The 10 | Middleweight’s Biggest Championship Moments

Quarry was part of that Season 1 cast and fought at the finale, beating housemates Lodune Sincaid before adding additional first-round stoppage wins over Shonie Carter and Pete Sell to his resume to punch his ticket to a championship opportunity.

From the outset, the challenger looked a little rigid, and a left hand shortly after the first minute ticked off the clock stiffened him up even more. Franklin recognized it and looked to swarm, but Quarry did well to avoid further damage and work back to the center, clapping his hands as if to signal he was happy to get into a scrap with the champion. That feeling was short-lived.

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As Quarry came forward, Franklin connected with a right hook, left cross combination that rattled the challenger’s cage. A couple more big shots landed, sending him to the canvas before he wrestled his way up to his feet with three minutes remaining in the opening stanza.

Back in the center of the Octagon, Quarry’s nose a crimson faucet, Franklin unleashed a left hand that landed flush and ended the fight, with Quarry falling frozen in unconsciousness to the unforgiving canvas below.

This is still one of the best knockouts of all-time.

Anderson Silva defeats Rich Franklin (UFC 64 — October 14, 2006)

It’s weird to try to think back to who Anderson Silva was then because of who we know him to be now and what he accomplished, but it feels fair to say that no one thought we were on the precipice of one of the greatest championship runs in the history of the sport when “The Spider” entered the Octagon as the challenger on October 14, 2006.

He was undeniably talented and accomplished, and he blew through Chris Leben in his debut to garner this opportunity, finishing him in 49 seconds, but the way he dominated Franklin in this one, punishing him with textbook knees from the Thai clinch before finishing him with one more to the dome was eye-opening.

Silva represented a generational shift in the sport, only we didn’t know it at the time, which is what made this performance, and the subsequent historic reign that followed even more remarkable.

Anderson Silva defeats Chael Sonnen (UFC 117 — August 7, 2010)

Chael Sonnen was less than two minutes away from backing up every calculated, rehearsed, insulting thing he had said about Silva in the lead-up to this fight in Oakland. For four-and-a-half rounds, the challenger had done precisely what he said he would do, wrestling Silva to the canvas, roughing him up from top position, and largely shutting down his diverse and exciting offensive attack.

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But then he got a little careless and the greatness of Silva peeked out, recognizing the one little opening he needed to change the course of the fight and snatch victory from the jaws of sure defeat.

I watched this fight at an Applebee’s in Victoria, British Columbia. The place was packed and largely silent, as we all sat there in awe of the fact that the greatest fighter on the planet (Silva) was going to lose to someone seen as a journeyman who was cribbing his old wrestling promos and didn’t at all feel like the man to end the Brazilian’s extended reign over the 185-pound ranks.

I still remember the sound that filled the large dining room when Silva connected on the fight-ending triangle choke and Sonnen tapped, then argued he didn’t tap. It was like we had all watched our favorite team net the Stanley Cup-winning goal being scored in triple overtime.

Greatness finds a way. Champions only need a sliver of an opportunity.

Chris Weidman defeats Anderson Silva (UFC 162 — July 6, 2013)

Watching this one back now still makes me frustrated; not because of the outcome, but because it feels like we never really got the chance to see these two face off when they were both dialed all the way in and ready to leave everything inside the Octagon to prove who was the better man.

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Silva entered with a 16-0 mark inside the Octagon. He’d beaten previous champions, dangerous challengers, and everyone in between, even venturing up to light heavyweight a couple times to blow out a journeyman and make like Neo in The Matrix against a former titleholder. If he felt untouchable, unbeatable, able to toy with the competition, it’s understandable, though always felt ill-advised.

Weidman was young and hungry; unbeaten through his first nine professional fights and locked in on being the one to end the record-setting reign of the Brazilian champion. He had success in the opening frame, and you could see Silva was impressed, but unbothered, giving Weidman a kiss on the cheek at the end of the opening round.

A little over a minute into the second, Weidman landed a glancing left hook and Silva pantomimed being hurt. Weidman threw it again, landed, but missed with his subsequent attempts as the champion leaned out of the strike zone, only for the next left hand Weidman threw to land flush on his chin and send him to the canvas in a daze.

The follow-up blows were lasers, landing clean and briefly putting Silva out as Weidman rose to his feet and erupted with excitement.

And new.

Michael Bisping defeats Luke Rockhold (UFC 199 — June 4, 2016)

Rockhold won the title at UFC 194, eventually finishing Chris Weidman in a fight that many believe proved to be the turning point of his career, much in the same way Loiseau’s loss to Franklin was all those years earlier.

They were set to run it back at UFC 199 in Los Angeles until “The All-American” was forced out at the 11th hour with a cervical disc herniation, opening the door for Bisping to step in and replace him. The two had met a few years earlier, with Rockhold winning by mounted guillotine choke in the second round.

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Few gave Bisping a chance, but “The Count” made his lone championship opportunity count.

Rockhold always had a swagger about him, a way he sauntered around the Octagon that felt, at times, like you could read how he felt about his opponent by the way he moved, and at UFC 199, he looked like a guy that though he was in absolutely no trouble whatsoever. He tried to press the challenger, tried to corral him along the fence, landing sporadic shots, throwing out the occasional kick, and generally marching forward like a man that was not at all concerned about anything coming back his way.

Right as Rockhold started to back out after landing a reaching right hand, Bisping chased him with a left hook that caught his chin and spun him to the canvas. Another left as the champion rose to his feet twisted his jaw once more and the official end came seconds later.

This was a Hollywood ending in the shadows of the Hollywood sign.

Israel Adesanya defeats Kelvin Gastelum (UFC 236 — April 13, 2019)

Officially, this one was for an interim title, but the fight was so good that it absolutely had to be included here.

Gastelum was set to challenge Robert Whittaker for the belt at UFC 234 in Melbourne, but the champion fell ill and the fight was scuttled at the 11th hour. With Whittaker sidelined for a number of months, the UFC opted to introduce an interim title and have Gastelum face off with Adesanya for the belt.

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This is quite honestly one of the best fights in UFC history. I don’t know exactly where it falls in the hierarchy of all-time classics, but it’s probably not any lower than 10, and even just writing that now feels low. Adesanya entered unbeaten in 16 bouts with five wins in exactly one calendar year in the UFC, while Gastelum was coming off consecutive wins over Michael Bisping and Jacare Souza, and seemed primed to finally live up to the “future champion” designation that he’d carried since his days on The Ultimate Fighter.

If you’re looking for a fight that illustrates the way momentum can shift in a matchup — and is just all-around awesome — this is the fight for you because everything was trending in Gastelum’s favor heading into the final round. He’d hurt Adesanya in the late stages of the fourth, landing a high kick in the final minute, and it felt like he was poised to carry that over into the final frame against the swollen “Stylebender.”

But Adesanya told himself he was ready to die while standing in his corner, waiting for the fifth round to begin, and then marched out and put it on Gastelum to the point that he earned 10-8 scores across the board in the final round to rally and claim both the victory and the belt.

Israel Adesanya defeats Robert Whittaker (UFC 243 — October 6, 2019)

I’ve said before that Adesanya’s run to becoming undisputed middleweight champion is one of the most iconic stretches of performances by an athlete that I have seen in all my time covering this sport, and I stand by it. He caught lightning in a bottle, turned a missed opportunity into a massive performance, and then capped it all off with an incredible performance here.

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The fact that Whittaker was forced out of his scheduled title defense against Kelvin Gastelum not only gave Adesanya the chance to headline opposite Anderson Silva, but then produced the iconic five-round war between he and Gastelum for the interim title, which ended with “The Last Stylebender” standing tall.

When these two met for the first time to unify the belts, the City Kickboxing man was just a step ahead the entire way. It’s not that he toyed with Whittaker or didn’t get hit, but you just felt in all the exchanges that Adesanya was sharper, quicker, and more capable of ending things in a flash.

He nearly ended things at the end of the first round, when he put Whittaker on the deck with right hand, only to be prevented from hollowing up by the round ending. If there were five seconds left, it would have been done. Turns out, Adesanya didn’t need much more time anyway.

With just over 90 seconds remaining in the second, the two men came together in the center of the Octagon, swinging hammers, and Adesanya was the faster, more agile of the two, eating the first one and leaning out of the way of the second before landing hard on the return, sitting Whittaker down. Two shots on the ground followed and a new undisputed middleweight champion was crowned.

Adesanya’s run from UFC 221 to UFC 243 — seven fights in 20 months, seven wins, interim belt, undisputed title — is the kind of stretch that is likely to never be replicated again.

Alex Pereira defeats Israel Adesanya (UFC 281 — November 12, 2022)

A year prior to this fight, Pereira debuted at Madison Square Garden, stopping Andreas Michailidis in the second round. We were told throughout the build to the event, lead-up to the fight, and throughout the broadcast about the history between he and Adesanya in kickboxing, and that he was in the UFC with the expressed desire to face and defeat his old rival.

For four rounds, Adesanya showed why he was the best middleweight on the planet. He hurt Pereira, sniped at him, and was up 39-37 on all three scorecards heading into the final round. Five minutes was all that stood in the way of a measure of vengeance and another successful title defense.

Pereira didn’t let him have it.

“Poatan” came out aggressively, listening to the advice and direction of Glover Teixeira in his corner. He took the fight to Adesanya, made him work backwards, looked to pin him along the fence as he bombed away with potential knockout blows. He swarmed and pressured, landing and forcing Adesanya to cover up and try to defend, prompting him to duck and roll, trying desperately to evade the onslaught and survive ’til the end of the round.

But it wasn’t meant to be.

The fight was halted with Adesanya still upright, but having been dropped and clearly in danger, one second beyond the two minute mark of the final round.

A year after his debut, Alex Pereira was UFC middleweight champion.

Israel Adesanya defeats Alex Pereira (UFC 287 — April 8, 2023)

This is one of those performances that I think is only going to be more appreciated the further removed we get from it because I don’t think folks can truly understand what it takes to march back into the Octagon against a guy that beat you six months earlier, and twice in another sport, and bait him into a position where you land a knockout blow.

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Adesanya won the opening round, utilizing his trademark speed and marksmanship to get the better of the exchanges, but through much of the second, Pereira was the one stalking, pressing forward, looking to rein the challenger in along the fence. With a minute left in the round, he landed a hard low kick that seemed to buckle Adesanya a little, prompting the Nigerian-born New Zealand resident to switch stances and then back himself to the fence.

Pereira attacked, unleashing a lengthy combination of strikes to all targets, finishing by searching for his soul-crushing left hook that missed. When it did, Adesanya countered, finding his chin with a right hand that scrambled the Brazilian’s circuits. Another right hand to the temple sent him falling to the canvas in a heap.

Adesanya celebrated by aping Pereira’s signature bow-and-arrow action, shooting his fallen adversary with a series of imaginary bolts, having just reclaimed the middleweight title.

Sean Strickland defeats Israel Adesanya (UFC 293 — September 10, 2023)

With 26 seconds remaining in a relatively uneventful first round, Strickland connected with a right hand that twisted Adesanya to the canvas and drew audible gasps from both the broadcast team and the stunned audience in Sydney, Australia.

It proved to be the start of one of the most unexpected championship performances in UFC history.

Strickland winning the fight was difficult enough to envision, with Adesanya having knocked out Pereira five months earlier and the challenger never having truly risen to this level in the past. But under the right circumstances, if he followed the game plan to a tee and minded his defenses, sure, a narrow win on the scorecards, maybe a split decision, seemed plausible. What few anticipated, however, was Strickland running away with the fight.

After taking the first on the strength of the knockdown, Adesanya came right back and took the second, evening things up. From there, the challenger ran the table, stymying Adesanya’s offense with his non-stop pressure, off-beat attacks, and sound, yet unconventional, defensive movements.

There was no question when the final horn sounded that Bruce Buffer was going to declare “And NEW” when he marched out to the center of the Octagon, and just like that, Sean Strickland was a UFC champion.