An interim title is a second, temporary championship the UFC creates in a division when the actual champion can't defend the belt for a while — usually a long-term injury, but sometimes a contract dispute or a booking gridlock. The interim champion is the active, promotable titleholder in the meantime. When the real champion is healthy and ready again, the two are supposed to fight to "unify" the belts into one undisputed title.

Why the UFC creates one at all

A UFC title reign comes with real stakes for everyone below the champion. Ranked contenders wait for a title shot, and a title fight pays more than a normal one. If a champion is out for a year or more with a knee injury, freezing the whole division until they're healthy punishes every contender who's ready to fight now.

An interim title is the UFC's fix for that gap. It lets the division keep moving — a top contender gets a title fight and a share of the money and attention that comes with it, and a pay-per-view card gets to headline with a championship on the line even though the real champion isn't fighting.

There's no fixed rule in the UFC's official rulebook or a public bylaw that sets exactly when an interim title kicks in — no set number of months of inactivity that automatically triggers one. It's a judgment call the promotion makes case by case, which is part of why the practice draws criticism (more on that below).

The three most common triggers are:

  • Injury. The champion is hurt badly enough that a return date is many months out.
  • Legal or contract disputes. A champion in a dispute with the promotion, or dealing with an issue with an athletic commission, can't be booked.
  • Repeated booking failures. A title fight keeps falling apart — injuries, weight-cut hospitalizations, visa problems — to the point the UFC moves on to an interim fight instead of waiting again.

How unification works

Once an interim champion exists, the plan is for them to eventually fight the undisputed champion in a unification bout. The winner becomes the sole champion and the other title stops existing — there's no scenario where both belts survive a unification fight. If the undisputed champion wins, they simply add the interim belt to their collection. If the interim champion wins, they become the new undisputed champion.

In practice, unification doesn't always happen quickly, and sometimes it doesn't happen at all. A champion can retire, get cut, or move on before ever facing the interim titleholder, leaving the interim reign without a clean resolution.

Real examples

Conor McGregor beat Chad Mendes for the interim featherweight title at UFC 189 in July 2015, after champion Jose Aldo pulled out with a rib injury. This one resolved cleanly and fast: McGregor unified the belts five months later, knocking out Aldo in 13 seconds at UFC 194 in December 2015 to become undisputed champion.

Ciryl Gane beat Derrick Lewis for the interim heavyweight title at UFC 265 in August 2021, while champion Francis Ngannou was dealing with a knee injury. This one also reached unification: Gane and Ngannou fought at UFC 270 in January 2022, and Ngannou won a unanimous decision to retain his title and absorb the interim belt.

Tony Ferguson beat Kevin Lee for the interim lightweight title at UFC 216 in October 2017, after a fight between Ferguson and champion Khabib Nurmagomedov had already been scrapped once over a Nurmagomedov weight-cut hospitalization. The two were booked against each other five separate times over several years, and every single one fell apart — injuries, weight issues, and eventually pandemic travel restrictions. Nurmagomedov retired undefeated in 2020 without ever facing Ferguson, so that interim reign never got unified at all.

Why interim titles are controversial

Critics inside and outside the sport argue the UFC has, at times, created interim titles too readily — including for reasons closer to "the show needs a title fight to sell" than genuine long-term unavailability. When Gane fought Lewis for the interim heavyweight title in 2021, the reaction was mixed in part because Ngannou had only recently won the actual title and his own team wasn't thrilled with how soon an interim fight was booked around him.

The core complaint is that an interim title can function as a "paper" championship — a belt with the word "champion" attached that isn't the same accomplishment as beating the actual best fighter in the division for the real title. Ferguson's case adds a second complaint: an interim title that never gets unified leaves a fighter permanently labeled a "former interim champion," a title with an asterisk that reads differently from a full championship reign.

There's also no independent body approving these decisions the way a boxing sanctioning organization might. The UFC creates its own interim titles, on its own timeline, which is part of why fans and media scrutinize each one rather than accepting a house rule.

The takeaway

An interim title means one thing every time: the real champion isn't available right now, and the UFC has installed a stand-in with a plan to unify the belts once they are. Whether that unification actually happens — and how long it takes — varies a lot, from a five-month turnaround like McGregor-Aldo to a reign that never gets resolved at all. When you see "interim champion" next to a fighter's name, it's worth checking why the real champion is out and whether a unification fight is actually on the calendar, the same way matchmakers weigh every other factor before deciding who gets a title shot next. As of this writing, no UFC division currently has an interim champion — Ciryl Gane, one of the fighters above, is back to being a title contender rather than a titleholder.