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Next weekend at UFC 300, Jamahal Hill will attempt to reclaim the light-heavyweight title he vacated after suffering an injury last year.
If Hill can regain his title, he'll become the latest UFC champion to get their crown back after previously vacating it, as several others have done this before. The reasons they vacated their titles might differ, but these champions proved their worth by returning to reclaim the gold they never lost in the octagon.
Here are five UFC champions who vacated their titles and reclaimed them later.
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#5. Randy Couture - UFC heavyweight title (2000)
Despite being a genuine legend of the octagon, Randy Couture is now persona non grata with the UFC following several clashes with the promotion's ownership. However, Dana White and the Fertitta brothers weren't the first power brokers to butt heads with 'The Natural' during his career.
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Couture first won the heavyweight title back in 1997 when he outpointed Maurice Smith, but just a month after his victory, he became embroiled in a contract dispute with the UFC's then-owners SEG. With no agreement reached, 'The Natural' was stripped of his title, and departed for Japan.
Remarkably, the title remained vacant for well over a year until it was claimed by Bas Rutten, who promptly vacated it himself directly after.
Eventually, Kevin Randleman became champion, but a year after his reign started, Couture returned to the fold determined to get back to the top.
A fight was quickly made between 'The Natural' and 'The Monster', and despite being seen as the underdog, Couture destroyed his younger foe in the third round to reclaim the title he'd never truly lost.
#4. Frank Mir - UFC heavyweight title (2008)
When Frank Mir snapped the arm of Tim Sylvia in a bout to determine a new UFC heavyweight champion in 2004, it felt like a new era had begun in the division.
Mir was just 25 years old at the time, and while he wasn't quite a fully-rounded fighter, his submission grappling skills were arguably the best the division had ever seen. However, before the new champ could even defend his title, disaster struck. Mir was involved in a serious motorcycle accident that snapped his femur and wrecked his knee in one fell swoop.
It looked for all intents and purposes like his career was over, and it came as no surprise when the promotion was forced to strip him of his title after he'd been out for 14 months.
Mir eventually returned four months later but saw his career go on a major slide, as he was not in prime shape to compete. Again, his career seemed to be done.
Remarkably, though, after taking some brief time away, Mir returned to form in 2007 and then scored a huge win when he submitted former WWE champ Brock Lesnar in his 2008 octagon debut.
The win was enough to set Mir up for a fight against PRIDE legend Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira for the interim heavyweight title, which, with undisputed champ Couture AWOL, was essentially the real deal.
Most fans wrote Mir off, but he stunned everyone by knocking Nogueira out in the second round - becoming the first man to do so - to claim back the title he never truly lost. Even if it wasn't undisputed, the fact that Mir made it back to the top after what he'd been through was remarkable in itself.
#3. Jon Jones - UFC light-heavyweight title (2017)
Jon Jones became the youngest champion in UFC history when he dethroned 'Shogun' Rua to claim the light-heavyweight title in 2011, and by 2015, he appeared to be on his way to becoming a bonafide legend.
'Bones' had defended his crown against eight straight challengers, all great fighters in their own right, and had basically whitewashed them all.
However, unbeknownst to many fans, outside of the octagon, his personal life was spiraling horribly out of control.
In April 2015, Jones was involved in a hit-and-run incident that saw a pregnant woman injured. 'Bones' was charged with a felony, eventually sentenced to 18 months of probation, and unsurprisingly, had his light-heavyweight title stripped from him.
Jones eventually returned in 2016 and beat Ovince St. Preux to claim an interim title, only to have that stripped following a positive drug test.
However, a year later 'Bones' came back once more, and promptly stopped his biggest rival, Daniel Cormier, to finally claim back the undisputed title that he'd never lost in the first place.
It was hardly a Cinderella story due to the circumstances, but it was proof that Jones was probably the best 205-pounder the octagon had ever seen.
#2. Jon Jones - UFC light-heavyweight title (2018)
In 2017, when Jon Jones reclaimed the light-heavyweight title he'd been stripped off in 2015, it felt like he'd probably go on another lengthy reign as champion. Unfortunately, controversy and 'Bones' remained hand-in-hand, and less than a month after downing Daniel Cormier to reclaim the title, Jones was in trouble again.
Just as he had after his win over Ovince St. Preux, Jones tested positive for banned substances, forcing the UFC to strip him of his crown for the third time, returning it to 'DC'.
It was a remarkably disappointing turn of events, as once again, 'Bones' was suspended from action.
When he was finally ready to return, the landscape of the division had changed again, namely because Cormier had claimed the heavyweight title and had decided to vacate the 205-pound crown.
The UFC set up a fight for the newly vacant title between Jones and another of his former rivals, Alexander Gustafsson.
Despite the controversy surrounding the fight when Jones was unable to be licensed in Nevada, forcing the promotion to move the entire event to California, 'Bones' again performed excellently.
Jones dispatched the Swede in the third round to reclaim his title for the third time, making him the only UFC champion to vacate and reclaim his crown on multiple occasions.
#1. Dominick Cruz - UFC bantamweight title (2016)
Perhaps the greatest example of a UFC champion who reclaimed their title after vacating it is former bantamweight titleholder Dominick Cruz. 'The Dominator' entered the promotion in 2011 and was declared the inaugural champion after sitting at the top of sister promotion WEC for a year prior.
A win over bitter rival Urijah Faber cemented Cruz's spot as the best 135-pounder in the world, and a second title defense over Demetrious Johnson only furthered that.
However, disaster struck in 2012 as Cruz prepared for another bout with Faber. He tore his ACL, and when an initial operation on the injured knee went wrong, he wound up on the shelf for nearly three years.
Unsurprisingly, 'The Dominator' was forced to vacate his title due to this, and although he showed flashes of his best in a return bout with Takeya Mizugaki in 2014, another injury set him right back.
By the time he returned for a second time in 2016, it was hard to see Cruz having much left at all. That meant that most fans wrote him off when he was granted a shot at new champ TJ Dillashaw.
Incredibly, though, Cruz looked like he hadn't lost a step despite not fighting in a title bout since 2011, and he was able to take the fight to Dillashaw for five rounds.
It was a close call, but in the end, 'The Dominator' was awarded a decision win, meaning he'd reclaimed the crown he had vacated nearly five years prior.
Almost a decade on, Cruz's comeback and title win remain amongst the most memorable octagon moments of all time.
