Arman Tsarukyan heads into his lightweight title fight against Islam Makhachev this weekend at the age of 28. Should he defeat the pound-for-pound greatest fighter, Tsarukyan would be at least five years younger than the next youngest in the top 10 lightweights (Max Holloway.) Of all the top 10 UFC lightweights, Tsarukyan is the only athlete in his twenties; however, a win at UFC 311 wouldn’t come close to making him the youngest-ever champion. That record belongs to Jon Jones, who, at the age of 23 years and 242 days, became the organization’s youngest champion when he defeated ‘Shogun’ Rua at UFC 128 back in 2011.
That got us wondering, who is the oldest person to win a UFC championship? We take a look at the top five below.
Jan Błachowicz (2020)
After Jon Jones stepped away from the UFC for a while as he struggled to negotiate terms on his next fight as well as contemplating a move to the heavyweight division, the title at 205lb became vacant. Jan Błachowicz and Dominik Reyes competed for the vacant title at UFC 253 in Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, and the 37-year-old Błachowicz defeated Reyes with a TKO towards the end of the second round.
Fabricio Werdum (2015)
In the heavyweight clash at UFC 188 in Mexico City, Werdum showed how advanced his jiu-jitsu had become as he defeated the champion, Cain Velasquez, with a guillotine choke in the third round. The high altitude in Mexico affected Velasquez’s performance, but that’s not taking anything away from Werdum, who became the champion a month shy of his 38th birthday.
Daniel Cormier (2018)
After coaching on The 27th season of The Ultimate Fighter alongside the heavyweight king, Stipe Miocic, the current light heavyweight champion, Daniel Cormier, moved up to challenge Stipe for his belt at UFC 226 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Aged 39, Cormier knocked out Miocic in the first round with a right hand from the clinch. DC became just the second fighter (after Conor McGregor) to hold belts in two different weight classes simultaneously and went on to have a trilogy with Stipe Miocic in what was one of the greatest rivalries the sport has ever seen.
Glover Teixeira (2021)
After Jan Błachowicz defended his light heavyweight title against Israel Adesanya in dominant fashion, his next defence came against the veteran 42-year-old at UFC 267. Despite his age, Teixeira dominated the fight on the ground and, in the second round, submitted the champion with a rear-naked choke, becoming one of the oldest UFC champions ever.
Randy Couture (2007)
The oldest person to ever win a UFC title. At the age of 43 years and 8 months, Couture came out of retirement to challenge Tim Sylvia for the heavyweight title. Couture had spent the past four years competing at light-heavyweight but felt that his return would be better suited at heavyweight. After five dominant rounds, ‘The Natural’ became the oldest man in the history of the UFC to win a belt, a record which still stands almost twenty years later.
Notable mention: Michael Bisping
Michael Bisping (2016)
In 2016, Bisping won the middleweight title at the age of 37 by knocking out Luke Rockhold at UFC 199. Despite only being able to see from one eye due to previously sustaining a detached retina, Bisping managed to convince doctors that he was healthy enough to compete by passing pre-fight medical checks. With the UFC unaware that Bisping only had 50% of his vision, he connected with a perfectly timed counter left hook in the first round, winning the title after the referee stepped in as Bisping unloaded on Rockhold with follow-up strikes.
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