The 11 current UFC world champions and one interim champion have a combined seven title defenses, and none of them has successfully defended a belt more than twice. Leon Edwards, who won the welterweight title when he knocked out long-time champion Kamaru Usman in the waning seconds of their bout in the main event of UFC 278 on Aug. 20, 2022, in Salt Lake City Utah, is now the promotion's longest-reigning champion.
It's a testament, at the very least, to the rise in competition in the sport. Including the interim heavyweight title, there are four new champions in the UFC since Nov. 11, 2023 alone That means that in four months, a full 33 percent of the UFC belts changed hands.
It also is a stark reminder of the difficult task facing bantamweight champion 'Suga' Sean O'Malley on Saturday when he defends his belt for the first time against arch rival Marlon "Chito" Vera in the main event of UFC 299 at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Fla.
O'Malley lost to Vera in an Aug. 16, 2020 fight at Apex in Las Vegas on the main card of UFC 252. O'Malley opened the fight strong and was landing a series of hard kicks to the legs and body. As the fight moved on, O'Malley tried to pivot into the center of the Octagon, and his right foot rolled. He suffered a case of drop foot, where he had nerve damage and couldn't move or put much pressure on it.
That made him a sitting duck for Vera, who quickly noticed O'Malley's issue and went to work on it. Vera had spent much of the early part of the round backing away from O'Malley and trying to fend off O'Malley's kicks. The moment the foot rolled, it was Vera on the attack.
It's been more than three years and many fights ago, and not many folks recall the opening moments of that bout when O'Malley looked like a killer.
"I think I was piecing him up and I was about to put his lights out, eventually," O'Malley said. "But it was 31/2 years ago and both of us have changed. But the fact that we get to re-run it now, while I'm defending it, in Miami, while I'm the champ, it's a crazy storyline."
Since that fight, O'Malley has gone 5-0 with four KOs and a no-contest, won the bantamweight belt by stopping Aljamain Sterling and has morphed into one of the UFC's biggest stars. The fact that he's defending at UFC 299 instead of fighting on the undercard of UFC 300 is evidence of the UFC"s belief in him.
Most everyone felt former double champion Conor McGregor would headline UFC 300, which is April 13 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, particularly since McGregor re-entered the anti-doping testing pool and will be eligible to fight on April 6. With McGregor on top and a slew of other stars down card, the UFC didn't necessarily need O'Malley at 300.
Instead, he made sense as the headliner in Miami, where the UFC has always tried to make a big splash.
"If you look at how big the Miami cards always are ... they always go hard in Miami," O'Malley said. "They always have massive events in Miami. I actually feel honored to headline UFC 299 in Miami. UFC 300 would have been cool but I actually did think that was a Conor spot. For me, that wasn't really talked about and Miami was always on the UFC's agenda and putting me and Chito there just makes a lot of sense."
O'Malley is already one of the UFC's biggest stars behind McGregor, and so he'll probably always wind up fighting on the notable cards in big venues and in significant moments in places like Boston, New York, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
It's dependent, though, on him keeping the belt, which has proven increasingly difficult for fans to do. In 2023, defending champions had a record of 6-4-1 in 2023. In 2022, defending champions were 8-6.
Vera defeated Pedro Munhoz on Aug. 19, the same card in which O'Malley kayoed Sterling. Vera is confident that he'll end any doubts.
"Same thing," he said when asked how he'd win on Saturday. "It was working before and so just more of that."
A win will help bolster O'Malley's case as one of the UFC's biggest stars. It's his only misstep in 19 career fights, but championship fights are tougher than all others. History would suggest it's far more difficult to win as a defending champion than it is at any other time.
If he manages to reel off a few title defenses, though, he's not going to have to take a back seat to anyone.