Four Youngest Ever UFC Champions

 

The Ultimate Fighter 20 grand final was announced earlier this week and it will be Rose Namajunas and former Invicta FC strawweight champion Carla Esparza who will fight it out this weekend.

Along with being named the Ultimate Fighter, the winner will also be crowned the first ever UFC Strawweight champion, which gives either Namajunas or Esparaza the chance to make history in the UFC.

Namajunas will make event more history if she is able to defeat Esparza in Las Vegas.

At 22 years and five months, Namajunas will be the youngest UFC champion in history if she reigns victorious on Saturday.

The potential history making opportunity has led us at Fight of the Night to look at the four youngest ever UFC champions up to now.

 

Carlos Newton

He is a highly known member of the old school cult of MMA, before large wages were earned and major Pay Per View numbers were recorded.

With an overall record of 16-15, people would be mistaken if they viewed Carlos Newton as the middle of the rung type of fighter.

Few things could be further of the truth, as evidenced by the career ‘the Ronin’ enjoyed back in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The submission specialist made a comeback to the UFC in May 2001 when he was granted a Welterweight title shot against Pat Miletich at UFC 31.

Miletich himself was a dominant fighter at the time, having defended his belt on four different occasions before his fight against Newton.

Newton was able to stop Miletich, however, in the third round with one of the most stellar submissions ever seen in the UFC (bulldog choke) as he captured the UFC Welterweight strap.

At 24 years and 8 months, Newton was the youngest ever champion in the UFC at the time, although that record would be broken just four months later.

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From Perth, Australia, Bruno has been an MMA fan on and off (mostly on) for 10 years. He did Taekwondo for a few years as a kid and dabbled in BJJ and Muay Thai as an adult, but is more an MMA fan than anything else. He is also an experienced journalist and writer, having written a number of articles on an array of topics.