The Career-Defining Moment of Each UFC Champion

With the rosters of Pride, Strikeforce and the UFC all slowly consolidating into one massive talent pool, the sport of mixed martial arts has never been bigger than it is right now, and the champions have certainly never been more talented.

UFC on FOX opened the gate of the sport wide open for the world to see, as nearly nine million viewers tuned in to see the historical heavyweight title fight between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos on network television.

It wasn’t even the official start to the UFC and FOX’s deal, but the event will go down as perhaps the most important in the history of MMA when it comes to getting the product to as large of an audience as possible. Not only that, but it was certainly the biggest moment in the career of new heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos.

Dos Santos had the benefit of fighting on the big card, but that was more due to timing than it was anything else. The other UFC champions could have all headlined the first FOX card, but let’s take a look at the biggest moments in each title-holder’s career thus far. 

Bantamweight: Dominick Cruz

Career-Defining Moment: UFC 132, Defeated Urijah Faber

The bantamweight division is currently the smallest weight class in the UFC, and as we all know, the lighter weight classes have traditionally had problems grabbing the attention of the fans like the larger weight classes do.

So when the UFC put the main event of one of their summer pay-per-view events, UFC 132, in the hands of two 135-pounders, it was a huge moment. Dominick Cruz successfully defended his title against former WEC featherweight champion Faber in that event, winning an impressive unanimous decision and winning “fight of the night” in the process.

The victory was huge because of where and when it happened, but it was particularly defining for Cruz, as it avenged the only loss he had ever sustained as a professional. 

Featherweight: Jose Aldo

Career-Defining Moment: WEC 48, Defeated Urijah Faber

Like Dominick Cruz in the slide before this, Jose Aldo’s career-defining moment also came at the expense of former WEC featherweight kingpin Urijah Faber.

Aldo had won the WEC featherweight title in his previous fight at WEC 44, but it came against Mike Brown, whom many believed to be not much more than a matchup problem for Urijah Faber and not so much of a long-term champion himself. Aldo easily ran through Brown, knocking him out in the second round of their fight, but still had to prove himself against the former champion, Faber.

Aldo defended the title against Faber in the main event at WEC 48 and laid an absolute beating on him for 25 minutes before winning a unanimous judges’ decision in front of fans of “The California Kid” in his home state. It was a true show of skill and the beginning of what has become a long title run at 145 pounds.

Lightweight: Frankie Edgar

Career-Defining Moment: UFC 118, Defeated BJ Penn

Frankie Edgar had put together an impressive 11-1 record when he stepped in to challenge the man whom many believe to be the best lightweight in the history of the sport, BJ Penn. Penn had run through the lightweight division quickly and was already considering a move back up to welterweight to challenge himself, and not many believed that Edgar would give him much of a test.

My, how wrong we were. Edgar pushed Penn to his absolute max, eventually winning a controversial decision in the UFC’s debut in Abu Dhabi.

But there were still doubters until Edgar was able to prove it when he convincingly picked apart the former lightweight and welterweight champion at UFC 118. This performance proved that Edgar was not a fluke, and he had indeed surpassed “The Prodigy” as the best 155-pounder in the UFC.

Welterweight: Georges St-Pierre

Career-Defining Moment: UFC 94, Defeated BJ Penn

Frankie Edgar’s career-defining moment came against BJ Penn, and many would agree that Georges St-Pierre’s career-defining moment may have also come at the expense of the former two-division champion.

St-Pierre had defeated Penn at UFC 58 in a fight that earned him a shot against Matt Hughes, which he would make use of to become the UFC welterweight champion. He lost the title and then won it back from Matt Serra before pummeling Jon Fitch, but many still believed that Penn would be GSP’s kryptonite.

The welterweight champion ended that speculation, though, in dominant fashion as he physically manhandled and abused the Hawaii-native. Penn was unable to mount much of any offense and eventually his corner threw in the towel after four rounds of destruction.

Some will always remember this event for the “grease-gate” scandal that involved St-Pierre’s corner covering their fighter’s back with Vaseline, but the reality is that it really wouldn’t have mattered. Penn was just outmatched by the better fighter that night, and St-Pierre had officially cemented himself as the best 170-pounder on Earth.

Middleweight: Anderson Silva

Career-Defining Moment: UFC 101, Defeated Forrest Griffin

There are some fighters who never become champions. Some become champions, but don’t last long. Others remain champions for only a short period of time, and still others dominate their division for an extended period of time.

But then there is Anderson Silva, the most dominant champion in the history of the UFC and arguably the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in the history of the entire sport.

Silva had already bulldozed his way through the 185-pound middleweight division and confidently moved up to 205 to pick apart James Irvin. But as talented as James Irvin is, he wasn’t really a challenge.

So the UFC decided to give Silva a challenge that they believed he’d actually have some trouble beating when they booked a fight between the middleweight champion and former UFC light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin at UFC 101.

Griffin was expected to use his size and strength advantage to control “The Spider” and not let him do what he had done to so many at 185. It was a good plan on paper, but it didn’t turn out that way at all.

Silva literally dropped his hands numerous times, practically daring the Ultimate Fighter 1 winner to hit him. Griffin swung wildly as Silva danced out of the way before violently dropping him with one punch. An exhausted and humiliated Griffin was unable to continue fighting just 3:23 in the first round.

The win by Silva proved that not only was he the best 185-pound fighter in the world, but that he might also be the best 205-pounder...if he wanted to be.

Light Heavyweight: Jon Jones

Career-Defining Moment: UFC 128, Defeated Mauricio “Shogun” Rua

The career of Jon “Bones” Jones has been very short, but it is already looking like it could be one of the truly legendary ones before it’s all said and done.

At only 24 years old, Jones is already the UFC light heavyweight champion, which he won from previous champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in dominant fashion in the main event at UFC 128.

Rua was making his first title defense and was actually expected to fight Rashad Evans, but Evans was forced out of the contest due to an injury. In stepped Jon Jones, who had defeated fellow up-and-comer Ryan Bader in dominant fashion just six weeks prior at UFC 126.

Despite Rua being the champion, Jones actually came into the fight as a slight betting favorite. The odds-makers were proven right that night, as Jones annihilated Shogun, becoming the first man to ever knock out the Brazilian when he did so in the third round of their contest.

Heavyweight: Junior Dos Santos

Career-Defining Moment: UFC on FOX 1, Defeated Cain Velasquez

As mentioned in the opening slide, the biggest moment in Junior dos Santos’ career could very well also be argued as the biggest moment in the history of the entire sport as he and Cain Velasquez battled in the inaugural main event of UFC on FOX.

Undefeated in his UFC career, dos Santos had knocked out some of the toughest fighters in the heavyweight division, including Fabricio Werdum, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic (technically ruled a submission to punches) and Stefan Struve, but he had never fought someone like Velasquez.

Velasquez carried an undefeated 9-0 record into the fight, with his most recent victory coming against former champion Brock Lesnar, but Junior dos Santos was not intimidated in the least bit. Both fighters tried to be aggressive early, but it was the power and technical precision of dos Santos’ punches that were the difference, as he caught the champion early in the fight before finishing the knockout just 1:04 into the first round.

It remains to be seen if Velasquez will be the long-term champion in the division or if he will fall like so many of the recent champions have, but it will be tough to top what dos Santos did at UFC on FOX in terms of a career-defining moment.