{"id":53014,"date":"2025-08-08T13:50:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T13:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/53014\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T13:50:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T13:50:14","slug":"who-is-the-ufc-lightweight-champion-pound-for-pound-superstar-holds-gold-after-huge-vegas-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/53014\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is the UFC lightweight champion? Pound-for-pound superstar holds gold after huge Vegas win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ilia Topuria became the 13th fighter to hold the lightweight title at UFC 317 in June.<\/p>\n

He picked up the vacant belt through a vicious first-round knockout<\/a> of Charles Oliveira<\/a> in the Las Vegas main event.<\/p>\n

\"Topuria<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Topuria is the UFC lightweight championCredit: Getty\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

A belt he won after knocking out OliveiraCredit: GettyWhy was the UFC lightweight title vacant?<\/p>\n

The UFC lightweight title was vacant because ex-champion Islam Makhachev relinquished it<\/a> in May.<\/p>\n

Makhachev had made his fourth lightweight title defence in January, submitting Renato Moicano in the main event of UFC<\/a> 311 after 245 seconds.<\/p>\n

However, he decided enough was enough at 155lbs after friend and training partner Belal Muhammad was dethroned of the welterweight strap at UFC 315.<\/p>\n

Makhachev had been teasing a move up to welterweight for months, but didn’t want to move up if Muhammad was still the champion at 170lbs.<\/p>\n

But Muhammad was outpointed by Australian Jack Della Maddalena<\/a> in UFC 315’s main event, prompting Makhachev to drop his lightweight belt and move up a division.<\/p>\n

This left the UFC lightweight title vacant and it has since been claimed by Topuria.<\/p>\n

Are UFC belts made of gold?<\/p>\n

The short answer is no, although certain features of the belt are crafted with gold-plated metal.<\/p>\n

The UFC central piece is made of high-polished gold, while the right plate features a gold UFC world champion logo, and the leather is embedded with gold octagonal button snaps.<\/p>\n

All champions currently compete for the legacy championship belt, just like all division kings in the last six years.<\/p>\n

It was first introduced by the promotion in 2019, due to it being the organisation’s 25th anniversary, and the strap followed the classic UFC title used between 2001 to 2018, which was held by the likes of British former middleweight champion Michael Bisping<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

The UFC legacy championship belt cold be worth almost $1,000,000Credit: Getty\"It<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

It replaced the classic UFC belt in January 2019Credit: Getty<\/p>\n

Flyweight great Demetrious Johnson<\/a> was awarded his tenth classic belt when he submitted Wilson Reis in 2017.<\/p>\n

The newish legacy belt is 50 ins (127 cm) long and 12 ins (30 cm) in height.<\/p>\n

It weighs 10.45lbs (4.7kg) and its centre plate features the flags of the first eight countries that were home to UFC champions like the flag of the Republic of Ireland following the success of Conor McGregor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The centre piece also includes 25 white cubic zirconia and created ruby stones that represent 25 years of the UFC.<\/p>\n

The left plate is customised for every fighter, with the fight stones bordering the plate replaced with a red stone for each victory in a championship bout.<\/p>\n

Each legacy belt comes with a plate on the back with a unique serial number assigned to the champion, as well as UFC CEO and President Dana White<\/a>‘s signature engraved for authenticity.<\/p>\n

UFC Legacy Championship Belt<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Details<\/p>\n

Length: 127 cmHeight: 30 cmMain Plate: 29 cm x 24 cmSide Plates: 11 cm x 11 cmWeight: 4.7 kgUFC logoEight-country icons41 white cubic zirconia and created ruby stonesHow much are UFC titles worth?<\/p>\n

Although the exact price of current UFC belts remains unknown, they are estimated to be worth around $900,000 (\u00a3662,000) apiece. <\/p>\n

Speaking in 2019, British MMA pioneer Bisping revealed ex-light heavyweight star Rashad Evans had told him that the old belts were worth $300,000 each.<\/p>\n

“That\u2019s what Dana White told Rashad Evans,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Mine\u2019s just been gathering dust back there. There\u2019s another one in the other room… <\/p>\n

“If I\u2019d known they were worth $600,000 between them I might get them insured for one and then they get stolen \u2026 I\u2019m joking.”<\/p>\n

This then prices the new and current belt, according to the UFC’s official website, at a whopping $900,000.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

All UFC Lightweight Champions<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Current champion: Ilia Topuria<\/p>\n

12. Islam Makhachev<\/p>\n

11. Charles Oliveira<\/p>\n

Interim: Justin Gaethje<\/p>\n

Interim: Dustin Poirier<\/p>\n

10. Khabib Nurmagomedov<\/p>\n

Interim: Tony Ferguson<\/p>\n

9. Conor McGregor<\/p>\n

8. Eddie Alvarez<\/p>\n

7. Rafael dos Anjos<\/p>\n

6. Anthony Pettis<\/p>\n

5. Benson Henderson<\/p>\n

4. Frankie Edgar<\/p>\n

3. B.J. Penn<\/p>\n

2. Sean Sherk<\/p>\n

Jens PulverNew footage emerges of Paddy Pimblett’s stunned reaction to Ilia Topuria knocking out Charles Oliveira <\/p>\n

“The new UFC belt is valued at three times more than its predecessor,” an introduction read when the promotion first unveiled the new belt<\/a> in 2019.<\/p>\n

MMA fans can buy a replica UFC legacy belt for a whopping $849.99 (\u00a3625), so the valuation at almost $1,000,000 for the real thing doesn’t seem far off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ilia Topuria became the 13th fighter to hold the lightweight title at UFC 317 in June. He picked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[44288,64,63,17500,786,44290,17499,44289,785,85,787,44283,44284,44292,44293,44282,44291,44286,44285,44287],"class_list":["post-53014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-are-ufc-belts-made-of-gold","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-charles-oliveira","tag-fighting","tag-how-much-are-ufc-titles-worth","tag-ilia-topuria","tag-is-ufc-title-gold","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-317","tag-ufc-belt","tag-ufc-belt-price","tag-ufc-belt-worth","tag-ufc-lightweight-title","tag-ufc-title-price","tag-who-is-the-ufc-lightweight-champion","tag-who-is-ufc-lightweight-champion","tag-why-is-the-lightweight-title-vacant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}