Every Male Champion Right Now Ranked From Worst to Best

Becoming a UFC champion is the goal of every fighter who steps inside the Octagon. However, even for the select few who are able to climb to the top of the mountain, the hard work doesn’t stop there.

Raising a UFC title belt is just the first phase for those who wish to carve out a legacy as one of the greats of the sport. After winning the gold, how fondly a championship reign is remembered is all about title defences and the quality of opposition faced during them.

This past weekend, UFC 320 saw two men’s championships on the line as Merab Dvalishvili defeated Cory Sandhagen to retain his bantamweight crown, before Alex Pereira knocked out Magomed Ankalaev to regain the UFC light heavyweight title.

In the aftermath of one of the biggest UFC pay-per-views of the year, we’ve ranked every current male UFC champion from worst to best.

Ranking factors include:

• Championship defences made
• Dominance of a division
• Overall performance
• Level of opposition faced in title fights

8

Jack Della Maddalena

UFC Welterweight Champion

One of two current UFC champions to hail from Australia, ‘JDM’ is unbeaten in his eight official UFC bouts. However, just two of those wins have come against top names in the division. The 29-year-old scored an upset win over Leon Edwards at UFC London 2025 to land a shot against then-reigning 170lb champion, Belal Muhammad, at UFC 315. Della Maddalena used his striking well and showed excellent takedown defence to take a unanimous decision victory on the judges’ scorecards. The new champion has yet to defend his gold, but faces a tough challenge to hold on to the title when he faces former lightweight king Islam Makhachev at UFC 322 in November.

7

Tom Aspinall

UFC Heavyweight Champion

Aspinall hasn’t been anywhere as close to as active as he would have liked to have been over the past two years. Since becoming the interim UFC heavyweight titleholder after defeating Sergei Pavlovich in November 2023, the Brit has fought just once. Following a sole defence of the interim belt against Curtis Blaydes, Aspinall waited patiently on the sidelines for a shot at full heavyweight champion, Jon Jones. It was only when ‘Bones’ opted to retire in June that Tom was upgraded to undisputed heavyweight champion. The 32-year-old makes his first defence of the full title at UFC 321 later this month against Ciryl Gane. As impressive as Aspinall has looked inside the Octagon, he has never fought in a full championship fight, which explains his relatively low ranking.

6

Khamzat Chimaev

UFC Middleweight Champion

Another relatively new champion, Chimaev dominated Dricus du Plessis to claim the middleweight title at UFC 319. Although he has yet to make a defence of his newly-acquired belt, the manner in which ‘Borz’ toyed with the highly-respected South African before taking a unanimous decision victory sees him ranked above every other current UFC champion who has yet to defend their gold. The unbeaten Chimaev forced his way into middleweight title contention with a brutal submission victory over Robert Whittaker and looks primed for a long reign as the ruler of the 185lb division.

5

Alexander Volkanovski

UFC Featherweight Champion

One of the greatest 145lb champions in UFC history, Volkanovski defended the title five times after winning it for the first time against Max Holloway at UFC 245 in December 2019. The Aussie would then lose the gold to Ilia Topuria in his sixth defence. However, when the adopted Spaniard made the move up to lightweight earlier this year, the featherweight title was declared vacant. Volkanovski met Diego Lopes at April’s UFC 314 and emerged victorious via unanimous decision. He has yet to defend the belt in his latest reign, but Volkanovski’s achievements earlier in his career mean he is a greatly-admired champion.

4

Alex Pereira

UFC Light Heavyweight Champion

‘Poatan’ regained his light heavyweight title by defeating Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 320, avenging his unanimous decision defeat to the same opponent at March’s UFC 313. His most-recent title reign is Pereira’s second at 205lb, having originally defeated Jiri Prochazka for the vacant championship at UFC 295 in November 2025. The Brazilian then went on an impressive winning streak stopping Jahamal Hill, Prochazka (in a rematch) and Khalil Rountree Jr in 2024, before suffering defeat at the hands of Ankalaev in his first fight of 2025. Pereira, who has also held the promotion’s middleweight championship, is one of the UFC’s most popular fighters. Only his loss to Ankalaev prevents him from placing higher in these rankings.

3

Alexandre Pantoja

UFC Flyweight Champion

No champion on this list has made more title defences during their current reign than Pantoja. Since defeating Brandon Moreno to win the 125lb championship in July 2023, the 35-year-old has racked up four straight defences of his gold. The issue when ranking his performance against that of other champions comes in the relatively shallow depth of the division in which he competes. The likes of Steve Erceg, Brandon Royval and Kai Asakura are hardly huge names in the sport – and this hurts the Brazilian’s overall ranking.

2

Ilia Topuria

UFC Lightweight Champion

Topuria is one of the least active fighters to feature in these rankings. However, whenever ‘El Matador’ has made an appearance inside the Octagon in recent times, he has made an emphatic statement. After knocking out Alex Volkanovski to win the featherweight title in February 2024, he made a statement in his first (and only) defence of that belt by knocking out UFC legend Max Holloway. Topuria then decided to make the move to the lightweight division, where he proved no less devastating. Stepping up to 155 pounds, the adopted Spaniard blasted out respected former champion Charles Oliveira inside a round to claim the vacant lightweight championship at UFC 317. He may be yet to defend his gold, but the sheer ease with which Topuria claimed the title makes him one of the most intimidating men in the sport today.

1

Merab Dvalishvili

UFC Bantamweight Champion

Rarely in UFC history has a fighter’s nickname been more appropriate. Merab ‘The Machine’ Dvalishvili has built a reputation as the greatest bantamweight of all time over the last 12 months and his recent body of work sees him top this list of the greatest current UFC champions. Utilising a grappling style that few have been able to come to terms with, the Georgian outclassed Sean O’Malley to claim the 135lb title at UFC 316 last September and has since gone on to defend the gold with ease on three separate occasions. The 34-year-old turned back the challenge of the highly-touted Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311 in January, before defeating O’Malley again (this time by submmission) at June UFC 315. Merab made his third title defence when he dominated Cory Sandhagen at UFC 320 – after which he immediately called for a further title defence before the end of the year. If he is granted his wish, Dvalishvili will become the only UFC champion ever to defend a title four times in a single calendar year.