Last Ten Years of Inaugural Title Fights in the UFC

Saturday night might mark the last time we’re going to see a new title debut in the UFC, at least for the foreseeable future. WEC stars Joseph Benavidez and Demetrious Johnson are competing in the finals of the flyweight (125 lbs) tournament, with the winner walking away with the new UFC flyweight crown. I thought today would be a good time to look back at how titles were introduced within the past ten years.

• What would eventually become the lightweight title was introduced at UFC 30 (February 2001). At that event, it was called the UFC bantamweight title. Caol Uno had vacated his Shooto welterweight (154 lbs) title after defeating Shooto legend Rumina Sato a 2nd time at the end of 2000. Even though Sato was Joe Silva’s favorite fighter, he never competed in the UFC lightweight division. While Uno was the title holder and had two wins over Sato, he had actually lost a non-title fight to Marcio Barbosa right before the 2nd fight with Sato, thus losing the lineal title but not the physical belt and official championship. He vacated the championship to come over to fight the best the UFC had to offer. That was Jens Pulver, who had destroyed John Lewis at UFC 28 in one of most memorable knockouts of that era. The two top contenders competed in a five round battle that saw Pulver emerged as the first ever champion of that weightclass. A few years later, the title was eventually scrapped after Penn vs Uno at UFC 41 (February 2003) was scored a draw in the finals of a lightweight tournament to crown a new champion (the title was vacant since Pulver left the promotion for greener pastures in Japan). The title came back in October 2006 at UFC 64. The vacant title was up for grabs as Sean Sherk faced Kenny Florian in a five rounder. Realistically, even though Kenny Florian would eventually develop into being a top five UFC lightweight in the future, he really wasn’t deserving of a title shot at the time. His only win at lightweight was over Sam Stout, and even Sherk himself had never even competed at lightweight before. Sherk defeated Florian in one of the bloodiest UFC fights ever to win the vacant title.
• The featherweight title is unique in that it was not decided within an actual fight. Jose Aldo had shown clear dominance in WEC title fights, that he was just awarded the title at UFC 123 (November 2010). Aldo debuted in the WEC with a one-sided victory over an older Alexandre Franca Nogueira, the man previously thought to be the greatest featherweight ever. He built an 8-0 record in the WEC with memorable wins over Cub Swanson, Mike Brown (which is where Aldo won the title in November 2009), Urijah Faber, and Manny Gamburyan. His first UFC title defense was planned to be against Josh Grispi at UFC 125 (January 2011), but Aldo got injured and the fight was cancelled. His first actual defense was against Mark Hominick at UFC 129 (April 2011), who he defeated via decision.
• Question: What is the only UFC title fight to take place outside the UFC promotion? Answer: Dominick Cruz vs Scott Jorgensen at WEC 53 (December 2010), which was for both the WEC and UFC bantamweight titles. Cruz had won the title after defeating Brian Bowles at WEC 47, defended it against Joseph Benavidez in a close split decision win, and then Jorgensen was up next. Jorgensen had earned his title shot by being on a five fight winning streak, which included wins over Takeya Mizugaki, Antonio Banuelos (a rematch), and Brad Pickett. Cruz would defeat Jorgensen to become the first UFC bantamweight champion, and Cruz would go on to successfully defend the UFC title for the first time against Urijah Faber at UFC 132 (July 2011).
• To kick off the UFC flyweight division, Sean Shelby came up with a great idea for a tournament. He got the top flyweight champion from Japan, Shooto 123 lbs champion Yasuhiro Urushitani and the top flyweight champion from America, Tachi Palace Fights 125 lbs champion Ian McCall (who was also ranked number one). The other two participants in the tournament were the two bantamweight fighters people most believed could be the very best flyweights on the planet, Joseph Benavidez and Demetrious Johnson. The fights also had a sudden death round, just in case of a draw. The semi-finals went down at UFC on FX II (March 2012), the first fight was Demetrious Johnson vs Ian McCall. It was a FOTYC in my eyes that was originally scored for Johnson. However, we soon found out that the judges screwed it up, it was actually a draw and it was supposed to go to a 4th round. If it had gone, it is very likely that McCall could have walked away with a decision, as he had gained momentum in a very exciting 3rd round. The 2nd fight, featured Joseph Benavidez outgrappling Yasuhiro Urushitani in the 1st round, and then knocking him out in the 2nd. Benavidez earned his way to the finals, but Johnson and McCall had to face each other one more time. On UFC on FX III (June 2012), Johnson definitively defeated McCall via decision.  Thus he earned a fight against Benavidez at UFC 152, a clash that will crown the new 125 lbs champion of the world.