In 2003, Randy Couture became the first UFC Champion to earn a belt in two different weight classes when he defeated Chuck Liddel for the Interim UFC Light Heavyweight Championship … This accomplishment would be mirrored by BJ Penn in 2008, when he nabbed the Lightweight belt, after previously being Welterweight champion four years earlier. It wasn’t until Connor McGregor had his all-time run in 2015 that a champion held two belts at the same time, for Connor it was the Lightweight and the Featherweight strap, and after this moment, the landscape of championship accolades in the UFC changed forever.

Prior to this moment, a fighter’s greatest chances to ascend the GOAT rankings, was to win a belt and defend it for as long as possible. After the infamous McGregor double belt, things became a little more complicated for champions. They now had two avenues to achieve greatness, title defenses and belts collected.

Now, we have two more double champ fights lined up for 2025, including Lightweight Champ and current PFP #1 fighter Islam Makhachev taking on newly crowned Welterweight Champ Jack Della Madelena, and recently vacated Featherweight Champion Ilia Topuria taking on Charles Olivera for the vacated belt that Islam left when he moved up to fight JDM. The whole thing becomes a little confusing. It becomes even more confusing considering that Ilia Topuria only moved up to Lightweight because he wanted to challenge Makhachev, and now finds himself facing Olivera instead because Islam only decided to move up to Welterweight now because the new champ doesn’t share the same religion as him … Are you still following me???

UFC President Dana White, to his credit, implemented a rule stating that a fighter has to drop their current belt to chase after another one, solving the first issue related to what I have dubbed The Double Champ Problem. When a fighter currently with a belt decides to move up to another, they run the risk of “blocking” the division from progressing, as even the most active of fighters can only fight once every couple of months, leading to a sort of divisional clog taking place, where the top fighters just chase each other, and top contenders are left waiting for title shots.

The second issue is much harder to solve, as it’s become ingrained in the culture of the UFC. When Connor McGregor won that double belt in 2016, it changed how UFC contenders and champions looked at themselves in the race to become the greatest of all time. Those two belts looked really good on Connor’s shoulders when he hoisted them up after knocking out Eddie Alvarez, an image that so many champions have been chasing ever since. Suddenly it’s not enough to be the best in your division and face challenger after challenger. Nowadays UFC Champions for the most part always want that second belt, and as the issue continues, it will continue to create challenges for the UFC.

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