(Originally written in March 2023. Updated at the bottom in September 2024. A lot has happened in this division in recent history.)
The UFC Light Heavyweight Division is a perfect blueprint as to why the UFC has changed so much just in the last two years. From March 2011 to September 2020, the belt has been exchanged between only two Hall of Fame fighters. Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier only. Jon Jones beat ‘Shogun’ Rua at UFC 128 and held onto the belt for eight title defenses all the way up to defeating Daniel Cormier in their first fight between each other at UFC 182 in January 2015. Then Jon Jones was involved in a hit-and-run with a pregnant woman, fleeing the scene. The UFC stripped him of his belt and was suspended nearly six months.
Daniel Cormier would become champion in the next fight beating Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson (RIP) via submission at UFC 187 in May 2015. After Jones returned, he faced and defeated OSP for the interim belt. He was supposed to fight Cormier, but DC was taken out of the fight due to injury weeks before the fight. He ended up commentating the interim fight instead. Three months later he was suspended again for testing positive for cocaine, stripping him of his interim belt. During Jones’s suspension Cormier continued as champion and had three title defenses until his eventual rematch with newly reinstated Jon Jones. In the rematch, Jones ‘defeated’ Cormier again for the 2nd time. This time by KO with a devastating head kick, finished off by punches. Jon Jones was champion again, right? Yeaaaa….. no. After the fight, it was determined Jones had tested positive for Turinabol, a specific type of steroid. The athletic commission ruled the fight a ‘no contest’ meaning Cormier technically didn’t lose and would remain champion and Jones would serve a 48-month suspension that was later reduced to 15 months. Cormier would fight one more time at light heavyweight, defeating Volkan Oezdemir at UFC 220. Cormier would go on to heavyweight to defeat Stipe Miocic and become ‘double champ’ as was previously stated earlier. Cormier’s reign at light heavyweight lasted from May 2015 to December 2018.
After staying at heavyweight, Cormier vacated the belt in perfect timing for Jon Jones to return from his third suspension and fight and defeat Alexander Gustafsson for the second time to reclaim his belt at light heavyweight. Jones defended his belt three more times, defeating Anthony Smith, Thiago Santos, and Dominick Reyes. In May 2020 he vacated the belt again to take three years off and move up and fight at heavyweight for the championship. Which he would end up doing at UFC 285 in March 2023.
He is the current UFC Heavyweight Champion. Jones is considered the GOAT of the UFC/MMA because of his dominance in this division. He’s 27-1 (1) with his only loss coming from a DQ in illegal elbows where he had top mount on Mark Hamill in a fight he was seconds away from finishing. It was such a bad DQ that UFC President Dana White has said multiple times over the years that it was a terrible call by notoriously bad referee Steve Mazzagatti. Jones has never really been defeated, he has rolled through almost three generations of fighters and cannot be beaten. Yes, he’s had his close calls, but at the end of the day, nobody has defeated Jon Jones but himself. He is a 2x UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and the current UFC Heavyweight Champion. He has 11 title defenses. He’s been in 16 straight title fights and is 15-0 (1) in them all. He may not be many peoples favorite person but in the Octagon, Jon Jones is the Greatest-Of-All-Time.
Since Jones’s 2nd reign was vacated in May 2020, the belt stayed vacant until September of that same year when Jan Blachowicz defeated Dominick Reyes. Jan would defend his belt against then-UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya before eventually losing the belt via submission in October 2021 to 41-year-old Glover Teixeira.
Since then, we’ve had four different champions in the light heavyweight division. Jan was defeated by Glover Teixeira. Then, Jiri Prochazka defeated Glover to become new champion.
Then, Jiri had to vacate the belt due to injury leaving Jan Blachowicz to face Magomed Ankalaev for the vacant belt at UFC 282. When that fight ended in a draw, Dana White quickly put the UFC Light Heavyweight title fight back on the very next PPV card for Glover Teixeira vs Jamahal Hill for again, the vacant belt at UFC 283.
Jamahal Hill would obliterate Glover 50-44 x3, becoming the fourth champion in 15 months. Glover would retire after the fight and Jamahal Hill is now the current champion. Hill became the first fighter from ‘Dana White Contender Series’ to win a UFC championship. The landscape inside the Light Heavyweight Division is now more competitive than ever. The wide gap between champion and challenger no longer exists in this division. It seems as if almost every time this belt is on the line, it’s probable that it’s going to change hands.
This division is really heating up to be something special. Jiri is still rehabbing from his shoulder injury waiting to return. He is looking to come back and take back the belt that was rightfully his and become a two-time champion. While Jamahal looks to defend his belt and solidify himself as champion. The two are rumored to be facing each other next once Jiri heals up.
Updated September 2024:
Another division that has taken a wild turn. My last paragraph doesn’t even fit for what’s takes place next. It’s 18 months later and that fight between Jamahal and Jiri still hasn’t happened. The division went from four new champions in 18 months to a new face of the division and face of the UFC all in a little over a year’s time.
On January 21st, 2023, Jamahal Hill became champion like I mentioned earlier. In July of that year, during a basketball game during International Fight Week, Hill had an Achilles tendon rupture. Another brutal injury in this division that again forced the UFC to vacate the belt. He wanted to vacate the belt the same way Jiri did. He didn’t want to keep the division held up while he was likely out for a year. Hill would decide to vacate the belt on July 14th, 2023. The belt would stay vacated until November 11th, 2023 at UFC 295. Where new light heavyweight weight contender Alex Pereira, fresh off a win vs Jan Blachowicz in a tightly contested fight. His first at light heavyweight. Afterwards, he would go on to face Jiri Prochazka in a vacant title fight. Jiri was coming back from his severe shoulder injury that made him vacate the belt for over a year that started this merry-go-round.
In the vacant UFC Light Heavyweight Title fight, Alex Pereira would TKO Jiri Prochazka in round 2 to claim the undisputed belt. Alex became the 9th fighter in UFC history to become a two division champion.
Alex’s next opponent was against the other former champion who vacated the belt due to injury in Jamahal Hill. Alex and Jamahal would headline UFC 300 the biggest PPV event in the company’s history. It did not disappoint. Alex would KO Jamahal a little over three minutes into the first round to retain the belt. Alex would defeat the two former champions who had to relinquish the belt due to injury to solidify himself as the undisputed champion. He then would take a short notice championship fight two months later to mai event against Jiri Prochazka again. Some argued that the first fight ended due to an early stoppage. While Jiri himself came out and said it wasn’t an early stoppage, the haters still found something to hate and make noise about.
Alex and Jiri took this fight on short notice after the main event was originally Conor McGregor vs Michael Chandler but Conor pulled out due to a broken toe. The UFC called Alex and Jiri and both agreed to take the fight. At UFC 303, Alex Pereira vs Jiri Prochazka 2, the fight would end shorter than the first time they fought. Alex would TKO Jiri 73 seconds into this fight to put a stamp on this rivalry. Pereira defended his belt for the second time and is now slated to face number eight ranked Light Heavyweight Khalil Rountree Jr. on October 5th, 2024 at UFC 307. While it is rumored that Jiri Prochazka vs Jamahal Hill could be next for both of these guys with now neither of them holding the belt they once had.
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