The 5 best title reigns in UFC history

#2: Demetrious Johnson – UFC Flyweight title – 09/22/2012 to 08/04/2018

Demetrious Johnson holds the record for most successful title defenses in a row

While he was never the most popular UFC champion in terms of his ability to draw in ratings and pay-per-view buyrates, it’s hard to call Demetrious Johnson anything but phenomenal in terms of the quality of his title reign.

‘Mighty Mouse’ won the inaugural Flyweight title in September 2012 and held it for almost 6 years before losing it to Henry Cejudo this August. And even that was under controversial circumstances. Johnson cleaned out his division like few other fighters did before him – essentially, he beat everyone there was to beat.

With 11 successful title defences to his name, Johnson is statistically the most impressive UFC champion of all time. It’s hard to argue that he wasn’t a finisher, either – of those 11 fights, 7 of them were finished before the final buzzer, with a healthy mix of submissions and knockouts, too.

Literally the only thing keeping him off the top spot here is the fact that in comparison to some of the other divisions, Flyweight has always been relatively thin in terms of talent – wins over John Dodson and Joseph Benavidez were impressive, for instance, but victories over journeymen like Chris Cariaso and Tim Elliott were much less so.

Still, for the fact that he holds the record for most successful title defences in a row – and the fact that with different judges, he might still be the champ – Johnson has more than earned his spot as 2nd in this countdown.