The Ultimate Guide to the UFC Light-Heavyweight Division

The current UFC light-heavyweight champion is Alex Pereira. The Brazilian has destroyed everything in his path in the 205-pounds division. Since defeating Jiri Procházka at UFC 295 for the vacant belt, “Poatan” has defended his belt three times, with all three of them coming via devastating knockout. Those three defences saw him set a record for the shortest time for three consecutive title defences in UFC history (175 days).

Pereira is simply one of the greatest strikers in mixed martial arts history and his legacy is already cemented. The scary part is: it seems like he could do this for as long as he wants.

Jiri Procházka is a former UFC light-heavyweight champion, although he never successfully defended his title. Nevertheless, the Czech fighter is a must-watch when he steps into the Octagon. His hands-down crazy fighting style often sees him break down his opponent and deliver stunning finishes. On the flip side, his style means he is open to being hit. Across his 36 pro fights, 34 of those have finished inside the distance.

At just 32, Procházka is relatively young for an MMA fighter. But, the issue is that he's had plenty of wars over the last few years which have put miles on the clock.

Many believe that Magomed Ankalaev is the one to dethrone Alex Pereira. Ankalaev hails from Dagestan, and anybody that knows MMA realises that means he comes from the elite of elite Sambo fighters, such as Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev. Despite this, Ankalaev has barely shown his wrestling ability in the UFC. Instead, the Russian chooses to batter his opponents with his superb boxing skills.

Jamahal Hil//Getty Image

Jamahal Hill is another fighter on this list that has been the 205-pounds UFC champ but never successfully defended it. After trash talking Pereira in the buildup to UFC 300, Hill got turned into a meme when the current champ knocked him out cold.

At 33, and with just two losses to his name, Hill still has time to mount another title challenge.

Jan Blachowicz punches Alex Pereira//Getty Images

Jan Błachowicz perhaps had the weakest championship reign out of anybody in recent UFC history (last 4 years). After defeating Dominick Reyes for the vacant title, Błachowicz's only defence was against natural middleweight Israel Adesanya (which shouldn't count as a defence considering how much lighter Adesanya was to Błachowicz). Then, the Polish fighter would get absolutely mauled by an ageing Glover Teixeira to lose his belt at UFC 267.

Although Carlos Ulberg has been a professional MMA fighter for 14 years, he has only managed to have 12 fights in his career. On the plus side, he only has one loss to his name. Ulberg has slowly climbed up the light-heavyweight rankings having claimed two top wins in 2024, over Alonzo Menifield and Volkan Oezdemir. Now, 2025 could be an even better year for the New Zealand native.

Even though he's coming off of a brutal finish against Alex Pereira, Khalil Rountree won pretty much everybody over who watched that fight at UFC 307. Rountree earned his title shot by savagely finishing opponents, ending four of his last five wins via knockout, including a leg kick TKO, and a body kick stoppage.

Anthony Smith is a veteran of the division; he's been in professional MMA for 17 years and he's been a top light-heavyweight contender since 2018. Despite this wealth of experience, “The Lionheart” has challenged for the title just once, this came back in 2019 against Jon Jones, in a fight where Jones was deducted two points for landing an illegal knee.

Volkan Oezdemir is similar to Anthony Smith in the sense that he has been a top contender for years in the 205-pounds division, but he has never even challenged for the title. Nevertheless, Oezdemir has built up a great reputation because of his brutal knockout power in both hands, resulting in 13 of his 20 wins coming by stoppage.