Defending Dominance: Most Consecutive UFC Title Defenses

You know you're a beast of a champion when you can put your money where your mouth is every time you defend your belt.

Few in the business can defend their title more than once and claim themselves to be a dominant champion, though it has been done.

Case in point, Anderson Silva—the enigmatic, 6-time, defending UFC Middleweight Champion who may finally be 11-1 after his next defense against Chael Sonnen.

Really makes you wonder: has any other champion been close to this level of dominance?

The answer is yes.

14. Brock Lesnar (2 Defenses, 2008-Present)

Current UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar is a freakish human being, and a rather dangerous one at that.

He lost to Frank Mir in his debut, impressed well enough against Heath Herring to earn a shot at then UFC Heavyweight Champ Randy Couture, and Lesnar pummeled Couture with no remorse to win the belt. He did the same to Mir in their UFC 100 rematch.

On top of that, he proved his grit against Shane Carwin at UFC 116, surviving the first round and coming back in the second round to submit Carwin and hand the Greg Jackson gargantuan his first pro loss.

Lesnar has significant work to do in order to pass Silva's streak, and yet no fan of MMA can honestly look at Couture and Carwin and think that the champ has been crushing cans.

Best fighter in the world? Hell no, but he's on his way up to where he belongs.

All he has to do is make it look easy when he faces Cain Velasquez, and he could one day make Silva's whole win streak look like The Spider's last three title defenses.

13. Jens Pulver (2 Defenses, 2001-2002)

The very first UFC Lightweight champion, Jens "Lil' Evil" Pulver was a hell of a lot of trouble for any opponent he faced.

After a unanimous decision win over Caol Uno at UFC 30, the lightweight champ (referred to as the UFC Bantamweight Champ until UFC 34) would defend the belt on two occasions before leaving the company due to contractual disputes.

Defending against Dennis Hallman, Pulver would survive an attempted armbar before landing a clean left hook on Hallman's chin. Despite the blow, the fight finished in a unanimous decision in favor of Pulver, and Hallman was far from the same after the fight.

The final defense of Pulver's UFC Lightweight title came against BJ Penn in one of the UFC's greatest fights ever.

BJ Penn had debuted at UFC 31 against Joey Gilbert, but had impressed the MMA Nation thoroughly by cleanly knocking out the likes of Caol Uno and Din Thomas, as well as Gilbert, all in the first round and all with the intention of facing Jens Pulver for the UFC Lightweight crown.

That Pulver didn't tap to a straight armbar from Penn that hyper-extended  his arm with seconds before the end of the round really proves that Pulver has heart, if nothing else.

There's a reason why Pulver is widely considered one of the greatest lightweights of all time, and his first fight with BJ is a testament to that.

12. Tim Sylvia (2 Defenses, 2006)

The Maine-iac, unquestionably one of the most menacing fighters in UFC history and well known for the rather sickening knockouts he's obtained over the course of his career, was at one time a pretty dominant UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Sylvia's first stint as champ ended when he was stripped of the belt after a failed drug test. Reign number two was a far different story.

After being handed a loss to by way of an Andrei Arlovski achilles lock, the two met again at UFC 59 in a bout full of hype and intensity.

You tell me if the night ended well for Arlovski.

With the Sylvia-Arlovski war at 1-1, the two had a rubber match at UFC 61. That one didn't end too well for Arlovski either.

After the final fight with Arlovski, Sylvia fought Jeff Monson. That fight went the same amount of time as did Sylvia-Arlovski III, and ended the exact same way.

While the reign of Sylvia was a wild and crazy one, it didn't last forever.

As a matter of fact it took only one man to beat Sylvia the same way Sylvia beat Monson and Arlovksi in their third go-round.

That man was Randy Couture, and while Couture ushered in his own era of dominance with that win, the Sylvia era was never forgotten.

11. Randy Couture (2 Defenses, 2001)

The first man to be the the king of two different UFC divisions, I think it's only fitting that Randy Couture is mentioned among the champions with the most consecutive title defenses.

Couture's place on this list begins with his third round TKO of Kevin Randleman at UFC 28 back in 2000.

When Randy defended his belt for the first time, he took Pedro Rizzo to a unanimous decision. Rizzo got himself a rematch, but he would get KO'd by Couture in the first minute and thirty-eight seconds of the third round.

A barrage of punches courtesy of Josh Barnett kept Couture from a successful third defense was and halted his reign as champion.

The loss to Barnett and the subsequent loss to Ricco Rodriguez didn't keep Randy Couture down for long, though.

10. Rich Franklin (2 Defenses, 2005-2006)

Rich Franklin... what do you say about the guy that hasn't been said already?

He's classy, well-rounded, he's beaten a who's who of guys in the cage, and he's the former UFC Middleweight Champion.

We all know he's the guy Anderson Silva beat for the belt in what was far from a simple challenge for The Spider, but how'd Franklin even get the belt?

It took a win by doctor stoppage over the late Evan Tanner for that to happen.

After Tanner, Ace knocked out Nate Quarry at UFC 56 in his first title defense, and went on to defeat David "The Crow" Loiseau  by unanimous decision in what would be Ace's final defense of the middleweight belt.

Then along came a Spider... and I think we all know what happened next.

9. Andrei Arlovski (2 Defenses, 2005)

Call The Pit Bull whatever you want now that he's in Strikeforce, but in his UFC days, Arlovski was nothing short of a dominant—and downright scary—heavyweight fighter.

Can you believe the guy's only had 23 pro fights in his career?

It's a shame that he never really got to fight Frank Mir for the belt before his two defenses happened.

See, Arlovski became the champ in a fight to decide an interim champ until it was determined whether or not Mir would still be able to defend the belt after his motorcycle accident.

Back then, they didn't know that he wouldn't, and certainly everyone hoped that Mir would be able to.

Anyway, Arlovski won the interim belt by tapping out Sylvia and defended it successfully by knocking out Justin Eilers in four minutes and ten seconds in their fight at UFC 53.

Then, Arlovski officially became the UFC Heavyweight Champion after it was made official that Mir couldn't defend the belt.

How did he celebrate that achievement?

He defended the title from Paul Buentello by knocking him out in fifteen seconds.

See Tim Sylvia's slide to see how that belt got away from Andrei, but remember this: it really wasn't that long ago when the same people knocking Andrei now were thinking he was virtually indestructible.

And if you look at how Arlovski fought in the UFC, it's not tough to understand why.

8. BJ Penn (3 Defenses, 2008-2009)

For The Prodigy, it took one cut on the head of Joe Stevenson for the UFC Lightweight Belt to see a new owner.

Sean Sherk, after having to vacate the belt in 2007, wanted another shot at the belt, and he got it at UFC 84. But one knee and flurry of punches later, Sherk became an addition to BJ Penn's highlight reel.

Kenny Florian didn't get beaten as badly as Sherk or Stevenson did, but he did get himself choked out by Penn at UFC 101 in what was the evening's main event.

Diego Sanchez didn't fare much better either.

Granted, he made it all the way to round five with Penn without getting KO'd or submitted, but Penn did rock him and bust him open pretty badly.

Seems like all the UFC needed to do to get a new champ was throw Frankie Edgar in after Sanchez, and it worked pretty well.

The question now, though, is can Frankie keep BJ Penn from becoming a two-time UFC Lightweight Champion?

We'll know in three weeks when the UFC breaks ground in Boston.

7. Georges St-Pierre (4 Defenses, 2008-Present)

Talk about a classy son of a gun.

In GSP, you've got a guy that can get knocked out by Matt Serra, bounce back from defeat, beat Matt Hughes for a third time, and then beat Matt Serra.

All without calling his opponent a "douchebag" or acting like one himself.

After the win over Matt Serra, GSP showed even more class by asking the crowds to not boo The Terror despite the New Yorker being in GSP's neck of the woods.

But that's not all GSP managed to do.

He also decimated the likes of Jon Fitch, BJ Penn, Thiago Alves, and Dan Hardy, though the win over Hardy was a difficult one for St-Pierre despite it being a unanimous decision.

6. Frank Shamrock (4 Defenses, 1997-1999)

How do you get a name like The Legend and make people realize that you earned that nickname?

Being the UFC's first Light Heavyweight Champ helps.

Submitting your opponent in fourteen seconds in the bout that decides that championship helps, too.

Ask Frank Shamrock. It worked for him when he tapped Kevin Jackson out with an armbar in fourteen seconds.

Heck, Frankie also shattered the collarbone of his first challenger with a slam in twenty-two seconds that knocked out Igor "Houdini" Zinoviev.

Jeremy Horn tapped to a kneebar about sixteen minutes into the fight (remember, back in the pre-Zuffa days, fights lasted much longer and there weren't any breaks in between five-minute intervals).

John Lober and Tito Ortiz tapped too, but Frank would get his tapout out of Ortiz and Lober due to some wicked strikes.

Frank was a merciless kickboxing expert, lest we forget, so the fact that Ortiz or anyone else would submit due to what Shamrock threw as opposed to what he locked in is unsurprising.

Even more unsurprising is that after the fourth defense, the win over Ortiz, Frank boldly retired from the UFC, citing a "lack of competition" for the logic behind his departure.

Whether you liked him, hated him, or didn't really care about him, you can't say that the UFC Light Heavyweight Champions of this era don't owe Frank Shamrock some gratitude.

His dominance serves as the blueprint for what could be to come for the reign of current champion Mauricio Rua, though Tito Ortiz would provide a more refined blueprint after Shamrock retired.

As the old saying goes, heroes get remembered, but legends never die.

5. Chuck Liddell (4 Defenses, 2005-2006)

Randy Couture is known for a lot of things, but one of those things is being the man whom Chuck Liddell KO'd twice.

As a matter of fact, Chuck's last reign as Light Heavyweight Champ is owed to Couture.

He's the man Chuck beat for the belt.

He's also the man who had fought Chuck  in what was Liddell's second defense under this second title reign.

Also targeted were Jeremy Horn, Babalu, and, of course, Tito Ortiz. All except Horn, who verbally submitted, were knocked out.

I'd say Chuck's track record speaks for itself.

4. Pat Miletich (4 Defenses, 1999-2000)

Pat Miletich was a beast of a man when he burst on the welterweight scene.

He was an agile guy, real athletic, but his moves and maneuvers never lacked brutality.

Ask his opponents if Pat is a soft guy in the cage.

Jorge Patino tried putting away Pat in twenty-one minutes but could do it.

Andre Pederneiras got cut open in his fight with Pat, so he couldn't even finish the fight.

Kenichi Yamamoto got himself caught in a guillotine almost two minutes into the second round of his fight with Miletich.

What's that tell you?

It tells me that Pat Miletich isn't a guy you mess around with,

3. Matt Hughes (5 Defenses, 2000-2003)

He's the best damn welterweight champ in the UFC, and what a record he compiled after the powerbomb on Carlos Newton.

He KO'd Hayato Sakurai, outclassed Sean Sherk, submitted Frank Trigg, and TKO'd Carlos Newton again, all of which showed that Hughes was a strong-willed SOB that loved a good fight.

He faces Renzo Gracie pupil Ricardo Almeida at UFC 117 this Saturday, but regardless of whether Ricardo moves to the upper echelon or not,  there's no doubt that Hughes will always be top dog in the welterweight division.

2. Tito Ortiz (5 Defenses, 2000-2002)

Before Couture spanked him, Tito was the man at 205.

He'd beaten Wanderlei Silva, he neck cranked Yuki Kondo, he KO'd Evan Tanner with a slam, he beat Elvis Sinosic up pretty badly, he took Vladimir Matyushenko to a decision (albeit a unanimous one), and he caused Ken Shamrock's corner to stop the fight in one of their three bouts in the cage.

How was that dominant?

Well, he ran his mouth for five defenses and until Couture, no one was able to shut him up.

Tito was just tough to touch, but he had to be touched sometime.

And who better to break an unbreakable fighter than a fellow legend?

1. Anderson Silva (6 Defenses, 2006-Present)

Silva has beaten Dan Henderson, Nate Marquardt, Rich Franklin, Patrick Cote, Demian Maia, and Thales Leites in title defenses -- some good and some terrible.

The fact of the matter, though, is that whether you liked or hated his performances, they do speak in some way to his dominance in his division.

He's the only man in history with more than five title defenses in his career, and he'll be making his seventh defense at UFC 117 against Chael Sonnen.

Can Silva claim Sonnen as his victim? Or will Sonnen be one half of the biggest upset in UFC history since GSP-Serra 1?