UFC Heavyweight Title History

Superfight Championship (defunct)

An openweight title used before the introduction of weight classes in 1997. It was designed to create a reigning UFC Champion for the UFC tournament winners to challenge.^[34]

No.	Name	Event	Date	Reign	Defenses
Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie fought to a draw on April 7, 1995 at UFC 5 in Charlotte, NC, USA for the inaugural Superfight title.[1]
1	Ken Shamrock def. Dan Severn	UFC 6 Casper, WY, USA	Jul 14, 1995	308 days	1. drew with Oleg Taktarov at UFC 7 on Sep 8, 1995 2. def. Kimo Leopoldo at UFC 8 on Feb 16, 1996
2	Dan Severn	UFC 9 Detroit, MI, USA	May 17, 1996	266 days
Mark Coleman defeated Severn on February 7, 1997 at UFC 12 in Dothan, AL, USA. This bout unified the UFC Superfight Championship with the UFC Tournament Championship to determine the inaugural UFC Heavyweight Champion.[4]

Heavyweight Championship

206 to 265 lb (93 to 120 kg)
The UFC Superfight Championship was unified with the UFC Tournament Championship to determine the inaugural UFC Heavyweight Champion on February 7, 1997, when Mark Coleman defeated Dan Severn at UFC 12.^[4]

No.	Name	Event	Date	Reign (Total)	Defenses
1	Mark Coleman def. Dan Severn	UFC 12 Dothan, AL, USA	Feb 7, 1997	170 days
2	Maurice Smith	UFC 14 Birmingham, AL, USA	Jul 27, 1997	147 days	1. def. David Abbott at UFC 15 on Oct 17, 1997
3	Randy Couture	UFC Japan Yokohama, Japan	Dec 21, 1997	? days
Couture was stripped of the title in January 1998 when he left the UFC due to a contract dispute.
4	Bas Rutten def. Kevin Randleman	UFC 20 Birmingham, AL, USA	May 7, 1999	? days
Rutten vacated the title in June 1999 in order to drop down to Light heavyweight. He retired soon after due to training injuries.[14]
5	Kevin Randleman def. Pete Williams	UFC 23 Tokyo, Japan	Nov 19, 1999	364 days	1. def. Pedro Rizzo at UFC 26 on Jun 9, 2000
6	Randy Couture (2)	UFC 28 Atlantic City, NJ, USA	Nov 17, 2000	490 days (490+ days)	1. def. Pedro Rizzo at UFC 31 on May 4, 2001 2. def. Pedro Rizzo at UFC 34 on Nov 2, 2001
7	Josh Barnett	UFC 36 Las Vegas, NV, USA	Mar 22, 2002	126 days
Barnett was stripped of the title on July 26, 2002, after testing positive for anabolic steroids in a post-fight drug test.[15]
8	Ricco Rodriguez def. Randy Couture	UFC 39 Uncasville, CT, USA	Sep 27, 2002	154 days
9	Tim Sylvia	UFC 41 Atlantic City, NJ, USA	Feb 28, 2003	229 days	1. def. Gan McGee at UFC 44 on Sep 26, 2003
Sylvia was stripped of the title on October 15, 2003, after testing positive for anabolic steroids in a post-fight drug test.[16]
10	Frank Mir def. Tim Sylvia	UFC 48 Las Vegas, NV, USA	Jun 19, 2004	419 days
–	Andrei Arlovski def. Tim Sylvia for interim title	UFC 51 Las Vegas, NV, USA	Feb 5, 2005	—	1. def. Justin Eilers at UFC 53 on Jun 4, 2005
Mir was stripped of the title on August 12, 2005, for inactivity resulting from injuries he sustained in a road accident.[17]
11	Andrei Arlovski promoted to undisputed champion	—	Aug 12, 2005	246 days	1. def. Paul Buentello at UFC 55 on Oct 7, 2005
12	Tim Sylvia (2)	UFC 59 Anaheim, CA, USA	Apr 15, 2006	322 days (551 days)	1. def. Andrei Arlovski at UFC 61 on Jul 8, 2006 2. def. Jeff Monson at UFC 65 on Nov 18, 2006
13	Randy Couture (3)	UFC 68 Columbus, OH, USA	Mar 3, 2007	623 days (1,113+ days)	1. def. Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 74 on Aug 25, 2007
–	Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira def. Tim Sylvia for interim title	UFC 81 Las Vegas, NV, USA	Feb 2, 2008	—
14	Brock Lesnar	UFC 91 Las Vegas, NV, USA	Nov 15, 2008	707 days	1. def. interim champion Frank Mir at UFC 100 on Jul 11, 2009 2. def. interim champion Shane Carwin at UFC 116 on Jul 3, 2010
–	Frank Mir def. interim champion Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira	UFC 92 Las Vegas, NV, USA	Dec 27, 2008	—
–	Shane Carwin def. Frank Mir for interim title	UFC 111 Newark, NJ, USA	Mar 27, 2010	—
15	Cain Velasquez	UFC 121 Anaheim, CA, USA	Oct 23, 2010	385 days
16	Junior dos Santos	UFC on Fox: Velasquez vs. dos Santos Anaheim, CA, USA	Nov 12, 2011	413 days	1. def. Frank Mir at UFC 146 on May 26, 2012
17	Cain Velasquez (2)	UFC 155 Las Vegas, NV, USA	Dec 29, 2012	896 days (1,281 days)	1. def. Antônio Silva at UFC 160 on May 25, 2013 2. def. Junior dos Santos at UFC 166 on Oct 19, 2013
–	Fabrício Werdum def. Mark Hunt for interim title	UFC 180 Mexico City, Mexico	Nov 15, 2014	—
18	Fabrício Werdum	UFC 188 Mexico City, Mexico	Jun 13, 2015	336 days
19	Stipe Miocic	UFC 198 Curitiba, Brazil	May 14, 2016	476 days (incumbent)	1. def. Alistair Overeem at UFC 203 on Sep 10, 2016 2. def. Junior dos Santos at UFC 211 on May 13, 2017