The UFC's LHW division championship title... F. Shamrock, Ortiz, Couture, Liddell

MMArules · 07-03-2006, 10:00 AM

The origins of the UFC's LHW Championship title stem back to UFC 12 when they introduced the first under 200 lbs tournament. Lion's Den fighter Jerry Bohlander won the tournament by submitting Rainy Martinez and Nick Sanzo. Another Lion's Den fighter, Guy Mezger, won the under 200 lbs. tournament at UFC 13. He defeated Christophe Leininger and submitted Tito Ortiz. In July 1997, at UFC 14, Kevin Jackson won the under 200 lbs tournament by soundly defeated Todd Butler and Tony Fryland to capture the tournament title.

With a UFC Heavyweight Title already established, the UFC opted to add a 'Middleweight' Championship Title (under 200 lbs), which would be decided at the UFC Japan event in December 1997. Kevin Jackson was an obvious choice to compete since he was the last fighter to win the under 200 lbs tournament. His opponent would be the winner of the 1997 Japan Vale Tudo bout between Frank Shamrock and Enson Inoue, which took place in November 1997. After more than 17 minutes of action, Shamrock dropped Inoue with a perfectly placed knee strike to the chin, and got the win.

Af UFC Japan (in December 1997), Frank Shamrock quickly defeated Kevin Jackson by armbar in just 0:16. Shamrock would go on to defend his title four times… defeating Igor Zinoviev via KO due to a slam in 0:22, Jeremy Horn via submission at 16:28, John Lober via submission at 7:40, and at UFC 22 (in September 1999) he defeated Tito Ortiz via submission late in the 4th round. Shamrock would vacate the title after that fight by 'retiring' from the UFC.

Tito Ortiz would not have to wait long for another opportunity at the title… in April 2000 at UFC 25 Ortiz faced Wanderlei Silva for the vacant title… after 5 rounds of battle, Ortiz won the decision and the belt. During Ortiz' time as champ the division would be renamed from 'Middleweight' to 'Light-Heavyweight' and the weight standard would be changed from 200 lbs to 205 lbs. Ortiz would go on to defend his title for a total of five times… defeating Yuki Kondo via submission at 1:52, Evan Tanner via KO at 0:32, Elvis Sinosic via TKO at 3:32, Vladimir Matyushenko via 5 round decision, and at UFC 40 (November 2002) he defeated Ken Shamrock by TKO after 3 rounds.

Ortiz' reign as champion would come to an end at UFC 44 in September 2003. In the previous UFC (UFC 43) Randy Couture won a TKO victory over #1 contender Chuck Liddell. At UFC 44, Couture and Ortiz battled 5 rounds. Couture dominated the fight and walked away as the undisputed UFC LHW champion.

At UFC 46 in January 2004, LHW Champ Randy Couture attempted to defend his title against Vitor Belfort. Early in the first round Couture's eyelid was cut by a grazing punch from Belfort… the fight was stopped just 49 seconds into the 1st round… Belfort became the new LHW champ. But in their UFC 49 rematch in August 2004, Couture would dominate Belfort winning a TKO in the 3rd round to regain his belt.

In April 2005, at UFC 52 Chuck Liddell KO'd Randy Couture in the 1st round to become the new LHW champion. Liddell defended his title in a rematch against Jeremy Horn (Horn had defeated Liddell several years earlier in a UFC bout). Liddell punished Horn round after round until the fight was stopped in the 4th round. At UFC 57 (February 2006), in Liddell's second defense of the belt, he scored a 2nd round KO against Randy Couture in their rubber match.