List of UFC Lineal Champions

This article tracks the lineage of the original UFC championships. These are not official or recognized championships within the UFC but follow the original titles as they would have been contested in various promotions at the same weight class.

Origin
The era of modern mixed martial arts began in Japan in 1989 with the inception of professional Shooto. In the U.S. it was UFC 1 in 1993. The rule set during the sport's infancy was significantly less voluminous than it has currently become. During the first event at UFC 1, there were no weight limits or weight classes. The idea was to determine who was the best fighter regardless of anything besides actual fighting merit. Initially as many fighters lacked legitimate training and relied merely on size and strength, those with technique, such as Royce Gracie, while substantially smaller in size, were able to find great success. As the larger fighters began to train in techniques and an influx of Olympic level wrestlers entered the sport, the technique gap greatly diminished and size and strengthen would often become the asymmetric advantage for the larger fighters. In order to allow smaller fighters to compete more fairly, weight classes were introduced at UFC 12.

This article tracks the lineage of the original UFC championships. If a lineal champion retires before losing at the particular weight, then the lineage ends and a new one is not restarted. The weight class is determined by actual fighter weight requirements, not nominally, such as in the Welterweight title that began as a UFC Lightweight title contested at 170 lbs. In instances where the title is contested in another organization that has dissimilar weight classes, the nearest weight class would be considered a valid defense if contested at that weight. For example, when the reigning lineal welterweight champion, Hayato Sakurai, fought Anderson Silva at Shooto: To The Top 7, the bout was contested at the Shooto welterweight division of 168 lbs. This represents a legitimate contention of the lineal UFC Welterweight title.

Openweight Championship

 * UFC 1 was the first Openweight tournament and thus the winner would claim the title of Openweight champion.

Heavyweight Championship

 * The Heavyweight class is defined as 206-265 lbs.
 * The first Heavyweight Championship was contested at UFC 12.

Light Heavyweight Championship

 * The Light Heavyweight class is defined as 186-205 lbs.
 * The first Light Heavyweight Championship was contested at UFC Japan.
 * The Light Heavyweight Title was contested in the UFC as the UFC Middleweight Title during Shamrock's reign.

Middleweight Championship

 * The Middleweight class is defined as 171-185 lbs.
 * The first Middleweight Championship was contested at UFC 33.
 * The Middleweight Title was contested in Pride as the Pride Welterweight Title.

Welterweight Championship

 * The Welterweight class is defined as 156-170 lbs.
 * The first Welterweight Championship was contested at UFC Brazil
 * The Welterweight Title was known as the UFC Lightweight Title in the UFC prior to UFC 31 (May 4, 2001).

Lightweight Championship

 * The Lightweight class is defined as 146-155 lbs.
 * The first Lightweight Championship was contested at UFC 30.

Featherweight Championship

 * 136 to 145 lb (61 to 66 kg)
 * Prior to the UFC-WEC merger, José Aldo was the WEC Featherweight Champion. Aldo was awarded the inaugural UFC Featherweight Championship on Nov 20, 2010 at UFC 123 in a ceremony prior to the event.

Bantamweight Championship

 * 126 to 135 lb (57 to 61 kg)
 * Prior to UFC-WEC merger, Dominick Cruz was the WEC Bantamweight Champion. At WEC 53 Cruz defeated Scott Jorgensen to retain the WEC Bantamweight Championship and become the inaugural UFC Bantamweight Champion.

Flyweight Championship

 * 116 to 125 lb (53 to 57 kg)
 * ''Demetrious Johnson defeated Joseph Benavidez on September 22, 2012 at UFC 152 in Toronto, ON, Canada in the finale of a 4-man tournament for the inaugural title.