Updated: UFC Middleweight Championship

(Originally written in March 2023. Updated at the bottom in August 2024. A lot has happened in this division in recent history.)

Anderson Silva is considered one of the greatest UFC fighters of all-time. He won the middleweight belt in just his 2^nd fight in the UFC. Granted, the UFC was much different then than it is now. Still Silva became champion in October 2006 and held the belt all the way until July 2013. He had 10 title defenses and won 16 straight fights in his UFC tenure. He was on an entirely different level. On March 18th 2023, the UFC announced during UFC 286 that Anderson ‘Spider’ Silva would inducted into the Pioneer Wing of the UFC Hall of Fame. Much deserved and with almost no time wasting at all.

Unfortunately, he was too good for his own good at UFC 162. Too good meaning that he got too comfortable. He lost his streak that night when he was playing around too much in the cage and it led to him getting knocked out by heavy underdog and undefeated Long Island wrestler Chris Weidman in July 2013. He had his arms down and was toying with Chris. Weidman was lunging after him with a bunch of hooks and was missing. Silva had his hands down and was trying to avoid Weidman’s flurry by leaning away from all of them until the last one got enough of Silva on the chin and knocked him out cold.

It was arguably one of the biggest upsets in UFC history. Weidman is a local guy from my neck of the woods. I was rooting for him but did not expect him to win. Weidman and Silva 2 had taken place under six months later and Weidman won again by TKO. This fight just as controversial as the first fight. Silva had gotten a compound fracture early in the 2^nd round. One of the most gruesome injuries the sports world has ever seen. Ending the fight immediately and giving the win to Weidman.

Silva would finish his UFC career 1-7-0 (1). Weidman would hold onto the belt from July 2013 until December 2015. After three title-defenses, he would get washed by Luke Rockhold at UFC 194 by TKO in Round 4. Still hurts just to talk about it. Luke would hold the belt for a cup of coffee after he was defeated in his very next fight by Michael Bisping at UFC 199 by KO in June 2016.

Bisping defeated Dan Henderson at UFC 204 in his only title defense in a very controversial fight and opponent. He was obliterated in the first two rounds and it was arguable Henderson won one of the last three rounds. It was in England where Bisping was from and Henderson was retiring after the fight regardless of the outcome. It was a rematch in the making from The Ultimate Fighter where Bisping got knocked out cold by Henderson in their 1st fight. Maybe there was some influence to lean more Bisping in the 2nd fight, but regardless he solidified his belt by defending it. He would then lose to returning legend Georges St-Pierre in November 2017 at Madison Square Garden in what is considered a top 3 card of all time. Georges was arguably the biggest legend in UFC history at that time, maybe a little higher than Anderson Silva in the top 5 UFC fighters of all-time. Right now he’s probably #1 or #2 in many fans votes with him, Jon Jones and Anderson Silva as the UFC Goats.

St-Pierre would return after a four-year absence since his last fight against Johnny Hendricks at UFC 167. Georges had always fought at welterweight his entire career, but this time he came back and fought Bisping at middleweight for the first time in his entire career. Georges would defeat Bisping at UFC 217 by rear-naked choke in Round 4. St-Pierre became a two-division champ and solidified himself as arguably the greatest UFC fighter of all-time. After the fight, Georges would never fight again.

Michael Bisping would waste no time. Taking a short-notice fight in China to try and get back in the championship hunt quickly. He would lose again, this time by brutal KO just 21 days later against Kelvin Gastelum ending his career for good. Bisping had been a literal one-eyed fighter for almost half of his career. He became champion with one working eye. After getting KO by Gastelum it further damaged his eye and eye socket and he knew his career was over after that. Him along with former champs Dominick Cruz and Daniel Cormier do commentating for the UFC for weekly events.

Robert Whittaker became the interim champion waiting in line to fight Georges, but Georges went back into retirement. The UFC then awarded the undisputed belt to Whittaker. Whittaker would defeat Yoel Romero in a non-title bout due to Romero missing weight but would go down as fight of the year. He would have the belt from December 2017 until October 2019 where he would lose by KO to then-interim champion Israel Adesanya by KO.

Adesanya became UFC Interim Champ by defeating Gastelum in one of the best UFC fights of all time, winning Fight of the Year. After defeating Whittaker, Adesanya never looked back. He wasn’t giving up the belt so easy. Israel is considered one the greatest UFC middleweights of all-time. He won nine fights in a row. After winning the belt, he defended it five times. He even attempted to become double-champ in a light heavyweight title fight vs Jan Blachowicz but lost by unanimous decision. His first career loss in MMA and UFC. He went back down to middleweight and defended his belt three more times before losing the belt to Alex Pereira at UFC 281 in November 2022 in another upset.

Adesanya had a long championship run. There was a time where he was considered in the conversation with Anderson Silva as the GOAT of the middleweights. He had five title defenses and it seemed he was going to have the division locked down for a long time. Defeating Yoel Romero, Paulo Costa, Marvin Vettori, Robert Whittaker (twice), and Jared Cannonier. With his next opponent slated to be Alex Pereira, who had climbed through the UFC rankings and into a title fight in record time.

Pereira and Adesanya have history. In their kickboxing days, Pereira defeated Adesanya both times they faced. The last time being by knockout. This time Israel was the champion and Alex was contender. All those years ago and they were back again fighting one another on the biggest stage of them all. Israel was on his way to beating Alex. Heading to the 5th round it looked to be 3-1 toward Adesanya. And then the 5th round started. Pereira had gotten Adesanya backed toward the cage and started teeing off. Alex eventually landed a left hook to stun Adesanya along with a flurry of punches, to the point where referee Marc Goddard had to come in-between them and end the fight. Considered one of the biggest upsets and fights of the year. Adesanya and fans debated that the stoppage was premature but I felt it was perfect timing. One or two more shots like that would have put Israel to sleep. Alex is now all-time 3-0 against Israel in Kickboxing and MMA combined. Pereira now holds the belt, and has his first title-defense against Adesanya in the rematch at UFC 287 on April 8 2023.

Updated August 2024: Well, well, well. How the turn tables… We’ve got a lot to cover. Let’s start with where I left off in March 2023. At UFC 287, Adesanya v Pereira 2 (4?) had taken place and man was it incredible. It lived up to the hype. Fights at Madison Square Garden never disappoint. The rematch was similar to the first, incredible right from the start. Alex and Adesanya had both landed with some great shots and it was looking to be another fight of the year candidate. Round 2 was similar to round 5 of the first fight. Pereira backed Adesanya toward the cage and was teeing off on him. This time Adesanya learned from his past mistake and hit Alex with a counter right when Alex was teeing off on him and it landed right behind the ear that put Alex out standing up until he eventually fell to his back. Adesanya finished with a ground and pound hammer fist and was once again became the UFC Middleweight Champion. Adesanya finally got the victory over Alex in their fourth fight against one another and silenced most of the critics (haters). It was a tremendous moment for him and the UFC. After the fight, Alex said he was going to Light Heavyweight. Which everyone knew was going to happen, he looked like he was dying trying to make 185. He was more fitted for 205 and has he shown it. Becoming a two-division champ with multiple title defenses and currently the champ at 205 now.

Alex Pereira was perfect for the middleweight division for that time. At that time Adesanya had already run-through the entire division. Some already twice and made the division become sort of halted. When Pereira beat Adesanya and then Adesanya beat Pereira in the rematch, it brought some contenders into close contention for a future title fight but still a fight or two away.

In that time we had a fighter named Sean Strickland who lost to Alex Pereira on the same card Adesanya headlined against Cannonier. Then Since Sean and Cannonier lost that night. Both of them fought one another with Cannonier edging Sean in a controversial split decision. Sean then went on to face Imavov, taking a short notice fight less than one month since losing to Cannonier. This time at Light Heavyweight because of it being short notice. Sean would beat the unranked Imavov and then 6 months later beat rising overhyped up and comer Abus Magomedov. Another unranked fighter and Sean would go on to beat via TKO. Making it look easy. I mention this entire paragraph to say that the division was already kind of frozen. Adesanya had beaten everyone in front of Sean and since Sean beat Abus two months after Adesanya beat Pereira. The two were slated on the same timing to fight one another. The UFC booked this fight in what felt like a simple title defense for Adesanya, to add to the resumé and get another red jewel on the belt. They held the fight at UFC 293 in Sydney, Australia. Basically Adesanya’s backyard. The fight was a shocker to say the least. Sean would constantly pressure Adesanya keeping Israel on his back foot and playing incredible defense with his upright Philly Shell guard. Adesanya had no answers and Sean pieced him up slowly and won 4/5 rounds to win the UFC Middleweight Championship. Adesanya went in as a 7/1 favorite. Sean spars more than anyone and just constantly walks you down for 25 minutes with relentless pressure while backing up constantly.

In March 2023, when I wrote this initial article, never did I ever think that Sean Strickland would defeat Israel Adesanya to become champion. Especially since Adesanya wasn’t even champion at the time of the article.

After Strickland shocked the MMA world. Adesanya decided he was going to take some time off. He had 5 title fights in 18 months and deserved some time away. In the meantime Sean Strickland was champion and watched another upset. Dricus Du Plessis KO’d Robert Whittaker in another huge upset to the division. Almost everyone was certain we were one fight away from Adesanya v Whittaker 3. Both were heavy favorites for their fights and nobody gave Dricus and Sean a chance to make it to a title fight.

At UFC 296 headlined by Leon Edwards v Colby Covington, where Leon would win and retain his belt. Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis were in the crowd that night and weirdly enough Dricus was two rows directly behind him. Of course naturally the second the camera gets in their faces things escalate. Sean tells the row in between Dricus and himself to move out of the way and then Sean attacks Du Plessis in the crowd starting a crowd altercation between the two and their respective parties. Dana White came out in the post-fight press conference that night and said that was his mistake. Not realizing he had put the two headlining the next card right behind one another. I believe there was some suspicion there because it worked like a charm. A fight not many were too excited about because they wanted to see Izzy vs Dricus or Izzy vs Whittaker 3 but got Sean vs Dricus, After the brawl at UFC 296, it got many fans excited to see them finally scrap at UFC 297 one month later.

On January 20th 2024, champion Sean Strickland fought Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada for the UFC Middleweight Championship. A weird fight with both fighters going back and forth but in the end the judges gave the split-decision victory to Dricus Du Plessis to become the new UFC Middleweight Championship. Very scrappy, uncomfortable and really about who had the more significant damage. Neither of them had their best fights but it was close. Even at mmadecisionsdotcom, they ruled Dricus won in 13 of the 24 media outlets.

From November 2022 – January 2024 We’ve had Israel Adesanya, Alex Pereira, Israel Adesanya (again), Sean Strickland, and Dricus Du Plessis as champion of the UFC Middleweight division. Very unusual for what this division stood for not to long ago with Anderson Silva, Chris Wediman, and Israel Adesanya and their tenured runs.

The Middleweight division needed to be built back up again. Alex went to light heavyweight, became champion there. Adesanya took some time off after losing to Strickland. Sean fought Paulo Costa and defeated him via split decision even though it was a clear unanimous decision fight. Robert Whittaker fought Paulo Costa as well (finally) and won. Then he was supposed to fight Khamzat Chimaev but Khamzat pulled out of the fight again, this time with illness. So he was replaced by Ikram Aliskerov, a rising up-and-comer whose only lost was to Khamzat well before either were in the UFC. Whittaker defeated Ikram via 1st round KO. Jared Cannonier lost to Caio Borralho so he was out of the race. Nassourdine Imavov is set to face Brendan Allen in September. That rounds out the top 5 fighters.

Back in late 2022 or early 2023, during a press conference. Dricus said when he became champion that he would be the first real African champion. Discrediting Israel Adesanya, Kamaru Usman, and Francis Ngannou as African champions because they resided in America and didn’t live or train in Africa anymore. Adesanya was irked by that and knew he would see Dricus again. At UFC 290 after Dricus shocked everyone when defeating Robert Whittaker via TKO in the 2nd round. Izzy was in the stands and Dana and the UFC let Adesanya into the octagon to face off against Dricus where they were jawing at each other and going back and forth showing that the rivalry was personal. This was set before Izzy fought Sean. I think even the UFC thought Adesanya would win against Strickland setting up Dricus to be next. Due to the way everything turned out between the fights, these two didn’t face each other until over a year after they were projected. This time with Dricus as the champion and Adesanya as the contender. The heated rivalry did not die down. It was one of the most anticipated fights of 2024.

Around 7 months after Du Plessis defeated Strickland to become AND NEW. Israel Adesanya was coming back after taking a year off from fighting and was given an immediate title fight. Some felt it wasn’t deserved after coming off a loss to Sean Strickland in his last fight. But because of his resumè and the heated rivalry these two had for one another. It was as good as time to finally make the fight the fans had been waiting for.

At UFC 305 in Perth, Australia, Dricus Du Plessis defeated Israel Adesanya via 4th round face crank submission. Adesanya was the small favorite in the fight but Dricus looked strong in the first two rounds but started tire. The third round was all Adesanya and even the fourth round was looking like Izzy’s round before being hit with a flurry of shots after Adesanya pointed to the ground to stand and bang like Max Holloway has done throughout his career. It did not work out like it does for Max. Eventually Izzy got clipped and then Dricus took his back to get the eventual submission. — After the fight Dricus and Izzy squashed their beef and both gave each other their flowers. Dana Whitesaid afterward that the Sean Strickland rematch was probably next for Dricus because Sean has remained the #1 contender and with how close their first fight was.

For Adesanya, it will be interesting to see what’s next for him. He said he’s not going anywhere and he will be back. I hope we do get to seem come back and fight for a title again. While many haters are happy to see his demise, I personally enjoyed his title reign. He’s 35 and says he felt better than ever in this fight he just wasn’t the better man. His next fight will be his first non-title fight in 13 fights when he defeated Anderson Silva via unanimous decision. Talking about coming full-circle.