Fans say the UFC feels more congested than ever with slow-moving titles, champions jumping between weight classes and dubious matchmaking. The numbers tell all.
Recent decisions by the UFC have caused some fans to question their matchmaking
process. There’s always been a balance between sporting meritocracy and entertainment when it came to the UFC’s
decisions but recently the scale seems to have tipped too much towards entertainment.
Over the past few years, there have
been several examples of consensus number-one title contenders being forced to wait for their opportunity at gold.
Merab Dvalishvili and Belal Muhammad were both passed over on multiple times before winning their respective belts
and Arman Tsarukyan is still waiting for his opportunity to fight for the lightweight belt.
Add to that the recent introduction of the new Meta Rankings which sit alongside the existing ranking system, and there’s even less clarity on the established order within each division and who deserves the next title shot.
Another real concern when it comes to matchmaking is fighter availability - but has this been getting worse in recent years? Spend enough time in the comments sections of a UFC event announcement post and you’ll hear the same complaints over and over again about certain fighters: where is fighter X, why is fighter Y not fighting, when is fighter Z going to defend or vacate their belt?
It's a recurring frustration from fans, but is it actually true? Divisions have always had interim titles, injury pull-outs and vacated belts and there are some infamous examples in recent memory. The real question is whether that's happening more now than it used to, or whether it just feels that way because the arguments are louder.
To find out, this investigation runs two separate tests: how title reigns are classified (active, interim or vacant), and - more pointedly - how many of those reigns were controversial for reasons that discrete classification alone can’t explain.
At any point in time, each of the UFC's 11 weight divisions is in one of three states: held by an active champion, held on an interim basis, or sitting vacant while the promotion sorts out who fights for it next. If congestion were really getting worse, one would expect interim and vacant periods to be eating up a growing share of time.
Step 1 of 3
Share of days each year a division was held by an active champion
* 2026 data accurate as of the 29th of July
01
Every year since 2017, around 90% of days are accounted for by a clearly active, defending
champion.
This percentage has remained largely steady since the existing divisions we have today came into effect.
02
Add interim titles, usually created when an active champion is hurt or otherwise preoccupied, and the distributions remain fairly consistent.
03
Add vacant periods on top, and the year-on-year swing is small: nowhere near enough to explain the sense that things have spiralled.
Reign type alone doesn't always capture why a title picture feels chaotic. A champion can be fully 'active' and still be sitting on a reign that fans, media and rivals openly call into question - be it inactivity, ducking fights, or the way in which they won the belt in the first place. That's a second, separate test.
To get an honest assessment of how controversy around the title picture has changed, every champion's title reign since the 10th of December, 2017 was assessed for controversy.
A reign-day was flagged as controversial if it met one or more of the following criteria:
Every day in the dataset was scored per division: 1 if any of the above applied, 0 if not.
Controversial title reigns, month by month
Each cell is one division, one month. Darker red = more controversial days that month.
* 2026 data accurate as of the 29th of July
The data proves there’s been more overall controversy surrounding title reigns over time but what’s actually
causing it and is there anything the UFC can do about it?
If we look at the biggest controversies during this time period, they stemmed from injuries but snowballed
into more convoluted situations. The biggest controversy was unmistakably the heavyweight title picture mess
between late 2024 and mid 2025 involving the trio of Jon Jones, Tom Aspinall and Stipe Miocic.
The initial injury that Jones sustained during his preparation for his title defence against Stipe Miocic was
unfortunate, but also a natural part of the sport. The UFC’s subsequent handling of the situation is what made
the scenario truly messy. If the UFC had forced Stipe Miocic to fight Aspinall for the interim belt or face
relinquishing his shot at the undisputed belt, the division would have had more continuity and the timelines would
have made perfect sense for Jones’ return.
Similarly, if the UFC had been more strict when negotiating with Jones for his potential bout with Aspinall then this
would’ve massively reduced the congestion within the division.
The light heavyweight division went through a similar situation from November 2022 to July 2023 when a string of
injuries and a controversial draw in a title fight meant the undisputed belt had no true owner for the best part of
a year. It was only when Alex Pereira came in and vanquished all challengers that order was restored.
While the circumstances around this situation were incredibly unfortunate with two major injuries to champions
occurring and a draw for the vacant belt within the span of eight months, if the UFC had applied more stringent
rules the damage could have been mitigated. If they had either rematched Ankalaev and Blachowicz for the vacant
belt or set up an interim title shot in either of Prochazka or Hill’s absences, the division would have retained
some sense of continuity.
The single biggest contributor in terms of the number of individual cases of controversy has been champions vacating
their belts and leaving divisions vacant. The majority of these cases have been the result of champions pursuing a belt in another
division. This is a recent phenomenon and the first example of a fighter being a simultaneous double champion was Conor
McGregor back in 2016.
Since then there has been a serious influx of fighters attempting to win belts across multiple
divisions in consecutive bouts. There had been fighters in the past that had won belts in multiple divisions such as
Randy Couture but there had always been a gap, either in time or fights, between these championship attempts.
In recent years the likes of Islam Makhachev, Alex Pereira and Ilia Topuria all win belts across multiple
divisions. As impressive a feat as this is, the mess they leave in their wake often has a lasting effect on the
divisions they depart from. If the next champion crowned has a loss to one who just moved division, their legitimacy
is often questioned. Similarly, if the new champion never fought the old one, this often leaves an unsatisfying
scenario with fans asking the age-old question of what would happen if the two had fought.
The biggest issue for double champion attempts is drawing the line at who is and who isn’t eligible to try it. Leave
too soon and people will say they have unfinished business, leave too late and they potentially eliminate all
contenders and devalue the quality of the division.
Controversy around the title picture has certainly increased in recent years, but the
nature of it means there’s only so much the UFC can do. Injuries are a part
of professional sports - particularly MMA - so there’s not much they can do about
fighters being unavailable this way.
Regarding double champion attempts, the UFC has started enforcing a rule that means champions
who wish to move weight division to fight for another title must first vacate their
current belt. Two of the biggest stars in the sport Islam Makhachev and Alex Pereira
just experienced this as they vied to win the welterweight and heavyweight titles
respectively. However, this still leaves a vacuum in these divisions which lay dormant
until a subsequent champion can be crowned.
A potential option the UFC has is to force
champions to defend their belt a minimum number of times before being allowed to move
divisions. However, a hard and fast rule like this only works for divisions with
multiple rightful championship contenders. If a fighter has already beaten the top
contenders en route to the title or the prospective contenders are unavailable for
some reason then this risks divisions growing stale anyway.
While the solution is unclear, these scenarios are sometimes unavoidable in MMA.
Divisions evolve over time and go through growing pains. The UFC can only adapt
to the climate and ensure they’re taking every precaution to keep divisions as fresh
and active as possible.