5 UFC stars who saved their weight division

#2. Max Holloway – UFC featherweight division (2017)

Max Holloway cleaned up the UFC featherweight division after it was left in a mess in 2016

In 2016, the UFC’s featherweight division was in an odd place and one man was to blame. That man? Conor McGregor.

‘The Notorious’ had cut a swath through the division since his UFC debut in 2013. After dethroning longtime UFC featherweight kingpin Jose Aldo at the end of 2015, he decided to attempt to claim the UFC lightweight title, too.

The Irishman moved up to 155lbs – and to 170lbs too for a pair of fights with Nate Diaz – leaving his reign as featherweight champion on hold.

Despite it quickly becoming clear that he had no intention of ever fighting at 145lbs again, the UFC seemed reluctant to strip McGregor. They put together an interim title bout between Aldo and Frankie Edgar instead.

Aldo came out on top, meaning the division was in a very odd place. A fighter who’d been knocked off the top of the mountain was back in at the top - without beating the man who knocked him off in the first place.

Things got even worse when the Brazilian ended up on the shelf for a lengthy period, with rumors suggesting he was waiting for a rematch with McGregor.

Thankfully, one fighter was on a mission to rescue the division. Max Holloway had put together a long winning streak. When the UFC realized ‘The Notorious’ wasn’t coming back to featherweight, they upgraded Aldo to undisputed champion, and signed a fight between Holloway and Anthony Pettis for another interim title.

‘Blessed’ won that fight, and finally drew Aldo into a title unification bout in 2017 where knocked him out too.

This meant that the UFC featherweight division had a genuine champion for the first time since McGregor had initially beaten Aldo. In turn, Holloway had basically rescued the division from the brink.

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#1. Henry Cejudo – UFC flyweight division (2019)

Without Henry Cejudo, the UFC may have scrapped the men's flyweight division

It’s probably safe to say that no other weight class has given the UFC so much grief over the years as the men’s flyweight division.

From its inauguration in 2012, the division was greeted by cynicism from casual fans, particularly when Demetrious Johnson – a massively skilled, but not all that marketable fighter – became champion and ruled with an iron fist.

The UFC tried everything they could to make Johnson into a star. They even dedicated a season of The Ultimate Fighter to finding a viable challenger for him, but it didn’t seem to work.

By 2018, rumors were flying around that the UFC wanted Johnson to move to 135lbs and scrap the division entirely. However, those plans were turned upside-down when Henry Cejudo shocked everyone by dethroning ‘Mighty Mouse’ at UFC 227.

Even then, the UFC seemed reluctant to get behind ‘Triple C’. When a bout between the Olympic gold medallist and UFC bantamweight champ T.J. Dillashaw was announced, it was again rumored that the promotion would scrap the division if Dillashaw were to win.

However, that didn’t happen. Cejudo destroyed Dillashaw in under a minute, firmly putting himself – and the flyweight division as a whole – back on the map.

While ‘Triple C’ vacated his title after he won the bantamweight crown later in 2019, the UFC showed no signs of getting rid of the flyweight division. Instead, they crowned a new champion in the form of Deiveson Figueiredo in 2020.

Since then, Figueiredo and rival Brandon Moreno have been part of some of the division’s most exciting title bouts. It’s clear that the UFC now has no intention of scrapping the men’s 125lbs class. Realistically, it’s Henry Cejudo who ought to be thanked for that.