First, a run-down of the particulars:

  • Due to potential metric conversion issues and weight class changes, a limit of 137 pounds is observed for this list.
  • Inception of the championship occured on 7/29/1989, the fifth known professional fight taking place at or below 137 pounds, which included the first two winners of Bantamweight bouts in a previous event (the other two bouts were draws).
  • Periodic inactivity was a sporadic issue in the Bantamweight division. In early history, ranked fights were so sporadic, that the winners of these “best available” matches were used to fill gaps. Idea is to not allow title vacancy for more than 2 years. In later Bantamweight history, only fights between established 1/2, 1/3 or 2/3 were used.

Your current lineal Bantamweight champion is Dominick Cruz

The full history is below. Note, the colored backgrounds indicate a title change.

MMA Bantamweight Lineal Championship History

Date Champion Outcome Challenger Notes
1989-10-19 Kazuhiro Sakamoto WIN Kenichi Tanaka
1990-07-07 Kenichi Tanaka WIN Kazuhiro Sakamoto
1990-09-08 Kenichi Tanaka WIN Kazuhiro Sakamoto
1991-03-29 Hiroyuki Kanno WIN Kenichi Tanaka
1991-08-25 Hiroyuki Kanno WIN Makoto Mizoguchi
1991-10-17 Kazuhiro Sakamoto WIN Hiroyuki Kanno Sakamoto’s 2nd reign.
1993-02-26 Kazuhiro Sakamoto WIN Suguru Shigeno
1993-04-26 Kazuhiro Sakamoto WIN Mamoru Okochi Sakamoto went inactive.
1993-11-25 Takeshi Miyanaga WIN Mamoru Okochi Vacant title. Next best available match-up.
1994-01-14 Takeshi Miyanaga WIN Jun Kanetaka Miyanaga retires.
1994-09-26 Kenichi Tanaka WIN Mamoru Okochi Vacant title. Tanaka’s 2nd reign, then leaves division.
1996-05-07 Uchu Tatsumi WIN Hisao Ikeda Vacant title. “Best available match-up”.
1996-10-04 Uchu Tatsumi WIN Sunay Ahmed
1997-01-18 Uchu Tatsumi WIN Mamoru Okochi
1997-10-12 Uchu Tatsumi WIN Paul Coonin Tatsumi moved out of the division.
1998-01-17 Hisao Ikeda WIN Jin Akimoto Ikeda/Akimoto next ‘best available’ match-up.
1998-03-01 Hisao Ikeda WIN Omar Salvosa
1998-08-29 Jin Akimoto WIN Masaru Gokita
1999-04-09 Jin Akimoto DRAW Takeyasu Hirono
1999-09-05 Mamoru Yamaguchi WIN Jin Akimoto
1999-11-04 Mamoru Yamaguchi WIN Ryan Diaz
1999-12-07 Mamoru Yamaguchi WIN Baret Yoshida
2000-03-17 Mamoru Yamaguchi DRAW Masaru Gokita
2000-08-27 Mamoru Yamaguchi WIN Yoshinobu Ota
2000-12-17 Mamoru Yamaguchi WIN Jin Akimoto
2001-11-25 Masahiro Oishi WIN Mamoru Yamaguchi
2002-09-16 Masahiro Oishi DRAW Hisao Ikeda
2003-08-10 Ryota Matsune WIN Masahiro Oishi
2004-06-27 Ryota Matsune WIN Daniel Lima
2004-11-12 Ryota Matsune WIN Kentaro Imaizumi Matsune goes on prolonged inactivity. No legitimate successors.
2006-07-21 Ryota Matsune DRAW Takeya Mizugaki Returns with quality defense, but goes inactive again.
2008-02-13 Miguel Torres WIN Chase Beebe Vacant title. “Top Contender” match-up.
2008-06-01 Miguel Torres WIN Yoshiro Maeda
2008-12-03 Miguel Torres WIN Manny Tapia
2009-04-05 Miguel Torres WIN Takeya Mizugaki
2009-08-09 Brian Bowles WIN Miguel Torres
2010-03-06 Dominick Cruz WIN Brian Bowles
2010-08-18 Dominick Cruz WIN Joseph Benavidez
2010-12-16 Dominick Cruz WIN Scott Jorgensen
2011-07-02 Dominick Cruz WIN Urijah Faber
2011-10-01 Dominick Cruz WIN Demetrious Johnson

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