Looking at the UFC's champions at the beginning and end of the decade (2010-2019)

Light-Heavyweight: Lyoto Machida and Jon Jones

Jon Jones has dominated the Light-Heavyweight division over the decade

Lyoto Machida had claimed the UFC Light-Heavyweight title in mid-2009, and with his victory Joe Rogan stated that we were in the ‘Machida Era’, a statement that turned out to be a mistake. ‘The Dragon’ was knocked out in May 2010 by top contender Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua, and was never able to regain UFC gold. He now plies his trade in Bellator after leaving the UFC in 2018.

Rua’s title reign was a short-lived one too, as he lost the belt to Jon Jones in March 2011. Since then, ‘Bones’ has largely dominated the division, putting together a divisional record of 8 successful defenses before being stripped of the title in 2015 due to some legal issues.

The vacant title was claimed by Daniel Cormier, but ‘DC’ was defeated by Jones in July 2017, only for Jones to be stripped again after testing positive for steroids. Cormier would later relinquish the title to focus on his career as a Heavyweight, and in December 2018 Jones re-captured the belt with a win over Alexander Gustafsson. We now head into the next decade with Jones still dominant at 205 lbs, and he’ll make his next defense against Dominick Reyes in early 2020.