Jon Jones (left) reacts after defeating Alexander Gustafsson of Sweden (right) during a Light Heavyweight titlebout during the UFC 232 event inside The Forum on December 29, 2018 in Inglewood, California. Jones defeated Gustafsson by KO. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
The UFC is split into different weight class divisions for the male and female fighters
The UFC might be the biggest MMA promotion in the world and they have some of the best stars on the planet.
Khabib Nurmagomedov, Amanda Nunes, Jon Jones, Henry Cejudo, Conor McGregor, Valentina Shevchenko, Zhang Weili, Stipe Miocic and a ton of others are stars in the business.
The UFC also has one of the biggest roster of MMA stars on their books, but that is for good measure too.
Thankfully, all their stars are split into various weight classes. There is an upper and lower limit for most weight classes in the UFC and many have jumped up or gone down a division or two too.
Nunes, McGregor and Cejudo are some of the biggest stars to have done that, and they have been successful too.
However, there are several weight classes in the UFC and that might be confusing. So here is a breakdown of the divisions in the UFC for men and women.
The women’s weight class division features just four divisions, but it has some great fighters on the list.
Nunes is the standout name in the list as she is considered as one of the greatest female athletes in MMA history.
The Brazilian also holds belts in two classes
| Weight class name | Min weight (In lb) | Upper limit (in lb) | Current champion |
| Strawweight | – | 115 | Zhang Weili |
| Flyweight | 116 | 125 | Valentina Shevchenko |
| Bantamweight | 126 | 135 | Amanda Nunes |
| Featherweight | 136 | 145 | Amanda Nunes |
The men have more divisions than the women, but that is due to their greater weight too. There are eight divisions split across the board and each of them, barring the Flyweight division has a champion.
The Flyweight title was vacant after Cejudo became a two-division champion and decided to vacate the title.
However, Deiveson Figueiredo defeated Josephy Benavidez to win the gold. Cejudo’s retirement from the UFC also affected the Bantamweight title, and Petr Yan won the crown after defeating Jose Aldo.
However, Yan lost it to Aljamain Sterling via a DQ at UFC 259.
Kamaru Usman, Israel Adesanya, Alexander Volkanovski, Stipe Miocic and Khabib Nurmagomedov are the other champions in the list, though Khabib retired from the UFC recently and there is a doubt on who gets the belt next.
| Weight class name | Min weight (In lb) | Upper limit (in lb) | Current champion |
| Flyweight | – | 125 | Deiveson Figueiredo |
| Bantamweight | 126 | 135 | Aljamain Sterling |
| Featherweight | 136 | 145 | Alexander Volkanovski |
| Lightweight | 146 | 155 | Khabib Nurmagomedov (retired) |
| Welterweight | 156 | 170 | Kamaru Usman |
| Middleweight | 171 | 185 | Israel Adesanya |
| Light Heavyweight | 186 | 205 | Jan Blachowicz |
| Heavyweight | 206 | 265 | Stipe Miocic |
There are a few weight classes which are available in other promotions. Super Lightweight, Super Welterweight, Super Middleweight, Cruiserweight and Super Heavyweight are not used in the UFC.
Some of these classes come in between the current divisions in the UFC while Super Heavyweight goes above the 265 lb threshold.
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