Jon Anik largely supports recent UFC trend against simultaneous two-division champions

Yahoo

2 days ago

Jon Anik would still like to see rare exceptions of simultaneous two-division UFC champions, but he understands the logic against not allowing it.
After a multi-year window where several athletes were afforded the opportunity to keep their UFC title while moving to another division to challenge for or defend a belt, an evolution has occurred in 2025. Both Ilia Topuria and Islam Makhachev vacated gold in the featherweight and lightweight divisions in order to change weight classes.
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Back in February, UFC CEO Dana White stated that instances of two-division championship would be afforded on a case-by-case basis, but since then the actions of the promotion have spoke for itself.
Lead UFC play-by-play commentator Anik thinks the limitations have been placed out of necessity due to the aggressive event calendar the company puts forth, and from that perspective, he said it it adds up.
"I think it does hold up divisions and it causes maybe an unnecessary need for interim championships," Anik told MMA Junkie Radio. "I would like in select cases – perhaps Islam Makhachev would've been worthy of that opportunity, but I would imagine he had enough peace to move up to the welterweight division. I think only in select cases. I think it really is about looking at the 14 pay-per-views, times two title fights. In a perfect world you have 28 championship fights a year minimally and every pay-per-view is championship doubleheader, or maybe get a championship triple header during International Fight Week, and maybe another time in the year.
"If you look at recent history, the UFC's heavyweight division, the undisputed title hasn't been on the lime three times a year at all. We need title fights to go around and ideally they aren't interim title fights, so largely I agree with the way the promotion is proceeding. But Islam Makhachev is a special case."
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The UFC has not been shy to implement interim titles over the past decade. Anik thinks the value of those have diminished over time, though, not only in the eyes of the fans, but for the athletes as well. He points to the UFC 317 vacant lightweight title bout between Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) and Oliveira (35-10 MMA, 23-10 UFC) on June 28 in Las Vegas, which was booked in the wake of Makhachev (27-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) moving to 170 pounds, as a relevant example.
"You could argue monetarily wise that Charles Oliveira or Ilia Topuria emerging from UFC 317 as the interim lightweight champion is not that big of a deal," Anik said. "For the athlete it is, and it'll be nice for whoever wins that fight to be crowned undisputed."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Jon Anik supports recent UFC trend against two-division champions