The current champions defending their belts are Alex Pereira at light heavyweight and Zhang Weili at strawweight. But here are the other 10 fighters who have held UFC belts on this card:
Deiveson Figueiredo: After spending six years as a champion force in the flyweight division, Figueiredo moved up to bantamweight and won his first fight at 135 pounds by defeating Rob Font. Figueiredo will open the early prelims in the first fight of the night.
Cody Garbrandt: Garbrandt, Figueiredo’s opponent, is over seven years removed from his upset win over Dominik Cruz for the bantamweight title at UFC 207. He proceeded to lose five of his next six fights, but a return to bantamweight in 2023 sparked a resurgence for “No Love,” who has won his last two fights.
Jessica Andrade: Andrade has been remarkably active since joining the UFC in 2015, fighting 26 times in that span, including five times in 2023. She defeated Rose Namajunas for the strawweight title at UFC 237, but is 5-6 since. Andrade is coming off a win over Mackenzie Dern at UFC 295.
Holly Holm: Holm was immortalized in MMA canon when she stunned the world by knocking out Ronda Rousey at UFC 193. She hasn’t been able to reclaim gold in the nine years since, be remains ever popular, having headlined seven UFC events.
Aljamain Sterling: Sterling spent more than two years as bantamweight champion and is moving up to featherweight after losing his title to Sean O’Malley at UFC 292. Sterling’s three bantamweight title defenses were the most in UFC history for the division, and he’ll make his UFC featherweight debut versus Calvin Kattar.
Jiri Prochazka: Prochazka will star in the final fight of the prelims, battling Aleksandar Rakic. Prochazka won the light heavyweight title at UFC 275 with a thrilling fifth-round submission over Glover Teixeira but was forced to vacate the belt due to a shoulder injury. He lost to Pereira in his first fight back at UFC 295, but could be just one win away from another title shot.
Charles Oliveira: Nobody in UFC history has racked up more post-fight bonuses than Oliveira, who became a fan favorite en route to winning the lightweight title at UFC 262 in his 40th career fight. He defended the title against Dustin Poirier, then was stripped due to missing weight against Justin Gaethje, who he went on to defeat. Oliveira then fell to Islam Makhachev for the vacant strap, but a win Saturday versus Arman Tsarukyan would give him a shot at avenging that title loss.
Justin Gaethje: Although he’s currently rocking the BMF belt, Gaethje wants another crack at the lightweight title. He won the division’s interim title at UFC 249 by ending Tony Ferguson’s 12-fight winning streak, but then lost the unification bout to Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 254.
Max Holloway: Holloway reigned over the featherweight division for 925 days and defended the strap three times. During that reign, he lost a shot at a second title when he moved up to lightweight but fell to Poirier. He then made one more featherweight title defense before dropping the belt to Volkanovski and before losing two more title fights against him.
Jamahal Hill: Hill was thrust into a title fight for the vacant light heavyweight belt at UFC 283, where he landed 232 significant strikes and dominated Texeira to win via unanimous decision. He has a 12-1 career record as he returns from the Achilles rupture.
First appeared on theathletic.com