UFC Introduces Legacy Championship Belt

Dana White and UFC just added a new treasure to the promotion: the Legacy Championship Belt.On [...]

By Jeremy Snodgrass

Dana White and UFC just added a new treasure to the promotion: the Legacy Championship Belt.

On Saturday, UFC and ESPN will officially take their new relationship public when UFC Fight Night airs on ESPN+ — the sports conglomerate's streaming service. But the night will be packed with newness as the main event bout between Henry Cejudo and T.J. Dillashaw will be for UFC's freshest trophy, the Legacy belt.

It looks like the Legacy belt will be used to simplify the championship scene. Instead of fighters getting a new belt with each defense, UFC will use the Legacy belt as a shiny baseball card or fighting resume that boasts a fighters accomplishments as well as personal details like the flag of a fighter's native country.

Here's a snippet from UFC's official introduction of the new title:

The UFC Legacy Championship Belt represents a new era of UFC. Following the UFC's 25th anniversary, the belt is valued at three times more than its predecessor, the UFC Classic Championship Belt, which was used from 2001 to 2018.

The first UFC Legacy Championship Belt will be awarded at UFC Fight Night: Cejudo vs Dillashaw in Brooklyn. It will subsequently recognize title defenses and new championship wins in 2019 and beyond. The UFC Legacy Championship Belt is uniquely customized for each individual champion by the athlete's country, weight class and number of title defenses.

Starting in 2019, athletes who win UFC championship bouts will be awarded a UFC Legacy Championship Belt, which will be used during the duration of their professional MMA career. Subsequent championship wins in their respective division will be represented by red stones on the side plates of the belt. Athletes who win titles across multiple weight classes will be awarded one belt per division.

With the customizable belt, UFC looks to be taking a page from WWE, who installs personalized nameplates for each new champion. However, the Legacy belt takes things a step further as the statistics of a fighter's championship reign will be accounted for with stones or etchings.

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