The UFC Lightweight Title: A Visual History

The table is now set for Ilia Topuria’s return later this year; only time will tell whether Justin Gaethje ends up being more than an appetizer.

In the main event of UFC 324 on Saturday in Las Vegas, “The Highlight” thumped a game but outmatched Paddy Pimblett for most of their 25-minute encounter to earn the interim lightweight title. While the interim strap is a fantastic addition to Gaethje’s already all-timer of a résumé, it also makes him the presumptive next opponent for Topuria, who announced late last year that he was taking a break from competition to address personal issues.

Over the past decade, lightweight has been arguably the strongest division in the UFC, with some of the biggest draws and most dominant fighters in MMA history laying claim the undisputed belt. Just beneath the tier of Khabib Nurmagomedov, Charles Oliveira and Conor McGregor, a cast of interim champs and top contenders like Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, and Michael Chandler have helped ensure that just about every title fight was an absolute banger, a vehicle to propel the winner to new heights of stardom.

It wasn’t always that way, of course. Lightweight was once so unloved that, thanks to a combination of lukewarm fan interest, a thin roster and an ill-timed draw in a title fight, the title lay vacant from March 2002, when champion Jens Pulver bolted over a contract dispute, until October 2006, when Sean Sherk defeated Kenny Florian to capture the title and rekindle the division. Unthinkable as it seems now, many fans during that four-and-a-half-year interregnum questioned whether the “little guys” would ever be a deep enough division to consistently develop title contenders—let alone sell tickets—and wondering whether the UFC might not be better off abandoning it altogether.

Fortunately for us, the UFC never did give up on the division, and by the time of B.J. Penn’s long-awaited title reign in 2008, it was well on its way to becoming the force it is today. While most of the lightweight stars from Pride Fighting Championships chose to continue competing in Asia after the promotion was acquired by Zuffa in 2007, the UFC’s absorption of World Extreme Cagefighting in 2010 and Strikeforce in 2013 bolstered the already loaded division even further.