Featherweights

First, a run-down of the particulars:

  • Due to potential metric conversion issues and weight class changes, a limit of 148 pounds is observed for this list.
  • Inception of the championship occurred on 11/27/1992, the first known professional fight taking place at or below 148 pounds.  There was not an ideal, early entry point for this division’s lineal championship.
  • Only a period in the mid 2000s saw fighters leave the division without losing. These situations were easily resolved in quick fashion by “best available” match-ups featuring 1/2, 2/3 or 1/3 ranked fighters.

Your current lineal Featherweight champion is Alexander Volkanovski

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

MMA Featherweight Lineal Championship History

Date Champion Outcome Challenger Notes
1992-11-27 Noboru Asahi WIN Takashi Ishizaki Asahi simultaneously holds two lineal titles (BW & FW).
1993-06-24 Noboru Asahi WIN Masato Suzuki
1993-11-25 Noboru Asahi WIN Yuki Nakai
1994-05-06 Noboru Asahi WIN Shinji Abe
1994-09-26 Noboru Asahi WIN Nozomu Matsumoto
1994-11-07 Noboru Asahi WIN Kyuhei Ueno
1995-07-29 Noboru Asahi WIN Leonid Zaslavsky
1996-01-20 Noboru Asahi WIN Ruud Alwart
1996-03-05 Noboru Asahi WIN Leandro Lima de Azevedo
1998-01-17 Noboru Asahi WIN Denis Hall 9th consecutive defense
1998-04-26 Alexandre Franca Nogueira WIN Noboru Asahi Nogueira’s pro debut!
1999-03-28 Alexandre Franca Nogueira WIN Masahiro Oishi
1999-09-05 Alexandre Franca Nogueira WIN Noboru Asahi
1999-12-11 Alexandre Franca Nogueira DRAW Uchu Tatsumi
2000-04-02 Alexandre Franca Nogueira WIN Mamoru Okochi
2000-08-27 Alexandre Franca Nogueira WIN Uchu Tatsumi
2000-12-17 Alexandre Franca Nogueira WIN Stephen Palling
2001-05-01 Tetsuo Katsuta WIN Alexandre Franca Nogueira
2001-09-02 Alexandre Franca Nogueira WIN Tetsuo Katsuta Nogueira’s 2nd reign
2001-12-16 Alexandre Franca Nogueira WIN Katsuya Toida
2002-07-19 Hiroyuki Abe WIN Alexandre Franca Nogueira
2002-12-14 Alexandre Franca Nogueira WIN Hiroyuki Abe Nogueira’s 3rd reign
2003-08-10 Alexandre Franca Nogueira DRAW Stephen Palling
2003-12-14 Alexandre Franca Nogueira WIN Rumina Sato
2004-12-14 Alexandre Franca Nogueira WIN Hideki Kadowaki
2005-03-11 Alexandre Franca Nogueira WIN Joao Roque Nogueira leaves division.
2007-02-09 Hatsu Hioki WIN Mark Hominick Vacant title. Top contenders.
2007-05-18 Antonio Carvalho WIN Hatsu Hioki
2007-11-08 Hiroyuki Takaya WIN Antonio Carvalho
2008-02-13 Leonard Garcia WIN Hiroyuki Takaya
2008-11-05 Leonard Garcia WIN Jens Pulver
2009-03-01 Mike Thomas Brown WIN Leonard Garcia
2009-06-07 Mike Thomas Brown WIN Urijah Faber
2009-11-18 Jose Aldo WIN Mike Thomas Brown
2010-04-24 Jose Aldo WIN Urijah Faber
2010-09-30 Jose Aldo WIN Manny Gamburyan
2011-04-30 Jose Aldo WIN Mark Hominick
2011-10-08 Jose Aldo WIN Kenny Florian
2012-01-04 Jose Aldo WIN Chad Mendes
2013-02-02 Jose Aldo WIN Frankie Edgar
2013-08-03 Jose Aldo WIN Chan Sung Jung
2014-02-01 Jose Aldo WIN Ricardo Lamas
2014-10-26 Jose Aldo WIN Chad Mendes
2015-12-12 Conor McGregor WIN Jose Aldo McGregor vacates, moves up in weight.
2016-07-09 Jose Aldo WIN Frankie Edgar Vacant title. Top contenders.
2017-06-03 Max Holloway WIN Jose Aldo
2017-12-02 Max Holloway WIN Jose Aldo
2018-12-08 Max Holloway WIN Brian Ortega
2019-07-27 Max Holloway WIN Frankie Edgar
2019-12-14 Alexander Volkanovski WIN Max Holloway
2020-07-11 Alexander Volkanovski WIN Max Holloway
2021-07-25 Alexander Volkanovski WIN Brian Ortega
2022-04-09 Alexander Volkanovski WIN Chan Sung Jung
2022-07-02 Alexander Volkanovski WIN Max Holloway

 

14 Comments

  1. David August 19, 2018 at 10:26 pm Reply

    Why isn’t Noboru Asahi’s 7/7/96 loss to Royler Gracie not considered a loss of his lineal title? I assume the Shooto belt wasn’t on the line but what constitutes a defense of a lineal title if a loss isn’t registered?

  2. jason August 19, 2018 at 10:26 pm Reply

    Gracie/Asahi was a 154lb fight.

  3. oleg August 19, 2018 at 10:26 pm Reply

    What lineage leads to Corassani?

  4. Larry July 22, 2018 at 7:13 am Reply

    Second Holloway-Aldo fight has a coloured background when it was a successful defence.

    • oleg July 22, 2018 at 9:26 am Reply

      Right you are sir. Fixed. These lineages are manually maintained, unlike most of the site, so sometimes I mess things up 🙂

  5. Larry August 19, 2018 at 10:16 pm Reply

    Second Holloway-Aldo fight has a coloured background when it was a successful defence.

    • oleg August 19, 2018 at 10:56 pm Reply

      Right you are sir. Fixed. These lineages are manually maintained, unlike most of the site, so sometimes I mess things up 🙂

  6. Crazyj June 1, 2014 at 6:50 am Reply

    I don’t see how Akira is the lineal champ. Royler didn’t fight at featherweight again for 8 years or so, plus iirc Royler was north of 150 for that scrap anyways, so I guess probably a moot point since it would’ve been non-title.

  7. Crazyj August 19, 2018 at 9:32 pm Reply

    I don’t see how Akira is the lineal champ. Royler didn’t fight at featherweight again for 8 years or so, plus iirc Royler was north of 150 for that scrap anyways, so I guess probably a moot point since it would’ve been non-title.

  8. jason February 3, 2014 at 1:22 pm Reply

    Gracie/Asahi was a 154lb fight.

  9. David February 3, 2014 at 10:31 am Reply

    Why isn’t Noboru Asahi’s 7/7/96 loss to Royler Gracie not considered a loss of his lineal title? I assume the Shooto belt wasn’t on the line but what constitutes a defense of a lineal title if a loss isn’t registered?

  10. oleg January 30, 2014 at 2:51 pm Reply

    What lineage leads to Corassani?

  11. ZZ January 30, 2014 at 1:09 pm Reply

    Akira Corassani is the real lineal champion, if you will stick to what the essence of lineal really means.

  12. ZZ August 19, 2018 at 10:16 pm Reply

    Akira Corassani is the real lineal champion, if you will stick to what the essence of lineal really means.

Leave A Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Before asking where a specific fighter is ranked or why they aren't ranked:


- We update the rankings once per week, usually on Sunday or Monday.

- Fighters who have not fought in 450 days or more ARE NOT RANKED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.

- Use the "Fighter Search" option in the upper-right of the page. The fighter may be ranked in a different division.

- Most of the divisions have multiple pages beyond this one. See the clickable ranges above and below the ranking table.

Furthermore, we do not maintain the "next fight" data. This is gathered from Sherdog. Any issues regarding this data should be forwarded to them.