Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a form of competitivecombat sport, akin toboxing,muay thai, orkick boxing. MMA titles, orchampionship belts, are given to those fighters deemed by a promotional organization to have met a certain standard of athletic accomplishment in a specificweight class (most often by means of achampionship fight). Championship belts are fought for at each weight class under a promotion, with only one belt awarded per class. Each belt is usually contested every time the belt holder fights, and passed to the victor of that fight (see theList of UFC champions for a chronology of UFC title belts). A belt may be vacated when a fighter leaves a promotion, or is suspended. At such times aninterim champion may be crowned, or the belt may be awarded to the winner of a fight between top contenders.

This list displays all title holders for the major, certified MMApromoting andsanctioning bodies. There is no clear industry definition within the MMA community to determine which organizations are considered major promoting bodies.^[1] Due to a lack of clear guidelines, this list is limited to those organizations that are either highly regarded (such as theUltimate Fighting Championship (UFC) andONE Championship), long standing (such asKing of the Cage (KOTC) andPancrase), or the dominant organizations of a country or region of the world (such as England'sUltimate Challenge MMA (UCMMA) and Canada'sMaximum Fighting Championship (MFC)).

Because there is no international unified MMA weight class system in use,^[2] theNevada State Athletic Commission's (NSAC) weight classes have been adopted for this article as they are most common across major promotions. Some organizations have created titles in weight classes outside the NSAC guidelines. Those titles have been and will be recognized as subdivisions under their common weight class.^[3]

Though unofficial,Fight Matrix considered the first MMAlineal champions as follows:^[4]

• Heavyweight –Ken Shamrock beginning October 14, 1993 atPancrase: Yes, We Are Hybrid Wrestlers 2
• Light heavyweight –Frank Shamrock beginning December 21, 1997 atUFC Japan: Ultimate Japan.
• Middleweight –Kenji Kawaguchi beginning May 18, 1989 atShooto: Shooto.
• Welterweight –Yasuto Sekishima beginning January 13, 1990 atShooto: Shooto.
• Lightweight –Yuichi Watanabe beginning January 13, 1990 atShooto: Shooto.
• Featherweight –Noboru Asahi beginning March 27, 1992 atShooto: Shooto.
• Bantamweight –Kazuhiro Sakamoto beginning October 19, 1989 atShooto: Shooto.
• Flyweight –Kenji Ogusu beginning March 27, 1992 atShooto: Shooto.

Although the inaugural lineal champions are sometimes contested, especially at heavyweight; the consensus view, is that all the lineal titles have been unified with their respective weight class UFC titles.

Organizations are listed by a combination of their size (number of fighters, events per year, etc.) and their history (years in existence, title lineage, etc.). Title holders from other organizations, who are now fighting in the UFC, are not included in this list as the UFC does not cross promote and these belts are often vacated.^[5]

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
English	Tom Aspinall	UFC	June 21, 2025	0
Russian	Vadim Nemkov	PFL	December 13, 2025	0
Senegalese	Oumar Kane	ONE	November 7, 2024	0
Russian	Evgeniy Goncharov	ACA	March 17, 2023	1
English	Phil De Fries	KSW	April 14, 2018	12
N/A	Vacant	CWFC	N/A	N/A
Lithuanian	Pavel Dailidko	Brave CF	September 28, 2024	2
German	Hatef Moeil	Oktagon	November 18, 2023	0
Brazilian	Hugo Cunha	LFA	November 3, 2023	0
N/A	Vacant	FNG	N/A	N/A
Guam	Roque Martinez (Known as Megatonweight / over 205 lb, 93 kg)	Deep	July 15, 2017	3
N/A	Vacant	Jungle Fight	N/A	N/A
American	Bailey Schoenfelder	CFFC	April 12, 2024	0
Congolese	Matunga Djikasa	EFC	October 6, 2022	0
N/A	Vacant	Road FC	N/A	N/A
N/A	Vacant	Titan	N/A	N/A
N/A	Vacant	Eagle FC	N/A	N/A
Cape Verdean	Yorgan De Castro	CES	May 3, 2024	0
Brazilian	Eduardo Neves	Centurion FC	May 18, 2024	0

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Russian	Anatoly Malykhin (Known as Light Heavyweight)	ONE	December 3, 2022	0

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Brazilian	Alex Pereira	UFC	October 4, 2025	0
American	Corey Anderson	PFL	October 3, 2025	0
Russian	Anatoly Malykhin (Known as Middleweight)	ONE	March 1, 2024	0
Russian	Adlan Ibragimov	ACA	December 15, 2024	0
Polish	Rafał Haratyk	KSW	February 24, 2024	1
N/A	Vacant	Rizin FF	N/A	N/A
English	Andy Clamp	CWFC	March 16, 2024	0
Bosnian and Herzegovinian	Erko Jun	Brave CF	September 28, 2024	0
Irish	Will Fleury	Oktagon	December 29, 2024	0
Brazilian	Bruno Lopes	LFA	September 30, 2022	1
Russian	Vagab Vagabov	FNG	October 16, 2021	1
N/A	Vacant	Pancrase	N/A	N/A
N/A	Vacant	Deep	N/A	N/A
American	Luke Fernandez	CFFC	December 15, 2023	0
South African	JC Lamprecht	EFC	August 10, 2023	0
South Korean	Kim Tae-in	Road FC	December 18, 2022	0
N/A	Vacant	Titan FC	N/A	N/A
Kazakhstani	Diyar Nurgozhay	Eagle FC	August 21, 2022	0
Syrian	Tarek Suleiman	UAE Warriors	May 3, 2019	0
Algerian	Mohamed Said Maalem	MMA GP	Sep 16, 2023	0
Brazilian	Rafael Carvalho	Centurion FC	Nov 15, 2023	0

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Emirati	Khamzat Chimaev	UFC	August 16, 2025	0
Dutch	Costello van Steenis	PFL	July 19, 2025	0
American	Christian Lee (Known as Welterweight)	ONE	November 19, 2022	0
Russian	Magomedrasul Gasanov	ACA	April 9, 2021	4
Polish	Paweł Pawlak	KSW	June 3, 2023	2
Italian	Dario Bellandi	CWFC	November 25, 2023	0
N/A	Vacant	Brave CF	N/A	N/A
Czech	Patrick Kincl	Oktagon	February 26, 2022	3
N/A	Vacant	LFA	N/A	N/A
Russian	Vladimir Mineev	FNG	September 9, 2020	1
Japanese	Yura Naito	Pancrase	March 21, 2022	0
Brazilian	João Batista Yoshimura	Deep	July 4, 2021	0
N/A	Vacant	Shooto	N/A	N/A
Brazilian	Vitor Costa	Jungle Fight	September 30, 2023	1
American	Kyle Daukaus	CFFC	September 2, 2023	2
South African	Luke Michael	EFC	March 5, 2022	0
N/A	Vacant	LUX	N/A	N/A
South Korean	In Su Hwang	Road FC	July 3, 2021	0
Brazilian	Bruno Assis	Titan	July 2, 2021	0
N/A	Vacant	Eagle FC	N/A	N/A
American	Gary Balletto Jr.	CES	July 29, 2023	0
Iranian	Amir Fazli	UAE Warriors	May 20, 2023	0
Nigerian	Daniel Emeka	AKO	Aug 19, 2023	0

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Russian	Islam Makhachev	UFC	November 15, 2025	0
Russian	Ramazan Kuramagomedov	PFL	February 7, 2026	0
American	Christian Lee (Known as Lightweight)	ONE	August 26, 2022	2
Russian	Albert Tumenov	ACA	December 24, 2023	0
Polish	Adrian Bartosiński	KSW	April 22, 2023	3
Irish	James Sheehan	CWFC	April 6, 2024	0'
Brazilian	Luiz Cado (175 lb, 79 kg)	Brave CF	October 19, 2024	0
Moldovan	Ion Surdu	Oktagon	June 8, 2024	0
Brazilian	Vanilto Antunes	LFA	March 23, 2024	0
Russian	Dmitry Bikrev	FNG	April 6, 2019	4
Japanese	Ryuichiro Sumimura	Pancrase	December 24, 2023	0
Japanese	Yoichiro Sato	Deep	July 14, 2024	0
N/A	Vacant (Known as Middleweight)	Shooto	N/A	N/A
Brazilian	Anderson Nascimento	Jungle Fight	March 16, 2024	0
N/A	Vacant	CFFC	N/A	N/A
South African	Mark Hulme	EFC	April 13, 2023	1
Mexican	Antonio Suárez	LUX	September 26, 2025	0
American	Will Brooks	Titan	June 2, 2023	0
N/A	Vacant (175 lb, 79 kg)	Eagle FC	N/A	N/A
N/A	Vacant	CES	N/A	N/A
Azerbaijani	Tahir Abdullaev	UAE Warriors	May 18, 2024	0
Kyrgyz	Darkhanbek Ergeshev	Matrix Fight Night	March 31, 2023	1
Brazilian	Rodrigo Lídio	Centurion FC	Aug 24, 2024	0

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Bahraini	Eldar Eldarov	Brave CF	April 19, 2019	1

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Georgian	Ilia Topuria	UFC	June 28, 2025	0
Russian	Usman Nurmagomedov	PFL	October 3, 2025	1
Chinese	Tang Kai (Known as Featherweight)	ONE	August 26, 2022	1
Russian	Abdul-Aziz Abdulvakhabov	ACA	September 19, 2020	3
Uzbek	Ilkhom Nozimov	Rizin FF	December 31, 2025	0
French	Salahdine Parnasse	KSW	June 3, 2023	3
English	George Hardwick	CWFC	July 22, 2022	2
Kyrgyzstani	Abdisalam Kubanychbek	Brave CF	February 18, 2023	2
Polish	Mateusz Legierski	Oktagon	November 22, 2025	0
American	Kegan Gennrich	LFA	January 12, 2024	0
Russian	Alexander Sarnavskiy	FNG	February 23, 2024	0
Japanese	Tatsuya Saika	Pancrase	March 31, 2024	0
Japanese	Kimihiro Eto	Deep	March 9, 2024	0
N/A	Vacant(Known as Welterweight)	Shooto	N/A	N/A
Brazilian	Arcangelo Oliveira	Jungle Fight	August 26, 2023	1
American	Robert Watley	CFFC	July 20, 2023	1
N/A	Vacant	EFC	N/A	N/A
Mexican	Kazula Vargas	LUX	November 1, 2024	0
Korean	Park Si-won	Road FC	July 23, 2022	1
N/A	Vacant	Combate Global	N/A	N/A
American	Richie Lewis	Titan	July 21, 2023	0
Azerbaijani	Ramin Sultanov	Eagle FC	November 11, 2023	0
American	Charles Rosa	CES	May 3, 2024	0
Russian	Amru Magomedov	UAE Warriors	October 17, 2023	1
Brazilian	Keweney Lopes	MMA GP	Jan 27, 2024	0
Brazilian	João Oliveira	Centurion FC	Mar 8, 2024	0

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Australian	Alexander Volkanovski	UFC	April 12, 2025	1
N/A	Vacant	PFL	N/A	N/A
Mongolian	Enkh-Orgil Baatarkhuu (Known as Bantamweight)	ONE	December 6, 2025	0
Russian	Islam Omarov	ACA	July 21, 2023	2
Kyrgyzstani	Razhabali Shaydullaev	Rizin FF	May 4, 2025	2
French	Salahdine Parnasse	KSW	December 18, 2021	2
English	Harry Hardwick	CWFC	May 25, 2024	0
Kyrgyzstani	Nemat Abdrashitov	Brave CF	June 23, 2023	0
Belgian	Losene Keita	Oktagon	December 9, 2023	0
American	Elijah Johns	LFA	February 9, 2024	0
N/A	Vacant	FNG	N/A	N/A
Japanese	Suguru Nii	Pancrase	September 24, 2023	0
Japanese	Jin Aoi	Deep	March 9, 2024	0
Japanese	Keisuke Sasu (Known as Lightweight)	Shooto	July 25, 2021	1
Brazilian	Willian Souza	Jungle Fight	July 29, 2023	1
American	Jose Perez	CFFC	August 26, 2022	1
Congolese	Igeu Kabesa	EFC	November 3, 2022	3
Mexican	Irvin Amaya	LUX	November 21, 2025	0
Jordanian	Ali AlQaisi	Titan	August 6, 2021	0
N/A	Vacant	Combate Global	N/A	N/A
South Korean	Hae Jin Park	Road FC	December 18, 2022	0
N/A	Vacant	Eagle FC	N/A	N/A
American	Dan Dubuque	CES	September 9, 2022	0
Swedish	Samuel Bark	UAE Warriors	May 18, 2024	0
N/A	Vacant	Matrix Fight Night	N/A	N/A
N/A	Vacant	MMA GP	N/A	N/A

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Russian	Petr Yan	UFC	December 6, 2025	0
N/A	Vacant	PFL	N/A	N/A
Japanese	Yuya Wakamatsu (Known as Flyweight)	ONE	March 23, 2025	0
Russian	Pavel Vitruk	ACA	April 19, 2024	0
American	Danny Sabatello	Rizin FF	December 31, 2025	0
Polish	Sebastian Przybysz	KSW	January 25, 2025	1
English	Liam Gittins	CWFC	November 25, 2023	1
Zimbabwean	Nicholas Hwende	Brave CF	December 13, 2024	0
N/A	Vacant	Oktagon	N/A	N/A
American	John Sweeney	LFA	June 16, 2023	0
Kazakhstani	Sabit Zhusupov	FNG	October 14, 2022	1
Japanese	Tokitaka Nakanishi	Pancrase	December 24, 2023	0
South Korean	Yoo Soo-young	Deep	September 18, 2023	0
Japanese	Tatsuya Ando (Known as Featherweight)	Shooto	March 21, 2022	0
Brazilian	Tiago Pereira	Jungle Fight	June 24, 2023	1
Albanian	Vilson Ndregjoni	CFFC	April 1, 2023	1
South African	Nkazimulo Zulu	EFC	July 13, 2023	0
Venezuelan	Mauricio Partida	LUX	October 24, 2025	0
Dominican	Tommy Garcia	Titan	April 14, 2023	0
N/A	Vacant	Road FC	N/A	N/A
Mexican	David Martinez	Combate Global	May 29, 2021	2
Russian	Renat Khavalov	Eagle FC	March 19, 2021	3
American	Ashiek Ajim	CES	June 17, 2022	0
Nepalese	Rabindra Dhant	Matrix Fight Night	August 02, 2025	0
French	Alfan Rocher-Labes	MMA GP	Sep 16, 2023	0

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Burmese	Joshua Van	UFC	December 6, 2025	0
Filipino	Joshua Pacio (Known as Strawweight)	One	March 1, 2024	0
Russian	Kurban Gadzhiev	ACA	February 25, 2023	1
Japanese	Hiromasa Ougikubo	Rizin FF	December 31, 2025	0
Bangladeshi	Shajidul Haque	CWFC	December 31, 2022	1
English	Sam Creasey	Oktagon	April 20, 2024	0
Brazilian	Eduardo Henrique	LFA	November 17, 2023	0
Russian	Vartan Asatryan	FNG	February 23, 2022	0
Japanese	Makoto Takahashi	Deep	March 1, 2020	1
Japanese	Seiichiro Ito	Pancrase	April 3, 2024	1
Japanese	Jo Arai (Known as Bantamweight)	Shooto	November 19, 2023	0
Brazilian	Wagner Reis	Jungle Fight	November 25, 2023	1
American	Israel Galvan	CFFC	March 8, 2024	0
South African	Nkazimulo Zulu	EFC	March 7, 2024	0
Costa Rican	Jorge Calvo Martin	LUX	March 17, 2023	5
Brazilian	Victor Dias	Titan	March 26, 2021	1
N/A	Vacant	Road FC	N/A	N/A
Russian	Irgit Oveenchi	Eagle FC	August 10, 2022	0
American	Mitch Raposo	CES	November 17, 2020	0
Brazilian	Iago Ribeiro	UAE Warriors	May 18, 2024	0
Indian	Angad Bisht	Matrix Fight Night	November 18, 2022	0
French	Michael Aljarouj	MMA GP	Mar 4, 2023	1

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Japanese	Keito Yamakita	Pancrase	July 18, 2022	0
Japanese	Haruo Ochi	Deep	May 26, 2024	0
Japanese	Jo Arai (Known as Flyweight)	Shooto	September 19, 2022	1

Women athletes are generally smaller than, and compete at lower weights than their male counterparts.^[6]

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Brazilian	Cris Cyborg	PFL	December 10, 2025	1
N/A	Vacant	Invicta FC	N/A	N/A
Japanese	Yoko Higashi	Deep Jewels	May 8, 2022	0

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
American	Kayla Harrison	UFC	June 7, 2025	0
Brazilian	Talita Bernardo	Invicta FC	January 18, 2023	1
N/A	Vacant	FNG	N/A	N/A
N/A	Vacant	LFA	N/A	N/A
N/A	Vacant	Deep Jewels	N/A	N/A
N/A	Vacant	Pancrase	N/A	N/A
Brazilian	Kelly Ottoni	Jungle Fight	July 31, 2022	0
N/A	Vacant	CFFC	N/A	N/A
N/A	Vacant	EFC	N/A	N/A

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Kyrgyzstani	Valentina Shevchenko	UFC	September 14, 2024	2
N/A	Vacant	PFL	N/A
Chinese	Xiong Jing Nan (Known as Strawweight)	One	January 20, 2018	7
N/A	Vacant	Invicta FC	January 18, 2023	N/A
Canadian	Shannon Clark	LFA	February 23, 2024	0
Japanese	Rin Nakai	Deep Jewels	May 8, 2022	0
Japanese	Fumika Watanabe	Pancrase	March 9, 2025	0
Brazilian	Elora Dana	Jungle Fight	March 26, 2023	2
American	Fatima Kline	CFFC	November 3, 2023	0
N/A	Vacant	EFC	N/A	N/A
N/A	Vacant	LUX	N/A	N/A
Canadian	Corinne Laframboise	UAE Warriors	March 26, 2022	0

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Brazilian	Mackenzie Dern	UFC	October 25, 2025	0
Filipino	Denice Zamboanga (Known as Atomweight)	One	May 2, 2025	0
Irish	Danni McCormack	Invicta FC	March 15, 2023	1
German	Katharina Dalisda	Oktagon	September 16, 2023	1
Brazilian	Rose Conceição	LFA	July 7, 2023	0
Japanese	Machi Fukuda	Deep Jewels	September 7, 2025	0
Japanese	Haruka Hasegawa	Pancrase	April 30, 2023	0
Japanese	Emi Fujino	Shooto	May 18, 2024	0
Brazilian	Laura Vasconcelos	Jungle Fight	July 20, 2024	0
American	Fatima Kline	CFFC	February 9, 2024	0
Romanian	Alice Ardelean	EFC	March 2, 2023	0
N/A	Vacant	LUX	N/A	N/A
N/A	Vacant	Combate Global	N/A	N/A
N/A	Vacant	Matrix Fight Night	N/A	N/A

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Japanese	Seika Izawa	Rizin FF	April 17, 2022	3
Japanese	Ayaka Watanabe (110 lb, 50 kg)	Shooto	May 21, 2023	0

Name		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Brazilian	Elisandra Ferreira	Invicta FC	September 20, 2024	0
Japanese	Seika Izawa	Deep Jewels	March 24, 2024	0
Japanese	Satomi Takano	Pancrase	March 31, 2024	0
N/A	Vacant	Shooto	N/A	N/A
South Korean	Shim Yu-ri	Road FC	September 4, 2021	0

riaz		Organization	Date	No. of title defenses
Japanese	Saori Oshima	Deep	September 20, 2020	2
Japanese	Saori Oshima	Deep Jewels	May 26, 2024	0

• List of current world boxing champions
• List of current female boxing champions
• List of undefeated mixed martial artists
• Double champions in MMA

• Lists of mixed martial arts champions
• Lists of living sportspeople

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