There was a record-setting amount of UFC championship turnover in 2025, with 13 new undisputed champions crowned in the past 12 months.
There were title vacancies, vacant title wins and promotions from interim to undisputed champion. Belts also changed hands the old fashioned way, too: inside the octagon.
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Women’s flyweight queen Valentina Shevchenko was the only person to keep their name at the top of the title ledger uninterrupted from January to December, and she received MMA Junkie’s Female Fighter of the Year honors for it.
Despite Shevchenko’s successes, the championship scene around her was nothing short of chaotic. But a fresh year brings fresh opportunity for the current crop of titleholders, which includes Tom Aspinall (heavyweight), Alex Pereira (light heavyweight), Khamzat Chimaev (middleweight), Islam Makhachev (welterweight), Ilia Topuria (lightweight), Alexander Volkanovski (featherweight), Petr Yan (bantamweight), Joshua Van (flyweight), Kayla Harrison (women’s bantamweight), Shevchenko (women’s flyweight), and Mackenzie Dern (strawweight).
Which current UFC champions are most likely to make it through 2026 with gold still around their waists? Watch the video above to see MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn and UFC analyst Din Thomas draft their top candidates on “The Bohnfire” podcast.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC in 2026: Which champions will reign longest into new year?
