Light Heavyweight Title Fight Rematches

In the trilogy bout, Couture made sure to put a definitive end to the saga, dominating each of the three rounds to regain the light heavyweight title.

Chuck Liddell vs Randy Couture

“The Iceman” is quite familiar with facing past opponents with gold on the line. Liddell competed in title fight rematches against Jeremy Horn, Tito Ortiz and Renato Sobral, although those did not start with championship stakes.

A rivalry that did, and thus landing on this list, is his trilogy with Randy Couture. 

Liddell and Couture initially fought for the interim light heavyweight title at UFC 43 with Couture coming out on top via third-round TKO. The rematch would take almost two years to come together, but when it did, Liddell delivered the Knockout of the Year at UFC 52. In a wild scramble, Liddell planted a picture-perfect right hand on Couture’s jaw, causing “The Natural” to collapse onto the canvas in a heap. Liddell’s celebration — stumbling backward with arms out wide in victory — remains one of the most memorable images in UFC history.

How To Watch And Stream UFC 303: Pereira vs Procházka 2

The trilogy bout took just 10 months to come together at UFC 57. The first round was a thrilling back-and-forth before Liddell opened Couture up with a huge punch. In the second frame, in an eerily similar fashion as the previous fight, Liddell was able to counter Couture with another huge right hand to win the rubber match.

Lyoto Machida vs Mauricio “Shogun” Rua 

The first bout between Machida and Rua was not without controversy. Machida, the defending champion at the time, had earned the judges’ unanimous nod at UFC 104, but several pundits and Dana White believed Rua did enough to wrest the belt from his countryman. A rematch was booked seven months later, and Rua left no room for doubt this time, knocking Machida out midway through the first round to capture the title.

UFC 303 Embedded 

Daniel Cormier vs Anthony “Rumble” Johnson

Daniel Cormier’s first title fight rematch came against the man whom he beat to finally win undisputed gold two years prior in Anthony “Rumble” Johnson. After Cormier thwarted Alexander Gustafsson in his first defense and beat Anderson Silva in a non-title bout at UFC 200, he and “Rumble” set sights on one another again. Johnson came into the fight on a three-fight knockout streak, cementing his spot as the top threat at 205 pounds.

Fighting in Buffalo, New York, Johnson curiously initiated a handful of grappling exchanges, despite Cormier’s well-documented wrestling prowess. Ultimately, “DC” put on a signature Cormier performance and secured the second-round submission win. The fight would end up being the last one in the Octagon for the late Johnson.

Rematch Timeline | Alex Pereira vs Jiří Procházka 

Jon Jones vs Daniel Cormier

For basically all of the 2010s, the light heavyweight title went through Cormier and Jon Jones. The latter became the youngest UFC champion in history when he dispatched of Rua in 2011, a record that still stands today, while “DC” made his own history as a double-champion. However, the rivalry between the two remains one of the most storied and animosity-filled in the company’s history. 

After Jones bested Cormier in their initial bout at UFC 182, little progress was made in terms of the two burying the hatchet. Controversy would litter the road to their rematch, but eventually, they locked horns once again at UFC 217. Although Cormier, at that point the champion, started strong and took the fight to Jones, “Bones” found a home for a left high kick that rattled Cormier. Although the fight concluded with Jones getting the belt back, a drug test would render the fight a no contest.

Jon Jones vs Alexander Gustafsson

After Jones regained and was stripped of the light heavyweight title following his rematch with Cormier, more than 400 days would pass before he once again made the walk. This time, it came against a familiar face in Alexander Gustafsson, the man who famously pushed him to the brink in one of the greatest title fights in UFC history. Jones-Gustafsson 1 was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2020, and the rematch taking place more than five years later had all the narrative power built-in from the jump.

With Cormier vacating the belt in lieu of defending his heavyweight crown, the fight, which was moved to California during fight week, marked the comeback of Jones in full. Methodically, Jones broke down Gustafsson before scoring the third-round ground-and-pound finish. It was a contest nothing like its predecessor, but it marked the true return of Jones to the top of the light heavyweight heap.