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This week I covered the best title reigns in UFC history – the ones that lasted seemingly forever, and saw the champion defend their title numerous times while becoming a bonafide Octagon legend. Now though, it’s time to look at the flipside of things.
Not all UFC title reigns go down as great ones – for various reasons, be it a lack of title defences, a strange beginning or ending to the reign, there have been plenty of terrible title reigns in UFC history too.
That doesn’t mean that the fighters who had such bad reigns are or were bad fighters – in fact, a couple of them could be considered amongst the all-time greats in UFC history. It’s just that their title reign didn’t go down as planned.
Here are the 5 worst title reigns in UFC history – with a few honourable mentions, too.
Honourable Mentions
Dave Menne – UFC Middleweight title – 09/28/2001 to 01/11/2002
The inaugural UFC Middleweight champion, Dave Menne beat Gil Castillo to become the king of the newly formed 185lbs division at the infamously bad UFC 33 show in 2001. It was a strong achievement, but realistically, Menne was never the best 185lber in the world – I’m not actually sure how he got the shot at the new title given he’d lost his previous fight to journeyman Hiromitsu Kanehara, in fact.
Despite all of his experience – a record of 31-7-2 after beating Castillo – it was clear that there were better 185lbers than Menne in the UFC, and it came as no surprise when he lost his title in his first defense against Brazilian Murilo Bustamante. Menne didn’t disgrace himself in his title reign, but it remains a weak footnote in UFC history.
BJ Penn – UFC Welterweight title – 01/31/2004 to 05/17/2004
Widely recognised as one of the most talented fighters in UFC history, BJ Penn pulled off a big-time upset when he moved up from 155lbs to choke out longtime Welterweight champ Matt Hughes at UFC 46 in early 2004. Unfortunately, rather than mark his own Hughes-like legacy, Penn chose to move to the Japanese K-1 promotion and fight in random weight classes – forcing the UFC to strip him of the title.
Penn’s move left him on the outside of the UFC looking in for well over a year, and was the inspiration for the UFC introducing the notorious ‘champion’s clause’ into their contracts – ensuring that a fighter could no longer jump ship to a rival promoter whilst holding a UFC title. But they were unable to stop Penn from moving – which means his title reign goes down as one of the worst ever.
Josh Barnett – UFC Heavyweight title – 03/22/2002 to 07/26/2002
When Josh Barnett defeated long-reigning champion Randy Couture at UFC 36 to become the UFC’s Heavyweight kingpin, it looked like the dawning of a new era. Barnett was just 25 years old, had just one loss to his name, and generally looked like perhaps the best fighter on the planet.
It wasn’t to be, though – ‘The Babyface Assassin’ failed a post-fight drug test for anabolic steroids and was subsequently stripped of his title. The failed test turned Barnett into a pariah in the MMA world, and rather than make a return to the Octagon, he moved to Japan, further muddying his reputation. While he successfully returned to the UFC in 2013, his controversial title reign remains probably the worst in Heavyweight history.
#5 Vitor Belfort – UFC Light-Heavyweight title – 01/31/2004 to 08/21/2004
A genuine UFC legend, the title of ‘former UFC Light-Heavyweight champion’ simply rolls off the tongue when it comes to Vitor Belfort, who retired earlier this year after two decades of action inside the Octagon. Curiously though, few people probably remember quite how bad Vitor’s title reign was.
It began at UFC 46 in January 2004. Belfort had returned to the UFC in 2003 and tore through Marvin Eastman in his return match, leaving him with one of the worst cuts in MMA history. Shortly after Belfort’s return, Randy Couture unseated Tito Ortiz for the Light-Heavyweight title, and so the UFC put together a Couture/Belfort match for the title, remembering that the two had fought in a great tilt back in 1997, with Couture giving Belfort his first loss.
The rematch wasn’t quite as exciting, though. Couture attempted to grab a clinch and as he did, an errant Belfort left hook missed him, but somehow the stitching of the Brazilian’s glove caught his left eye – and almost tore his lower eyelid off, cutting into the eye itself.
The fight was stopped in Belfort’s favour – making him the new champion with the most flukey finish in UFC title history. It never felt like Belfort was the real champion – and that feeling was only compounded when Couture beat him in one-sided fashion a few months later to reclaim the title.
Belfort would go on to a further three UFC title challenges but never again won UFC gold, meaning that due to its fluke-like beginning and its climactic end, his only title reign remains up there with the worst in promotional history.
#4 Georges St-Pierre – UFC Middleweight title – 11/04/2017 to 12/07/2017
Georges St-Pierre’s UFC Welterweight title reign, to me at least, is the greatest title reign in UFC history. The less said about his odd Middleweight title reign though, the better. St-Pierre had relinquished his Welterweight title back in 2013 and had been in retirement since, but rumours of his return persisted from mid-2016 onwards.
In early 2017 his return to action was officially announced, but in an odd move from the beginning, rather than return to his old stomping ground of 170lbs, GSP was granted a title shot at Middleweight champ Michael Bisping – at 185lbs, where he’d never fought before.
The leapfrogging of more deserving contenders annoyed some fans, but GSP made good on his return and defeated Bisping by submission in the 4th round of the fight. Fans immediately started salivating over the thought of GSP fighting Robert Whittaker, Luke Rockhold or Yoel Romero, but literally days after his victory rumours began to surface that GSP had no interest in defending his title.
Sure enough, just 33 days later, GSP relinquished the Middleweight title, blaming health issues, namely a bout of ulcerative colitis that he blamed on the move up to 185lbs. Realistically though, whether the Canadian legend ever intended to defend the title is a question mark, as he’d stated prior to the Bisping fight that he was only interested in his legacy at that stage of his career.
Unfortunately then, while his Welterweight title reign was historic for all the right reasons, his brief run as Middleweight champion was historic for all the wrong reasons instead.
#3 Conor McGregor – UFC Featherweight title – 12/12/2015 to 11/26/2016
While St-Pierre’s Middleweight title reign was a bad one, its only saving grace was that at least GSP was willing to relinquish the title quickly when it became apparent that he wouldn’t be defending it. The same cannot be said for Conor McGregor’s near-year long run as Featherweight champion.
Nobody could argue with the way that McGregor won the title – the Irishman knocked out long-reigning king Jose Aldo in just 13 seconds to claim the gold at UFC 194 – but almost immediately he didn’t seem interested in defending it against contenders like Frankie Edgar. Instead, McGregor announced his wish to move to 155lbs to claim the title there, too.
A fight with champion Rafael Dos Anjos was signed, but when ‘RDA’ dropped out with an injury, McGregor instead fought Nate Diaz in a last-minute fight at 170lbs and was beaten. Afterwards, rather than return to 145lbs, McGregor demanded a rematch with Diaz, again at 170lbs, and after getting his win back, then took on Eddie Alvarez to win the 155lbs title.
Essentially, McGregor’s title reign is one of the worst ever because he held the title for a year without ever defending it, but remained active in that time period too – making the whole issue far more frustrating to the fans.
McGregor is probably the biggest star in MMA history, but during this period he simply made a mockery of the Featherweight title, which it could be argued has only recently recovered from this dark period.
#2 Nicco Montano – UFC Women’s Flyweight title – 12/01/2017 to 09/07/2018
When the UFC announced the formation of the Women’s Flyweight division midway through 2017, eyebrows were raised, particularly when it was decided that the first champion would be crowned via a tournament on the 22nd season of The Ultimate Fighter.
Despite many fans disliking this – winning TUF is more about being able to make weight on multiple occasions over a short period of time and handle an odd situation in terms of living and training with potential opponents than it is actual fighting skill – the UFC pushed ahead, and the field was whittled down to two fighters – Nicco Montano and Sijara Eubanks.
Given Eubanks’ record of 2-2 and Montano’s record of 3-2, it was hard to argue the two were the best Flyweights in the world, but things got even stranger when Eubanks missed weight and was replaced by Roxanne Modafferi in the title fight. Montano beat Modafferi by decision and so everyone figured the division would move forward.
Except that wasn’t the case. Despite the UFC’s best attempts to match Montano with top contender Valentina Shevchenko, the champion spent the majority of 2018 on the shelf with numerous injuries, and when she did finally sign to fight Shevchenko, she failed to make weight, resulting in the fight being cancelled.
Montano was then stripped of her title – without ever making a defence – and is now on the outs with the promotion. Due to the questionable TUF tournament that led to her winning the title, the lack of title defences and the way she was stripped, Montano’s title reign is definitely up there with the worst in UFC history.
#1 Germaine De Randamie – UFC Women’s Featherweight title – 02/11/2017 to 06/19/2017
When the UFC announced the signing of Cristiane Justino – AKA Cris Cyborg – in the summer of 2016, it only seemed like a matter of time before the promotion would create a Women’s Featherweight division to build around her.
That was indeed the case – but strangely enough, she wasn’t involved in the inaugural title bout despite being recognised as the world’s best 145lber for the best part of a decade. Instead – with Cyborg claiming she couldn’t make weight in time – the UFC matched Holly Holm and Germaine De Randamie for the newly minted title at February 2017’s UFC 208.
The fight didn’t make sense on many levels – Holm was coming off two straight losses and hadn’t fought at 145lbs before while De Randamie was just 3-1 in the UFC and also hadn’t fought at 145lbs. But the idea was that the winner would fight Cyborg anyway, so it didn’t matter too much.
In the end, it was a terrible, slow-paced fight that saw De Randamie take a unanimous decision despite two bad fouls – striking Holm after the buzzer had sounded to end both the second and third rounds. But if that wasn’t bad enough, when it came to defending her new title against Cyborg, the Dutchwoman had other ideas.
Citing a wish to move back to 135lbs – as well as not wanting to fight Cyborg due to her shady past with PED allegations – De Randamie refused to take the fight, and eventually the UFC were forced to strip her of the title and make a fight between Cyborg and Tonya Evinger for the vacant championship instead.
The way De Randamie’s title reign started was bad enough, but the fact that she’s the only UFC champion to be stripped of her crown solely due to refusing to fight an opponent means that her reign as Featherweight champion stands out as the absolute worst title reign in UFC history.
