaz in his place, winning an Interim title.

It would be another nine months before we’d see St-Pierre again – 1 year and 7 months after his win over Shields he returned to action following a full knee reconstruction and beat Condit to unify the titles at November 2012’s UFC 154.

Some five years later he somehow topped that feat and returned from four years on the shelf to beat Michael Bisping for the UFC Middleweight title, showing layoffs apparently don’t mean a lot to the Canadian superstar.

#2 Cain Velasquez – 1 year and 8 months

Cain Velasquez has been blighted with injuries throughout his career

Perhaps the most injury-cursed UFC champion of all time, Cain Velasquez first captured the Heavyweight title in October 2010 with a win over Brock Lesnar. He was then sidelined with a torn shoulder labrum for a year and one month, almost making this list in that instance.

Upon his return he was knocked out by Junior Dos Santos and lost his title, but returned to re-capture the gold from the Brazilian in December 2012.

Two defences followed in 2013, but rather than injury, the other major cause of long championship layoffs reared its head – The Ultimate Fighter.

In April 2014 it was announced that Velasquez and #1 contender Fabricio Werdum would be coaching the first season of TUF: Latin America and so their title fight would be pushed back to November’s UFC 180 in Mexico City. A month before the scheduled fight, though, Velasquez was forced out with a torn meniscus and MCL.

With Cain on the shelf, Werdum defeated Mark Hunt at the event to win the Interim title, but nobody expected the return of the original champion to take so long.

It would be another eight months before Velasquez returned at June 2015’s UFC 188 – giving him a total time on the sidelines of 1 year and 8 months. He lost his title to Werdum in the unification match and due to further injuries, he’s only fought once since.

#1: Dominick Cruz – 2 years and 4 months

Dominick Cruz missed the best part of three years with various injuries

Poor Dominick Cruz. In this instance, the former UFC Bantamweight champion never managed to defend his title upon his return from injury as he’d been stripped of it despite not having any contract issues with the UFC.

Unfortunately for Cruz the promotion simply couldn’t wait any longer for him to return from a myriad of injuries that ended up sidelining him for a total period of 2 years and 11 months.

As a champion though, Cruz was out for 2 years and 4 months. His last title defense came against Demetrious Johnson in October 2011, and his next was scheduled for July 2012’s UFC 148 – a rematch against rival Urijah Faber following – you guessed it – a stint as coaches on The Ultimate Fighter.

It was during the filming of TUF that Cruz’s injury was announced – a torn ACL that would sideline him for around 6 months. Renan Barao stepped in to replace him and beat Faber for an Interim title, but before he could return to unify the belts, Cruz hit a setback when his body rejected an ACL transplant, shelving him for another nine months.

Barao made two successful defences of the Interim title before Cruz was finally announced as returning to unify the titles at February 2014’s UFC 169 – but a torn groin forced him out of the fight, and the UFC had no choice but to strip him of the title and crown Barao as undisputed champion.

Cruz would finally return to action in September 2014, but another torn ACL then left him on the shelf until January 2016, when he finally managed to reclaim his title by defeating TJ Dillashaw. Right now he’s injured again – this time with a broken arm – as his career continues to be blighted by bad luck.