Only two UFC champions that started 2025 with the belt remain titleholders in 2026.
UFC belts changed hands a staggering 11 times last year, with the record for a calendar year being 12 in 2016.
Tom Aspinall is still on the sidelines due to his eye injuries, having only fought once last year after being promoted from interim to undisputed heavyweight champion.
Valentina Shevchenko, on the other hand, defended her flyweight belt twice to remain a champion across the 12 months.
A former champion and current UFC commentator is expecting the number of title exchanges to reduce significantly this year, at least as far as the male side of the roster is concerned.
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Dana White at the UFC 319 press conference. Credit: Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC
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Michael Bisping believes flyweight and bantamweight will have new champions at the end of the year
Bloody Elbow’s predictions have four new champions at the top of their divisions by the time that 2026 comes to a close.
However, Michael Bisping believes that the list of new male champions will be even less than that following a year of regular title changes.
The only caveat to his predictions is that ‘The Count’ didn’t pick who will be the featherweight champion at the end of the year due to him being scheduled to work Alexander Volkanovski’s rematch with Diego Lopes later this month.
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2026-01-09 22:00:00
