Chuck brought the UFC and mixed martial arts itself into popular culture and deserve credit as a founder of its place in American sports and sports business. An interim champion keeps the championship moving forward while the undisputed champion cannot fight for whatever reason. The two highest-ranked contenders fight to determine the interim champion. We love unification bouts between interim and returning champions just as much, and for the same reason.
The contenders for the championship title can continue to train and pursue their own goals, so they win, too. Because these matches pit the best against the best, they can even draw in strangers to the sport and create new fans. And of course, UFC continues to generate revenue that keeps the whole enterprise working, so everyone wins. Championship and interim championships go to the fighters who earn them by defeating previous champions.
But, who gets to determine the other UFC rankings? Members of the media form a rankings panel that votes every week for rankings below the championship.
In addition to ranking fighters below the champions in each division, the rankings panel members also vote for and establish the pound-for-pound rankings.
Pound-for-pound rankings provide a way for fighters to compete who would never face one another in the ring because of weight class differences. UFC fighters compete for the love of the sport and for a chance to hold the title for their weight class. Modified 29 Jun News. Ranking the 5 best UFC interim champions of all time.
Edited by Harvey Leonard 1. Login to post your comment. Show More Comments. No thanks Delete. Cancel Update. Login to reply. Cancel Reply. Instead of giving up the belt, the current champ would not vacate the title during the absence from fighting. But the UFC will often create an Interim title so that the division can have a new champion and keep the show running. UFC would always book the two fighters who deserve a shot at the title the most. Most of the time, the two highest ranked contenders in that division will fight for the interim belt.
But, the rankings do not always play a major factor and the UFC might give a title shot to a fighter who is ranked below the highest ranked contender. This is one of the most common reasons why UFC creates Interim belts. At the time, Cain battled with many injuries and was out of the sport for over two years. However, Werdum would choke him out in the second round to unify both titles and become the undisputed champion. In this case, UFC used interim belts to keep the show running by crowning the next best fighter in the division.
In the meantime, the UFC would attempt to resolve the contract dispute with the current champion who, upon return, must face the interim champion to unify the titles. Why would a champion have a contract dispute with the promotion, you may ask? Well, UFC champs often use their world champion status as a leverage to re-negotiate new contract with better terms. One good example is the former UFC champ, B. While being a champion, Penn and the UFC could not come to an agreement to settle the contract dispute and they even ended up in court at one point.
The UFC owners were furious because they thought Penn breached his contract and they created the interim belt subsequently to crown a new champion and move on without BJ Penn. Even though this happens rarely, there have been champs who refused to defend their titles against the next highest ranked fighter in the division for various reasons. One of the most common excuses champions use to justify their refusal to fight is the challenger does not deserve a shot at their title.
In the eyes of most fans, you are not the real champ if you refuse to fight the next highest ranked fighter. In this scenario, the UFC would not strip the champ of the title. But, they will create the interim belt to keep the show running and crown a new champion, which is usually the next highest ranked fighter in the division. For instance, this scenario took place when Tito Ortiz refused to fight Chuck Liddell. At the time, Chuck was next in line to fight Tito and there was a huge hype behind this matchup.
Randy Couture won the Interim belt by stopping Liddell in the third round.
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