How have interim champions fared in title-unification bouts in the UFC?

Once a champion is injured or unable to defend his belt for whatever reason, the UFC will put an interim titleholder into place, which is essentially just a fighter guaranteed to be next in line for a shot at undisputed gold.

Throughout the UFC's 30-year history, there have been many interim title holders, but the question remains -- just how well have they looked when coming up against the reigning champ and unifying the belt?

Let's begin with one of the most recent examples of a fighter capturing the interim strap and earning a shot at the rightful champion, as Brandon Moreno did this past year.

After scoring a TKO victory against Kai Kara-France in July last year, 'The Assassin Baby' landed in Brazil to face reigning champion Deiveson Figueiredo for the fourth time in a bout that ended with the Mexican claiming undisputed gold.

Back in 2019 and 2020, respectively, Khabib Nurmagomedov was deep into his lightweight dominance and put his title on the line a little over a year apart against both interim title holders Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje, stunting their chances at becoming undisputed champions.

Khabib vs. Gaethje (left), Khabib vs. Poirier (right)

Another man able to defend his throne against an aspiring interim champ was heavyweight titleholder Francis Ngannou, who put on a fantastic grappling clinic that overwhelmed Ciryl Gane's championship claim.

Francis Ngannou vs. Ciryl Gane

Remaining in the heavyweight division, we look back to over a decade ago when Brock Lesnar was able to defend his crown with wins over interim champions Frank Mir and Shane Carwin.

Lesnar vs. Carwin (left), Lesnar vs. Mir (right)

Heading back to interim champions who showed their class and beat the champions to unify the titles, we take a look at Israel Adesanya's meteoric rise to stardom and his knockout victory over the then-middleweight king, Robert Whittaker.

Israel Adesanya vs. Robert Whittaker

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Who are the current UFC interim champions?

Despite it being a rather frequent occurrence in modern MMA, there is surprisingly only one current interim champion in the UFC.

At UFC 284 on Saturday night, Alexander Volkanovski successfully stepped away from featherweight to contend for the lightweight title, which gave two 145ers the chance to sit atop the division in his absence.

Yair Rodriguez put on a phenomenal striking display before later finding a submission victory over the tough Josh Emmett, making him the only interim champ in the UFC at the moment.