Ahead of the UFC’s debut show on ESPN, the organization debuted a brand new championship in celebration of its 25th anniversary — the UFC Legacy Championship.
The UFC Classic Championship belt was used from 2001-2018, which was essentially the same big gold belt no matter the division or how many title defenses a fighter had successfully competed in. That belt will be shoved aside with this new iteration, which will be customized for each individual champion’s weight class and number of title defenses. The UFC will continue to award multiple belts for wins in numerous weight classes.
Check out the new editions to the UFC Legacy Belt 👀 pic.twitter.com/2pSDoMpaiv
— UFC (@ufc) January 18, 2019
The center of the belt features the UFC World Champion logo surrounded by flags from the first eight countries that were home to champions in the promotion. The left plate will be customized with the fighter’s name, weight class, and country they represent. Eight stones will border that plate, and each time the title is successfully defended, it will be replaced with a red stone, along with the date and location of the win engraved adjacently.
The right plate will sport a UFC World Champion logo in the middle, surrounded by eight additional stones. Those stones will also be replaced should a champion successfully defend the title more than eight times.
The Legacy belt will be debuted on Saturday night’s ESPN+ 1 card and awarded to the winner of the main event, which pits bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw against Henry Cejudo for the flyweight crown.
