Issue 185
November -0001
To date, eight men have been crowned interim champs in the UFC but – for a variety of reasons – have not gone on to unify their belts
Jon Jones
After being stripped of his undisputed belt, Jones won an interim title against Ovince St Preux which he again was stripped of, meaning he never officially unified the belt.
José Aldo
Aldo became interim champ at UFC 200 when Conor McGregor made the jump to lightweight. Conor was stripped and Aldo was promoted to undisputed champion.
Colby Covington
After winning his interim title, Covington had nasal surgery and Tyron Woodley fought Darren Till. Chaos was then stripped when Woodley fought Kamaru Usman.
Robert Whittaker
Whittaker won his interim title as Michael Bisping was waiting to fight GSP. St Pierre won, but vacated the strap and the Reaper was promoted to undisputed champ.
Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira
Nogueira won his interim title while Randy Couture was in dispute with the UFC. Big Nog lost his interim title to Frank Mir and Couture lost the undisputed to Brock Lesnar.
Tony Ferguson
Ferguson won his interim title against Kevin Lee at UFC 216 but was stripped when he was injured during promotion for a fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Andrei Arlovski
When heavyweight champ Frank Mir was injured in a motorcycle crash, Arlovski won an interim title against Tim Sylvia and was finally promoted to undisputed champ.
Renan Barão
Barão beat Urijah Faber for an interim title when champion Dominick Cruz suffered an injury. Barão defended his title twice and was promoted to undisputed champ.
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