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To win a UFC title is the dream of most fighters who first venture into MMA. It satisfies a mixed martial artist's competitive drive to prove themselves the best among their peers. However, there is more to the goal of becoming a UFC champion than being crowned the world's greatest fighter.
It also comes with a significant bump in a fighter's pay, which can be further enhanced by pay-per-view points. Thus, most champions strive to fight on pay-per-views, either headlining them or fighting in the co-main event slot of a card headlined by larger draws like Conor McGregor.
However, despite champions almost always being the headliners, barring extremely rare cases, there have been champions who have never, in fact, headlined a single pay-per-view. To make matters worse, the trend appears common among women's fighters.
#5 Dave Menne, former UFC middleweight champion
Hardly anyone outside of the closely guarded circle of hardcore fans remembers Dave Menne. Long before the days of Anderson Silva's legendary middleweight title reign, Menne was the UFC's first, albeit short-lived, 185-pound champion. His first bout in the promotion, though, was at welterweight.
He faced Fabiano Iha, winning via unanimous decision, before parting ways with the promotion. He returned a year later, capturing the inaugural middleweight title in the third-last bout of UFC 33 against Gil Castillo. However, he failed to net a successful title defense, losing the belt to Murilo Bustamante in the very next fight.
As with his last, their bout was the third-last of the event, marking Menne as one of the few champions in the promotion's history to never headline a single one of its pay-per-views.
#4 Petr Yan, former UFC bantamweight champion
Petr Yan had a short-lived reign as the promotion's bantamweight champion. He first captured the vacant title with a TKO win over the legendary José Aldo. Their bout, however, was the third-last bout of the main card at UFC 251, which was also the case in his first title defense against Aljamain Sterling.
Despite dominating most of the fight, even scoring a knockdown and effortlessly outwrestling Sterling, Yan made the most disastrous decision of his career when he illegally kneed Sterling in the head when the latter was a grounded opponent. He was quickly disqualified after Sterling was unable to continue, losing the belt.
While a win over Cory Sandhagen earned him a title rematch with 'Funk Master,' their matchup was the co-main event of the evening, and Yan lost a contentious split-decision, and hasn't been anywhere near title contention since.
#3 Joanna Jędrzejczyk, former UFC women's strawweight champion
Recent UFC Hall of Fame inductee Joanna Jędrzejczyk is, inarguably, the greatest women's strawweight of all time, having netted five consecutive title defenses before eventually losing the 115-pound strap to Rose Namajunas. However, despite her two-year reign, she has never headlined a pay-per-view.
Jędrzejczyk's initial title fight with Carla Esparza was a co-main event, and of her five title defenses, two were not on pay-per-view, with one being a Fight Night main event, and the other being a 'The Ultimate Fighter' finale. Of the three pay-per-views she fought in as a champion, two were co-main event slots.
In the other one, she was one-half of the third-last bout of the evening. Thereafter, none of her pay-per-view fights were ever a main event, and she has since retired from the sport without ever headlining a pay-per-view.
#2 Alexa Grasso, current UFC women's flyweight champion
The only remaining Mexican titleholder in the promotion is Alexa Grasso, who reigns as the women's flyweight queen. She has had a lengthy tenure with the promotion, dating back to 2016, with most of her bouts being on Fight Night cards. Her only pay-per-view appearances lacked a headline slot for her.
At UFC 285, she faced then reigning women's flyweight champion, Valentina Shevchenko. In an all-time great upset in women's MMA, she submitted Shevchenko to capture the title. Alas, theirs was the co-main event, eclipsed by Jon Jones' heavyweight title triumph over Ciryl Gane.
Grasso's first title defense was booked for a Fight Night main event, and she managed to retain her belt after a controversial split-draw. Now, she will serve as an opposing coach on 'The Ultimate Fighter 32' against Shevchenko, but has yet to be awarded with a pay-per-view headliner.
#1 Zhang Weili, current UFC women's strawweight champion
China's first-ever UFC champion, Zhang Weili, was a fighter of little renown prior to facing then women's strawweight champion Jéssica Andrade for the title in a Fight Night main event on home soil. She hadn't headlined any card in the promotion up until that point, but made good on the opportunity she was given.
She annihilated Andrade with a dominant first-round TKO, before defending her newly minted title against former champion, Joanna Jędrzejczyk. After a war for the ages, 'Magnum' had successfully defended her title in the co-main event of a pay-per-view, which was the same position she fought in for her next two events.
She lost her title to Rose Namajunas, failing to regain it in an immediate rematch. However, a win over Jędrzejczyk in a rematch, which was the third-last bout of a pay-per-view, earned her a title shot against Carla Esparza. 'Magnum,' in the co-main event, reclaimed her title, before defending it in another co-main event.
