UFC champions history: Bantamweights

The UFC added a 135-pound title in 2010. Here's the history of the bantamweight division championship belt.

Dominick Cruz

Successful title defenses: 2

Cruz was named the inaugural UFC bantamweight champion in the only UFC title fight held on another promotion's card on Dec. 16, 2010 (although both were owned by Zuffa). In the final WEC event before its merger with the UFC, Cruz fought Scott Jorgensen for the last WEC and first UFC belts at 135 pounds. Cruz put together his typical dominating performance, winning 50-45 on all scorecards. In his first title defense in the UFC, Cruz defeated the only man to ever beat him, Urijah Faber. He followed that with a victory over current longtime flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson before repeated injuries forced the UFC to strip him of the title after more than two years of inactivity.

Renan Barao

Successful title defenses: 3

While Cruz was sidelined, Renan Barao and Urijah Faber faced off for an interim belt with Barao taking a unanimous decision on July 21, 2012. He defended the interim title twice, but a unification bout never came to fruition as Cruz was stripped in January 2014. The interim tag then was dropped, and Barao defended title in his first bout as the official UFC bantamweight champion, once again defeating Faber, this time by TKO.

T.J. Dillashaw

Successful title defenses: 2

Barao had not lost a fight since his professional debut in 2005 when he faced T.J. Dillashaw at UFC 173, a string of 32 wins and one no contest. But Dillashaw, a protégé of Faber and a former runner-up on "The Ultimate Fighter," was able to solve the Brazilian's puzzle on May 24, 2014. After a big knockdown late in the first round, Dillashaw used his superior agility and movement to pick apart Barao, culminating in a fifth-round stoppage. A rematch was set for UFC 177, but Barao was hospitalized while cutting weight the day of weigh-ins, setting up another knockout victory for Dillashaw against replacement Joe Soto. The rematch finally happened in July 2015 with Dillashaw again slicing through Barao for a fourth-round TKO.

Dominick Cruz

Successful title defenses: 1

While Barao and Dillashaw ruled the division, Cruz kept working on his comeback from two torn ACLs and a groin tear. A knockout of Takeya Mizugaki seemed to signal his resurgence in September 2014, but a torn ACL in the other knee again sidelined him yet again. It wasn't until Jan. 17, 2016, that Cruz was finally in the cage to win back the belt he never truly lost. He and Dillashaw fought an extremely technical fight that went the distance, but it was Cruz who came out on top in a split decision with three wildly different scorecards. In his first title defense of his second reign, Cruz settled the score with Faber, winning a unanimous decision in their trilogy fight.

Cody Garbrandt

Successful title defenses: 0

Cruz had never lost at bantamweight entering UFC 207. His challenger, Cody Garbrandt, had never lost in his professional career. Something had to give, and that turned out to be the legs of Cruz. The young Garbrandt was able to tag Cruz multiple times in their fight, scoring two knockdowns and taunting the veteran in the cage. Cruz landed more significant strikes, but Garbrandt's ability to stop the takedown and land the most damaging strikes of the fight gave him the UFC gold.

T.J. Dillashaw

Successful title defenses: 1

Garbrandt's first opponent as bantamweight champion was an easy pick. The Team Alpha Male fighter already had built a rivalry with former champion T.J. Dillashaw, calling out his ex-teammate soon after beating Cruz. After coaching against each other on The Ultimate Fighter, the pair finally met at UFC 217 at Madison Square Garden. Garbrandt looked on his way to retaining the title in the first round, knocking down Dillashaw and nearly finishing the fight. But a Dillashaw hook put down the champion midway through the second round. He followed with a few strikes on the ground to end it, screaming in Garbrandt's face as the referee separated them. In the rematch at UFC 227, Dillashaw knocked out Garbrandt in the first round. Dillashaw was stripped of the title after testing positive for EPO for his fight against Henry Cejudo in early 2019.

Henry Cejudo

Successful title defenses: 1

Cejudo was the flyweight champion when he defended his title against Dillashaw in January 2019. When Dillashaw was stripped of his bantamweight belt for testing positive for EPO, Cejudo challenged Marlon Moraes for the vacant title at 135 pound at UFC 238 on June 8. Cejudo was able to survive Moraes' attack in the first round and adjusted to return the favor in the next two rounds, earning the TKO with nine seconds left in the third. On May 9, 2020, at UFC 249, Cejudo defended his bantamweight title by stopping Dominick Cruz with two seconds left in the second round. He announced his retirement after the fight.

Petr Yan

Succesful title defenses: 0

With Cejudo retired, Petr Yan challenged Jose Aldo for the vacant title at UFC 251 on July 11, 2020. Yan won by TKO due to punches midway through the fifth round, stopping the former featherweight champion Aldo, for his 10th straight win and a 7-0 record in the UFC.

Aljamain Sterling

Succesful title defenses: 2

The Uniondale-raised Sterling won the bantamweight title from Petr Yan via disqualification at UFC 259 on March 6, 2021 in Las Vegas. Late in the fourth round, Yan landed an illegal knee to the face of a downed Sterling. Referee Mark Smith paused the bout, and after several minutes, the doctor waved off the bout. The title win via DQ was the first in UFC history. In the rematch 13 months later, Sterling beat Yan (then an interim champion) by split decision to remove any doubt about his championship status. Later in 2022, at UFC 280, Sterling dispatched of TJ Dillashaw via second-round TKO for his second title defense. It also marked his UFC-record eighth straight win in the bantamweight division.