List of current mixed martial arts champions

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a form of competitive combat sport, akin to boxing, muay thai, or kick boxing. MMA titles, or championship belts, are given to those fighters deemed by a promotional organization to have met a certain standard of athletic accomplishment in a specific weight class (most often by means of a championship fight). Championship belts are fought for at each weight class under a promotion, with only one belt awarded per class. Each belt is usually contested every time the belt holder fights, and passed to the victor of that fight (see the List of UFC champions for a chronology of UFC title belts). A belt may be vacated when a fighter leaves a promotion, or is suspended. At such times an interim champion may be crowned, or the belt may be awarded to the winner of a fight between top contenders.

Anthony Ruiz after winning the PureCombat Middleweight Championship belt

This list displays all title holders for the major, certified MMA promoting and sanctioning bodies. There is no clear industry definition within the MMA community to determine which organizations are considered major promoting bodies.[1] Due to a lack of clear guidelines, this list is limited to those organizations that are either highly regarded (such as the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Strikeforce), long standing (such as King of the Cage (KOTC) and Pancrase), or the dominant organizations of a country or region of the world (such as England's Ultimate Challenge MMA (UCMMA) and Canada's Maximum Fighting Championship (MFC)).

Because there is no international unified MMA weight class system in use,[2] the Nevada State Athletic Commission's (NSAC) weight classes have been adopted for this article as they are most common across major promotions. Some organizations have created titles in weight classes outside the NSAC guidelines. Those titles have been and will be recognized as subdivisions under their common weight class.[3]

Though unofficial, Fight Matrix considered the first MMA lineal champions as follows:[4]

• Heavyweight – Ken Shamrock beginning October 14, 1993 at Pancrase: Yes, We Are Hybrid Wrestlers 2
• Light heavyweight – Frank Shamrock beginning December 21, 1997 at UFC Japan: Ultimate Japan.
• Middleweight – Kenji Kawaguchi beginning May 18, 1989 at Shooto: Shooto.
• Welterweight – Yasuto Sekishima beginning January 13, 1990 at Shooto: Shooto.
• Lightweight – Yuichi Watanabe beginning January 13, 1990 at Shooto: Shooto.
• Featherweight – Noboru Asahi beginning March 27, 1992 at Shooto: Shooto.
• Bantamweight – Kazuhiro Sakamoto beginning October 19, 1989 at Shooto: Shooto.
• Flyweight – Kenji Ogusu beginning March 27, 1992 at Shooto: Shooto.

Although the inaugural lineal champions are sometimes contested, especially at heavyweight; the consensus view, is that all the lineal titles have been unified with their respective weight class UFC titles.

Organizations are listed by a combination of their size (number of fighters, events per year, etc.) and their history (years in existence, title lineage, etc.). Title holders from other organizations, who are now fighting in the UFC, are not included in this list as the UFC does not cross promote and these belts are often vacated.[5]

Men

Super Heavyweight (over 265 lb, 120 kg, No Limit)

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Brazilian	Ronny Markes	KOTC	February 4, 2017	0

Heavyweight (265 lb, 120 kg)

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
American	Stipe Miocic	UFC	August 17, 2019	4
American	Ryan Bader	Bellator	January 26, 2019	0
Filipino	Brandon Vera	One	December 11, 2015	2
Russian	Mukhomad Vakhaev	ACA	February 21, 2020	0
English	Phil De Fries	KSW	April 14, 2018	3
N/A	Vacant	CWFC	N/A	N/A
N/A	Vacant	M-1 Global	N/A	N/A
N/A	Vacant	FNG	N/A	N/A
American	Brett Martin	LFA	September 27, 2019	0
Guam	Roque Martinez (Megatonweight: over 205 lb, 93 kg)	Deep	July 15, 2017	2
American	Mighty Mo (Openweight: no weight limit)	Road FC	September 24, 2016	2
American	Jared Vanderaa	EFC	December 8, 2018	1
American	Tony Lopez	KOTC	September 25, 2015	5
American	Shawn Teed	CFFC	November 16, 2019	0
American	Greg Rebello	CES	February 2, 2018	2
Brazilian	Andre Miranda	Jungle Fight	November 23, 2019	0
American	Shelton Graves	FFC	October 19, 2018	0

Cruiserweight (225 lb, 102 kg)

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
American	Tomar Washington (230 lb)	KOTC	May 11, 2019	0
Brazilian	Bruno Cappelozza (-100kg)	Jungle Fight	October 24, 2015	0

Light Heavyweight (205 lb, 93 kg)

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
N/A	Vacant	UFC	N/A	N/A
American	Ryan Bader	Bellator	June 24, 2017	1
Myanmar	Aung La N Sang	One	February 23, 2018	1
Turkmen	Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov	ACA	February 16, 2019	1
Czech	Jiří Procházka	Rizin FF	April 21, 2019	1
Polish	Tomasz Narkun	KSW	October 31, 2015	4
Lithuanian	Modestas Bukauskas	CWFC	June 29, 2019	1
N/A	Vacant	M-1 Global	N/A	N/A
N/A	Vacant	FNG	N/A	N/A
Brazilian	Klidson Abreu	Brave CF	August 12, 2017	1
N/A	Vacant	Titan FC	N/A	N/A
American	Alex Polizzi	LFA	February 21, 2020	0
N/A	Vacant	Pancrase	N/A	N/A
Japanese	Yoshiyuki Nakanishi	Deep	April 17, 2010[6]	3
Cameroonian	Simon Biyong	EFC	September 28, 2019	0
American	Jason Butcher	KOTC	March 3, 2017	1
American	Mike Rhodes	CFFC	November 22, 2019	0
Brazilian	Bruno Cappelozza	Jungle Fight	May 21, 2016	0
N/A	Vacant	FFC	N/A	N/A
Filipino	Chris Hofmann	URCC	April 23, 2016	0

Middleweight (185 lb, 84 kg)

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Nigerian	Israel Adesanya	UFC	October 5, 2019	1
American	Rafael Lovato Jr.	Bellator	June 22, 2019	0
Myanmar	Aung La N Sang [7]	One	June 30, 2017	3
Russian	Salamu Abdurakhmanov	ACA	April 27, 2019	1
English	Scott Askham	KSW	May 18, 2019	0
English	Nathias Frederick	CWFC	November 22, 2019	0
Brazilian	Bruno Silva	M-1 Global	November 2, 2018	0
N/A	Vacant	FNG	N/A	N/A
Brazilian	Daniel Pereira	Brave CF	December 7, 2019	0
N/A	Vacant	LFA	N/A	N/A
Japanese	Yuki Niimura	Pancrase	November 12, 2017	0
Japanese	Tatsuya Mizuno	Deep	February 24, 2018	0
N/A	Vacant	Shooto	N/A	N/A
South Korean	Hae Jun Yang	Road FC	June 15, 2019	0
American	Matt Lagler	KOTC	June 22, 2019	0
American	Kyle Daukaus	CFFC	February 16, 2019	2
Brazilian	Marcelo Barbosa	Jungle Fight	December 22, 2018	0
N/A	Vacant	FFC	N/A	N/A
Filipino	Chris Hofmann	URCC	November 6, 2016	3

Welterweight (170 lb, 77 kg)

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Nigerian	Kamaru Usman	UFC	March 2, 2019	2
Brazilian	Douglas Lima	Bellator	October 26, 2019	0
Kyrgyz	Kiamrian Abbasov	One	October 25, 2019	0
Russian	Albert Tumenov	ACA	April 27, 2019	1
Croatian	Roberto Soldić	KSW	October 6, 2018	1
Scottish	Ross Houston	CWFC	October 20, 2018	0
Kazakhstani	Shavkat Rakhmonov	M-1 Global	March 30, 2019	1
Russian	Dmitry Bikrev	FNG	April 6, 2019	0
Jordanian	Jarrah Al-Selawe	Brave CF	October 4, 2019	0
American	Michael Graves	Titan	March 15, 2019	1
Jamaican	Jason Jackson	LFA	July 12, 2019	0
Japanese	Hiroyuki Tetsuka	Pancrase	June 30, 2019	0
Japanese	Ryuichiro Sumimura	Deep	July 15, 2017	2
Brazilian	Hernani Perpetuo (Middleweight: 170 lb, 77 kg)	Shooto	August 25, 2013	0
Zimbabwean	Themba Gorimbo	EFC	September 28, 2019	1
American	Edson Gomez	KOTC	June 22, 2019	1
American	Jeremiah Wells	CFFC	September 21, 2019	0
Brazilian	Vinicius De Jesus	CES	November 29, 2019	1
Brazilian	Wilker Lemos	Jungle Fight	September 28, 2019	1
Filipino	John Adajar	URCC	September 29, 2018	1
American	Ben Egli	FFC	October 12, 2018	1

Super Lightweight (165 lb, 75 kg)

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Bahraini	Eldar Eldarov	Brave CF	April 19, 2019	0
American	Richie Palomino (Jr. Welterweight: 165 lb, 75 kg)	KOTC	September 7, 2019	0

Lightweight (155 lb, 70 kg)

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Russian	Khabib Nurmagomedov	UFC	April 7, 2018	2
Brazilian	Patrício Freire	Bellator	May 11, 2019	0
Singaporean	Christian Lee (170 lb, 77 kg)	One	May 17, 2019	0
Russian	Ali Bagov	ACA	September 27, 2019	0
Polish	Mateusz Gamrot	KSW	May 27, 2016	3
Welsh	Mason Jones	CWFC	March 20, 2020	0
Russian	Roman Bogatov	M-1 Global	September 28, 2018	2
Azerbaijani	Nariman Abbasov	FNG	April 26, 2019	0
Brazilian	Cleiton Silva	Brave CF	August 30, 2019	0
American	Bryce Logan	LFA	July 31, 2020	0
American	Sidney Outlaw	Titan	June 19, 2018	0
Japanese	Takasuke Kume	Pancrase	September 11, 2016	2
Japanese	Koji Takeda	Deep	October 27, 2018	2
N/A	Vacant (Welterweight: 155 lb, 70 kg)	Shooto	N/A	N/A
French	Mansour Barnaoui	Road FC	May 18, 2019	0
Mexican	Rafa García	Combate Americas	September 20, 2019	1
English	Joe Cummins	EFC	March 16, 2019	0
American	Blaze Gill	KOTC	January 13, 2018	0
Brazilian	Nikolas Motta	CFFC	November 16, 2019	0
American	Nate Andrews	CES	April 6, 2018	2
Brazilian	Max Denner	Jungle Fight	October 19, 2019	0

Featherweight (145 lb, 66 kg)

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Australian	Alexander Volkanovski	UFC	December 14, 2019	1
Brazilian	Patrício Freire	Bellator	April 21, 2017	3
Australian	Martin Nguyen (155 lb, 70 kg)	One	August 18, 2017	3
Brazilian	Felipe Froes	ACA	October 4, 2019	0
Polish	Mateusz Gamrot	KSW	December 1, 2018	0
Danish	Mads Burnell	CWFC	June 29, 2019	0
American	Nate Landwehr	M-1 Global	July 21, 2018	2
Russian	Alexander Matmuratov	FNG	March 31, 2017	1
American	Bubba Jenkins	Brave CF	September 21, 2018	1
American	Justin Gonzales	LFA	July 10, 2020	0
American	Jason Soares	Titan	April 6, 2018	3
Japanese	Isao Kobayashi	Pancrase	May 26, 2019	1
Japanese	Satoshi Yamasu	Deep	October 27, 2018	1
Japanese	Yuki Kawana (Lightweight: 145 lb, 66 kg)	Shooto	July 12, 2020	0
South Korean	Jung Young Lee	Road FC	November 3, 2018	1
Argentinian	Bruno Cannetti	Combate Americas	August 23, 2019	0
South African	Igeu Kabesa	EFC	August 19, 2017	2
American	Aaron Williams (Bantamweight: 145 lb, 66 kg)	KOTC	December 8, 2019	0
American	James Gonzalez	CFFC	February 1, 2020	0
American	Matt Bessette	CES	January 24, 2020	0
Brazilian	Willian Souza	Jungle Fight	January 31, 2020	0
Croatian	Filip Pejic	FFC	September 23, 2016	2
Filipino	Mark Striegl	URCC	September 29, 2018	1

Bantamweight (135 lb, 61 kg)

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Russian	Petr Yan	UFC	July 12, 2020	0
Japanese	Kyoji Horiguchi	Bellator	June 14, 2019	0
Brazilian	Bibiano Fernandes	One	March 31, 2019	8
Brazilian	Daniel "Jubileu" Oliveira	ACA	March 6, 2020	0
Japanese	Kai Asakura	Rizin FF	August 10, 2020	0
Croatian	Antun Račić	KSW	November 9, 2019	0
English	Jack Cartwright	CWFC	September 6, 2019	1
Kazakhstani	Sergey Morozov	M-1 Global	June 28, 2019	1
Slovakian	Tomáš Deák	FNG	October 6, 2017	1
Filipino	Stephen Loman	Brave CF	November 17, 2017	4
N/A	Vacant	LFA	N/A	N/A
American	Danny Sabatello	Titan	June 26, 2020	0
Brazilian	Rafael Silva	Pancrase	March 17, 2019	2
American	Victor Henry	Deep	March 9, 2019	0
Japanese	Shoko Sato (Featherweight: 135 lb, 61 kg)	Shooto	November 15, 2017	2
South Korea	Min Woo Kim	Road FC	February 23, 2019	1
American	Gustavo Lopez	Combate Americas	March 29, 2019	1
South African	Faeez Jacobs	EFC	August 10, 2019	0
American	Johnny Munoz Jr. (Flyweight: 135 lb, 61 kg)	KOTC	June 22, 2019	0
Brazilian	Herbeth Sousa	CFFC	February 1, 2020	0
American	Tony Gravely	CES	November 2, 2018	2
Brazilian	Eduardo Souza	Jungle Fight	July 15, 2017	0
Filipino	Drex Zamboanga	URCC	September 15, 2017	1

Flyweight (125 lb, 57 kg)

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Brazilian	Deiveson Figueiredo	UFC	July 19, 2020	0
Brazilian	Adriano Moraes (135 lb, 61 kg)	One	January 25, 2019	2
Russian	Azamat Kerefov	ACA	February 21, 2020	0
French	Samir Faiddine	CWFC	June 29, 2019	0
Ukrainian	Alexander Doskalchuk	M-1 Global	September 23, 2017	2
Kazakhstani	Zhalgas Zhumagulov	FNG	August 31, 2018	1
American	Jimmy Flick	LFA	July 24, 2020	0
American	Juan Puerta	Titan	December 21, 2018	2
Japanese	Hiromasa Ougikubo (Bantamweight: 125 lb, 57 kg)	Shooto	April 23, 2016[8]	2
Japanese	Tatsumitsu Wada	Deep	June 26, 2016	1
Japanese	Senzo Ikeda	Pancrase	August 20, 2017	1
South Korean	Min Jong Song	Road FC	October 9, 2015	0
English	Jake Hadley	EFC	April 13, 2019	0
American	Reuben Duran (Jr. Flyweight: 125 lb, 57 kg)	KOTC	February 24, 2018	0
American	Santo Curatolo	CFFC	August 12, 2020	0
American	Blaine Shutt	CES	January 24, 2020	0
Brazilian	Kleydson Rodrigues	Jungle Fight	October 26, 2019	0
Filipino	Ernesto Montilla Jr.	URCC	September 29, 2018	1

Strawweight (115 lb, 52 kg)

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Philippines	Joshua Pacio (125 lb, 57 kg)	One	April 12, 2019	2
Japanese	Daichi Kitakata	Pancrase	July 21, 2019	0
Japanese	Haruo Ochi	Deep	September 16, 2017	2
Japanese	Hiroshi Minowa (Flyweight: 115 lb, 52 kg)	Shooto	January 26, 2020	0

Women

Women athletes are generally smaller than, and compete at lower weights than their male counterparts.[9]

Featherweight (145 lb, 66 kg)

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Brazilian	Amanda Nunes	UFC	December 29, 2018	1
Brazilian	Cris Cyborg	Bellator	January 25, 2020	0
American	Pam Sorenson	Invicta FC	August 9, 2019	0

Bantamweight (135 lb, 61 kg)

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Brazilian	Amanda Nunes	UFC	July 9, 2016	5
Lithuanian	Julija Stoliarenko	Invicta FC	March 6, 2020	0
N/A	Vacant	FNG	N/A	N/A
American	Sarah Alpar	LFA	November 30, 2018	0
South Korean	Ji Yeon Kim	Deep Jewels	August 29, 2015	0
N/A	Vacant	Pancrase	N/A	N/A
South African	Amanda Lino	EFC	May 26, 2018	0
N/A	Vacant	CFFC	N/A	N/A
N/A	Vacant	Jungle Fight	N/A	N/A

Flyweight (125 lb, 57 kg)

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Kyrgyz	Valentina Shevchenko	UFC	December 8, 2018	3
American	Ilima-Lei Macfarlane	Bellator	November 3, 2017	4
Brazilian	Vanessa Porto	Invicta FC	February 15, 2019	0
N/A	Vacant	LFA	N/A	N/A
Brazilian	Sidy Rocha	Pancrase	April 14, 2019	0
French	Manon Fiorot	EFC	December 14, 2019	0
American	Nicco Montaño (Jr. Flyweight: 125 lb, 57 kg)	KOTC	October 8, 2016	0
N/A	Vacant	CFFC	N/A	N/A
Brazilian	Natalia Silva	Jungle Fight	October 19, 2019	1
Filipina	Geli Bulaong	URCC	April 27, 2019	0

Strawweight (115 lb, 52 kg)

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Chinese	Weili Zhang	UFC	August 31, 2019	1
Chinese	Xiong Jing Nan (125 lb, 57 kg)	One	January 20, 2018	3
Japanese	Kanako Murata	Invicta FC	November 1, 2019	0
American	Vanessa Demopoulos	LFA	July 17, 2020	0
N/A	Vacant	Pancrase	N/A	N/A
Japanese	Mizuki Inoue	Deep Jewels	August 9, 2014	1
Mexican	Melissa Martinez	Combate Americas	December 7, 2019	0
Polish	Karolina Wójcik	EFC	December 8, 2018	0
American	Loveth Young	KOTC	October 27, 2018	0
American	Elise Reed	CFFC	August 13, 2020	0
N/A	Vacant	Jungle Fight	N/A	N/A

Atomweight (105 lb, 48 kg)

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Singaporean	Angela Lee (115 lb, 52 kg)	One	May 6, 2016	4
American	Jinh Yu Frey	Invicta FC	July 21, 2018	1
South Korean	Seo Hee Ham Super Atomweight: (108 lb, 49 kg)	Rizin FF	December 31, 2019	0
Japanese	Tomo Maesawa	Deep Jewels	December 1, 2018	1
South Korean	Seo Hee Ham	Road FC	June 10, 2017	2
Japanese	Mina Kurobe Super Atomweight: (110 lb, 50 kg)	Shooto	August 1, 2020	0
American	Jayme Hinshaw	KOTC	November 10, 2017	1

See also

• List of current world boxing champions
• List of current female boxing champions
• List of undefeated mixed martial artists

References

1. The Canadian Press Staff (August 14, 2010). "Ontario to allow mixed martial arts starting in 2011". Bell Media.
2. Robert Rousseau. "MMA Doesn't Need 14 Weight Classes". SubmitToMMA.com. Retrieved February 24, 2011.
3. Michael David Smith (June 7, 2010). "Frank Mir Moving Down? Maybe MMA Needs Cruiserweight Division". AOL Inc.
4. "Fight Matrix - Lineal Championship Histories". fightmatrix.com.
5. Sammy Perez (November 8, 2010). ""Slammin' Sammy" on MMA Cross Promotion & Risks!". ringtalk.com.
6. EKP (April 17, 2010). "Deep 47 Impact Results". headkicklegend.com.
7. "ONE CHAMPIONSHIP". onefc.com.
8. http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/Hiromasa-Ogikubo-Koshi-Matsumoto-Take-Shooto-World-Titles-at-FinishFilled-Fight-Mosh-103813
9. Hyde & Gengenbach. "Anatomical and Physiological Considerations when comparing Male and Female Athletes". San Diego Center for Health. Retrieved July 26, 2011.