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Light Heavyweight Fighters
MMA's light heavyweight division runs from 186 to 205 pounds (84.37-92.99 kilograms, or 13.29-14.64 stone). The division is significantly heavier than professional boxing's traditional "light heavyweight" division, which has borne a 175 pound weight limit since at least 1913. Boxing's closest analogue to MMA's light heavyweight division is the cruiserweight division, with a 200 pound limit.
Further confusing the picture, MMA's Pride Fighting Championships, which for many years showcased the premier 205 lb. weight division in the world, termed its 205 pound class the "middleweight division." Today, Pride is no longer in business, most of the world's best 205ers are located in the UFC and Strikeforce, and the 205 pound weight class is uniformly known as light heavyweight under the New Jersey State Athletic Commission-derived Unified Rules of Combat, as well as the influential rules of the Las Vegas Athletic Commission.
Over the first 15 years of its existence, the UFC had more of its major stars emerge from the light heavyweight division than from any other division by far. A list of its Light Heavyweight Champions quickly confirms it: the title was first taken by the great Frank Shamrock in December 1997. Shamrock defended the title four times, and never lost it, but was stripped of the belt when he vacated the organization in November of 1999. Tito Ortiz was the next man to hold the light heavyweight throne, and became an even bigger star than Shamrock had before him. Ortiz also continues to hold the record for the most Light Heavyweight division title defenses, with five. The next few men to hold the 205 lb. belt read like a list of MMA luminaries: Randy Couture, who won the belt on three separate occasions; Vitor Belfort; and Chuck Liddell, whose four consecutive title defenses in 2005-2006 made him the UFC's biggest star. Following Liddell's loss of the belt, however, the division has moved from one characterized by long title reigns, to one characterized by short ones. Five men held the title from 2007-2010, none of whom successfully defended the belt more than once.
The 205 lb. division was also the division most impacted by the dissolution of Pride FC in 2007. Many of its biggest fighters, including "Rampage" Jackson, "Shogun" Rua and "The Axe Murderer" Wanderlei Silva, were Pride imports who reinvigorated the division following Chuck Liddell's decline.
As MMA's second largest standard weight class beneath its heavyweight class (an even larger superheavyweight division is largely inactive), light heavyweight features an overall knockout rate of 55%, with only 15% of fights ending by submission (the lowest of any major weight class), and 29% by decision.
