Former UFC double-champ believes it’s the end of an era after UFC 322 confirmed suspicions

Daniel Cormier: UFC 322 solidifies end of double-champ era

UFC 322 on Nov. 15 will mark the first time ever that both title challengers are fighting for a title up a weight class after relinquishing their belts. Islam Makhachev meets welterweight champ Jack Della Maddalena in the main event.

Zhang Weili vacated her strawweight title last week and will fight champion Valentina Shevchenko for the women’s flyweight title in the co-main event of UFC 322. Mackenzie Dern vs. Virna Jandiroba was announced for the vacant strawweight title at UFC 321 at the same time.

A former two-division champion from 2018, Daniel Cormier weighed in on there not being any more simultaneous champions in recent times.

“To me, it represents something a little bit different,” Cormier said of the UFC 322 double-header having former champs relinquishing their titles on Good Guy / Bad Guy.

“To me, it feels… like when Ilia gave up his belt, you started to kind of sense that the champ-champ era might be coming to an end.

“Like the simultaneous champ, the Conor McGregor, DC, Henry [Cejudo] and Amanda Nunes. It seemed like that era, it might be coming to an end…

“This news solidifies that for me,” Cormier explained.

“Islam having to give up the belt because Ilia was gonna fight—I understood a little bit more. Now, seeing Weili do it, especially when there’s no clear Ilia [no. 1 contender], right?”

“Now Mackenzie Dern is fighting Virna Jandiroba… No disrespect to them, but there’s no Ilia. But making [Zhang] give it up [the title] tells me that era is over,” Cormier said of the UFC having champions rule over two divisions at the same time.

Who fell short of double-champ status in UFC?

While there’s only been four simultaneous two-division champions in UFC history, there were a few others who were given the chance to join them.

In 2019, bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw was unsuccessful in his title challenge against then flyweight champion Henry Cejudo. Dillashaw lost via TKO in 32 seconds.

Current UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski almost became a ‘champ-champ’ himself when he fought Islam Makhachev for the lightweight title at UFC 284 in 2023, but the Australian ultimately lost in a controversial decision.

BMF titleholder Max Holloway was the featherweight champion at the time he fought Dustin Poirier for the interim lightweight title at UFC 236 in 2019. Had he won, Holloway technically would have been a two-division champion, just not like the rest.

We’ll see how Zhang Weili and Islam Makhachev fare in a higher weight class at UFC 322.