Over the course of yet another busy year in the octagon, we saw a handful of happy women and men claim their crowns – usually at the expense of other certainly less happy ones. As we get ready to bid 2017 farewell, we take a look at those who lost their titles and what it meant in the bigger picture of their respective divisions.

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Jon Jones, yet again

Jon Jones is such an omnipresent name in MMA that, for a few moments, he was able to upstage another inescapable presence at a time when it seemed impossible.

In July, Jones returned from a one-year suspension directly into a title match in UFC 214’s headliner. Unlike his first meeting with Daniel Cormier, which Jones won via unanimous decision, this one didn’t go the distance. After a nasty third-round head kick, Jones re-claimed the throne that he’d never really stopped haunting.

Could it be that, finally, the see-saw that had been Jones’ career was going to stay up this time?

*Somber off-screen narrator voice* Oh, but the see-saw that had been Jones’ career was not going to stay up this time.

On Aug. 22, just a few days before Conor McGregor was scheduled to meet Floyd Mayweather in a boxing bout we just couldn’t seem to get away from, Jones’ name was once more the one making headlines. And, once more, it wasn’t for a good reason.

Jon Jones

News broke that Jones (21-1-1 MMA, 15-1-1 UFC) had failed a drug test again, this time, for the steroid turinabol.

Maybe it was the fact this was a second offense in such a tight timeframe. Maybe it was the fact that outside-the-cage contraventions had already cost him the title before. But truth is people weren’t too willing to extend Jones the benefit of the doubt here. Public opinion weighed heavy. Once the B sample came back positive, the belt was swiftly returned to Cormier.

While he’s affirmed his innocence, the 30-year-old Jones could be looking at a four-year layoff once due process occurs.

Considering what we’ve seen from him so far, rebound specialist Jones may very well end up adding a positive twist to the bittersweet story of one of our generation’s most talented fighters. But, as we prepare to close out 2017, the former champion stands as one of MMA’s most tragic tales of “what if.”

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Joanna Jedrzejczyk, shockingly

If in a weird, twisted way we’d sort of learned to rely on Jones’ unreliability, the opposite could be said for dominant strawweight force Joanna Jedrzejczyk.

Jedrzejczyk seemed to do everything right. She did dieting right. She did training right. She did career management right. And, of course, she did fighting right. As grueling as her cuts seemed, she always made weight. And, apart from a dubious split call over Claudia Gadelha early in her UFC run, Jedrzejczyk had not only beaten every competitor she’d met in the octagon, she’d made it look easy.

So, when Rose Namajunas (7-3 MMA, 5-2 UFC) showed up as a challenger, people weren’t exactly crazy to see Jedrzejczyk (14-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) as a huge favorite. That wasn’t a diss to the ever-evolving Namajunas’ skill set as much as it was a testament to how scary the battle-tested Jedrzejczyk had proven to be.

Of the few who did pick Namajunas to win at UFC 217, fewer figured that “Thug” Rose, who had never stopped an opponent in the octagon via strikes before, was going to start with the laser-sharp striker.

But doing what’s expected of her doesn’t really seem to be Namajunas’ thing.

After leading the upset of the year, Namajunas made sure to use her time in the spotlight positively, before resuming what seems to be a pretty chill life. Jedrzejczyk, in turn, has remained in good spirits and, after pointing to weight-cutting issues that became somewhat apparent when she hit the scale, has vowed to re-claim the throne.

Given Jedrzejczyk’s aggressive attitude toward her opponent before their encounter, people were quick to pin this as a good vs. evil narrative. But, behind the easy storylines, sit two very different, but equally strong and hard-working women who may have found different ways to channel – and express – all the emotional energy that goes into those quite often life-changing 25 minutes.

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Germaine de Randamie, awkwardly

Yeah, so that was a pretty weird one.

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Michael Bisping, for better or worse

Michael Bisping’s volatile relationship with the rest of the MMA community seems to have found a perfect representation in his controversial middleweight reign.

Bisping’s aggressive fight-promotion tactics, propelled by a unique, biting sense of humor, turned him into a polarizing presence among the UFC’s 185-pound roster. Haters, they say, are going to hate – but even they had a tough time taking away from what Bisping did to take the belt from heavy favorite Luke Rockhold, and on short-notice, via first-round knockout, no less.

The general sense of vindication after a career of close calls, however, soon gave way to frustration. While some did defend Bisping’s right to enjoy the hard-earned laurels of a career that involved a hefty amount of damage, most weren’t too pleased with the then-champ’s octagon pairings – starting with the now-retired Dan Henderson, especially with perfectly suitable killers like Yoel Romero and Ronaldo Souza impatiently (and vocally) waiting on the sidelines.

But Bisping didn’t budge. After false alarms and an injury-recovery period, he got the profitable super fight that he wanted in former welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre. Again, while one could understand why “The Count” would want to make the twilight of his career a lucrative one, the matchup was far from an unanimous hit.

Of course there was some excitement around the return of one of the sport’s biggest legends after more than three years. But it also came with one major doubt: What would a win for either men mean for the future of middleweight division?

That question has already been answered. In a non-surprising twist, two-division champ St-Pierre* vacated the belt he earned with a third-round submission win. Previous interim champion Robert Whittaker is now set meet  ex-champ Rockhold in a title bout. Order in the 185-pound division appears to have been restored.

Still, there was little satisfaction in seeing Bisping make a questionably quick turnaround only to get knocked out by a fresh Kelvin Gastelum. It seems that, in this love-hate relationship, there will always be some respect for the relentless, resilient Count.

*It’s worth noting that, technically, St-Pierre also counts as one of 2017’s fallen UFC champions.

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Jose Aldo, with all due respect

As far as narrative arcs go, it’s hard to think of one as fitting as the one of the UFC’s featherweight division.

For years, Jose Aldo reigned as the self-made man who beat the odds in order to make it. When he wasn’t fighting or training, Aldo was either at home playing video games with his family or at the beach tossing a soccer ball around. Aldo never particularly enjoyed doing media and mostly kept to himself.

To have his reign end in a mere 13 seconds by the flashy, big-talking Irishman who’d been anything but quiet since he took MMA by storm would have been such a cliché.

But Aldo got a second chance. Like most things, it wasn’t just handed to him: first, he had to claim the interim title in a rematch with a fellow former champion in Frankie Edgar. Then, whether the 145-pound belt was given up or taken away, fact is that it no longer belonged to freshly-crowned lightweight champion Conor McGregor. Aldo was once again the king.

In comes Max Holloway – an initially quiet presence whose voice grew louder as the wins inside the octagon kept piling up. By the time he’d earned the interim title, with a statement win over ex-champ Anthony Pettis, the Hawaiian carried a 10-fight streak.

Jose Aldo and Max Holloway

Holloway’s (19-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) first win over Aldo (26-4 MMA, 9-3 UFC), at UFC 212, was preceded and followed by a measure of respect. And, when Edgar couldn’t make it to UFC 218, Holloway gave Aldo yet another proof of courtesy in form of an immediate rematch.

Not much changed from one fight to the other: again, Holloway seemed mostly unfazed by the best Aldo had to offer. Again, he got a third-round knockout. And again, rather than in-your-face claims, the champ made sure to praise Aldo’s accomplishments.

If Aldo was first violently evicted from the throne by McGregor, Holloway made sure he was smoothly escorted out. Either way works for the victor, and neither are pain-free for the loser, but there’s an almost romantic feel to the latter.

While Aldo remains in the game, the passing-of-the-torch will not yet be entirely complete. But as it stands, if you absolutely must be dethroned by someone, you can do worse than Holloway.

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Cody Garbrandt, with bad blood spilled

Sometimes, a good ol’ smashing of each other’s faces inside a fenced environment is enough to settle a dispute between two men.

But sometimes, as ex-champ Cody Garbrandt and champion T.J. Dillashaw have shown, it isn’t.

It’s one thing when two fighters take aim at each other to hype up a fight. With these former Team Alpha Male stablemates, however, there was both history and one seriously long lead-up.

From their later-scrapped original booking to the time they actually met in the octagon – with tapings for an entire “The Ultimate Fighter” season in between –, there was enough time there for steroid accusations, physical altercations and an infamously leaked bit of sparring footage.

The winner of the pre-fight back-and-forth is a matter of personal taste, really. But their contractual in-cage encounter had a clear victor: after a thrilling first round, Dillashaw (15-3 MMA, 11-3 UFC) came back from a somewhat dire situation to dispatch Garbrandt (11-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) in the second.

After methodically dismantling then-champion Dominick Cruz to earn the title, “No Love” failed to defend it.

Although Garbrandt was classy enough to address the media and even congratulate Dillashaw for his efforts afterward, he made it clear that a) he was still the better fighter; b) he wanted a rematch; c) he still thinks Dillashaw is “a piece of (expletive) teammate.”

For now, the former and the current bantamweight champions have bigger things in mind, as both of their significant others are pregnant. And Dillashaw has already made it quite clear that, upon return, he’d like to have a stab at flyweight kingping Demetrious Johnson. Not to mention, contenders like Jimmie Rivera who are still waiting in line.

But, judging by what we saw from the two in and outside the cage, a solid foundation for a rematch has certainly been laid out.

For more on the UFC schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.