Every UFC interim title fight ranked from worst to best
By Drake Riggs
Here is every UFC interim title fight ranked from the worst to very best.
The number of interim title fights in the UFC has increased drastically over the past decade of the promotion’s existence. But exactly how many are there? Well, there have been 21 to date and there is guaranteed to be more in the future.
The funny thing about interim title fights is that they aren’t a necessity and are really just placeholder bouts made up for the fun of things. And as bad of a reputation as they’ve earned over the years, they haven’t all been complete stinkers.
Oh, there have been some bad ones, don’t get it twisted. But the positives are much, much higher than the negatives.
21. Jon Jones vs. Ovince Saint Preux – UFC 197
Yes, it may be easy to forget that Jon Jones actually happened to find himself competing in an interim title fight at one point. And it was all via the result of the snowball effect he created after his hit and run incident in April 2015. An incident that saw him stripped of his undisputed title.
Upon his return, Daniel Cormier was now the champion after defeating Anthony “Rumble” Johnson for the vacant title at UFC 187. Initially, it was supposed to be Jones in place of Cormier before everything unraveled for the JacksonWink MMA staple.
UFC 197 was set to be the big rivalry rematch pitting Jones and Cormier against each other once again. Unfortunately, Cormier would suffer a foot injury that forced him from the bout leading to Ovince Saint Preux coming in to save the day. Therefore creating an interim crown in the process.
Despite being a win for Jones and having seen him in much more competitive fights since this one, it remains a performance that many may still consider one of his worst. Or perhaps, his least impressive.
Saint Preux had little to offer the former champion over the course of five rounds as Jones casually picked him apart slowly and methodically. The most eventful and memorable moments being Jones’ big takedowns over the now heavyweight Tennessean.
Jones would claim the interim title by unanimous decision winning all five rounds and breaking Saint Preux’s arm in round two with a blocked head kick. But that was about all that was noteworthy from this one.