UFC Champions Have Won Back a Lost Title 20 Times. Topuria Just Lost the Fastest Way to Do It

"Back to the office," Ilia Topuria wrote in late September, over a clip of his first full training sessions since Justin Gaethje took his lightweight title on the White House lawn. Plinio Cruz, coach of Alex Pereira, who lost on the same card, answered with one word: "Chama," Portuguese slang for "Let's go."

Both men went into UFC Freedom 250 on June 14 as the biggest names on the card, and both left without a belt. Topuria, 17-0 and close to a 5-to-1 favorite, was pulled by his corner after the fourth round with an orbital fracture. Pereira, chasing a title in a third weight class, was stopped by Ciryl Gane 87 seconds into the second round of his heavyweight debut. UFC history has a clear answer to how often a fighter gets back from that kind of night, and which road gets there fastest.

The 20 comebacks

A UFC champion has lost an undisputed title in the cage and later won it back 20 times. Nineteen fighters have done it, and Randy Couture did it twice: at light heavyweight against Vitor Belfort in 2004 and at heavyweight against Tim Sylvia in 2007. The most recent was Sean Strickland, who took the middleweight title from Khamzat Chimaev in May. Six of the 20 comebacks have come since September 2024.

Far more champions never made it back. Anderson Silva, Ronda Rousey, Kamaru Usman and Max Holloway all lost a belt in the cage and never wore it again. Only one of the 19 had never lost before the night he lost his title. Cain Velasquez was unbeaten when Junior dos Santos knocked him out in 64 seconds in November 2011, and he won the belt back from dos Santos 413 days later at UFC 155. For a 17-0 champion beaten for the first time, Velasquez is the one real precedent.

The rematch is the fast lane

How they got back mattered more than anything else. Ten of the 20 comebacks came in a direct rematch with the fighter who took the belt, and they needed a median of about 10 months. The other 10 had to wait for a vacancy or go through someone new, and their median was about 25 months.

Israel Adesanya holds the record. He lost the middleweight title to Pereira in November 2022 and knocked him out in the rematch 147 days later. Pereira is third: he lost a decision to Magomed Ankalaev in March 2025 and stopped him in 80 seconds at UFC 320 seven months later. At the other end, Carla Esparza needed more than seven years between strawweight reigns.

The gap is partly selection. Champions who get immediate rematches tend to be the ones who lost close fights or sell tickets, so the fast lane mostly opens to fighters who were already likely to win. Even with that, a 10-month gap against 25 is wide.

Topuria's road runs the long way

Topuria wants the fast lane, and Gaethje has closed it for now. The new champion has named Arman Tsarukyan as next in line, dismissed talk of an immediate rematch and said knee and hand injuries will keep him out for the rest of 2026. That leaves Topuria on the slower route the other 10 took, probably through another contender first. Reports in October linked him with Paddy Pimblett around March, though neither the fight nor a date has been confirmed.

He has two things on his side. He is 29, and he has the résumé: knockouts of Alexander Volkanovski, Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira in the 16 months from February 2024 to June 2025. Volkanovski's own comeback shows how the slow road can still work. Topuria knocked him out for the featherweight title in February 2024, and Volkanovski won it back 420 days later against Diego Lopes, after Topuria had vacated to move up.

Pereira's road starts from scratch

What Pereira lost on June 14 was a shot at an interim heavyweight title, in a fight priced at even money, and he was still paid like the headliner: BetMGM's breakdown of the card put him at an estimated $10 million, the most of anyone that night. Topuria was estimated at $2.5 million and Gaethje at $2.925 million with bonuses.

Since then, he has called himself "100 percent heavyweight," hinted at retirement within a week of the fight and pushed for a Gane rematch, arguing he took illegal shots to the back of the head. Gane defends the undisputed heavyweight title against Josh Hokit at UFC 334 at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 14, so that rematch is not next. Instead, Pereira stays at heavyweight against Sergei Pavlovich in the five-round co-main event of UFC 335 in Las Vegas on Dec. 12.

His record shows he doesn't stay down long. After Adesanya took his middleweight belt in April 2023, Pereira won the light heavyweight title 217 days later. After Ankalaev, he needed 210. He is 39, so the clock on a third division runs faster for him than for Topuria.

Back to the office

For the 19 who made it, the trip back has taken anywhere from five months to more than seven years. Topuria has youth and a record that earns him a quick return to contention, but not, for now, the rematch that has usually been the quickest way back. Pereira has a heavyweight division willing to give him fights and fewer years left to use them, starting with Pavlovich in December, and he already belongs to the small club of two-time champions.