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The UFC’s weight classes all have their ups and downs, in terms of both fan interest and the amount of attention given to them by the promotion itself. However, at times, all divisions run into difficulties.
Over the years, we’ve seen some of the UFC’s weight divisions run into issues or roadblocks, only for a fighter to be able to rescue them with either a great performance or a big title-winning victory.
Often, this fighter has been able to kickstart their weight division, ushering in a new era. Sometimes, they’ve even been able to save it from the chop altogether.
That being said, here are five UFC fighters who saved their weight division.
#5. Randy Couture – UFC heavyweight division (2007)
The UFC heavyweight division has had its fair share of ups and downs over the years, but it probably hit its lowest low back in 2006.
The year didn’t start off too badly, as Tim Sylvia knocked out Andrei Arlovski to win the UFC heavyweight title for the second time in his tenure with the promotion. The fight was wildly exciting, and seemed to bode well for Sylvia’s new reign.
However, ‘The Maine-Iac’ – never the most marketable fighter – then put on a pair of real stinkers in his first two title defenses, edging out Arlovski and Jeff Monson in dull fights that went the distance.
Both fights ended with the crowd largely booing, leaving the UFC worried about the state of the division.
Those feelings got even worse when Brandon Vera – who was supposed to challenge Sylvia for his title in early 2007 – had his head turned by rival promotion Elite XC fluttering their eyelids at him.
The UFC quickly shelved ‘The Truth’, and intended to go with a title bout between Sylvia and Gabriel Gonzaga – prior to his KO of Mirko Cro Cop, when he was still an unknown.
The fight would undoubtedly have drawn the least interest of any UFC heavyweight title bout ever. Thankfully, the UFC realised this and, instead of Gonzaga, they plucked former heavyweight and light heavyweight champ Randy Couture out of retirement to face Sylvia instead.
‘The Natural’ duly thrashed Sylvia in a big upset to claim the title for the third time. While he didn’t quite usher in a new era, he did end the below-par reign of ‘The Maine-Iac’ and saved the division. In turn, he opened the door for the era of Brock Lesnar, Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos a couple of years later.
#4. David Terrell – UFC middleweight division (2004)
Back in 2004, the UFC’s middleweight division was in a seriously strange position. It hadn’t had a titleholder since Murilo Bustamante vacated and headed to PRIDE in mid-2002.
After the Brazilian left the promotion, the clear-cut top fighter at 185lbs was Matt Lindland. An Olympic silver medallist in Greco-Roman wrestling, ‘The Law’ had largely beaten the rest of the division’s top fighters, including Phil Baroni, Ivan Salaverry and Ricardo Almeida.
There was just one big problem. Lindland’s fighting style was hardly considered exciting – in fact, the fans regularly ended up booing when he was in action.
More to the point, the Olympian hardly saw eye-to-eye with the UFC’s brass, and his personality wasn’t all that marketable either.
Therefore, by 2004 it felt like the UFC were trying to hold off on crowning a new champion until someone – anyone – could beat Lindland. In turn, that meant that the 185lbs division felt like it was on hold, despite middleweight fights featuring on most of the UFC’s cards.
That all changed at UFC 49. Lindland – still begging the UFC for a shot at the vacant title – was matched with debutant David Terrell. He was a renowned grappler who lacked experience in MMA.
However, despite ‘The Law’ being favored, he clearly wasn’t ready for what ‘The Soul Assassin’ could bring. Terrell clocked him with a left hand and knocked him down in the opening seconds before finishing him off with some follow-up shots. The whole fight took just 24 seconds.
Following this, it took the UFC a matter of months to announce a fight for the vacant title between Terrell and Evan Tanner. While Terrell failed to claim the gold, he did solve the UFC’s Lindland problem – making him the unlikely saviour of the middleweight division.
#3. Valentina Shevchenko – UFC flyweight division (2018)
The UFC dedicated an entire series of The Ultimate Fighter to introducing the new women’s flyweight division in 2017. Right away, however, it felt like the entire idea was a waste of time.
Sijara Eubanks and Nicco Montano made their way to the finals to compete in the inaugural title bout. Despite being the favorite to win, Eubanks then failed to make weight when her kidneys began to shut down.
She was replaced by Roxanne Modafferi, who had previously lost to Eubanks. Montano duly defeated ‘The Happy Warrior’ by unanimous decision to become the UFC’s first female flyweight titleholder.
However, if the UFC thought the division was now up and running, they were painfully mistaken. Montano didn’t fight for another nine months, and a planned title defense against Valentina Shevchenko went down the pan when the champion failed to make weight.
The UFC then stripped Montano of the title and decided to create a fight for the vacant belt between Shevchenko and Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Despite being great fighters, they had just one fight at 125lbs between them.
However, ‘Bullet’ put on an impressive showing to beat Jedrzejczyk. Within months, she showed that she was a far better champion than Montano.
2019 alone saw her successfully defend her title twice. Since then, she’s put together a total of six successful defenses – making her one of the UFC’s most dominant champions.
Essentially, were it not for Shevchenko, the UFC flyweight division could’ve been dead in the water before it’d even got going. Therefore, ‘Bullet’ literally saved it.
#2. Max Holloway – UFC featherweight division (2017)
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.
#1. Henry Cejudo – UFC flyweight division (2019)
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.
