TOP 5 CONTENDERS FOR THE UFC LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP IN 2022

Will The Lightweight Championship Belt Be Changing Hands This Year? 

There is currently no Lightweight Champion in the UFC - the title is vacant and we are fascinated to see who will be taking it home by the end of this year. 

If you want to do some UFC betting on the subject, you can find the best odds here. 

Over the last 5 years, there have only been 2 Lightweight UFC Champions. 

Khabib Nurmagomedov won the title back in 2018 and held it for 1077 days. He announced his retirement in 2020 and his title was officially vacated later that year. 

In May 2020, Charles Oliveira won the title from one of the interim champions and held it for 357 days. He was stripped of his title on May 7th, 2022, after failing to make the weight to defend his title. 

So, for the first time in a long time, the Lightweight Championship belt is up for grabs and anyone could take it. 

Today, we are going to look at the 5 top contenders for taking the title by the end of the year. 

#1 - Dustin Poirier

Now that the title is vacant, Dustin Poirier is probably feeling good about his chances of winning the title for himself. 

His last fight was against Oliveira in December 2021. While he is not likely to fight Oliveira again anytime soon, however, if the title passes hands then Poirier should be first in line to fight the new champion. 

Poirier is 2nd in the UFC Lightweight rankings at the moment and has been for a while - many will agree that he has earned his right to fight for the title. The UFC might want to add some extra drama and pit Poirier against Oliveira again when the former champ tries to reclaim the title.  

#2 - Islam Makhachev

Makhachev is a Russian-born Lightweight fighter who might just have the best fighting record in the UFC right now. In his 22 fights, Makhachev has only lost one match, and that was 7 years ago. 

He has since won 11 fights in a row. 

If anyone deserves to try and take the title from Oliveira, then it is Makhachev - who has slowly but surely been working his way up the ranks. He is also the highest-ranked Lightweight fighter who hasn't lost to Oliveira in the last 12 months. In fact, he has yet to fight against the Brazilian. 

Makhachev's last few fights have been against men outside the Lightweight Top 10, if he wants to move his career forward, he is going to have to start asking Dana White for some bigger bouts. 

#3 - Justin Gaethje

As the 3rd highest-ranked Lightweight fighter in the world right now, if the title does change hands then this former interim champion might be on the ticket to fight for the belt. 

That being said, in May 2022, Gaethje had a chance to win the title while fighting Oliveira. He was submitted by the Brazilian in the first round. It is likely that he will not get a chance to fight Oliveira if he wins back his own title. 

Gaethje's best hope for winning the title is that Dustin Poirier or Islam Makhachev take over the title. The last time Gaethje and Poirier met, back in 2018, Poirier knocked his fellow American out in the fourth round. 

Gaethje and Makhachev have never fought, but this matchup might be coming soon as Makhachev attempts to work his way up the Lightweight rankings. 

#4 - Michael Chandler 

After Khabib Nurmagomedov, Chandler was the de facto number 1 contender  - but he eventually lost that spot to Gaethje who eventually lost to Oliveira. 

If the title remains with Oliveira then we probably won't see Chandler fighting for it this year. The same goes for if Justin Gaethje takes home the belt. However, we could see the UFC lining up a fight between Chandler and Makhachev in the near future. 

Chandler needs to start winning against bigger opponents again if he wants to climb back up the ranking, but he is the perfect level of fighter for Makhachev to take on at this point in his career. 

Chandler's most recent wins have come against Tony Frugerson and Dan Hooker, who are 8th and 13th in the Lightweight rankings respectively. In between, he lost to both Gaethje and Oliveira. 

#5 - Charles Oliveira 

Yes, we know that Oliveira was stripped of the title a few weeks ago because he didn't make weight for his fight against Gaehtje - but we are yet to see anyone in this weight division come close to beating Oliveira. 

The man hasn't lost a fight since 2018. 

Even though he was stripped of his title in his last fight, Oliveira still beat Gaethje with ease. In fact, he has beaten everyone else who he has fought in the last 5 years with ease. At this point, Oliveira has beat most of the Top 20. 

He is not a fighter that we would rule out if he gets the chance to take back his title, most of the people on this list would struggle to beat him. 

We suspect that we could see Oliveira vs Poirier 2 by the end of this year. 

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