Since Silva's victory over Henderson a lot of people have been talking about who id the greatest UFC champion and have been laying out facts about former champions. however i have noticed a lot of mistakes that people have used (even i am guilty) about former champions whether they state the wrong number of defenses, who they have defeated or misremember the dominance of the champion. so just for context i will lay out each champion of the UFC (not Superfight), who they defeated for their title and how many defenses they had. for people like Matt Hughes and Randy Couture i will label each of their successive reigns as different from their original. i also threw in my little personal tidbits of opinion here in there so i hope this helps with the facts:
HW -Mark Coleman: defeated Dan Severn and had 0 defenses -Maurice Smith: defeated Mark Coleman and had 1 defense (Tank Abbot) -Randy Couture: defeated Maurice Smith and had 0 defenses (stripped of title after contract dispute) -Bas Rutten: defeated Kevin Randleman and had 0 defenses (retired) -Kevin Randleman: defeated Pete Williams and had 1 defense (Pedro Rizzo) -Randy Couture: defeated Kevin Randleman and had 2 defenses (Pedro Rizzo x2) -Josh Barnett: defeated Randy Couture and had 0 defenses (stripped of title due to steroids) -Ricco Rodriguez: defeated Randy Couture and had 0 defenses -Tim Sylvia: defeated Ricco Rodriguez and had 1 defense (Gan McGee and lost title due to steroids after that) -Frank Mir: defeated Tim Sylvia (vacant belt) and had 0 defenses (bike accident) **-Andrei Arlovski: defeated Tim Sylvia ad had 2 defenses (Justin Eilers and Paul Buentello) -Tim Sylvia: defeated Andrei Arlovski and had 2 defenses (Andrei Arlovski and Jeff Monson) -Randy Couture: defeated Tim Sylvia and had 1 defense (Gabriel Gonzaga and then left) ****-Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (interim belt): defeated Tim Sylvia and had 0 defenses ****-Frank Mir (interim belt): defeated Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and had 0 defenses ****-Brock Lesnar: defeated Randy Couture and has 1 defense (Frank Mir)
**Andrei was technically Interim Champion when he defended against Eilers but was later promoted to full champion after Mir was out indefinitely
****Randy Couture had a contract dispute with the UFC but was not stripped of his title. instead, Nogueira fought Tim Sylvia for the interim belt due to Randy's absence. Nogueira won and proceeded to sign on to coach TUF 8 along with Frank Mir; the two fighters would then face each other for the interim belt. however, Randy was able to reconcile his differences with the UFC before Nogueira could fight Mir. since Randy needed an opponent and Mir and Nogueira were tied up with TUF 8, Brock Lesnar stepped in to fight Randy for the actual belt. Lesnar defeated Randy and captured the actual belt and Mir defeated Nogueira and captured the interim belt. now Lesnar will fight Mir to unify the two belts. Lesnar then went on to defeat Mir to claim a unified title.
To sum up HW...no man has more then 2 consecutive title defenses during their reign (Couture, Arlovski and Sylvia).
LHW -Frank Shamrock: defeated Kevin Jackson and had 4 defenses (Igor Zinoviev, Jeremy Horn, John Lober, and Tito Ortiz and then retired) -Tito Ortiz: defeated Wanderlei Silva and had 5 defenses (Yuki Kondo, Evan Tanner, Elvis Sinosic, Vladimir Matyushenko and Ken Shamrock) -Randy Couture(interim champion after defeating Liddell): defeated Tito Ortiz and had 0 defenses -Vitor Belfort: defeated Randy Couture and had 0 defenses -Randy Couture: defeated Vitor Belfort and had 0 defenses -Chuck Liddell: defeated Randy Couture and had 4 defenses (Jeremy Horn, Randy Couture, Renato Sobral and Tito Ortiz) -Quinton Jackson: defeated Chuck Liddell and had 1 defense (Dan Henderson) -Forrest Griffin: defeated Quinton Jackson and had 0 defenses -Rashad Evans: defeated Forrest Griffin and had 0 defenses -Lyoto Machida: defeated Rashad Evans and has 1 defense (Shogun Rua)
To sum up the LHW, Ortiz had the most consecutive defensive with 5 and Shamrock and Liddell both had 4. keep in mind that Shamrock was not defeated.
MW -Dave Menne: defeated Gil Castillo and had 0 defenses -Murilo Bustamante: defeated Dave Menne and had 1 defense (Matt Lindland) then left the UFC for PRIDE -Evan Tanner: defeated David Terrell and had 0 defenses -Rich Franklin: defeated Evan Tanner and had 2 defenses (Nate Quarry and David Loiseau) -Anderson Silva: defeated Rich Franklin and has 5 defenses (Nate Marquardt, Rich Franklin, Dan Henderson, Patrick Cote and Thales Leites)
To sum up the MW division, Anderson Silva has the most title defenses with 5 and is by far the most dominant MW champion in UFC history.
WW -Pat Miletich: defeated Mikey Burnett and had 4 defenses (Jorge Patino, Andre Pederneiras, John Alessio and Kenichi Yamamoto) -Carlos Newton: defeated Pat Miletich and had 0 defenses -Matt Hughes: defeated Carlos Newton and had 5 defenses (Hayato Sakurai, Carlos Newton, Gil Castillo, Sean Sherk and Frank Trigg) -BJ Penn: defeated Matt Hughes and had 0 defenses (left UFC) -Matt Hughes: defeated GSP and had 2 defenses (Frank Trigg and BJ Penn) -GSP: defeated Matt Hughes and had 0 defenses -Matt Serra: defeated GSP and had 0 defenses -GSP: defeated Matt Serra and has 3 defenses (Jon Fitch, BJ Penn and Thiago Alves)
To sum up the WW division Matt Hughes has the most consecutive title defenses with 5. he also has the most title defenses (in total) then any other UFC champion with 7. imo he is the greatest champion in UFC history.
LW -Jens Pulver: defeated Caol Uno and had 2 defenses (Dennis Hallman and BJ Penn) and then was stripped of the title (contract dispute) ***at UFC 41 BJ Penn and Caol Uno fought to a draw for the vacant title*** -Sean Sherk: defeated Kenny Florian and had 1 defense (Hermes Franca) and then was stripped of the title (steroids) -BJ Penn: defeated Joe Stevenson and has 3 defense (Sean Sherk, Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez)
To sum up the LW division, BJ Penn is emerging as the most dominant champion in this young division.
Last edited 3/4/10 12:21PM by jiujitsufreak74 Edit note/reason: n/a 22 total post edits
_______________________________________ "When people hit me and I feel like, 'oh this guy is trying to knock me out,' then i break my foot off in their ass" -Rampage Jackson
Last edited 3/6/08 7:08PM by jiujitsufreak74 Edit note/reason: n/a
_______________________________________ "When people hit me and I feel like, 'oh this guy is trying to knock me out,' then i break my foot off in their ass" -Rampage Jackson
Your right on as of now hughes is the greatest champion ever. But he is on theouts and i see anderson Silva only getting better against the best that they can throw at him. He will be champion for a very long time and will be the best P4P fighter ever........i've been saying this for a long time
Hughes also could've had another had Royce Gracie decided to cut a little weight. Dissapointing.
also he would have had one against Joe Riggs but he couldn't make eight either. if you count those two it would be 9 defenses in total for Hughes which imo solidifies him as the greatest champion of the UFC to date.
_______________________________________ "When people hit me and I feel like, 'oh this guy is trying to knock me out,' then i break my foot off in their ass" -Rampage Jackson
_______________________________________ "When people hit me and I feel like, 'oh this guy is trying to knock me out,' then i break my foot off in their ass" -Rampage Jackson
I agree for sure. No one should go off saying Silva is the greatest with Hughes credentials. Hughes destroyed that division. He seemed invincible at some points. Hughes/Trig 2 was crazy! Trig gets a low blow and almost submits hughes til Hughes stands up, throws him to the ground and gets a choke on trig.
Dissapointing.
