How often do former champions get another shot? How difficult is it to get one? Data inside.

[sdpdude9]

Here is a breakdown of what it took for champions to get another shot at a belt and how often a champion got another chance. This list includes every champion that lost their belt since 2020 and how many defenses they had in that title reign.

Green=Received shot in another division
Red=Was stripped or vacated title

Spoiler: Received Shot Next Fight (18)

-Valentina Shevchenko (vs. Grasso 2, 7 def)
-Israel Adesanya, 1st reign (vs. Pereira 2, 5 def)
-Kamaru Usman (vs. Edwards 3, 5 def)
-Alexander Volkanovski, 1st reign (vs. Lopes, 5 def)
-Amanda Nunes 1st reign, (vs. Pena, 5 def)
-Jon Jones, 2nd reign (vs. Gane, 3 def)
-Stipe Miocic, 2nd reign (vs. Jones, 1 def)
-Charles Oliveira (vs. Makhachev, 1 def)
-Ilia Topuria (vs. Oliveira, 1 def)
-Sean O’Malley (vs. Dvalishvili 2, 1 def)
-Deiveson Figuieredo, First Reign (vs. Moreno 3, 1 def)
-Weili Zhang, First Reign (vs. Namajunas 2, 1 def)
-Glover Teixeira (vs. Hill, 0 def)
-Jiri Prochazka (vs. Pereira, 0 def)
-Jamahal Hill (vs. Pereira, 0 def)
-Israel Adesanya, 2nd reign (vs. Du Plessis, 0 def)
-Petr Yan (vs. Sterling 2, 0 def)
-Julianna Pena, First Reign (vs. Pennington, 0 def)

Spoiler: Needed 1 win (4)

-Jan Blachowicz (vs. Ankalaev, 1 def)
-Sean Strickland (vs. Du Plessis 2, 1 def)
-Alex Pereira (MW) (vs. Prochazka, 0 def)*
-Brandon Moreno, 1st reign (vs. Figueiredo 4, 0 def) (1st reign)

Needed 2+ Wins (0)

Spoiler: Has not received another shot (8)

-Aljamain Sterling (3 def)
-Leon Edwards (2 def)
-Francis Ngannou (1 def)
-Rose Namajunas, 2nd reign (1 def)
-Brandon Moreno, 2nd reign (0 def)
-Deiveson Figueiredo, 2nd reign (0 def)
-Alexa Grasso (0 def)
-Carla Esparza, 2nd reign (0 def)

Spoiler: Has not fought since losing belt (6)

-Alex Pereira (LHW) (3 def)
-Khabib Nurmagomedov (3 def)
-Amanda Nunes, 2nd reign (1 def)
-Belal Muhammad (0 def)
-Julianna Pena, 2nd reign (0 def)
-Raquel Pennington (0 def)

My take: Answer to title questions seem to be “Pretty often” and “Pretty easy” most of the time. A staggering amount of immediate title shots, 12 of which included champions with 1 or less defenses. Now some made sense, but many are a product of lazy matchmaking in my opinion. This is why in my opinion, things often seem stale with the same fighters in the title picture. Of those that got another shot, 10/22 would win another title.

I was also surprised to see no fighter had to win 2 fights to get another shot. They got one immediately or with 1 win, or they never got one. About 73% of champions got another shot, but that goes up to 80% if you remove Moreno and Figueiredo who already had another shot and add Nunes and Pereira who will presumably get shots next.

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

Immediate title rematches should be reserved for decisions. Finishes are definitive and lthe loser should have to fight back up, unless, of course, there is also some controversy there.

Nowadays, any title match feels like it can potentially take up 2 PPVs needlessly, a way to further water down cards.

 

[Hymen Crusher]

Aljo is a tough one. We all know they made him fight sean injured so sean would get the w. But merab was champ in waiting and would beat aljo so its not quite as bad

 

[sdpdude9]

Immediate title rematches should be reserved for decisions. Finishes are definitive and lthe loser should have to fight back up, unless, of course, there is also some controversy there.

Nowadays, any title match feels like it can potentially take up 2 PPVs needlessly, a way to further water down cards.

Couple more data points with that. 8 champions received immediate rematches against the fighter they lost to. 6 of them lost by finish, 1 by DQ, 1 by decision. Immediate rematches saw them going 3-4-1.

 

[volcom5]

Couple more data points with that. 8 champions received immediate rematches against the fighter they lost to. 6 of them lost by finish, 1 by DQ, 1 by decision. Immediate rematches saw them going 3-4-1.

I’ve been saying this since like 2012, Frankie Edgar’s instant rematches were tiresome, hell they were even thinking another Henderson vs Edgar rematch after the 2nd bout, that’s when I instarted to notice the trend of instant rematches became prominent.

It really hurts the losing individual in said instant rematches, Anderson Silva didnt even want to rematch Weidman, he kept saying it’s Weidmans time in a lot of interview post fight. Imagine if he didn’t. Rockhold vs Weidman was also an instant rematch and Weidman got injured before the bout occurred, he never came close touching gold again, should’ve fought someone else and maybe he would’ve gotten same goes for Anderson with his leg. Fighters who lost 2x in a rematch set never touches gold or even get close to again. History has shown that.

It’s on the fighters coaches and management team to pump the brakes and take another fight instant of wanting a rematch, it’s hard for a fighter to improve a weakness that caused him to lose the bout and apply right against the same opponent.

Theres reasons why fighters like Jones, GSP, Aldo’s are all well rounded in MMA. They fought a lot different opponents and styles which caused them to improve those skills in the preparation for the bouts.

 

[fortheo]

Aljo is a tough one. We all know they made him fight sean injured so sean would get the w. But merab was champ in waiting and would beat aljo so its not quite as bad

I've seen the two train a while ago and Merab couldn't escape the backpack for a long ass time. Maybe he can now.

 

[felmmando]

Immediate title rematches should be reserved for decisions. Finishes are definitive and lthe loser should have to fight back up, unless, of course, there is also some controversy there.

I donno. Do you really think Velasquez vs. Dos Santos was definitive?
I don't exactly object that Velasquez needed a win to compete for the title again, but if he had gotten an immediate rematch, I wouldn't have thought it was the most unreasonable.

 

[Randy Fandy Fo Fanders]

More often than once in a while, less often than every day.

 

[jeff7b9]

Once UFC, especially post Zuffa, has spent money promoting someone they want to squeeze all the possible dollars out of the "star power" from said promotion.

As such the express train back to the top is MUCH quicker than the initial journey to the top.

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

I donno. Do you really think Velasquez vs. Dos Santos was definitive?
I don't exactly object that Velasquez needed a win to compete for the title again, but if he had gotten an immediate rematch, I wouldn't have thought it was the most unreasonable.

That falls under "some controversy" as it was the basically the first strike thrown of the match, so I would have been fine if he got a rematch and I'm fine that he fought Bigfoot between. Tune up fights for a former champ aren't a bad thing and were relatively common before if I'm not mistaken.

 

[SuperAlly]

Couple more data points with that. 8 champions received immediate rematches against the fighter they lost to. 6 of them lost by finish, 1 by DQ, 1 by decision. Immediate rematches saw them going 3-4-1.

That's disgraceful

 

[reddhelium]

Appreciate the effort this took. Love the data!

 

[reddhelium]

I was also surprised to see no fighter had to win 2 fights to get another shot.

I would have never guessed 0.

 

[SuperAlly]

I would have never guessed 0.

UFC have created a problem now where just about any champ under any circumstance gets an immediate rematch or minimal effort to get another crack

Even with that, the guys like Sean who had 1 manufactured defence still look especially egregious