In just two years, the Nigerian-born New Zealander has gone 7-0, picked up this site’s 2018 “Breakthrough Fighter of the Year” and 2019 “Fighter of the Year” awards and minted himself as a genuine superstar in a sport that lives or dies by them. And of course, he won the UFC middleweight title and will now look to restore order to a division that had fallen into chaos since the fall of Anderson Silva.
The incomparable Silva so thoroughly embodied the 185-pound division during his long reign that it’s easy to forget what a mess it had been before his arrival. In fact, like its fellow unloved stepchild, the lightweight division, the UFC had a long period during which there was no middleweight champ at all, in this case the two-and-a-half year gap between October 2002, when Murilo Bustamante defected to Pride Fighting Championships, and February 2005.
Silva’s run of 10 title defenses—which would have been 11 had Travis Lutter made weight at UFC 67—came to a crashing halt at the end of a sweet left hook from Chris Weidman at UFC 162. For the next five years, the middleweight title picture was a mess, defined by stunning upsets, a couple of very iffy title shots, challengers missing weight and above all, a shocking litany of injuries and illnesses. Of the next five men to wear the belt after “The Spider,” Georges St. Pierre and Michael Bisping are out of the sport for reasons related at least partly to their health, Weidman and Luke Rockhold moved up to light heavyweight and Robert Whittaker withdrew from more title bouts than he fought.
For now, though, the middleweight division has a new champ and perhaps a new lease on life. “The Last Stylebender” is an undefeated, exciting and thus far very active fighter who has a host of deserving contenders on the horizon, starting with his first title defense, a self-described “legacy fight” against Yoel Romero this weekend.
Here is the history of the UFC middleweight title and the times it was won, lost or defended. Interim title fights are omitted with the exception of Whittaker vs. Romero at UFC 213, since the winner of that fight was promoted to undisputed champion without a unification bout. It tells the story of a talented but mercurial division, a competitive maelstrom that only one man has truly managed to tame so far.
Ben Duffy/Sherdog.com illustration