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UFC champions are defined on a technical basis, by the fact that they won an undisputed title in a bout against either the defending champion or another top contender in the event of a vacant title. However, champions who capture belts but fail to defend them, come and go.
Welterweight great Matt Hughes once expressed his belief that merely capturing a UFC title isn't enough to earn the label of a true champion. Only by defending one's title, at least once, can a fighter finally be acknowledged as a worthy titleholder in his eyes. It is a stance that countless fighters have since adopted.
But what of the fighters who managed to defend their titles, but did so in an unremarkable manner that defined their reigns as champions? How are they regarded? And who exactly are these titleholders whose rule at the top of their respective divisions was unremarkable?
#5. Anthony Pettis, former UFC lightweight champion
Anthony Pettis walked so that Yair Rodriguez could run. Back in 2010, the Taekwondo black belt was the resident flashy striker of the lower weight classes. At the time, the world was still reeling from the 'Showtime kick' he landed on Benson Henderson during WEC's last-ever event.
By 2013, he'd built a three-fight win streak that earned him a crack at 'Smooth's' UFC lightweight title. In a slick showcase of his ground game, Pettis caught Henderson in an armbar to crown himself the new 155-pound champion. His first task was to defend his newly minted title against Gilbert Melendez.
The bout, as it turned out, revealed glimpses of Pettis' weakness to pressure. He retreated in a straight line and lacked the lateral movement and footwork to pivot out of the pocket. Melendez did his best, but 'Showtime' snatched a guillotine to score the submission win and complete his first and last title defense.
His next bout, unfortunately, led to a five-round drubbing from Rafael dos Anjos that not only dethroned Anthony Pettis as champion, but it also sparked his immediate downfall as he began racking up losses: his title reign over in a flash, with nary a grain of dominance.
#4. Jan Błachowicz, former UFC light heavyweight champion
Jan Błachowicz represents a champion that no one saw coming. His initial run in the UFC was defined by his poor defensive grappling. But after committing himself to improving as a fighter, he turned things around. Besides a knockout loss to Thiago Santos, he stormed through the light heavyweight division.
With a run of seven wins and just one loss, he earned a crack at the vacant 205-pound strap, facing Dominick Reyes, who fancied himself the uncrowned champion due to his valiant effort against Jon Jones in a bout many felt was a robber in Jones' favor. That, however, didn't matter to Błachowicz.
The Polish power-puncher annihilated Reyes within two rounds, scoring a brutal TKO to capture the title. He then faced middleweight kingpin Israel Adesanya, using his wrestling and awkward striking to outclass 'The Last Stylebender' and record his first title defense.
But just as quickly as his title reign had begun, it ended with a whimper at UFC 267, when Glover Teixeira outstruck and effortlessly submitted a shockingly impotent Błachowicz to become one of the oldest champions in UFC history.
#3. Lyoto Machida, former UFC light heavyweight champion
Before Lyoto Machida's rise to prominence, karate was widely dismissed as an effective martial art in MMA circles. But 'The Dragon's' expert use of Shotokan karate inside the octagon led to an undefeated run that culminated in a highlight reel knockout over Rashad Evans, from whom he captured the 205-pound title.
According to UFC color commentator Joe Rogan, it was the dawn of the Machida era. Unfortunately, Rogan would go on to live those words down. 'The Dragon' successfully defended his title with a unanimous decision over Maurício 'Shogun' Rua in an extremely controversial bout.
Many had felt that 'Shogun' had done enough to win, causing the promotion to book the pair for a rematch. And in their second encounter, Rua brought an emphatic end to the Machida title reign with a first-round knockout. Despite the initial hype surrounding his striking and unbeaten record, his mystique was gone.
Thus, fans were able to look back on his title reign without any bias and realize that it was far from remarkable.
#2. Michael Bisping, former UFC middleweight champion
A title shot had eluded Michael Bisping for most of his UFC tenure. But in 2016, Chris Weidman was forced to withdraw from a rematch with newly minted champion Luke Rockhold. With only 17 days until UFC 199, the promotion was in desperate need of a replacement, and Bisping answered the call.
He stepped in to face Rockhold on short notice and half-blind at that. Nevertheless, he avenged his past loss to his foe by knocking him out in the first round to fulfill his championship dreams. His quest for vengeance would then dictate his first title, as he chose to face Dan Henderson.
Henderson had brutally knocked him out at UFC 100. But that was seven years ago at the time. Still, he and Bisping had their rematch, where the Englishman was nearly finished by the then 47-year-old Henderson. However, he survived and won by decision in the Fight of the Night.
He next took on Georges St-Pierre, who while an all-time great, was a former welterweight. Bisping, meanwhile, was a former light heavyweight, making his submission loss to 'GSP' that much worse, along with his short, disappointing title reign.
#1. Aljamain Sterling, former UFC bantamweight champion
Aljamain Sterling's tenure as the bantamweight champion deserves more scrutiny than it's gotten. While he has a strong statistical case for all-time great bantamweight status, context matters in such discussions, and Sterling's body of work as a champion was shockingly unremarkable.
First, the manner in which he won the title was widely panned, as he won via disqualification after being illegally kneed in the head while he was a downed opponent. It wasn't his fault, he didn't instruct Petr Yan to foul him. But winning a title via DQ in a fight he was being dominated in was a poor start to his reign.
Then, the pair's rematch ended in a controversial split decision, with the online MMA community split on whether Sterling or Yan had won. Afterward, he faced a one-armed T.J. Dillashaw, who had dislocated his arm roughly 20 or so times ahead of the pair's bout, but it still took him two rounds to TKO him.
Then he scored another controversial split-decision win over Henry Cejudo, a former flyweight who was returning from a three-year hiatus. The MMA community was again split on the outcome. Finally, 'Funk Master's' reign came to an end via TKO as a mere footnote on Sean O'Malley's rise to championship status.
